Wow, I really loved this volume of Genshiken. We have the normal silly antics, the references, various characters and their relationships, but we also got something more serious.

Most of the manga was focussed on Hato. Hato who dresses up as a girl, who can draw when dressed up as a girl, but who is also a boy who feels uncomfortable drawing and reading Boy Love stuff. And he feels uncomfortable because of his growing feelings for one of the male Genshiken people (well, ex-Genshiken, but it seems he just can’t leave). And I can imagine that feeling like this, knowing you are falling hard for someone you shouldn’t fall for, is weird, especially if you are a guy, and he is a guy.
So it was really interesting to see how Hato went through his life, trying to ignore the urge to crossdress and to ignore his crush. I felt really sad and sorry for him, you can clearly tell he was not happy. He felt terrible, he wanted to change and read BL so badly, but didn’t want to, afraid of it spiralling out of control.
I loved how things went at the last part of the manga. I won’t spoil anything, but I am delighted with how it turned out.

Madarame was a very interesting character, though it is a bit strange that he keeps coming back to the Genshiken room and read/watch anime or discuss stuff with people there. Of course, I am happy to see him there, but I also wish he would get a job again. He has graduated, he can’t just hang around all day any more.

Sue, ah Sue. She is still the most amazing character of all the Genshiken people. She is silly, determined and various other things. I loved her cosplay of Shimakaze (Kantai Collection) near the end of the volume. I loved how she tried to convince Hato at the beginning, but only ended up making everything a mess. Only ended up hurting Hato.

The art is fantastic again. Genshiken has really come far and if you compare the first manga with this one, you will see enough differences. The mangaka/author has improved so much.

Of course, this is Genshiken so we have a whole lot of references to anime/manga/Japanese culture. It is really fun to find them all, of course I don’t know them all (they sometimes use stuff that is only really known in Japan), but luckily the end of the book has a little part with explanations.

All in all, this is one manga I would highly recommend. 🙂