Genshiken: Return of the Otaku

I've been watching Genshiken on and off for the last 3 weeks and I've really been getting into the characters as they evolved through the series. It's common for anyone who watches the anime to want to read the manga. It's the same with the loyal manga fans of any series to inversely want to watch the anime when that eventually comes out after the manga itself.

On one of my visits to Book Sale, one of my favorite stores when it comes to cheap books, I stumbled on their manga section. Curious, I browsed around. I found a few titles that I was familiar with over on the anime side of things. Then I found Genshiken: Return of the Otaku. Flipping through the pages, I was surprised to find it was a novel I was leafing through. Curiosity got the better of my and I bought it for Php160.

After reading through the initial chapters, I found what I was looking for. Madarame and Sasahara were in the club room discussing how 'commercial' the whole manga publishing industry had gotten. Madarame was assailing the novel type manga as just another way for the large publishers to squeeze more money out of a series. Sasahara disagreed and to my estimation he thought of novel type manga as an extension of comic-book style manga, just like anime is an extension through a different medium of the original manga series. Well after reading through Genshiken: Return of the Otaku, I tend to agree with Sasahara.

Well, what is it about? Genshiken: Return of the Otaku when compared to the timeline of the anime is somewhere between the season ender for Season 1 and the Season 1 OVA. The members of the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture disappear one by one, coinciding with a purge being perpetrated by a new student leader that has hidden motives for trying to control the clubs in the school. His secret mission is to find a demon statue that's supposed to give him supernatural powers should he be able to unite it with it's twin statue. Creepy, huh?

Anyway, the story ends with Madarame being the surprise hero. All  is well after another well-timed surprise appearance by the First President of Genshiken. As always, he doesn't get involved but gives the Genshiken a helpful nudge towards the solution to the mystery.

All in all, I enjoyed the Genshiken: Return of the Otaku, even if it was a novel. There were pages though where there were full page illustrations to help tie over the reader deprived of the visuals of the full comic book manga.

The Crooked Man

It was one of those spur of the moment purchases. It's quite obvious by now that where there are book bargains I go to them. I was browsing the buy-1-take-1 aisle as Expressions and bought 2 books that caught my attention. The Crooked Man by Philip Davison and Microchip: An Idea, Its Genesis, And The Revolution It Created by Jeffrey Zygmont. Both are quite dated, but they seemed interesting. I took on The Crooked Man 1st.

The story revolves around Harry Fielding, an understrapper. He does jobs for the spooks at the MI5, stuff they wouldn't want to be traced back to them. Anything from assassinations to snooping on their own people. The story starts with Fielding's confession. He witnessed a murder committed by hist next door neighbor. It was his testimony that got her convicted. Though the only witness, he was supposed to be implicated in the murder. However, he was extricated from jail by his handler.  He was needed on a job and the timing of his jail time couldn't have been worse. So they pulled strings to get him sprung.

He was paid to spy on a mistress. He followed the young lady for a day and while spying on her home he finds out her lover is a minister of parliament. He then witnesses a heated argument, one where she ends up dead. He's able to capture it all on his old camera. He then recovers from his shock and manages to sneak the politician out of the house and calls his handler. Unwittingly, he had to go along and erase all evidence of the murder with his handler.

The story then takes a few twists when he is tasked to kill the reporter ex-lover of the now 'missing' woman who's snooping around and getting dangerously close to exposing his ex's love affair with the politician. After 2 murders, Fielding suddenly develops a conscience and doesn't kill the man. He entraps him, takes the evidence and warns him to get out of the country. Fielding decides to quit his job.

Well, it turned out it he couldn't simply leave his handler. His handler needs someone like him. And he was determined to get Fielding back. Fielding had no choice but to go back after he finds out his young niece went missing one school day. The day he gets back to London to console his brother who was desperately attempting to find the missing girl, he gets news that his friend's hotel that he hid out in was burned to the ground. All the while, he was trying to desperately contact his handler. When his handler knew his message was understood, Fielding's niece turns up in a random police station.

Having been broken, his handler gives him his next job. One drunken night though, he killed a foreigner. That lands him in jail. This time though, he is sprung by his handler's boss. A surprising turn of events, he is contracted by this higher level spook to be his man.

The story ends with Fielding finally extracting his revenge on his handler, managing to make an unwilling accomplice out of the politician whose hide he saved previously.

The twists in this story are quite interesting. It's not your usual spook novel. It's a lot more darker and moody than anything I've read so far. I guess that why I liked it. And I guess the only logical thing to do now is to buy another Philip Davison book.