Natsumi Konjoh

After agreeing to model for Rumi, a female classmate, Abe finds himself falling in love. Unfortunately, when he tries to confess, Rumi turns him down. Rumi is a fujoshi (yaoi fan), and is under the mistaken impression that Abe is dating his best friend Chiba. And so, Abe proceeds to attempt to make his feelings to Rumi clearer, eventually having to fight off competition in the form of Chiba and another fujoshi classmate who befriends Rumi as well.

Seeing this billed as 'Genshiken for yaoi fangirls,' I of course had to try it. Still, I admit I was skeptical, as just being about fujoshi or otaku doesn't necessarily make something interesting much less good. As it turns out, I was right to be so. Fujoshi Rumi reads mostly like a lackluster shoujo (or sometimes shounen?) romance that leaks slashable anime references out of every orifice, along with some slightly bewildering yuri fanservice. The shenanigans are of a very predictable sort. There were also some parts in the beginning where Rumi lets her imagination get away with itself about things she sees guys do, but besides these and the random references, this manga isn't really about, er, the fujoshi experience, though it might try to be. After being introduced to Rumi in the first chapter, from then on the most discernible point of view seems to be from Abe struggling to get through to her unbelievable density. It's a straight romance with a caricature of a fujoshi as the perused. Rumi is a little concentrated ball of yaoi fangirl and nothing else. Admittedly, in Genshiken we don't see too much about the characters that isn't related to their otaku-ness, and they were rather unversed on some aspects of life because of their otaku-ness as well, but there was always humanity you could feel behind them. With Rumi I feel none of that, and the other characters aren't much better.

Still, I chuckled a couple times, and the art is alright if uninteresting. If you're looking for 'Genshiken for yaoi fangirls,' this will disappoint you, but I guess if you read shoujo of the slightly wacky comedy sort and want something kind of fujoshi-interest, this might be decent. But I'm not big on most shoujo, and if I'm going to read about fujoshi, I think I'd have to see something a little more realistic to have it feel close enough to home to be interesting.… (mere)