Lifting off directly after the first season of Genshiken, the OVAs unfortunately have to the play the middle-child by introducing two new characters and settling them into the storyline in evident preparation for the second season. Handed over to the Kujibiki Unbalance studio Ajia-do, the OVAs suffer from sometimes atrocious animation but thankfully keep the charm and humour that made the first season so good.
Note: The aspect ratio for the screengrabs is incorrect, this is due to a combination of the way I capture screengrabs and the source I took them from; I have corrected this in the thumbnails and a pixel aspect ratio aware program (such as Adobe Photoshop) will display the screengrabs in their canonical ratio of 16:9.
The core characters remain unchanged however the focus has shifted away from the ambiable Sasahara and the entire three episode run is dedicated almost entirely to Kasukabe, Madarame and Ogiue. This is not as detrimental as it sounds and by concentrating on these characters the OVAs serve as a peninsula to the main series' continent, never feeling overwhelmed by the wealth of personalities available and not retreading old ground. It would be absurd to the view the OVAs as anything more than an extension of the first series and the soap opera appeal remains as does the down-to-earth comedy.
While Genshiken has been labelled as "unflinching", it doesn't have the same kind of exposed reality that something like Welcome to the NHK does; at no point are we made to feel sorry for the characters and the over-dramatisation of relatively minor events is played for laughs as much as it is played for the tenderer moments. Never does the humour feel forced or farcical and rarely are jokes recycled; the break in between the conclusion of the first season and these OVAs mean that reintroduction to Ohno's deviousness and Kasukabe's demonic side is welcome and not overused.
The admittance of Ogiue into the Genshiken resurrects the stoic rebuttal of otaku nature that Sasahara and Kasukabe provided initially; however Kuchiki's insertion into the group is given a perfunctory laugh and is then quickly forgotten about apart from chipping in with sporadic moronic comments. This feels slightly forced given the group's otherwise warm welcome of all other newcomers and while unquestioningly annoying, a greater exploration of Kuchiki wouldn't have gone amiss. The most pertinent moments are gifted to Madarame, his ordinarily brash nature tamed by the surprisingly docile Kasukabe; this unfortunately shows him as a kind of martyr for the otaku lifestyle, demonstrating the first real indication that one of the Genshiken core group is in any way unhappy with their current situation. This is an unfortunate turn of events given that real-life worries were wisely ignored in the first season and the voyeuristic novelty of peering into an oft experienced group dynamic was left to blossom.
The strength of Genshiken is undoubtedly with its characters and it says volumes about the writing quality that an entire episode can be set in a room barely bigger than a cupboard and still be enjoyable and not at all claustrophobic. The OVAs do well despite the almost universally poor animation and art-style; beginning with a subtle change in character proportions until faces and bodies are distorted and the pleasant simplicity of the original series is completely lost. While more subtle corner-cutting can usually be forgiven it becomes a huge issue when large swathes of an episode are reduced to deformed balls masquerading as characters' faces, all of which encroaches on the otherwise highly enjoyable set of episodes.
It is unfortunate that the stories within the OVAs were not integrated into the end of the first season or ultimately blended across a full twenty-six episode series; their purpose in saving time and introduction for season two is obvious but given the length of time between series and OVAs and the dreadful animation they feel more like a warm-up for Ajia-do than what could otherwise have been a stellar addition to the Genshiken world. Perhaps constrained by their source material and budgeting concerns, it's hard to recommend the OVAs to anyone other than manga-less first season fans wishing to continue with second season.