Genshiken/Headscratchers

Just what does Kousaka see in Kasukabe? Other than the obvious, that is.
 * She has no life or interests of her own, all she does is hang out in the Genshiken club room, stinking it up with her cigarettes and alternately disparaging, intimidating and flat-out screaming at Ohno and the guys.
 * Not true; she is shown to keep company with "fashionable" friends. Doesn't explain why she hangs out in the club room when her boyfriend isn't present, though.
 * A better question is what does Kasukabe see in Kousaka? Sure, he's pretty, but he really doesn't have any personality and just tends to stare off into the space, say one or two things an episode, and constantly play fighting games silently.
 * Must be "the obvious", then.
 * That must be some pretty good obvious then, for them to be together from the beginning of college till graduation. (And, I presume, at least a little bit afterward.)
 * Love doesn't have to make sense, maybe they get along DESPITE their differences? Saki is, after all, shown to have a little Otaku in her throughout the series, just like Kousaka has a little "normal" in him. Or on him. He's attractive to women who aren't otaku.
 * Dude first episode, Watch it! Ok now you understand that those two are old childhood friends with a long history not shown in the series.
 * What bugs me is how Kousaka can be so incredibly oblivious. Take the episode where he plays Kasukabe in Puyo Pop, that example alone practically a showcase.
 * Stuff like that is Truth in Television, sadly.
 * Kasukabe can be oblivious too, like the shopping trip on their first trip out together where she spent 123,456 yen (about USD $1500 at the time) of her dad's money on clothes at one store and regularly spends hundreds of thousands of yen when shopping. Stuff like that can scare a guy off, especially that early in the relationship (So, what are you studying, Kousaka? Something lucrative, I hope...)
 * Kasukabe's going into the fashion industry by running a boutique, and is more than likely to continue to depend on that for her clothing needs. And Kousaka ended up being a programmer anyways, so they're not too badly off... unlike Madarame's probable fate.
 * Hey now, working at a pipe manufacturing company's not that bad. Oh who are we kidding, Madarame's going to die alone buried under a mountain of doujinshi. Though, I suppose he will be happy then.
 * If the recent chapters are any indication (and not a Mind Screw on  part), Madarame's forever alone is gonna be over soon.
 * Speaking of Madarame's love life(or lack thereof), did he have feelings for Ohno? I am pretty sure he did judging by his "Damn that Tanaka" line in the manga.
 * Nah, he just felt betrayed by being left out of the loop.
 * While reading the manga, I noticed that a number of dialogs take place entirely in thought bubbles, e.g. between Saki and the first President. Are these people espers or something?
 * I think it's meant to illustrate the way that Japanese people are supposed to convey a lot of information through nonverbal communication (i.e. body language and such), though the manga certainly stretches the bounds of credibility way past the breaking point. I prefer to think of it as a form of written "stage whisper".
 * It would appear that it's to imply the characters are speaking very quietly in a private manner. The scene you referenced does have the other characters referring to a "weird conversation". Although the thought bubbles are used as internal dialogue, so is free-standing text on the page (at least in the translated version this Troper read online),
 * I'm pretty sure the thought bubbles alternate with whispers. Simple enough. I don't see how people didn't get that.
 * Also not on the show itself, it just bugs me that the DVDs don't include any sort of footnote for the anime they reference, the fansubs had them, why not these?
 * It's pretty clearly evident that Kousaka is pure otaku down to the bone. No turning back. So what was Kasukabe hoping would happen if that one club was brought down?
 * He'd spend more time with her rather then with his otaku friends.
 * Why does Genshiken always equate otaku-media with doujin? I mean, a clear 90% of all the trouble in the club could be solved if they didn't obsess over all that doujin! And why, when the club decides to put out their own manga, do they immediately settle for a male-targeted Kuji-Un doujinshi to the exclusion of ALL OTHER GENRES IN EXISTENCE? (Yes, I've been losing sleep over these questions)
 * Because in Japan, the doujin scene is by far the biggest and most powerful part of otaku media. Japan's otakuism is nothing like Americans' (or anyone else, for that matter). You might get excited over Madoka Magica on stores, but for them, that's all naught. Japan's doujin scene is FAR greater and FAR more powerful that you can imagine because there's simply not enough anime produced to satisfy the needs of all those otaku consumers; that's why events like Comiket (which, in 2009, broke the 560,000 attendees; compare with the puny Otakon getting 29,000 in 2010) are so popular.
 * Male-targeted: At that point, most of the members of the club were male. Kuji-un: It's used as an example of real manga.
 * But that doesn't really answer the question... although, what I really meant to say was "why a porn doujin to the exclusion of all else".
 * Because it would be an easy thing to put out, considering the in-universe popularity. Besides, we'd never know if they buy regular manga off-screen.