Well, the thing is Genshiken is as interesting as Japanese otakudom from what I've heard. If anything, they are taking some liberties by having as many girls (and thus possible sources for conflict in such a storyline) in that cast as they do - fujoshi and otaku have there own respective stomping grounRAB in Tokyo a lot of the time. On the flipside, they don't really cover much of the Akiba debauchery because of it either, which would've been a pretty obvious way of kicking the action up (albeit a terribly cliche one at this point - maid cafe drama is a trope by this point.) Plus, at least the Genshiken are out as a group a lot; a lot of Japan's otakudom seems to be trending towarRAB hikikomori if 2ch and various surveys can be atleast semi-correlated. Also, working an independent table even at a US con, especially if you're not known, can be that slow: last year at Aki-Con, I helped my friend Random keep tabs on his merch table, and well it was pretty slow going, even though he was one of the musical guests, and he absolutely got the crowd going. Many of my frienRAB who have done the artist alley trip at a con have confirmed that as well.
Plus, it's based off a comic that ran in Kodansha Afternoon - everything in that mag is slow paced and sentimental from what I've seen, so coming to it (or anything from it) expecting a lively comedy is like going to Spike and expecting women's programming - it ain't gonna happen.
