Harunobu Madarame

Harunobu Madarame is one of the main characters from the Genshiken anime and manga.

Harunobu is the most hardcore otaku of the Genshiken members. He carries his obsessions to an almost dangerous degree, and will spend nearly all of his money on dōjinshi, which leaves little money for food or other living expenses. He becomes acting President of the club after being appointed by the First President. In his senior year, he passes down his leadership to Kanji Sasahara as he looks for a job.

Because of his unusual name, Keiko Sasahara addresses him as "Watanabe," much to his chagrin. After a while, he loses interest in correcting her and the name sticks.

In the AWA fics, Harunobu made his debut at the sixteenth chapter of All Worlds Alliance Stories.

Appearance
Madarame is described as tall with broad shoulders, but his body type is quite frail looking, likely due to his poor diet as a result of overspending on merchandise. This is confirmed when he breaks his bones - typically his distal radial bone in his forearm - multiple times. He has slight mid length black hair (or dark brown in the anime). He has shallow eyes and also has trademark prominent fangs usually sticking out of his mouth.

Madarame normally dresses in cheap clothes typical for an otaku. However, encouraged by Saki to be more fashionable, he buys a nice jacket and suit. This surprises everyone in the club and actually impresses Saki, and has since become his "battle wear" for shopping in Akihabara.

Personality
Madarame is a proud and unrepentant otaku to the core. He specializes mostly in anime/manga trivia and dating sims, including porn games. When anime and manga discussions come up, he generally likes to quiz people and point out any inconsistencies he sees.

Madarame is usually a coward when facing adversity. When Sasahara was waved in to take a stance against a guy harassing his sister, Madarame was by his side but darted out of the way quickly to avoid being associated. However, he did take a bold stance against Saki when reprimanding her for causing the club's suspension (though underneath, he was so nervous his heart felt like it was going to leap out of his chest).

One of Madarame's personal faults is that he's untrue to himself when it comes to matters of romance. When confronted with the topic, he immediately denies it, even though it's almost clear as day to everyone else. There are times when he will feel overwhelmed to the point of getting flighty. Throughout the series, his personal growth has become the focus of certain story arcs.

In the anime, the story delves quite deeper into Madarame's past. In high school, he made an insensitive remark about why a girl was feeling so withdrawn in class. This remark made one of the girls he liked slap him for his perceived rudeness, and the following year he was the only boy in class to not receive any chocolates on Valentine's Day. This moment has a profound effect on Madarame's interactions with women and explains why he's so awkward around them, specifically the ones he likes.

Trivia

 * Keiko keeps calling him "Watanabe" in  Nidaime . The fact that she actually calls him "Madarame" when she is being serious indicates she does know his real name, she just pretends she does not.


 * Madarame is actually called this by Saki's friends in the first manga because the name "Madarame" is a very uncommon name and is similar in pronunciation to Watanabe.
 * Almost every club member in Nidaime considers him a sou-uke, pairing him as a bottom with every sort of pairing. He is not pleased with this.


 * Saki points out that  he, of all people, might have the affection of four people: Angela, Sue,Keiko and Hato.
 * Ironically, in  Nidaime, he gets  four  people that are interested in him, yet had no clue about it until Kousaka bluntly exposes it to him. Hato was even practically proposing to him (by declaring that he'd like to cook for him every day).