Shodai Kaichou

This character is the first club president, whose name is never revealed. He is eerily quiet and very stealthy, moving from place to place like smoke without anyone noticing (scaring Saki in particular), although he seems largely harmless on the surface. He appears to have a vast amount of knowledge about the college and many of the students, although he denies having hidden cameras or any other means of spying on them. He has been head of the Genshiken longer than most care to remember; some indications go back as far as 1987. He often stands on top of buildings, staring into the club room. He leaves his position as President to work on his graduate thesis, implying that he is working on his PhD. He begins the custom of the current president personally choosing his or her successor. The titles for the first 12 episodes of the anime can be interpreted as the “research” he has conducted on unsuspecting fellow club-members, as titles from after his departure are far more mundane.