Gamers! | An Anime about gamers, is it worth?

Is it worth? Who knows! I’ll let you decide, but first, you’ll need to give it a watch 🙂

Let’s get the obvious elephant in the room out of the way. Gamers is not recommendable if you have an obvious dislike for rom-com. From the very start, it’s pretty straightforward as the anime jumps right into the main picture with the characters and their roles. Karen is a character that I found to be easy to accept as she is friendly and simple to get along with. What might rub people in the wrong way is her obsession with video games and more so, her obsession with Amano. The anime makes it clear that she likes Amano and extends beyond just the idea of video games. For Amano himself, it seems he has a mutual attraction towards Karen although has a hard time to confess the truth. Unlike Karen, he’s also more timid and unpopular at school. Drama follows the both of them as ship teases begins to develop between various characters.

Beyond Amano and Karen, we also got Aguri and Tasuku, a couple with very sociable personalities. They bring in the comedic drama as misunderstandings are often created by plot circumstances and their own personal delusions. Individually, Aguri is also quite an energetic character with a friendly personality. Similarly, Tasuku finds himself easy to make friends with others and very outgoing. Both of their live are intersected with Karen and Amano as the story picks up and they get involved in drama and the misunderstandings. For me, this shows draws and sells its humor through the misunderstandings.

Unfortunately, I can’t really say the anime’s plot work overall from this formula. It’s very formulaic and predictable as almost every episode feels the same. You may think there are developments between the main characters but in reality, the anime doesn’t do a clever job at progressing the plot. While I appreciate how the anime tries to sell its comedy with character pairings, it’s really no different in the end with plot resolutions. Beyond the humor, there is some actual drama if you count Chiaki’s role in the show. The character chemistry between her and Amano occasionally has more emotions although is still often downplayed quickly because of how lighthearted this anime is.

If you’re a fan of video games, you’ll notice a lot of references. These range from console games, PC gaming, dating sims, and even arcade games. Thanks to these ideas, I think some people may find this anime likable even with the lackluster plot. The idea of gaming is explored with social norms and relatable with the main characters. However, do realize that the anime is very lighthearted and doesn’t really take a serious approach at exploring the cultural ideas of gaming. It’s more of an anime that deals with comedic relationship pairings in order to draw out a casual audience. The lack of background storytelling also holds this anime back at times. To me, Gamers is an anime that’s easy to accept but hard to embrace.

Adapted by Pine Jam, this anime originally had my worries due to its lack of promotions. More importantly, their previous project was pretty unnoticeable for its technical quality. However, my worries quickly died down after seeing the first few episodes. It’s not at a level that will make your jaws drop but definitely consistent for a light novel adaptation. What really draws the audience into the technical quality is perhaps the character expressions. The biggest sell of this show is the humor so it’s important to capture those expressions. Thankfully, I found myself laughing on occasions when characters react as result of misunderstandings, drama, and other shenanigans.

As a lighthearted anime like Gamers, the theme songs aren’t particular noticeable until you realize their style. While it’s not truly avant-garde, it does take an approach that will make the audience talk about especially with its catchy OP song. The gaming references extends to its soundtrack elements as it sometimes uses a similar style for its OST.