Gamers! [Review]
“Keita Amano is a typical high school gamer living out an average student’s life. One day, however, he has an unexpected meeting with the cutest girl in school that makes him want to disappear without a trace! This girl, Karen Tendou, is an exemplary student who is proclaimed to be the school’s idol. She discovers that Amano is a gamer, and this newfound knowledge a passionate desire within her to recruit him into the game club. Upon visiting the club, Amano is forcefully made aware of a side to gaming wildly different than the one he loves so dearly. Tendou’s interest in Amano begins shaking up what was once an uneventful life, filling it with spontaneity, awkwardness, and a little bit of mayhem. As a result, every day becomes a comical battle for Amano’s sanity as he tries to adapt to these wild, unexpected changes.” -MAL Rewrite
Gamers! or aka “Misunderstandings: The Animation” as the fandom would call it was a new take on romantic comedies.
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Story:
This entire show is one huge curveball that no one expected. With a title like “Gamers!” you’d think it’d be about making games or playing them. While gaming does play a somewhat important role in the story it’s about the characters and the misunderstandings that revolve around each of their relationships, which is way “Misunderstanding: The Animation” became popular as an alternative title. While Amano is the first character we are introduced to, the screen time is spread out among all the characters. Each with their own delusions of what’s going on in their group of friends. The story and situations they get themselves into will have you screaming at the screen for them to open their eyes.
Artwork & Animation:
While I love the character designs, the simplicity of the art could’ve been amped up a little. It screams “Typical slice-of-life/rom-com” from the artwork alone.
Character(s):
The characters are pretty decent all across the board. The girls each have their own unique quirk that makes them likable, the guys are both dense in their own ways. But I’m disappointed that the two character from the Gaming Club that we meet in episode 1 hardly had any screen time. And there was also a random backstory for a character that we also met in episode 1, towards the end of the show.
Sound (OST & Voice Acting):
The OST is much like the art, it doesn’t stand out too much. The voice acting is a different story! The performance by the voice actors was excellent, especially scenes where they’d get confused or nervous and start stuttering! Manaka Iwami, the voice actor for Chiaki, did an excellent job of transitioning from “reclusive and shy character” to “still shy but will fight for what she wants” type of character.
Enjoyment:
I absolutely enjoyed, even with some of its flaws, Gamers! stands to be one of the funniest Rom-Com I have seen in a while!
Overall: Score 9
Although the art and sound fall flat for me, the characters and the story were strong enough to pick it back up and makes it something memorable. I highly recommend this to new time fans since this will be a good introduction to Rom-Coms and slice-of-life’s! Veterans will appreciate the absurdity of the misunderstandings and the character types that show up in the show!
Best Girl: Tendou Karen
Tendou is one of those characters that is already likable at the beginning but once the story develops and you see their real tendencies you like them even more. It was hilarious to see her go from “Miss Perfect Everything” to “I’m a mess” within 3 episodes because of a certain someone.
KiritoNarukami 