Gamers!

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 incites 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.

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Adaptation:

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Takahashi, Rie
Japanese

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Cook, Justin

Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki

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Ogura, Mitsutoshi

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Mukaitouge, Kazuyoshi

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Opening Theme

"GAMERS!" by Karen Tendou (Hisako Kanemoto), Chiaki Hoshinomori (Manaka Iwami), Aguri (Rumi Ookubo)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Fight on!" by Luce Twinkle Wink☆ (eps 2-8,11-12)
	2: "Koi no Prologue* (恋のprologue＊)" by Luce Twinkle Wink☆ (eps 9-10)

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Sep 28, 2017

Stark700

Mixed Feelings

Gamers is honestly a show that made me scratch my head more than I realized. As a gamer myself, this anime really feels relatable at heart on occasions because of its concepts. However, what really follows is a rough adaptation that translated into a questionable story. It ended up being an anime that I can’t fully say it’s appreciable for what it had to offer. And that’s too bad really.

Based on the light novel of the same name, Gamers stood out as an anime at first for me just by its title and it seemed like a show that I felt comfortable with. However, what ... this series actually presents is far more just about gamers gathering together to play games. It became a show with romance themes, misunderstandings, and drama shenanigans that really took relationships to a strange level. On paper, the show’s premise sounds pretty simple as main male protagonist Keita Amano is invited by the prettiest girl of the school Karen, to join her video game club. What follows is a string of misunderstandings that ended up being messy.

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. Surprisingly, I found her sister to be more likable as she seems like a fun person to hang out with and talk to. The sibling relationship Hoshinomori is surprisingly realistic as the two can be easily relatable by their roles in this show.

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 (with exception of Tasuku and Aguri) 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. The character designs themselves are also appealing enough to make them stand out; except with the case of Amano as he looks like a generic Average Joe. Unfortunately, this anime doesn’t escape the fan service pit so expect some episodes to have it with suggestive camera angles and swimsuits.

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. Still, character voice mannerism is rather moderate as none of them really stand out. Aguri’s accent also took me some time to get used to as she sounds like a kid at times.

Should you watch Gamers? Honestly, it really depends but the anime felt more like a big ship tease rather than an appealing show of sharp writing. The comedy is the main selling factor so if humor is your cup of tea, then this anime will be one that you’ll remember that by. As for the storytelling? It really doesn’t do any favors when the show is like a loop that doesn’t progress the main plot altogether. The anime itself is also an incomplete adaptation as the novels are ongoing. So in essence, it’s rather open ended. For gamers and anime fans, this show is fun to watch when you’re bored and need time to pass by. But for what it really delivered, it’s an anime that I found face palming myself more than laughing.

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Sep 28, 2017

Pipe

Recommended

What is the meaning of gamer? If we go to our favorite culture dictionary, we will consider a gamer someone that plays video-games. Is it the main topic of this anime? Sadly, it isn't. The video-game idea is irrelevant here unless that we associate the game concept with a relationship. In that case, we can say that the plot of this anime is a relationship game and a "gamer" interprets, acts, and plays on that relationship game. The goal of the game could be ending with someone, maybe love, etc.

I can give several convenient titles for this anime, "Misunderstandings," "The mess," "Mistakes," "Misconceptions." All ...

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Oct 30, 2017

PakiUSA

Recommended

STORY: 8/10
CHARACTER: 9/10
ART: 7/10
SOUND: 8/10
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
OVERALL: 8/10

Funny enough ‘Gamers’ is NOT an anime about Games, rather it’s an anime about the people who play Games! The show is more a Slice of life Romcom about teenagers where the story just focuses on their lives at High school and their interactions with one other which may disappoint some viewers due to its Soap Opera-ish vibe. (If you are looking for something similar but with more gaming involved, check out ‘Netoge No Yome Wa Onnanoko Ja Nai To Omotta?’) I too was upset upon learning this, but the anime brilliantly defends itself by delivering spontaneously strong, albeit ... sometimes cliched Comedy! By not resorting to a Harem anime like everybody else, it’s a breath of fresh air to have 2 main guys rather than 1 and all girls. The 1st episode itself foreshadows uniqueness as the show deliberately sets up a Generic Romcom setting where the MC is invited to a Gaming club by a beautiful girl and the other characters presented clearly looked like the shows main cast. Only to swerve all of us towards the end by having the MC be like ‘Nah, this isn’t for me’! Realizing the show had the balls to create a ‘fake cast’ of characters just for 1 Joke meant I was in store for something Awesome! And I wasn’t disappointed! Another thing I liked was the shows effort of making fun of the Harem genre itself. We actually have a character who calls upon this in one episode! The same character even plots to force a Harem on one of the MC’s which ended up rebounding horribly! ‘Gamers’ uses an old exaggeration of an over the top love triangles which gets everyone confused and misinformed, thus resulting into utter chaos! (The show bravely points it out to us from time to time) You have things like characters hearing only the worst parts of a conversations to someone suppressing important info just to protect another character’s public image which may look frustrating, but it was fantastically executed!

All the characters are genuinely interesting by managing to stand out via their personalities. We have our simple looking Amano, who’s very bad when it comes to judgements due to his uncertainties. Nevertheless, he’s a good MC since he’s peculiarly zealous about certain type of games and will fight ‘’verbally’’ tooth and nails to defend his point despite sucking at playing games! He manages to come across very kind to others and it’s his infectious passion for games that resulted into Tendou falling head over heels for him! Tendou herself is a big gaming fan (in secret) so others simply can’t understand her infatuation for Amano which results into Tendou losing her ‘Highschool Dream Girl’ image. (Being REJECTED by a Nobody really hurt her image at school!) Even though she doesn’t do much later, her depiction of a major crush was humourlessly presented to us which never got tiring. After all this is how a person with a real crush acts! The person goes through unstable amount of emotions without ever expressing it out loud. Uehara is another character who comes off looking cool but isn’t as smart as he thinks! Often a prey to his own schemes due to bad decisions, results in being the root for the whole group problems! Aguri bonds nicely with Amano and she’s all cute and innocent while Chiaki turns out to be even a bigger Gaming nerd than the MC himself! I liked how her story went along with the main arc and whenever she said ‘Desu Desu’. These 5 characters provide us with the bulk of relatable Comedy in a hilarious and ridiculous manner that will have you LOLing pretty hard!

Animation is pretty basic, though colourful and the character designs are by the numbers. Both the OP and ED were a stand out with very catchy music and bright visuals which is appreciated with great Voice Acting from the cast for both Subs and Dubs. The opening video boasts wonderful ingenuity by showcasing countless parodies of video games like Mario and Street Fighter and the work done on facial expressions were superb!

Despite its flaws, I found the anime funny and entertaining. Episode 5, now remembered as ‘The Mother of All Misunderstandings!’ was hands down the best episode the anime has to offer as it managed to deliver a perfect storm of emotions ranging from Jealousy, Love, Envy, Confusion, Shock, etc in a Comedic fashion! (I loved how the MC was totally oblivious to all it!) This reminds me of a movie called ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’ which pulled of a similar scene of misinterpretations by Comedic means. But exactly like the movie, this brilliant plot unravelled too quickly as the anime failed to entertain us on this level again! The anime tries to repeat itself with the follow up of a Board game, but it just didn’t have the same kick to it! And add in the pretty Meh ending, hurts your final thoughts about the show. Still the characters had their own side plots which were nicely demonstrated though the interactions between them remained the highlight of this anime. Certainly, recommend it to everyone as it’s one of the good anime of this year!

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Poll: Gamers! Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Aug 17, 2017	305 replies	by ACcloudd »» May 23, 3:55 AM
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Poll: Gamers! Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Sep 21, 2017	177 replies	by LadyLeeMing »» May 3, 6:39 PM
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Tendou, Karen

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