Don't drop a tactical nuke on me, first review...
Tomozaki's philosophy is that life is a shitty, unbalanced game. Hinami challenges his philosophy, she says life is actually a great game, there are rules and cheats, you just gotta put the effort in.
This book definitely has some "self-help" aspects to it. Basically, Hinami gives Tomozaki one objective to work on at a time; examples: communication skills, posture, tone etc. With these objectives come steps/challenges that he is supposed to complete by achieving a good grasp on whatever objective he's trying to learn. Chapters consist of Tomozaki tackling these objective.
Learning these social skills will help Tomozaki take part in everyday life instead of being the loner kid without a social life and not trying to have one. With the help of Hinami's coaching, Tomozaki makes progress in his social...Though Hinami's tactics that she teaches aren't without criticism. It seemed to encourage that one must homogenize with the "normies" but Tomozaki also receives praise at throughout the story by other characters for being able to speak what is on his mind and is regarded almost like a gift.
When reading this story, it felt that the line between normies and gamers was kinda blurred. There are some normie characters that are very much into gaming (as much as Tomozaki) and yet they were still on top of the highchool hierarchy. I started wondering: who is a gamer and isn't? Are gamers limited to a singular social strata or not? It seemed to indicate that there is a balance that can be attained. That people who just good at one thing, seen by people as another thing, or even in love with on thing doesn't define you.
Tomozaki clearly develops towards the end of the story. He isn't ashamed to be a nerd and he doesn't shy away from talking about it. He feels more confident in those aspects. As Tomozaki worked towards his objectives and observed the behaviors of others, he gained a sort of respect for them and how they were able to pilot the social landscape.
Hinami is character who doesn't just talk the talk, she is shown walking the walk with relative ease. She is a harsh teacher but also supportive at the same time which makes for some subjectively entertaining banter. She is also a respectable in the sense that she didn't just spawn in the game of life with all the best stats, she just works harder than anyone else.
Overall, posi vibes, easy read turn brain off, slice of life, good and relatable character(s), no hate on types of people.
