I’m always a sucker for romantic comedies, but if you throw in gaming, you’re making a match made in heaven for me. Gamers! is exactly that, but it is getting some mixed reviews on some of the anime forums. Some have even gone as far as to call it generic. Could this heavenly mashup between romance, comedy and geek culture truly be a landmark show? Let’s find out!
First Episode Impressions
Gamers! centers around Karen Tendou, the most popular girl in school and also the cutest, as well as Keita Amano, a casual gamer who spends most of his time playing social media games on his phone as a girl under the Momo username. One day at a gaming store, Karen approaches Keita and asks him what he’s looking at, shocked at the fact that the prettiest girl in school is talking to him, he drops all the games he was going to buy. She talks to him and reveals that she, too, is a gamer and has resurrected the school’s gaming club. She wants Keita to join.
Upon visiting the gaming club, Keita discovers they are all elite pro gamers. Gakuto Kase is an FPS expert while Nina Oisa is amazing at fighting games. After experiencing the club, Keita decides that he wouldn’t be allowed to play his kind of games the way he wants to play them and declines Karen’s offer. The first episode ends with Karen begging Keita to join the club and getting rejected once again.
The show was a bit predictable. The show could only go two ways, really. Either Keita declines the invitation, leading to a series of attempts by Karen to get him to join or Keita accepts and we see comedy skits of him bumbling through video games and questioning why he joined in the first place. The former of the two happened and while it was a bit generic, some of the humor in there was pretty well-written and made me laugh.
OP & ED Impressions
No opening or ending song this week, but with a show like this, I think we all know what kind of music it’s going to have. As predictable as the plot, I’m going to say the opening will feature some upbeat electronic music, happy-go-lucky female vocals, possibly sung by the members of the cast with solid shapes, colors and dots in the background. I’d even put money on it! The ending will probably follow suit in an attempt to be funny.
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – The first episode of Gamers! was a bit dry, but it’s far from the abomination that some people are making it out to be. I think it’s going to be good enough to keep watching, but this is the kind of show you’re going to want to use the three show rule on. The premise of the show seems fun, but it’s all about how they represent the geek culture side of it. Based on the first episode, this may just end up being another typical romcom that has little to do with geek culture, though. We’ll see.
