Bottom Tier Tomozaki is a series about how best to use limited experiences - in this instance, video games - as best to be empathetic and connect with people. Its central narrative is focused on Tomozaki, an incredibly cringeworthy, introverted teenager who has more or less given up on life in general in favor of escapism. This only changes when he one day has an offline meeting with Hinami, an incredibly popular classmate who unbeknownst to him is the second best player in said game and harbors and inferiority complex over the fact she can't seem to beat him. Her immaturity and childishness in losing to someone as socially inept and as much of a loser as Tomozaki lead to her taking him under her wing in order to reform him to ordinary life, with her using video game lingo in a way to attract his attention.

The anime - much like its light novel counterpart - is structured into several semi-episodic arcs, through which Tomozaki helps one of his classmates' issues. This is a fine structure that increases the number of people surrounding Tomozaki, and helps emphasize his good nature in helping people around him as well as how he does so depending on the person he's assisting, bringing out some pretty neat characterization. Yuzu, for example, being more or less a stereotypical maiden in a one-sided love, is reluctant to interact with Tomozaki and only does because of his skill at the game she wants to play to get better at and socialize with to get closer to Nakamura. Her development is about her defrosting around Tomozaki, as well as growing to love the game for what it is - contrasting with Tomozaki, who finds having someone to unironically guide and socialize over the game to assist him greatly in him opening up about him talking about the game with others.

Minami - affectionally called Mimimi both in-setting and by the general fanbase - appears to be an absolute disaster of a genki girl, but this betrays someone with an inferiority complex to Hinami, who wants desperately both to be acknowledged by her superior rival as well as improve her self-esteem, as she feels unacknowledged for coming at second place all the time. Her arc wherein she bonds with Tomozaki over similarly wanting to beat down Hinami is where - for many people, both involving the LNs and the anime - the series grows the beard, with Mimimi's infectious charisma and humor surrounding her often stealing the spotlight from every other character. Her arc is also where it becomes obvious to the audience - as if that wasn't from episode 1 already apparent - of Hinami's major character flaw involving her keeping everyone from a distance and never trusting anyone with her emotions, putting on the air of a perfectionist while putting on airs around everyone else.

This leads to the central conflict surrounding the series, involving whether or not it's better to pretend to be someone you're not - as does Hinami for the entire series - or take the jump and wear your heart on your sleeve involving who you are and what you love, as does Tomozaki. The answer the series arrives at is a mixed one; Tomozaki having his own agency, independently of Hinami's advice, is something that the narrative portrays as a good thing and helps him connect better with people who like him exactly for who he is. Fuuka is the best example involving this, pointing out at a point in the show that her interactions with him were more genuine and more down to Earth - even with awkward silences - when he wasn't following a script. At the same time, this is no reason to discard Hinami's advice and her assistance that allowed him to reach where he has in the first place, with the clear indicator that he wants to influence her to be a better and more truthful person in the same way she helped him.

The series is carried hard by its excellent cast of characters, who interact with each other - with all the disconnect and drama that ensues - as normal teenagers would. There's a huge emphasis on body psychology and neat camera shots emphasizing characters' emotional states in spite of the series's rather limited budget, with Project No. 9's work being a reminder that despite an average budget at best, they've succeeded greatly in making an adaptation that at once feels spirited despite its limitations. The series looks decent from start to finish, with no serious decline in quality and rather detailed backgrounds, helped by some pretty neat direction.

The sound direction is of particular note here; while I wasn't a fan of the OP song, its visuals look pretty neat, and the same can apply to the ED (though that was closer to my kind of tune, helped by the singer changing occasionally depending on the episode). The soundtrack is absolutely amazing, courtesy of Hiromi Mizutani, whose work here easily rivals among his best, even if I do think his work on Non Non Biyori still has the edge overall. Where credit needs to go hardest is towards the voice-acting, with performances by Ai Kayano as Fuuka, Gen Satou as Tomozaki and Hisako Kanemoto as Hinami being all fantastic, especially during more emotive/dramatic scenes in the series. The best performance in my opinion needs to go to relative newcomer Ikumi Hasegawa, for whom her role as Mimimi is a breakout, with her completely selling Mimimi's more hyper and comedic side on one hand as well as her more introspective, self-loathing side on the other. Considering that she had done an even finer job with another anime out this year, I hope to see more of her voice in the immediate future.

Bottom-Tier Tomozaki is a pretty excellent series, with a likable as hell main cast, fun premise, interesting (even if overdone) themes and an excellent adaptation of the first three volumes of the source material. While the series will not appeal to everyone, anyone who enjoys stories similar to it would be well-served, and I do hope for a S2 down the line - even if that seems a bit difficult to predict considering the anime's less than stellar sales. If nothing else, the LNs are a fun time and are in a comparatively more secure position considering the LN series's popularity in Japan.

Thanks to anyone and everyone for reading my review, any and all feedback would be appreciated.