If I had to describe Gamers! in one word, I would say “mess”. Not a mess as in that the anime is bad, but a mess in the way that ties the story together and progresses it. Not a ‘beautiful mess’ per se, but you get my point. If you’ve heard about this anime on Reddit, YouTube, etc. before reading this review, you probably already know that those who’ve watched it frequently call it “Misunderstandings: The Anime”. They aren’t exactly wrong. While romance anime, and anime in general, is known for the ‘misunderstandings’, Gamers! takes it to the far end. While some might find the misunderstandings annoying and get turned off from watching by them, they make the anime interesting. While it can be extreme, the misunderstandings progress the plot and create many humorous situations. Gamers! can be an annoying anime to watch, but the annoyances don’t make it a bad one.
Gamers! is only nominally about gaming, while mostly being about relationship trouble and the ‘misunderstandings’ (as to be expected from a rom-com anime). It stars Amano Keita, a ‘loner gamer’ who loves games for their enjoyment value. The other main characters include: Tendou Karen, the standard top-of-the-class blonde girl who is the president of the school’s ‘Game Club’ who tries to get Amano to join; Uehara Tasuku, a ‘reformed gamer’ who still likes to play games but gave up being a ‘nerd’ in order to fit in more; Aguri, who is Tasuku’s girlfriend and doesn’t play games; Hoshinomori Chiaki, who is very like Amano, but has a very different philosophy when it comes to games; and Hoshinomori Konoha, who is Chiaki’s sister and is mostly relevant in the latter half of the anime. Together, these five (Chiaki’s sister is not a part) form the ‘love pentagon’, or rather, make one up inside their head. All of these characters are unique, despite the tropes that they convey. Due to the way the anime tells its story, if you don’t like the characters, you probably should drop the anime.
Although they can be very annoying, the misunderstandings are ultimately what make Gamers! interesting. If it was just a standard harem anime where all girls had a crush on Amano, Gamers! would just be cookie-cutter and boring. The added misinterpretations and mix-ups are what make Gamers! its own anime, and are not as bad as some people on Reddit might imply. The confusion that all of the characters have are oddly familiar, and will probably remind of you of whatever misunderstands you had while in high school.
Gamers! isn’t anything ground-breaking, but it’s worth a watch. If the misunderstandings are not ~that~ annoying to you, then you will hopefully see that it’s what makes the anime good. The only sad part about it is that the Light Novel series that it’s based on has only been officially translated into German, making it near impossible for those who don’t know Japanese to continue with the series after the anime ends.
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