Gamers!

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Gamers! (Japanese: ?????!, Hepburn: G?m?zu!) is a Japanese light novel series written by Sekina Aoi and illustrated by Saboten. Fujimi Shobo have published eight volumes since 2015 under their Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint. An anime television series adaptation by Pine Jam aired from July to September 2017.

Video Gamers!

Plot

Keita Amano, a high school boy who enjoys playing video games by himself, is approached by the beautiful school idol Karen Tend? to join the school's Gaming Club. Keita tries it out, but finds it is about competitive gaming, so he declines her offer. This rejection sets off a trigger of events in the lives of Keita and his fellow students in matters of both video games and romance with no small amount of misunderstandings along the way.

Maps Gamers!

Characters

In the light novels, the characters take turns narrating the chapters, with most of them done by Keita Amano.

Main characters

Keita Amano (?? ?? (??????), Amano Keita): Voiced by: Megumi Han (Japanese); Brandon McInnis (English); Keita is a rather plain second-year high school student who loves video games. He initially does not have any school friends, preferring to just play on his handheld console or on his phone. He considers Karen Tendo to be the perfect girl, but turns down her invitations to join the Game Club because he prefers to play games for fun and not as something competitive. He often thinks of himself as unworthy of her affections, but is encouraged by Tasuku to be friends with Karen^{LN 1} and eventually ask her out. In later episodes, he reveals that sometimes, he does like to compete to win. He uses two online usernames, Tsucchi and Yama, both of which are based on his mother's maiden name Tsuchiyama. He is a big fan of independent game designer "Nobe", and teams up with online player Mono.^{Ep. 3} He is very stubborn when it comes to his opinions on games, clashing with Chiaki Hoshinomori regularly over use of moe characters and other things, even though the two are very much alike.^{Ep. 3, 5} In the light novel, Keita notes that he has a brother two years younger.^{LN 1}
Karen Tendo (?? ?? (???????), Tend? Karen, also Karen Tendou): Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese); Brittney Karbowski (English); Karen is the most beautiful girl at school and the president of the school's Game Club. She has long naturally blond hair and green eyes. She excels in everything at school from looks and popularity to sports to academics.^{LN 1}^{Ep. 1} She had enrolled in the school because of the club's prestige, but its senior members had left, so she took it upon herself to revive the club, and she privately recruits members as she does not want it to be filled with guys who are only interested in asking her out.^{LN 1} She invites Keita to join her club, but when she is rejected, she becomes noticeably upset. While watching Keita from a distance, she develops a crush on him because he stands up to Tasuku in defending her and the club,^{LN 1} She becomes flustered whenever she thinks of him or interacts with him, that it messes up her focus on her daily routines of going for a morning jog, helping teachers, rejecting love confessions from suitors, and hanging out with the Game Club.^{Ep. 4} She mistakenly believes that Keita and Aguri are a couple, having seen them together.^{Ep. 3-5} Midway through the anime series, she spontaneously accepts Keita's asking her to be a couple, but is willing to stay in the relationship.^{Ep. 6-7}
Tasuku Uehara (?? ? (???????), Uehara Tasuku): Voiced by: Toshiyuki Toyonaga (Japanese); Clifford Chapin (English); Keita's classmate is a good-looking and outgoing guy. He is an occasional gamer and is skilled at arcade games. A former gamer nerd in middle school, he changed his appearance and attitude when he entered high school to shun gamer nerds, yet feels drawn to be involved in Keita's life and his situation with Karen that he is willing to help Keita progress in his social life.^{LN 1} He is quite proud that he landed a cute girlfriend Aguri, but later learns that Aguri had liked him back when he was a nerd.^{Ep. 2} He is the first to make the connection between Keita and Chiaki's gaming personas, and then tries to pair the two together as friends, while also supporting Keita and Karen's relationship. He creates a Gamers Meet-Up Club with all parties involved, however, his efforts, as well as his increasing interactions with Chiaki and Karen, lead to more misunderstandings.^{Ep. 5}
Aguri (??? (???)): Voiced by: Rumi ?kubo (Japanese); Tia Ballard (English); Aguri is Tasuku's girlfriend. In the anime, she is a petite girl with pink hair and purple eyes. She does not play video games nor has interest in them. She fell in love with Tasuku after he gave her a plushie doll in middle school, and she changed her appearance as well in order to get closer to him.^{Ep. 2} She becomes jealous that Tasuku is being friendly with Chiaki, but allies with Keita to help him relate better with Karen.
Chiaki Hoshinomori (??? ?? (????????), Hoshinomori Chiaki): Voiced by: Manaka Iwami (Japanese); Marissa Lenti (English); Chiaki is a shy and quiet girl in Karen's class. She has messy "seaweed" dark blue hair and purple eyes. She enjoys playing handheld and phone games like Keita, and had declined Karen's invitation to join the Game Club. At school, she and Keita initially get along because they agree on many things about games, until they clash over their opinions on putting moe characters in video games. She takes Tasuku's advice on improving her appearance, and cuts her hair, but her increased interactions with Tasuku make Aguri jealous.^{Ep. 3} She is Keita's online friend "Mono" and his favorite indie game developer "Nobe", although both Chiaki and Keita are unaware of each other's online personas.^{Ep. 5} She is shocked when Keita reveals his gaming personalities to the group, and begins to develop feelings towards him.^{Ep. 8}

Supporting characters

Eiichi Misumi (?? ??, Misumi Eiichi): Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae (Japanese); Howard Wang (English); Eiichi is Karen's classmate who joins the Game Club at the beginning of the series. He has short black hair. His specialty is in arcade puzzle games, but he also is able to adapt to learning new games and growing skills based on observing how others play. He says that he got into gaming because he had lost his memory when he was younger and playing block puzzles gives him a link to his past.^{Ep. 1} The last episode in the anime series shows his secretive past in which he had escaped some underground organizations, and then encounters his estranged sister Riki in the finals of a game tournament.^{Ep. 12}
Gakuto Kase (?? ??, Kase Gakuto): Voiced by: Yasuaki Takumi (Japanese); Alejandro Saab (English); Gakuto is a third-year student, and a member of the Game Club. He has red hair and wears glasses. He gets serious when it comes to FPS games. He took up gaming because his father was mercenary who trained him in the family business when he was a kid.^{Ep. 1}
Niina Oiso (?? ??, ?iso Niina): Voiced by: Yuna Yoshino (Japanese); Dawn M. Bennett (English); Niina is a third-year member of the Game Club who specializes in fighting games. Karen considers her the sexy big sister type. She has long brown hair and brown eyes. She doesn't talk with people while she is playing. Karen said she got into gaming in order to win her friend back by trying to defeat her in a fighting game.^{Ep. 1}
Konoha Hoshinomori (??? ??, Hoshinomori Konoha): Voiced by: Y?ki Kuwahara (Japanese); Jad Saxton (English); Konoha is Chiaki's younger sister. She is envious of Karen Tendo's popularity and is somewhat happy that she didn't have to compete with her by going to a different school where she could become student council president. She secretly enjoys adult games and revels in being in the company of cute girls.^{Ep. 8} When Keita visits Chiaki's home and accidentally sees the "Mono" and "Nobe" information, Chiaki tells Keita that Konoha is the person behind those accounts.^{Ep. 9} She tries to support her sister in relating closer to Keita.

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Media

Light novel

Sekina Aoi first published the series in 2015 through Fujimi Shobo's Fujimi Fantasia Bunko with illustrations by Saboten. So far, 9 volumes have been released.

Manga

A four-panel manga adaptation with art by Yamucha is being serialized in Fujimi Shobo's Sh?nen Ace.

Anime

An anime television series adaptation directed by Manabu Okamoto and produced by Pine Jam was announced. The 12-episode series aired in Japan between July 13, 2017 and September 28, 2017. The opening theme is "GAMERS!" by Hisako Kanemoto, Manaka Iwami and Rumi ?kubo. The ending themes are "Fight on!" for all episodes except for episode nine and ten which is "Koi no Prologue*" (??prologue*, Prologue to Love), both performed by Luce Twinkle Wink?. Crunchyroll streamed the series while Funimation has licensed the series in North America and began streaming an English dub from July 27, 2017.

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Notes

E-sports: How China's video gamers went from couch to classroom to ...

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Reception

The light novel ranked seventh in 2017 in Takarajimasha's annual light novel guide book Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, in the bunkobon category. It ranked eighth in 2018.

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Works cited

^ "LN" is shortened form for light novel and refers to a volume in the Gamers! light novels.
^ "Ch." is shortened form for chapter and refers to a chapter number of the collected Gamers! manga
^ "Ep." is shortened form for episode and refers to an episode number of the Gamers! anime

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References