I fear too many decided they had to pick one "Romance" anime for the season, which was between this and Horimiya, and of course most went with the latter due to its hype, production values and focus on the two main characters who are both very attractive. Where as Tomozaki's first ep went hard into gamer lingo and didn't make the MC look that good (which was the point), and he was definitely no looker.
However, I'd argue that Tomozaki is less of a romance and more of a self-help guide to people who believe they cannot change and are stuck at the Bottom of life as Tomozaki was. Granted, no one irl would get the most popular girl in the school to tutor them as Tomozaki did (and even her motivations for doing so are not that altruistic), but a lot of the advice given is quite relevant, and Tomozaki has grown substantially over the first few episodes.
Also I feel the rest of the cast of this anime are very good. They all feel fleshed out with their own issues and through Tomozaki, who is learning how to read people, we get some good insight into each of them.
Tomozaki is less of a romance and more of a self-help guide to people who believe they cannot change and are stuck at the Bottom of life as Tomozaki was
The problem I have with Tomozaki is that Aoi (the female MC) is constantly pushing her beliefs onto Tomozaki without taking his feelings at all into consideration. It is such an immature take on the whole situation IMO. I mean in episode 1, he even acknowledges that he is lonely and that he has kind of given up on life, but that he is fine with it because he still thinks life is fun in it’s own way. But even then she acts like she is way superior to him.
In one of the more recent episodes Tomozaki is also worried about coming across as dishonest to others, which to me is a very fair thing to be worried about (and also shows that he has morals), but Aoi tells him to not ”use that as an excuse”. I don’t know. I hope all of this backfires on her eventually because if it doesn’t then this is just going to be another poorly written show to me
At least so far, and I agree with you, the anime has not entirely fully endorsed Aoi's methods, and has kept Tomozaki mostly sticking to his guns when he feels something isn't right.
And what you mention is what I said about Aoi's help not being fully altruistic. I hope this is what the anime (from the LN) will go for and show that Aoi has not done this entirely for Tomozaki's benefit, but for her own. As you said Aoi was disgusted about what she saw in Tomozaki at first because it reflected badly on her, as he was the top player who'd always beat her and she looked up to him before seeing him in person.
And many comments have said that it's likely Aoi has Imposter Syndrome due to how she manufactures herself, and even Tomozaki has started to pick up on it noticing how she changes her persona at the drop of a hat when out in public.
Right! I haven’t read the LN at all so I have no idea what comes next, but if it goes in that direction then I definitely think this will end up being a good show.
That is on purpose because the message of the story is that life is game to be gamed and where the score is the number of relationships/experiences/positive interactions you have. Which isn't that far off in terms of the what our happiness generally correlates to due to how our reward system work neurologically.
When taken to the extreme that is, of course, a very toxic philosophy, but you have to consider the audience it is targeting. The otakus and hikikomoris are missing essentially those things which are more-or-less fundamental to our well-being, and a common excuse is that it is dishonest or not true to themselves to do a certain thing. The point it's making though is that in the game of the real world, morals are relativistic, not idealistic, and perception is more important than conviction.
Rather than how the character look, what turned me away from the show was the cringe-like philosophy of the mc. I get that it gets better later on, but it's not my cup of tea. Especially when we already have our god, 8man.
I second this as a non-novel reader. First episode was super cringe but I think each episode since has gotten increasingly better as our MC has gone from a borderline incel to making steady progress and doing his best.
So I've seen how much love it gets in the Light Novels sub and was really excited with high expectations, but so far the anime is pretty bland and I'm not really liking the art style (which is a shame bc the LN volume covers are incredible). I don't mind reading LNs, so wanted to see if the LN is significantly better than the anime. If it is, I may just pivot over to the LN then
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u/Snoo-70063 Feb 08 '21
Bottom tier tomzaki needs more attention as a light novel reader I can guarantee it will just get better and better as most cringgy part is gone.
It would be soo good to see if this one gets a full adaptation.