Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru

After her boyfriend breaks up with her for another girl, college student Akane Kinoshita wrestles with a broken heart and the memories he left behind. Loading up Forest of Savior, the MMO they used to play together, she forms a plan to get back at her ex-boyfriend through an in-person event for the game. In the process, she runs into someone unexpected: Akito Yamada, a gaming legend who just happens to be her guildmate.

Desperate for support, Akane ropes the asocial Yamada into helping with her scheme and lending her a shoulder to cry on. The differences between Akane and Yamada soon become apparent as they spend time together, yet they cannot help but notice each other's inner qualities. As the two gain more experience with one another in and out of the game, their tentative acquaintance may level up in a way neither expects.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yamada, Akito Main

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Kinoshita, Akane Main

Minase, Inori Japanese

Sasaki, Eita Supporting

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Sasaki, Runa Supporting

Kakuma, Ai Japanese

Kamota, Takezou Supporting

Tobita, Nobuo Japanese

Tsubaki, Yukari Supporting

Tsuchiya, Rio Japanese

Maeda, Momoko Supporting

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Kim Supporting

Ono, Tomohiro Japanese

Man in Suit Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Taniyan Supporting

Yanagita, Junichi Japanese

Uejima, Kazuki Producer

Yoshida, Yuuki Producer

Hashimoto, Kentarou Producer

Kuroi, Hitomi Producer

Reviews

Jan 31, 2025

ajw215799

Recommended

This was actually unexpectedly charming and delightful. This show had a unique and quite charming blend of humor and romance development spread across the thirteen episodes. Natsuki Hanae was perfectly cast in his supporting role because you can hear how much he relishes playing these kinds of characters and it comes across in his performances. But aside from that, this show has a solid cast of characters that perfectly complements each other and aids in the development of both the characters and plot. The final scenes of the season felt rushed but it still would be great to see a season 2.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jan 20, 2025

Playbahnosh

Mixed Feelings

[TL;DR: A beautifully made, albeit extremely generic and bland romance story with cardboard characters and terrible pacing. Thanks to Madhouse the anime looks and sounds amazing; too bad it's wasted on a boring and frankly cringe story as this. Only recommended if you really have nothing better to watch.]

I really wanted to like this anime. I truly did. Awkward nerd romance involving video games and such, it sounds right up my alley. I had fun watching Wotakoi just last week, so I thought this would be more of the same. I couldn't have been more wrong...

First of all, the anime has basically nothing to do ... with video games. Referenced in the title and the main selling point of the story, video games serve as mere background props. Akane, the main protagonist, is not even a nerd, just a generic college student who gets roped into playing some generic MMO. Aside from a handful of scenes where they talk on the in-game chat, we learn nothing about the game, or really any game or anything connected. I mean, that's fair to a point, not everyone is a huge gamer or necessarily interested in the culture at all, but the anime makes it feel like games and nerdy stuff (again, the main selling point of the story) is nothing but unremarkable plot devices, relegated to just a trendy gimmick to exploit, which - being a nerd - feels pretty damn offensive.

I could forgive an anime being tonedeaf like that if the story was actually great. But it's not. First of all, the main love interests, Akane and Yamada, have exactly ZERO chemistry. They have absolutely nothing in common, save for a single video game, and they would've never even met if not for her ex-boyfriend roping her into playing right before dumping her. Akane is a wordly college student who...well...has a friend(?) who she talks to sometimes, I guess? Being the most characterized character in the whole show, we don't really learn much about her at all, since 90% of the runtime is about her hopelessly fawning over the titular Yamada-kun.

Speaking of whom, Yamada is a hardcore gamer who...uh...plays video games a lot. Yep, that's basically the only thing we learn about him in the whole show. Oh, and that he is incredibly, insanely, unbelievably pretty! The anime continuously hammers home the point just how much of an amazingly cute boy Yamada is, with characters extolling his godly good looks left and right and scenes where squeeky fangirls line up to confess to him everywhere he goes. Too bad he has the personality of a medium-sized brick. I mean, hardcore gamers in general are not exactly known to be social butterflies, but Stoic Stickbug Yamada is just taking it a little too far. A bland, brash, absolutely asocial guy with the emotional intelligence of a doorstop, who's only remarkable trait is how much he DOESN'T wanna be involved with Akane, makes for a very unbelievable love interest. And it's not even the "oh, he doesn't know his own feelings" or "doesn't know how to express himself" kinda thing. No, he's obviously just plain not interested in dating, period. And it's not like he hides this fact either, what with turning down confessions left and right and even outright saying that he is completely disinterested in romance.

But that won't stop our obvious self-insert heroine, who is dead determined to get him in a "I have no filter, so I'm gonna bug you until you love me" kinda way. Discounting the absolute forest of red flags of a college student woman desperately trying to date a high-school boy, the whole thing comes off as disingenuous. It really feels like the author has never been in a relationship and just took two unlikely characters, put them in a trendy setting and went "Now kiss!". There are just too many wild coincidences, accidents and the meddling of side-characters that force the two into awkward situations where Yamada needs to play the reluctant hero, and at the end something just suddenly flips in his head "I love you now, I guess". The whole thing is just so artificial, factitious, like someone who only experienced romance on TV, or a 4-year-old playing with dolls. I don't use this word often but I think "cringe" is the adequate definition here.

The ONLY saving grace of this anime is Madhouse. The production quality is through the roof! The art style is beautiful, amazingly animated and directed, I would expect nothing less for one of best studios in anime. Too bad it's all wasted on this terribly artificial snoozefest of a story. I'd only recommend it if you are a fan of Madhouse or you have nothing better to watch.

Thanks for reading!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 7, 2024

_Maria_chan_

Not Recommended

I personally don't like romantic genre that much. But if the story of romantic anime is beautiful and unique, then I'd like it. I've seen many romantic anime. Some of them are love stories which I enjoyed so much. Some of the love stories are boring and I don't like them and (My love story with Yamada-kun at Lv999) is one of them.
The reason I didn't like it, story wise I didn't find anything to draw me into it. The two main characters gradually get to know each other through the game and from there their relationship blossoms into love. A very simple love story. ... Where there was no love triangle, no plot and no extra story. Especially in a rom-com anime, I hope to see a new and unique story. But here I got none of that. Too much simple
But I don't know why many people liked this anime. Those who are normally romantic genre lovers might like any simple love story anime like this. But in my opinion it's not such a likable anime.
Talking about the characters, I found the female character a bit annoying. And the animation quality is average for me

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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	Poll: Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jun 24, 2023	240 replies	by Mrs_Lupin »» Mar 13, 10:47 AM
	Poll: Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Apr 8, 2023	200 replies	by Mrs_Lupin »» Mar 6, 11:50 AM
	Did anyone else fall in love with Akane? Longing4Radiance - Aug 18, 2023	31 replies	by mal_user_2022 »» Jan 8, 11:21 AM
	Confession CocoJaypee - Jun 24, 2023	27 replies	by mal_user_2022 »» Jan 8, 11:17 AM
	Poll: Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - May 20, 2023	125 replies	by sillysoul »» Jan 7, 10:57 AM