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Let's iterate the thesis right now as clear as possible: Imagine a romcom where every character has a heart of gold, but is also convinced that everyone else in the group is secretly plotting against each other, and it is their responsibility to uncover the conspiracy.

Few people who watch this show seem to get it, but this is one of the rare gems that displays a cast of stereotypes who grow and change as people over the course of the show, and it makes you love each and every one of them no matter how stupid they seem to be from your all seeing ... eye. A simple concept of "I like playing video games because it's fun" is only a tool for the author to force these teenagers to confront things about themselves.

For example, by the time we're introduced to Uehara, this has already played out as a plot point, and we've barely even started. Uehara is the popular guy. He has a friend group of goofs and gals and he likes it that way, or so he thinks he does. He has a girlfriend he doesn't like that much, he thinks she's an airhead. Between Amano and his girlfriend, Aguri, Uehara is forced to look at himself as a person who is removed from these stereotypes, because they both seem to love him regardless, and they don't seem to judge him either. Completely alien concept that he naturally takes to heart. Uehara is the mastermind for the first act, and only as the punches keep coming does he realize he's in way over his head. There are no main characters here, or perhaps every single one of them are the mains.

There is one episode in which this all happens at once, and not only does Uehara realize that he's still confused, he realizes Amano is a better person than him, and so is Aguri. It's normal to knock the cool guy down a peg in anime like this, but instead of keeping him around as Amano's lapdog, Uehara rises to the same level as Amano and Aguri out of his respect and affection for them. He takes it upon himself to really be Aguri's boyfriend, and to really be Amano's friend, no matter how hopeless he convinces himself either of them are. There are no gimmicks in this anime, there are no characters with real amounts of screen time that are not integral to this plot, and who are not good people trying to be better.

Oftentimes in romcoms you get a villain, or multiple. Someone who exists to terrorize the plot. Gamers! functions as almost an anti-romcom in this sense, even though it definitely is one. All of the characters are convinced by some point in time that they're in that kind of story, but they're not. They're good kids experiencing new feelings for the first time, and they're all trying to help each other. It is an altruistic, fun kind of dynamic, and I struggle to pick a favorite character for this reason. I find this genre oftentimes has a hard time doing that in anime. They're always negative and brutal and gutwrenching in ways that make you hate the cast. This one isn't like that.

Watch Gamers! for this group of lovable, confused, passionate, and altruistic people, and find yourself coming back over and over.