Back to Mugen8YT's Profile Mugen8YT's Profile

Gamers! left me feeling mixed enough to write my second MAL review on an anime, so that's something.

~~The TL;DR of this review is basically: it's fine, and enjoyable enough, and from where I'm at in the LN it's probably worth an 8 out of 10 or so - *if you watch it with the intention/understanding that you'll need to read the LN to finish the story*. Without including the LN, I'm giving it a 6.~~

As a pretty hardcore gamer myself, and a fan of slice of life, romcom, and all that good stuff, Gamers! is one that I had to check out at some point. ... It had been collecting dust for a long time, but I finally got around to it.

The characters are good and fun. The art style is nice. The plot is energetic. There's a fair bit to like about it. The issue is, there are a few things that really dragged it down for me:

* Practically every conflict is caused by miscommunication. This in itself isn't bad, and there are some masterpieces out there built on the premise. The issue is how ridiculous the miscommunication is. I get it; some of these characters are socially stunted, but it's taken to such an extreme that it can't help but be frustrating at times.

* The series ends extremely prematurely. Episode 11 didn't seem like the end point - but it practically was, as episode 12 was basically just side-story. A lot of major plot points don't get resolved, and the relationship status of characters can only be described as weird.

The worst part? I was so intrigued by what happened afterwards, I started reading the light novel. And I'm really enjoying it! I suspect that there wasn't enough of it finished yet when the anime was greenlit and being made, and the hope was that if it did well enough there'd be a season 2 for it - but people likely felt similarly to me (disatisfied with a few things) so season 2 was an unachievable dream.

The moment at the end of the theme park (in the LN), and the events that happen in the days immediately afterwards - those would have been extremely intriguing to the viewers. They could have even left season 1 with that as a cliffhanger, and you would have immediately had a lot of interest in a season 2, or at least pushed up the LN interest and sales. Instead, it ends on what I can only describe as a whimper. Actually, the DLC final episode leaves a little bit of a bad taste; I feel like in this case they're almost screaming at us that the LN is the DLC for those that enjoyed the series. -.-