Those who have been following my blog for the past couple of years will know that I have been reviewing the first arc of Sword Art Online – the iconic story of a boy and a girl falling in love within a video game where dying in the game means dying for real. I’ve been a fan of this story for about 7 years now, but ever since then, I have noticed a few stories that have followed this formula – a boy and a girl falling in love (or at least building a relationship) through video games. Probably the earliest one I noticed was an anime released back in 2021 called Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, or Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun.

Based on a novel series of the same name, Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki follows the story of a boy named Fumiya Tomozaki who struggles to find success and purpose in life. Instead, he devotes all his time into perfecting his video game skills. Tomozaki’s favorite game is Attack Families, or Takfam for short, which is an obvious parody of Super Smash Brothers. With all of the hard work and dedication he has put into perfecting his game, Tomozaki has become one of the highest-ranked Takfam players in the world, and the best in Japan.

Bad Game or Bad Player?

In the beginning of episode 1, we see Tomozaki playing Takfam with a popular classmate of his named Shuji Nakamura. Tomozaki defeats him with ease. After losing, Nakamura complains that he picked a bad character, it was an unfair matchup, and Takfam is a dumb game. Tomozaki rebukes Nakamura by saying that a gamer’s biggest shame is in blaming the game when they lose. The two players switch characters and have a rematch.

As Tomozaki walks home, he thinks about how people often compare life to a game. He doesn’t believe that that’s true, because if it were, he would be winning. As for now, Tomozaki feels like he is a bottom-tier character in life. (Hence the name of the show.)

Tomozaki returns home and plays Takfam online. He soon gets challenged by a familiar player called NONAME. Tomozaki, whose username is Nanashi, notices that NONAME has gotten stronger since they last played. He soon realizes that NONAME has been studying his moves and using him as a model for improvement, and that he has progressed so far that he is now the second-highest ranked player in Japan. NONAME puts up a fight, but is still no match for Nanashi.

After the match, NONAME asks Nanashi if he wants to meet in person.

A Meeting with NONAME

Once the weekend comes, Tomozaki arrives at the spot where he had agreed to meet with NONAME, but when he gets there, he is surprised to see that NONAME’s true identity is none other than his classmate, Aoi Hinami.

Aoi is just as surprised as he is. She begins to unload her disappointment in finding out that the great Nanashi, the player she respected the most, was actually a rock-bottom loser who’s given up on life. (Sheesh, she’s savage.)

Tomozaki is quite taken aback by Aoi’s bluntness. She continues to complain about his appearance by pointing out his dirt-caked sneakers, his jeans with tattered hems, his shirt full of wrinkles, and his obvious bedhead.

Tomozaki claims that Aoi has no idea where he comes from. Aoi is at the top of her class when it comes to academics, sports, beauty, and charisma; while Tomozaki is awkward, ridiculed for everything, and has no confidence in his communication skills. A girl with “high-initial stats” (that’s how Tomozaki describes her), would never understand how it feels to be a bottom-tier character like himself.

“There’s no way I can win against a top-tier character like you!” claims Tomozaki.

“You lost, and you’re blaming the game?” confronts Aoi, reflecting Tomozaki’s words right back at him, “Aren’t you ashamed?”

Tomozaki understands that Aoi is trying to help him change his perspective, but he claims that you can’t change your character in real life like you can in a game. Aoi grabs Tomozaki by the wrist and says, “Come with me.”

The Game of Life: Tutorial Mode

Aoi brings Tomozaki to her house, but more specifically, her bedroom. As Tomozaki sits on the floor, his heart starts pounding, as this is probably the most intimate he’s ever been with a girl.

Aoi enters the room and takes a seat on a chair (signifying that she views herself as above Tomozaki). She begins to explain how Tomozaki can change his character, beginning with two things: Expression and Posture. Aoi demonstrates by brightening her facial expression and sitting upright in her chair. Tomozaki instantly notices a difference in her appearance.

“Life’s not unreasonable or unbalanced,” explains Aoi, “The game of life may look like it has no rules, but it has a beautiful structure consisting of many simple rules in combination. Life is the ultimate god-tier game. I’ll teach you the rules of this game, one by one, and you will play it like you mean it!”

“If what you are saying is true, then the gamer in me wants to play,” says Tomozaki.

Aoi asks Tomozaki what the first thing that usually happens in a game with lots of freedom is.

“Character creation?” answers Tomozaki.

“Hex-actly!” replies Aoi.

Aoi takes Tomozaki out to lunch, where she explains what his first assignment will be.

Lesson 1: Character Creation

At the restaurant, Aoi explains that simply raising the corners of one’s mouth can change at-a-glance impressions. She demonstrates her “pretty-mode on” and her “pretty-mode-off” mouth.

Aoi instructs Tomozaki to wear a face mask at all times, except for meals, and under the face mask, he is to practice smiling from ear-to-ear.

The next morning at school, Aoi and Tomozaki meet in an abandoned sewing room where Aoi sets some goals for Tomozaki. The first goal is to get a family member or close friend to ask if he has a girlfriend. The second is for Tomozaki to have a girlfriend before starting his third year. (He gasps at this goal.) The third, which will be completed today, is for Tomozaki to talk to at least three girls at school. Tomozaki is skeptical that he will be able to achieve all these goals, but when he realizes that Aoi is asking him to complete them in all seriousness, he decides to trust her and go along with it.

Thoughts: It’s Lonely Being at the Top

At the beginning of this review, I compared this story to Sword Art Online and said that both feature a boy and a girl building a relationship through a video game. The obvious difference between these two stories, is that Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki takes place in the real world whereas Sword Art Online takes place in a virtual world, and although Tomozaki and Aoi met through playing Takfam online, they are mostly developing their relationship in real life. However, Aoi is trying to show Tomozaki that real life is actually an S-tier, god-level game. So in this story, “real life” is the game that Aoi and Tomozaki are “trapped” in and are using to build their relationship.

One more similarity between SAO and BTCT is that Aoi has a high status in real life. This is similar to how Asuna was second-in-command of the highest-ranked guild in SAO. Meanwhile, Kirito was more of an outcast and kept to playing the game solo, much like Tomozaki. So the question is, will Aoi be able to lift Tomozaki out of solidarity just as Asuna did for Kirito? We’ll have to see what happens in the next episode!

But before I end this review, I want to make one more connection. Those who have been following my blog will also know that I have been reviewing the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga for the past 6 years (almost as long as my website has been active). Between reviewing these two stories, I can’t help but notice a similarity between the characters of Aoi Hinami and Seto Kaiba.

At first, these characters seem to be completely different. Aoi is a bright-faced high-school girl who uses her charm and wits to influence her peers for her own benefit, whereas Seto Kaiba is a cold-hearted high-school boy who uses his billion-dollar assets to control society for his own profit. Aside from both having intense stratagem to get what they want, Aoi and Kaiba have one more thing in common.

When Seto Kaiba is first introduced in the 9th chapter of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, Kaiba begins bragging about how he is good enough at Duel Monsters to compete in the national competition and that people like Yugi and Jonouchi are way out of his league. Later, after Yugi challenges him to a duel and turns the card game into a Shadow Game, Kaiba starts chuckling out of pure excitement, as he has finally found an opponent who can push him to the edge and give him a real challenge. It seems that Seto Kaiba was rather lonely being the best Duel Monsters player in the world, as he could never experience the thrill of a real battle, but when he dueled Yugi, he finally found that thrill again.

Much like Kaiba, Aoi is the highest-ranked player of her high-school in real life. Despite receiving a lot of praise and acceptance from her peers, Aoi has never viewed any of them as her equals, since she can out-wit and out-charm every one of them. But when Aoi realized she couldn’t beat Nanashi at Takfam, she realized she had found someone like her – someone who is constantly improving their personal performance in order to become superior in every possible way…or so she thought. When she realized that her supposed Mr. Perfect was actually a rock-bottom loser who’s given up on life, she became extremely upset. Now that Tomozaki has agreed to learn how to play the game of life, Aoi has a chance to transform him into her Mr. Perfect, but will she succeed, or will Tomozaki forever remain a bottom-tier character? We’ll have to see what happens in the next episode!

Images from Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki were obtained from https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GDKHZEWP9/bottom-tier-character-tomozaki