What’s the best part about playing a video game? The story? The action? The achievements?

Eight years ago, I began indulging myself in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links. Every day, I would become obsessed with accomplishing each task in order to advance to the next stage. Despite the fun of it, every now and then, I would wake up to the fact that I was only accomplishing virtual achievements in a vitual world instead of real achievements in the real world. One day, I realized I could do the same thing in real life – break down larger tasks into smaller ones in order to get things done. By doing so, I was able to organize my schedule and complete tasks that seemed daunting at first.

Following that same idea, Fumiya Tomozaki didn’t believe he could accomplish anything in real life. The only place where he could thrive was in the virtual world of Takfam – an in-universe parody of Super Smash Brothers. Every day, Tomozaki would envy his classmate, Aoi Hinami, for having a high status among her peers. He thought he would never be able to achieve such a status.

Then one day, while Tomozaki was playing Takfam, an old gaming rival invited him to meet in person. When he arrived at the spot where they agreed to meet, Tomozaki was surprised to find out that his old gaming rival was none other than Aoi Hinami, and Aoi was just as surprised to see him. She begins to unload her disappointment that the top-ranked Takfam player in Japan was actually a rock-bottom loser who has given up on life.

Tomozaki claims that Aoi has no idea what it feels like to be as unconfident as he is, so Aoi decides to show Tomozaki how he can improve his confidence.

The next day, Aoi meets with Tomozaki at school to set some goals that will help improve his character. The first is for Tomozaki to get a family member or close friend to notice a change in his appearance. The second is for Tomozaki to get a girlfriend by his third year of high school. (He gasps at this goal.) The third, which will be completed today, is for Tomozaki to talk to three girls: Minami Nanami, Yuzu Izumi, and a third of his choosing.

In his first class, Tomozaki tries striking a conversation with Yuzu. He begins by asking if she has any tissues. Yuzu checks her purse, but can’t find any. She turns to the silver-haired girl sitting behind her and asks if she has any tissues. The silver-haired girl, whose name is Fuka Kikuchi, already has a package ready to present. Tomozaki accepts the package and removes his mask in order to blow his nose.

“Um, Tomozaki,” says Fuka, “Why are you grinning?”

“Ah, it’s just, uh, my teeth hurt! That was a grimace!”

Tomozaki decides to count Fuka as his third girl to talk to.

In his next class, Tomozaki strikes a conversation with Minami, but his awkwardness causes her to burst out laughing.

“What the heck, Tomozaki? What are you, some old fart?”

The bottom-tier protagonist has better luck the next evening when he walks home with her.

“You sure have a lot of energy, Minami.”

“Right? I intend to live my life with nothing but energy and a smile on my face!”

“There have to be times when you can’t be smiling and bubbly.”

“That’s when you need a smile the most! Or hard times’ll be that much harder.”

It seems like Tomozaki has built quite a selection of women, but will he actually be able to get a girlfriend by his third year of high school? And if he does, who will it be?”

Fuka Kikuchi

At the beginning of Episode 3, Aoi and Tomozaki meet up at the mall. Tomozaki arrives late, but Aoi forgives him, seeing as he improved his appearance since the last time they met off school grounds. No dirt-caked shoes, no tattered jeans, no wrinkled shirt, and no bedhead.

Aoi explains to Tomozaki that today’s goal is all about hacks for fashion-deprived folks like himself (there she goes again).

“This is character creation, phase 2,” says Aoi, as they enter a clothing store.

Aoi points to a mannequin and explains that multiple employees put thought into dressing it. Thus, copying its style is like borrowing from a pro’s fashion sense. Aoi instructs Tomozaki to pick a mannequin and ask an employee to try on what it’s wearing.

‘Just say: ‘I’d like to try on this mannequin’s outfit,'” explains Aoi.

So Tomozaki nervously approaches an employee and says, “Excuse me, I’d like that mannequin.”

After clothes shopping, Aoi and Tomozaki go to a restaurant. Aoi asks Tomozaki if he has been listening to his voice on the pocket recorder she gave him, and if he’s noticed a difference.

“Yeah, I did. My voice–or maybe the way I talk. It was totally different. I just keep mumbling on, huh.”

“You rely too much on words,” explains Aoi, “You chime in with different phrases like, ‘I see’ and ‘Oh, right,’ but always with the same tone. Since you don’t use facial expressions or gestures, you aren’t getting your emotions across. So here’s a task for you: When giving conversational feedback over lunch here, use only short, vowel-based utternaces.”

Aoi then demonstrates her five vowels of facial expressions.

While Tomozaki practices, their waitress comes with their food. To their surprise, they are being served by Fuka Kikuchi.

“Huh, Tomozaki?” she says.

“Fuka? I didn’t know you worked here!” exclaims Aoi.

“So you two are friends. I didn’t see that coming,” says Fuka.

“Oh yeah, it all started in home ec class,” responds Aoi, glancing at Tomozaki for reassurance.

“Uh…uh-huh,” he responds.

After Fuka leaves, Aoi says she confirmed her suspicions.

“She’ll be the first heroine of your play-through!”

“Wait, what does that even mean?”

“We’ll work to make Fuka your girlfriend.”

“G-G-G-Girlfriend?!”

“She has the most promise of all the girls you’ve spoken to so far. Remember when you tried to bum a tissue off Yuzu? Fuka had her tissues out even before Yuzu asked. If that were all, you might think Fuka’s just nice to everyone, but when she brought out our food, she said your name first.”

“Well, sure, it’s not unusual to say hi to a classmate.”

“Even when I’m here? I’m kind of a big deal at our school, you know. When I’m part of a group, people greet me by name right off the bat. Besides, wouldn’t you normally greet the person of your own gender first in a situation like this? I don’t know why, but she’s definitely interested in you.”

Tomozaki says he isn’t sure if he likes Fuka himself, so pursuing a relationship with her feels a bit dishonest, but since he has decided to play the game of life like he means it, he accepts the challenge.

You Are What You Read

The next day at school, Tomozaki meets with Aoi in the sewing room, where he triumphantly announces that he has fulfilled his first goal. This is the one where he has to get a family member or close friend to notice a change in his appearance. He explains that last night, his sister said, “Did you read a book on de-geekifying, maybe finding some sex appeal?”

Aoi cringes at how pleased Tomozaki seems to be with what his sister said, but nevertheless, congratualtes him for accomplishing his goal.

Today, Aoi sets two new goals for Tomozaki to achieve. The first is to go somewhere with a girl from school that isn’t her. The second is to talk to Yuzu Izumi at least twice a day.

“Wait, why Izumi?” asks Tomozkai, “I thought you said Kikuchi was the heroine of this play-through!”

“Yeah, that’s right, but life isn’t like a dating sim,” explains Aoi, “Raise your affection level with a given girl, and it goes up with other girls, too. It can also make them feel possessive and even improve your status as a male.”

Tomozaki doesn’t think that’s very sincere, but goes along with it anyway. He arrives at his first class and tries asking Yuzu about their English assignment, but she hasn’t done it yet, so she doesn’t know what he’s talking about. At the end of the day, Tomozaki tries talking to her again, but she was saying goodbye to someone else and doesn’t notice him. He keeps trying to talk to her day after day, but most of the time, it just ends up getting awkward. At the beginning of one particular day, Tomozaki asks if she is wearing a different cardigan.

“No, this is the one I always wear,” says Yuzu.

Exhausted from his attempt to communicate with Izumi, Tomozaki finds himself in the library where he hears a soft voice call out to him. He looks up and sees Fuka standing before him.

“What are you doing here?” asks Tomozaki.

“You’re always here when it’s time to change classrooms,” observes Fuka, “I come here, too. So I’m always like, ‘Oh, there’s Tomozaki again.'”

“I’m sorry, I must have been focused on something else,” replies Tomozkai, but he was actually just pretending to read while he came up with Tackfam strategies.

“So you like Michael Andi? You’re always reading his books.”

Tomozaki looks at the book he has open on the table and isn’t sure what he is reading. He usually just grabs a book from the closest shelf to his reading spot.

“I do too,” continues Fuka, “Andi’s books…I’m a big fan.”

“Wow, you are? What a coincidence!”

“Yes, it really is! Isn’t this just like The Popples on Raptor Isle?”

“Raptor what now?”

“Oh, you haven’t read it yet? I see, they don’t have it in this library.”

“Y-yeah, right. They don’t have it.”

“It’s hard to come by! It hasn’t been reprinted ever since it was translated 20 years back. Very few places have it.”

“Right, yeah. Totally.”

“Say, Tomozaki, I’ve never had a conversation like this before. I think I can tell you…”

Fuka bends down and places her hand next to her mouth and whispers, “The truth is, I’m writing a novel. Maybe you could read it and tell me what you think?”

“If you think I could help,” responds Tomozaki.

“I’ll bring it with me next time, then. Um, can you keep this between us? I haven’t shown it to anyone yet.”

“Are you sure you want to show me?”

“Uh-huh. You of all people…Well, bye!”

Fuka heads out of the library, but before she leaves, she turns back to Tomozaki and says, “Ebi daite!”

Not sure what she is saying, Tomozaki glances back at the book he has open and responds with, “Mozun rekuku!”

Fuka smiles and blushes in response.

Learning from Failure

Tomozaki returns to Aoi, where she looks up the meaning of “Mozun rekuku.”

“It’s like some kind of secret handshake,” says Aoi.

Tomozaki informed her about his conversation with Fuka, but left out the part about the novel. He explains that he never actually read the books they were talking about and just let her believe he had.

“Hey, an in is an in,” says Aoi, “It’s what comes next that’s important. If you and Fuka go on a date and have fun with the author having nothing to do with it, isn’t that the essence of your relationship?”

Aoi returns to Tomozaki’s tasks for the week.

“I failed, didn’t I?” says Tomozaki.

“You did the work, so you passed,” answers Aoi. She explains that in the gaming world, there are two kinds of game-overs: the one where you start over from the beginning, and the one where you pick up where you left off. Aoi asks Tomozaki what kind of game-over he thinks this one was.

“The pick-up-where-I-left-off-kind?”

“Hexactly! In the game of life, you’re better off keeping up the fight. But that’s not what’s really important. There’s one thing that makes life’s game-overs entirely unique. In life, you gain experience when you lose a battle!”

After Aoi’s pep talk, Tomozaki returns to his locker and changes shoes when he notices Yuzu sitting just outside the building. I’ve finished my task. I don’t need to talk to her, thinks Tomozaki, but it seems like this top-ranked gamer is in the mood for a bonus round.

Tomozaki approaches Izumi and says, “You’re looking gloomy.”

“What?! How dare you! I am not!” snaps Yuzu.

Tomozaki instantly regrets talking to her and slowly steps away, but before he gets far, Yuzu continues.

“You’re good at Tackfam, aren’t you? Teach me.”

“Teach you what?” asks the clueless nut.

“Ugh, Jeez! I’m asking you to teach me how to play Tackfam!”

To Be Continued…

Thoughts: The Chain of Affection

I won’t pretend to be an expert of Naruto, since I’ve only seen about 100 episodes, but from what I have seen, I know enough to make a connection between that show and Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki.

In Naruto, the title character starts out being hated by everyone in his village. Despite his low status, Naruto tries to win the affection of a girl named Sakura Haruno, who hates his guts (putting it lightly). While Naruto is busy showing off to Sakura, he fails to notice that there is a girl whose affection he has already won for no other reason than by simply being himself — Hinata Hyuga.

Much like Naruto, Tomozaki feels like he is an outcast from his peers. He constantly admires a girl in his class named Aoi Hinami, becomes jealous of her high status, and wishes he could be as confident as her. While Tomozaki is busy admiring Aoi, he fails to notice the girl whose affection he has already won for no other reason than by being himself — Fuka Kikuchi.

This is a concept that is known as (or at least I call) the Chain of Affection, where one person likes another person, and that other person likes someone else. This concept is present in other anime such as Squid Girl and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. As for Naruto, that show has something more like a web of affection, but that is a topic for another day. Maybe I will write a full article on the Chain of Affection in the future. Until then, be sure to follow my blog for more reviews of Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki.