Fumiya Tomozaki is an ace gamer, but a bottom-tier character in real life. His favorite game is called Tackfam, which is an in-universe parody of Super Smash Brothers. One day while playing Tackfam online, he was invited to meet in person with an old gaming rival called NONAME, who Tomozaki was surprised to find out was his classmate, Aoi Hinami. Tomozaki has always been jealous of Aoi’s high social status and wishes he could be like her. Aoi was just as surprised as he was, and rips into him for not being the perfect partner she thought he was. Tomozaki claims that no one can change their character in real life like they can in a game, but Aoi begs to differ. She begins to teach him how to play the ultimate god-tier game called life, beginning by setting some goals for him to achieve, the highest of which is to get a girlfriend by his third year of high school. Will Tomozaki succeed, or will he forever remain a bottom-tier character? Let’s take a look at his candidates.

Minami Nanami is a bouncy and bubbly class flirt, who always has a smile on her face no matter how she feels on the inside. Recently, Minami announced she would be running against Aoi for student council. Tomozaki assists Minami by reformatted her fliers to be more eye-catching and preparing her campaign speech.

Fuka Kikuchi is a shy bookworm who has a secret eye for Tomozaki. The two of them have been meeting in the library where they talk about Fuka’s passion for books. Aoi is certain Fuka will become Tomozaki’s girlfriend.

Yuzu Izumi is a glamour girl who is always worrying about what other people think of her. Tomozaki has been helping her try to get with a guy named Nakamura by teaching her how to play Tackfam and helping her find a birthday present for him. Tomozaki has developed somewhat of a relationship with Yuzu, but it doesn’t seem to be as strong as his bond with Fuka or Minami.

As Tomozaki continues his pursuits for a girlfriend, who does he have as a potential wingman?

Shuji Nakamura is an egotist and the most popular guy in Tomozaki’s class. The two of them have been forming a rivalry over Tackfam. Although Nakamura always loses, he never stops trying to improve.

Hiro Mizusawa is one of Nakamura’s sidekicks who made friends with Tomozaki after he stood up for Nakamura when he was getting ridiculed by a brattery girl named Erika. Mizusawa bonded with Tomozaki at his shopping trip with Yuzu to help her find a birthday present for Nakamura. Currently, Mizusawa is serving as Aoi’s campaign manager, so he and Tomozaki might have a temporary rivalry. Although things have stagnated for now, Tomozaki seems to have found a potential wingam in Mizusawa.

At the end of Episode 6, Tomozaki presents Minami with his ideas for her campaign speech. After Minami reads the script, she cracks up again, and says, “Oh, Tomozaki, you absolute con artist!”

They give each other a high-five and hope for the best.

Hey Siri, Who Are You Voting For?

The day of the campaign speeches has arrived. Mizusawa speaks first, followed by Aoi. She wins the students over with outlandish promises such as bigger lunch portions, electric ball pumps, and air conditioners in every classroom…which Minami was also planning on promising. (I smell espionage.)

Minami’s campaign manager (a forgettable girl named Yumi) speaks next, then it’s Minami’s turn. Tomozaki runs up to the balcony to prepare the “special effects”. He sets a timer on his phone for 30 seconds, and when it rings, Minami snaps her fingers and says, “Hey Navi: Turn off the alarm.”

“I’ve turned off the alarm,” responds Navi.

“Hey, Navi: Who’s going to be student-council president?” asks Minami.

“I’m Navi, your assistant,” it responds.

(Navi seems to be this universe’s version of Siri, and based on the name, sounds to be incredibly annoying.)

Minami continues to have comedic banters with Navi. Tomozaki’s strategy is to throw Aoi a curve ball by showing Minami’s ability to “adlib in the face of a sudden blunder.”

“Well, it looks like Navi won’t be voting for me, but I certainly hope you all will!” she concludes.

When the results of the election are finally posted, Aoi comes in top with 416 votes, and Minami comed in second (again) with 131 votes.

Let’s Switch Gears

So, I really like this anime, but the writing can get pretty clunky. Some of the episodes have a focus (such as introducing a new character), but they can bounce around just as much. The rest of Episode 7 goes from Aoi and Tomozaki in the sewing room, to Tomozaki chatting with Fuka in the library, to Tomozaki and Tama leaning out of the window at sunset, only to go back to Aoi and Tomozaki in the sewing room, to Tomozaki and Fuka in the library, and back to Tomozaki and Tama at the window.

Instead of bouncing around between each of these micro-scenes, I will combine similar scenes that span the next two episodes. The general focus of Episodes 7 and 8 is to develop Minami’s character and provide her some backstory. Although, there is one interaction between Tomozaki and Fuka that is very important and will be addressed at the end of the review. Withough further ado, let’s get right to it!

Minami and Aoi

There’s something that Minami said at the end of Episode 6 that’s worth repeating here because it is central to her character. Minami gives Tomozaki a quiz, asking him what is the tallest mountin in Japan, the first U.S. president, and the girl who came in first overall in the May sports tests. She follows each question by asking for the second-tallest ranked under each category. As expected, Tomozaki can name all of the first-ranked, but not the second.

“That’s basically how it goes,” says Minami, “Number one stands out and gets super well-known, but not number two.”

In case you were wondering, Minami came in second in the sports tests, right after Aoi, but this athletic rivalry between the two girls has gone back a lot further than last May. When Minami and Aoi were in middle school, they were playing against each other at a prefectural basketball tournament. Minami’s team lost, but her teammates were satisfied with their performance. Minami, on the other hand, got upset with them for being “happy that they lost.”

Ever since then, Minami has always been looking for ways to compete with Aoi and come in first for once. After the campaign, Minami has been going hard on running. She runs early in the morning and with Aoi before and after school. One evening, Tomozaki sees her skipping track meet, so he follows her to the train station. They sit together on a bench, where Tomozaki tells her that he learned about the basketball game from Yumi.

After feeling betrayed by her own campaign manager, Minami reveals that after the prefectural tournamet, she went to see Aoi’s team compete in nationals. Aoi’s team came in second. While her teammates were congratulating each other, Aoi looked disappointed. She was biting her lip and glaring at the MC.

“She didn’t cry when her team came in second,” says Minami, “She only cried when she heard another team came in first. Like, is being number one all this girl sees? I realized that I was just an ordinary person. All the more reason for me to want to be special, like Aoi.”

Minami was surprised when, years later, she saw Aoi at her high-school entrance ceremony.

Aoi said, “Didn’t we play each other in round two of the prefectrual tournament? I’ve been thinking about you ever since that game. And that’s not all. You must have practiced like crazy. I could tell, playing you. I wish I could have played on the same team as you.”

(Maybe Aoi felt like she found someone who improves themselves the same way she does, just like what she thought she had found with Tomozaki.)

Tomozaki says she doesn’t have to come in first, and adds, “The way I see it, you shine pretty bright already.”

Minami and Tama

Tomozaki was staying late at the library one evening reading Michael Andi books, which he has come to enjoy. As he was leaving the school, he saw Tama leaning out of a window at sunset.

“Aoi and Minmi are running way out ahead of everyone,” says Tama, “I think she’s probably competing with Aoi.”

‘Minmi’ is what Tama calls Minami.

“Too bad about the election, huh?” continues Tama, “I mean it’s Aoi. You can’t beat her. See, with Minmi, even if she can’t win, she won’t give in. So I wish she’d quit taking on Aoi, at least.”

“I get that,” says Tomozaki, “It sucks being the loser.”

The next day (presumably), Tomozaki finds Tama in the same place at the same time.

“Watching practice again?” he asks, “Mimimi’s working hard. Hinami said Mimimi even beat her to morning practice today.”

“Ever since the election, I bet,” adds Tama.

“Mimimi really was in it to win,” analyses Tomozaki, “She must have been disappointed. I know I was. Was she always like that?”

“I’m not sure. We don’t go that far back. We first talked in…the second term of first year or so? I’m not great at making friends, so I didn’t talk to anyone that first term. Not even Minmi.”

“Then how’d you get to be such good friends?”

“Because Minmi’s an idiot, I guess? Even thought we hadn’t talked at all that first term, she suddenly started bugging me in second term. Poking my cheeks–stuff like that. I’m not good with that kind of thing, so I acted all annoyed. After that, I’d ignore her, glare at her…I tried everything, but she just wouldn’t stop. But that’s how I came to make more friends and feel more comfortable in our classroom. I think people who are good at making friends are really amazing. I kinda wished I could be like that.”

Tama and Tomozaki meet again on another day when it is raining outside.

“The clubs won’t meet in this weather, and Hinami can’t practice. Mimimi can take the day off, too.”

Just then, they see someone in a raincoat heading out to the track.

“We have to stop her!” cries Tama, as she and Tomozaki race downstairs. Turns out, it wasn’t Minami. It was Aoi.

The next day, Tama asks Minami if she’s coming to practice.

“Yep, I’ll be there in a sec,” says Minami, but as she is about to enter the gym, she bails out. The next morning, she says she’s quitting.

On another evening, Tomozaki and Tama walk home with Minami. On their way, they sit down at a bench and ask her why she quit track. Tama asks her if she hates Aoi.

“Of course I don’t!” says Minami, “I mean, Aoi’s a really great girl. She can do anything. She’s respectable, dependable. She really gets me. And she shines…and she’s special…”

“Then why are you quitting track?”

Minami tears up and explains how she goes back and forth between wanting to like Aoi and getting jealous when she beats her at sports and grades and everything else.

“You want to be number one, no matter what?” says Tama, “but you’re my hero. Always smiling and saying you’re fine, then working yourself too hard. But you keep that to yourself as you help me out. I like Aoi a lot, but you’re my one and only hero, Minmi. And if you still wanna be number one…to me, you’re the world’s number-one idiot! So make do with that!”

Tomozaki and Fuka

Tomozaki and Aoi meet in the sewing room after the election results are posted. Aoi asks if the bit with Navi was his idea, and the protagonist answers in the affirmative. Aoi cracks up in response.

“Now that was very, Nanashi,” she says, and reminds Tomozaki about his task to “go out alone with a girl.”

Tomozaki soon meets with Fuka in the library again. They sit quietly, reading books for a while as Tomozaki tries to think of a way to break the ice, but Fuka speaks first.

“Is everything okay?” she asks.

Tomozaki stutters for a bit, then says, “There’s an Andi film playing at this theater–“

“In Shibuya!” cries Fuka, as she quickly hides her blushing face behind her book.

“Would you like to come see it…with me?”

“Uh-huh!”

(Score one for the gamer! Also, I find it strange that this important event happened in the middle of an arc almost entirely about Minami).

Thoughts: Minami Bounces Back

I’ve already given most of my thoughts for these episodes in the “Let’s Switch Gears” section, so before I close, I will make one connection to another show.

In the anime, Oshi no Ko, there is a character named Akane who goes through a similar experience as Minami. Both characters feel pressure to change how they perform in their respective fields. For Minami, she overworks herself physically so that one day she can finally defeat Aoi in althetics. For Akane, she overworks herself physicaly and emotionally to become a more appealing and charismatic actress.

The biggest difference between these two characters is that Akane feels mostly outward pressure to improve, and this pressure comes either directly or indirectly from her higher-ups. On the other hand, Minami’s pressure to change is more internal and comes from her desire to be a perfectionist. Of course, another big difference is that Minami doesn’t try to unalive herself (thank goodness), but both girls still go down a mentally dangerous rabbit hole.

At the end of Episode 8, Minami apologizes to everyone for causing them concern, Tomozaki finally gives the gift to Nakamura that he bought in Episode 5 (it’s a controller), and Aoi finally lays to rest the rumor that she and Mizusawa are dating (they are not).

I think I will continue to review the rest of the episode in Season 1 of Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki in pairs. That means there are only 2 more reviews before I review Season 1 in general, the two OVA’s, and begin Season 2 (not necessarily in that order).

Having successfully convinced Fuka to go on a date with him, will Tomozaki finally break free of his Low-Tier Character status? Find out in the next review of Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki! (Be sure to follow my blog for more updates.)