This anime is about a high school game club, which collects a range of misfits, all of who are obsessed with gaming, but in various different forms. They've got shooters, mobilers, puzzlers, fighters and a fair bit more. But everyone tends to fall into their own genre and not really get out of them. Which doesn't really help with their absolutely atrocious social skills.
Newest (potential) member of the game club, Amano, only likes to play games for fun, which makes him a poor fit for the worryingly competitive gamers who are determined to be the best. Luckily, however, he appears to be more than a little neurotic, psychotic and "damn, so erotic" to the female leader of the game club, Tendou, such that she will chase him down until he gives in to her oppressive charms.
It's mostly silly, with a few serious undertones, particularly regarding the love lives of the school children, who are never sure how they're meant to act together. Bit like Tsuredure Children in its way. It's not quite as mad, in that there's only a couple of partnerships here, but they're still impressively useless. You do have to feel a bit sorry for the lovesick Tendou though, as well as the various love triangles that appear and disappear throughout.
The children also all have dark and traumatic pasts, with experiences that they are ashamed of and never want to be revealed even to their closest friends. Mostly involving bad hair cuts. Their overly elaborate emotional complexes bounce the characters around to a soundtrack containing some very well matched tone and music shifts, and there are a series of little motifs that I'd really not say no to more of. It's also weirdly reminiscent of early film, with a few snippets that wouldn't be out of place in something from the 50s.
Like the recent A Sister's All You Need, with its love of board and card games, presumably indicative of the creators, this has a thread throughout of videogames, which is perhaps easiest demonstrated with the opening, which references various videogames from history, and has a theme which has no small 8-bit influence. You'll also likely recognise a fair few of the sound effects.
The comedy also doesn't just come from romantic misadventures though, in that there is a lot of fun to be had in the interactions between Amano and his love coach, Uehara, who is more than a little inept in his own way when it comes to affairs of the heart. There's also a lot of fun to be had in the style of the animation, with silly effects correlating with the emotional states of the various characters.
It's a ridiculous piece about children who don't know what they're doing and spend their time attempting to figure it out. While also playing games. It's funny, surprisingly not creepy and something you'll probably happily laugh at.
Recommended.
Tagged: Anime Comedy Schooldays Video gaming Romance Crunchyroll Subbed