Fumiya Tomozaki is the top online player of the fighter game "TackFam" but in real life, he believes he was born a bottom-tier character and those living life to the fullest have the "game of life" in easy mode. One day he realises the second ranking player "Noname" was gaining on him and to his surprise, is asked to meet up offline. What's more, it turns out to be the most respected girl in his class Aoi Hinami who not only looked pretty but was a complete prodigy.

Unfortunately for him, Aoi was completely shocked at what the top player she had respected was like in real life; a complete loser who had given up on life. That didn't stand well with her because losing to him must mean she was a loser too. And so, Aoi decides to give Fumiya a number of goals to help him succeed in the "game of life".

Silly sounding, huh? Saw a bit of this light novel based series on TV and looked kind of interesting so thought I'd try it. Aoi pretty much tries to gamify everything setting up side quests for Fumiya to achieve in real life. The girls are all pretty much your standard harem setup with your perfect personality, over-enthusiastic, quiet etc but still fun to watch. It works so I guess why they just keep using the same personalities in most Anime shows.

Nintendo fans should recognise the parody of Smash Brothers on the Switch right away... Quite a few game references since this show is game related. It's fairly much like an Anime version of those "positive thinking" tips you'd usually see in the odd news article, basically presented in a more fun way using video game analogies and silly girl characters.

Animation is rough because it looks like the characters are sliding across the screen sometimes but the art's pretty good. It's got some fairly detailed food art and a fun OP to boot full of game related lyrics. On the whole it's fairly much a harem show with a familiar secluded guy suddenly finding himself surrounded by pretty girls so you've got a bit of fan service mainly in the form of awkward camera angles but also a swimsuit/hotsprings ep (bit different from usual). Also hints of lesbian relationships as the girl fondle each other.

This show is fairly much the complete opposite of the gloomy Sing Yesterday where characters are brooding around while this show gives you tips on staying motivated in life.

It might look like a harem show with a bit of fan service (it's actually considered a romcom officially) but it's actually a fairly good show full of friendship where you see Fumiya changing bit by bit and slowly earning better status in society. If there was an Anime show of a self-improvement book, this would probably be it and, keeps it cheery and fun (for the most part). Aoi is one tough coach and I guess it's the imbalanced cast of characters that stops me from listing this in the recommended.

There are also two short OVAs that came with the blu-ray releases which are more like extended scenes which you could number as 5.5 and 7.5.

Doesn't look like there will be future seasons but since the light novel's still on-going (up to volume 8) and this only covers up to 3, maybe there will be.

Season 2

Second term begins and Fumiya continues his secret social training with Aoi using games as analogies to life.

Other than the bullying, everything felt a bit too smooth sailing at first but it's good to see all the comedy rolling in after a few couple of stress filled episodes. Other than the whole social life coaching, we see a bit more of Aoi's mysterious side. although the focus seems to be the personal developments of all the girls that Fumiya's helped such as Tama, inspired to make changes to themselves too.

It somehow reminds me of Oregairu in a way (another great show) where it was intially about the personal development of socially awkward people but then the romcom gets really heavy. Relationships starting to sprout within the harem too.

I don't quite remember if the first season was the same but I enjoyed spotting and matching up all the places featured from Saitama this season. There's a bit of a Edward Scissorhands reference too.

Not a bad wrap-up since Fumiya actually picks someone compared to your usual harem show.