Gamers! (Japanese: ゲーマーズ!, Hepburn: Gēmāzu!) is a Japanese light novel series, written by Sekina Aoi and illustrated by Saboten. Fujimi Shobo published twelve volumes from March 2015 to October 2019, under the Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint. An anime television series adaptation produced by Pine Jam aired from July to September 2017.
Contents
Plot
Keita Amano, a high school student and gamer, meets the beautiful school idol Karen Tendō, who invites him to the school's Gaming Club. After finding it is centered around competitive gaming, he declines her offer. This rejection sets off a chain of events in the lives of Keita and his friends, in matters of video games, romance, and misunderstandings along the way.
Characters
Each characters take turns narrating the chapters in the light novels.
Main characters
Keita Amano (雨野 景太, Amano Keita)
Voiced by: Megumi Han (Japanese); Brandon McInnis (English)
A second-year high school boy and video game player. He plays a handheld console or mobile. He considers Karen Tendo to be the perfect girl, but declines her invitation to join the Game Club, because he prefers to play games for fun and dislikes competitive playing. As a result, he has nearly every video game but not high scorer, but manages to have great insight into them. Keita often thinks of himself as unworthy to Karen (oblivious to their relationship) and initially would prefer to merely be her friend but is encouraged by Tasuku to accompany Karen by asking her out, even though he initially does not want to.LN 1 In later episodes, he likes to compete and win. He uses two online usernames, Tsucchi and Yama, both of which are based on his mother's maiden name Tsuchiyama. He is a big fan of independent game designer "Nobe", and teams up with online player Mono.Ep. 3 He is selfish, when it comes to his opinions on games, accompanying Chiaki Hoshinomori regularly over the use of moe characters and other things, even though the two are very much alike.Ep. 3, 5 In the light novel, Keita has a younger brother.LN 1
Karen Tendo (天道 花憐, Tendō Karen)
Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese); Brittney Karbowski (English)
The most beautiful girl and the president of the school's Game Club. She has long blond hair and green eyes. She excels in school from look, and popularity to sports and academics.LN 1Ep. 1 She attended the school because of the club's prestige, but its senior members had left, so she took it upon herself to revive the club, and she recruits members as she does not want it to be filled with guys who are only interested in asking her out.LN 1 At the beginning of the series, she invites Keita to join the club, and becomes upset when he declines her offer, having not faced rejection before in her life. This results in Karen stalking Keita to try and convince him to change his mind, but she develops a crush on him because he stands up to Tasuku in defending her and the club.LN 1 Following her newfound infatuation, her entire daily routine crumbles apart and she keeps thinking about him.Ep. 4 For a time, she mistakenly believes Keita and Chiaki are a couple.Ep. 3–5 In the anime series, Karen and Keita became friends.Ep. 6-7 Karen is extremely competitive, often turning the most mundane of activities into some kind of competition. However, she learns to loosen up and live more casually through Keita.
Supporting characters
Eiichi Misumi (三角 瑛一, Misumi Eiichi)
Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae (Japanese); Howard Wang (English)
Karen's classmate with a short black hair. He joins the Game Club at the start of the series. His specialty is in arcade puzzle video games, but he adapts to learning new ones and growing skills based on observing how others play. He says that he got into gaming, because he had amnesia when he was young and playing block puzzles gives him a link to his past.Ep. 1 In the final episode of the anime series, he has an adoptive sister Riki.Ep. 12
Gakuto Kase (加瀬 岳人, Kase Gakuto)
Voiced by: Yasuaki Takumi (Japanese); Alejandro Saab (English)
A third-year student and a member of the Game Club. He gets serious when playing a first-person shooter game. He took up gaming because his father was a mercenary who trained him in the family business when he was a child.Ep. 1
Niina Oiso (大磯 新那, Ōiso Niina)
Voiced by: Yuna Yoshino (Japanese); Dawn M. Bennett (English)
A third-year member of the Game Club who specializes in fighting games. Karen considers her the sexy big sister type. She has long brown hair and eyes. She does not talk to people, while playing. Karen said she got into gaming in order to win her friend back by trying to defeat her in the game.Ep. 1
Konoha Hoshinomori (星ノ守 心春, Hoshinomori Konoha)
Voiced by: Yūki Kuwahara (Japanese); Jad Saxton (English)
Chiaki's younger sister. She is envious of Karen's popularity and is somewhat happy that she cannot compete with her by going to a different school, where she could become a student council president. She secretly enjoys adult games and revels in being in the company of girls.Ep. 8 When Keita inadvertently sees the names for "Mono" and "Nobe", it is revealed that Konoha had made them.Ep. 9 She helps Chiaki make friends with Keita.
Media
Light novel
Sekina Aoi published the series in 2015 through Fujimi Shobo's Fujimi Fantasia Bunko with illustrations by Saboten. Twelve volumes were released from March 20, 2015, to October 19, 2019.
Three spin-off volumes wrote by Sekina Aoi, titled Gamers! DLC (ゲーマーズ！DLC, Gēmāzu！DLC), were published through Fujimi Shobo's Fujimi Fantasia Bunko from September 20, 2017, to March 19, 2020.
Manga
A manga adaptation with art by Tsubasa Takahashi was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace from October 2016 to September 2019. The seventh and final volume was released on October 26, 2019.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation directed by Manabu Okamoto and produced by Pine Jam was announced. It aired in Japan from July 13 to September 28, 2017. The opening theme is "GAMERS!" by Hisako Kanemoto, Manaka Iwami, and Rumi Ōkubo. The ending themes are "Fight on!" for the rest of the series except for episode nine and ten which is "Koi no Prologue*" (恋のprologue*; "Prologue to Love"), both performed by Luce Twinkle Wink☆. Crunchyroll streamed the series, while Funimation had licensed it in North America and streamed an English dub. After Sony acquired Crunchyroll, the dub was added to the service.
Reception
The light novel ranked seventh in 2017 in Takarajimasha's annual light novel guide book Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, in the bunkobon category. It ranked eighth in 2018. The anime ranked fourth in popularity on Crunchyroll in summer 2017, an unheard of ranking for a show that was a short-running Shonen Action series.