English Dub Review: Gamers! “Tasuku Uehara and New Game +”

It’s New Game + for Gamers this time and it just got a lot sweeter.

Spoilers Below

Where the pilot of Gamers left me feeling indifferent due to its very standard setup and execution I think New Game + demonstrates how the show can, in fact, have endearing and emotional character interaction. Plus, the Gamers intro is so well done with funny nods to several different video games and capping it off with a beautifully animated if a bit over the top final fantasy-esque fight sequence. It really is an opening that can tap into one’s glee for gaming. But anyway, in today’s episode, we shift to an outside perspective of Amano Keito’s life as we follow Tasuku Uehara and his reaction to Keito rejecting Karen’s offer to join the game club. It’s a narrative plotline that threw me off at first as I wasn’t sure where the show was going with itself. At first glance Uehara comes across as an aloof cool dude, even going so far as to get in a relationship with Aguri even though he knew nothing about her and felt nothing for her.

Uehara becomes a mirrored reflection of Keito’s introvert passivism. While as was exhibited in last week’s episode Keito pushes people away, in this case, the game club and Karen, with flimsy excuses so that he can continue playing video games by himself Uehara unfolds in the narrative to show his action oriented character. He already has a group of friends, a girlfriend and he makes it a point to Keito to tell him he worked hard to get where he is now to change from the geek he was like before. The episode may be somewhat a glorified commercial for Persona 5 Ultimax among other things but it’s that competition and clashing of their gaming ideas that flesh Uehara and Keito out as full fledged characters.

I started to sympathize with Keito’s uncontrollable nervousness towards being with other people. He is clearly an introverted individual who in his own way is trying but unlike Uehara won’t break through his comfort zone. That is why we get a scene of him going to an arcade but just walking around and staring at the two player games. That feeling of awkwardness and desire is a staple of introverted shyness. I for one could really identify with Keito at that point and thankfully unlike in the pilot, this context through action helps Keito’s personal flaw be more endearing to watch rather than contrived.

This is all thanks to Uehara who I stated has become a very fun character, showing a determination unlike anyone else to change himself to be “cooler” but leaving room for dimension in his actions as he sees a lot of himself in Keito. This links to the key difference between the two guys, while Uehara is undoubtedly better at games than Keito, he is also the one who has locked his excitement for them away. This creates the foundation to a quasi-rivalry between the two, both looked at as video game loving geeks and their difference in approaching their own issues will inevitably cause some interesting character clashes which will be exciting to see unfold.

At the same time, this wasn’t only a good episode for the guys but for two of our seemingly three main girls if the intro is evidence of anything. Starting off with the lightly featured Karen who since being rejected by Keito has become his cute little love struck stalker. I am of course joking calling her a stalker but this new side of Karen’s character opens her to being more vulnerable comedy wise. The show, in particular, is starting to love showing Karen’s love struck dope side, bonking her head, falling on her face and having eyes filled with a loving gaze to them. It’s not a lot to really classify as a dimension to her character but it’s more than enough to show Karen will have more to offer in future episodes.

Lastly, the highlight cuteness of the episode is Aguri. Like Uehara we as the audience are put in the position to see Aguri on a paper-thin level, that she is an air headed fashionista girl. In Uehara’s adventure, Aguri shows her loyal and sweet side, making him a box lunch, getting all close and snuggly with him and revealing to Uehara the reason she went out with him. That can be left to be actually seen in the episode itself but the reveal of the reason and the dedication that Aguri showed for her infatuation for Uehara makes her instantly my favorite of the girls so far. It also shows Uehara such a delightfully dorky and insecure side to Uehara that it makes him become so human and likable.

At the end of the day, I am very happy to see Gamers take a stride away from what the pilot episode offered. This gave us the true character for all four of our mains so far that was desperately missing to help the audience truly connect to the circumstances. But that may be the inevitable problem when the pilot ends up focusing on set up for the narrative and misses the characters’ emotional context to it. As of now, I would recommend Gamers to most of you out there with a warning saying if you get past the pilot Gamers will be smooth sailings from there.