bottom-tier character tomozaki

By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

If you don’t want to know who Tomozaki ends up with at the end of this book, be warned I talk about that, but not till the third paragraph.

There’s a lot of metatext in the Tomozaki series. To a degree, it’s deconstructing these sorts of high school romcom series, especially the way that the lead tends to be this asocial schlub who nevertheless has the plot revolve around him. As we’ve seen, it’s only when Tomozaki makes an effort that he gets noticed and gets romantic attention. That said, the series has not forgotten that it’s also a real story and that realistic things need to happen, and as such we get a resolution here to the love triangle between Tomozaki, Mimimi and Kikuchi. But there is a little niggling thought at the back of the reader’s head, because at its core this series is about two people: Tomozaki and Hinami. It’s not a matter of “first girl” or anything, it’s a matter of who gets the most narrative attention. And therefore the most interesting part of the book is when Kikuchi, who sees things from an author’s perspective, tries to abandon her own ship and pair Tomozaki with his *real* girlfriend.

Gumi is on the cover but is just a minor part of this book, which revolves around the culture festival. Tomozaki is dividing his energies between Mimimi and her comedy routine and Kikuchi and her play. What’s more, Hinami is setting him goals that require him to enter one of the girls’ “routes” by the end of the festival, without waffling or putting it off. The trouble is, Tomozaki is still trying to figure out how love and romance work. This can be quite funny, especially when he asks Nakamura for advice, but it’s also really making him miss the forest for the trees. In addition to this, Kikuchi is having trouble with the character Hinami is performing in her play, so she and Tomozaki interview people from Hinami’s past… with some very confusing results. Then we get the festival itself… and Tomozaki realizes he may have been rejected by a “Dear John” play.

I have to feel absolutely horrible for Mimimi. She’s a great kid, and a wonderful character, and her reaction to Tomozaki choosing someone else is very well-handled (possibly as it’s not Hinami he chose). But come on, when someone has to choose between two girls and you come in third, that’s just mean. Kikuchi gets it, though. Mimimi isn’t even on her radar, she knows where the narrative of this story is going, and it’s Hinami. That said, thanks especially to Mimimi kicking his ass, Tomozaki won’t let this lie, and reminds Kikuchi that “this is a story” can only take you so far. I also really liked the idea that it’s possible to be an idealist *and* be selfish, and that it’s not wrong to want to have it all. As a result, by the end of the book, he and Kikuchi are a couple.

Will they be a couple by the end of the series? Mmmmmmm… questioning. After all, there sure was a lot of Hinami baggage dropped in the middle of the book and then just left there. She is the other protagonist in this book. (Also, notably, Tomozaki never said “but I’m not romantically interested in Hinami” or tried to contradict Kikuchi’s play, which surprised me.) For the moment, though, Kikuchi is best girl, and they do make a great couple. As for Mimimi fans… at least she gets the manga spinoff?

By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

As you can tell by the volume number, this is a short story collection. That said, definitely don’t read it till you’ve read the 6th book, as a lot of the back half of this volume deals with what happens in that book. For the most part, Tomozaki is not the focus of this book either, though of course a lot of it has his presence. Instead we get each heroine getting approximately a quarter of the book to get short stories giving us insight into how they think and interact with others. (The exception to this is Suzu, who’s barely mentioned here, and it feels odd she’s left out, especially as this volume is rather short.) The good news is that they’re very good stories, with one exception, and Aoi and Mimimi in particular come off with added insight into their character. Indeed, Aoi continues to worry me. I’ve said before that I find her the most interesting heroine, and that hasn’t changed, but boy, she’s set up for a breakdown somewhere down the road if she keeps this up.

The stories are: Aoi in middle school, slowly becoming the perfect girl we know and are wary of, and dealing with her first boyfriend; Aoi and Tomozaki shopping for winter clothing and learning more about fashion; the girls’ side of the cabin conversation from Book 3 (where we saw the boys’ side); Kukichi in middle school, where she discovers Michael Andi and learns to open up to others – slightly – with the help of a kind librarian; Izumi worrying that her boyfriend is cheating on her; Mimimi feeling at a loss and left behind shortly after she quits the track team, and realizing that just because she quit track does not mean she has to stop running; two other Mimimi POV stories from Vol. 6 that give us her side leading up to and right after her confession; and Tsumugi and her friends spotting Takahiro dressed as a bartender and following him… and indeed, he is working at a bar (to help his brother).

First of all, the Izumi story is the one I didn’t enjoy. “I have little self-esteem so am worried my guy is cheating on me but it all turns out to be a big misunderstanding” makes me roll my eyes at the best of times, and this one has no surprises at all. Other than that, this was quite a good book. Aoi’s “how can I manipulate this situation to my advantage” mindset is exactly as you’d expect, and is even more “impressive” given that she hasn’t even gotten into gaming yet at this point in the story. That said, we do also see a nervous middle-schooler at the core of her actions, and are reminded that being a popular girl has its own dangers. Mimimi’s stories are also fantastic, and I feel the most for her, I think, as she also tends to “put on a persona” around others, but isn’t sure how to move on or grow up the way everyone else is. Indeed, Tomozaki’s growth and development both impresses and annoys her, and likely leads to her confession… and immediate complete panic afterwards.

So yes, I do think this is not the usual irrelevant short story collection, but actually has good plot and character beats. The voices of the girls in their narratives all sounded very different as well, so kudos to the author and translator for that. Next time, presumably, we finally resolve the love triangle? Maybe?

By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

Despite what some people may think, particularly those who watch the opening of the recent anime adaptation, these light novels are not meant to be a romantic comedy. That is not to say they don’t have elements of it – they certainly do, and that’s the subject of much of this book. Tomozaki has been kicking the dating can down the road, at first simply as he didn’t want “get a girlfriend” to be a goal Hinami sets for him to tick off, but, as she correctly points out, he needs to start examining his own feelings and ask himself if there is a girl he really likes. Because there’s certainly someone who likes him… in fact, is there more than one? This isn’t a harem comedy, but it may be a love triangle, as, after several scenes showing Tomozaki accidentally being seductive (we see it, she sees it, he does not), he gets an honest to God confession. There’s just one problem – he needs to actually have some love for himself first.

Having seemingly run out of heroines to put on the cover (sorry, Tsugumi, maybe next time), Mimimi gets a second appearance, and she gets a lot to do. The school festival is coming up, which is right in her wheelhouse, even if she doesn’t actually want to be in charge of it. Meanwhile, in addition to being on the festival committee (which he volunteered for even before Hinami assigned it to him), Tomozaki is getting into social media! Yes, he has an Instagram account now, and his job is to fill it with specific photos Hinami asks him to get. This, of course, involves him getting into situations where he can easily get those photos… some more easily than others. It’s a good lesson for Tomozaki, who needs to be reminded “this is what normal teens do, and I am a normal teen”. Meanwhile, he reads Kikuchi’s stories… and suddenly knows that they should do for the festival. A play, written by her.

The whole book is filled with great scenes (as you can see by my devoting two paragraphs to a summary of it), but two particularly stand out to me. The first is when Hinami talks to him about which girls he likes, and says the idea of “I must only love one woman and be steadfast and true” is, to put it bluntly, virgin thinking. Real life is not like manga and anime (or even light novels), and high school romance does not have to be a deep commitment. Given how earnest Tomozaki is in general, I’m not sure how much he’ll take this to heart, but hey. The other scene is near the end, after Tomozaki has gone with Mizusawa to Tsugumi’s school’s festival, with Mizusawa taking on the role of teacher this time. As with Hinami, he points out that dating someone else does not have to be a OTP commitment. But after Tomozaki gets confessed to, and tries to do his usual “but I’m just a loser” waffling, Mizusawa tears him apart, pointing out (accurately) how rude that is to the girl who likes him. I actually cheered.

We may have a long wait to resolve the cliffhanger of Tomozaki responding to this confession – the next volume is a short story collection. But honestly, I think the reader can intuit the way that it’s going to go anyway. In any case, light novel readers, particularly ones who enjoyed the anime, will love this.

By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

As I write this review, the Tomozaki anime is about to start, and I am very curious to see how it does, given how much of this series is just dialogue with very little action. It’s about two gamers, and at times reads a lot like you’re reading their gaming log, particularly when characters get together to try to decide how to fix things. On the bright side, Tomozaki has improved by leaps and bounds, and there is very little “normie” chatter here. He barely feels like Hachiman at all now. That said, he is somewhat humbled when he tries to apply the same lessons he, a shy cynical introvert, learned over months to Tama-chan, who is merely very serious and dedicated, and when she tries his helpful hints, she improves far faster than he ever did. That said, the true star here is probably Kikuchi, who starts high above everyone else and just soars ever higher. It’s a shame girls like her are never the lead.

Hinami is the lead, but… let’s save her for later, OK? A good 3/4 of this book is a lot of fun. Tomozaki tries to help Tama-chan by helping her change herself so that she’s more open and likeable to her classmates, which would defuse some of the tension caused by Konno’s bullying. Part of that is simply not fighting back constantly (It’s noted that Tama-chan is basically “attack, attack, attack” in terms of game metaphors), but also to try and have her fit in with banter, conversation, and self-deprecating jokes. There’s a great moment when everyone realizes that Tama-chan does not really care much about the rest of her class, and I enjoy that it’s seen as a flaw but she’s not shamed for it. He also bonds with Kikuchi, brought in as a conversation partner for Tama-chan, and I think he is beginning to realize he likes her as more than a friend.

That said, this is not helping with the basic issue, which is Konno. Except it isn’t, because in the back quarter of the book, we realize that Hinami has taken this far more to heart than Tomozaki or anyone else had expected, and she proceeds to wreak an absolutely epic r3evenge that almost destroys Konno. (It does not completely destroy her, and thank god for Tama-chan coming in at the end, or else this book would be even darker than it already is.) The book ends up being about Hinami, whose “mask”, as it turns out, is pretty obvious to most of the rest of the class, particularly Tama-chan, who feels responsible for Hinami having to go as far as she did. Notably, aside from one or two brief meetings, Hinami and Tomozaki barely interact here. I imagine readers ended up being pretty unnerved.

That said, I have to agree with Tomozaki: I desperately want to know more about the real Aoi Hinami, and she’s still my favorite reason to read this book, as I find her fascinating. (As for who Tomozaki should date, well, let’s leave that for now.) For a series that started off as “what if My Youth Romantic Comedy but milder”, it’s really started to come into its own. I can see why it got the anime.

By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

We have reached the point in this series where Tomozaki is starting to get good at playing Hinami’s “game” of life, and for the most part he sails through her directives in this book. In fact, the first two thirds of this book are a great deal of relaxing fun, especially after the confrontation between our two leads in the last volume. Most of this chunk of the book revolves around the sports festival, where the boys and girls in the class will be competing. The role of girls’ captain is somewhat thankless, and is at first foisted off on one of the quiet wallflowers in the class, then by Izumi. The true stumbling block, though, is Erika Konno, the Queen Bee of the class, who does not want to try hard or care unless she has to. So Tomozaki’s task is to get Konno interested in the sports festival. And now that he’s become something of a social animal, he can even ask others for help as well.

Izumi gets a lot to do in this book, as she’s involved in every single plot and subplot. She and Nakamura make their relationship clearer, and they’re now going out. She’s also the one who’s most invested in another issue – due to Nakamura and his mother fighting, he’s not coming to school, and it’s taking a worryingly long time for them to make up. This was probably the funniest part of the book, as Hinami is very reluctant to get involved in this – until Atafami is brought up as the reason for the fight, when she suddenly changes her tune. As with previous books, Hinami is at her best as a character when we see her mask cracking, which it does several times here. The sports festival also goes well, and provides Tomozaki a chance to bond with the other boys in the class AND have a laughable anti-sports manga moment. Everything’s great, and the game is fun. What could go wrong?

…well, life is not a game you can stop playing when it ceases to be fun is the lesson we learn in the last third of the book, when Erika Konno moves from apathetic Queen Bee to nasty bully, picking on the shy girl in the class because, well, for the same reason that bullies always pick on the quiet kid. The book then gets really good again (the author is excellent at making the last fifth of so of each book really sing) when Tama-chan gets involved. She hasn’t been a big part of the series so far, and most of what we know about her is that she’s very serious and straightforward. That ends up being both a strength and a weakness when she confronts Konno, and we get an excellent look at how this sort of bullying can affect the mood of a classroom, and why the sympathy of a group is rarely with the bullied. We also see the previous crack in Hinami’s armor get larger – just as she was willing to get involved when Atafami was being dissed, here she’s ready to go to bat for her friend. That said, Tomozaki is not the only one growing and learning in this series.

The book ends with the problem unresolved, and given Tama-chan is on the next cover, I expect we’ll get a lot more of it. It’s a good way to end a great book in the series, one willing to deal with problems both small and large, and with an excellent view of classroom dynamics and mood. Forget “read this if you find Oregairu too depressing”, just read this, period.

By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

I’m not sure this series has ‘arcs’ like some other light novels, but there’s no denying that this third volume feels like the end of part one and the start of part two, and it would not surprise me if the upcoming anime decides this is a good place to wrap things up. Here we see Tomozaki finally go on the movie date with Kikuchi that he didn’t do in the last volume, and also invite her out to fireworks, This is part of Hinami’s life plan of getting him dating a girl by the end of summer break. Along the same sort of lines, he goes on a group barbecue/camping trip with the main group, tries to help the others get two of their friends together, and even gets a part-time job. He’s come a long way. The question is, how much of this is him being genuine and how much of this is him doing what Hinami says? And is Hinami really all that successful at life anyway?

The first 3/4 of this volume is merely very good, showing off the characters and situations we like. Tomozaki’s date with Kikuchi is indeed as adorable as expected, as is the fireworks viewing, and it’s her pure and basic honesty that helps him decide how to move forward (and, also, that dating her because of a gaming strategy is not a thing he wants to do). Crucially, she finds it easier to talk to him when he’s not trying to be a “normie”… but doesn’t reject the fact that he’s trying harder. The bulk of the middle of the book is the campout, and it’s fun, and also reminds you that these are, at heart, immature teenagers: a discussion of which girl in the group is hottest revolves around breast size, and Tomozaki may be the first character I’ve seen to canonically get a large penis (it comes up in guy talk), as opposed to in fanfics written about a character.

The last quarter of the book is where things really take off. Misuzawa has seen what Tomozaki has been doing, and finds his odd combination of “trying to be normal” and brutal honesty refreshing. So he tries to open up to Hinami… which goes disastrously. The afterward with her and Tomozaki also goes disastrously, leading to a break in their “teacher/student” relationship and for Tomozaki to backslide into old habits. The best part of this is that it doesn’t reject either premise: Tomozaki’s honest niceness and desire to not do something if he doesn’t want to is a good and sensible thing… and at the same time he dislikes the old, don’t care about appearances or posture self that he gained by learning with Hinami. He likes the fact that he grew as a person… he just wants to do it without moving into uncomfortable directions, like “date the library girl because I told you to.” Best of all, he manages to get Hinami to acknowledge this and start coaching him again, which is a big get given she was ready to completely shut him out of her life.

So another excellent volume, and it also shows that moving forward it will likely be Hinami who has the much harder road ahead. That said, Izumi is the cover girl for the next volume. This has rapidly become a must-read series.

By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

Having started to successfully negotiate life the way that he does games, Tomozaki now runs up against more treacherous waters. Inviting a group out for a lunch accidentally turns into a shopping trip (MUCH harder for someone like him), and he has to ask his library friend out to see a movie, something that would be adorably cute but unfortunately gets derailed by the main plot. The main plot being Mimimi, the overenthusiastic and hyper classmate of his, running for Student Council President… against Hinami. As we discover that Mimimi has a long history of coming in second to Hinami, and see just how far above everyone else Hinami really is, Tomozaki decides that he wants to help Mimimi take her down by winning the election. But is he really good enough to do that now? And isn’t this just ignoring the larger issues that Mimimi has? More to the point, is being the best at everything really something you can criticize? All this, and it’s only the second volume.

We’d seen a hint of Mimimi’s hidden depths in the first volume, but the second one goes into far more detail. (My suspicion is that each girl on the cover art will be the focus of the book in question, so expect library girl to take center stage next time.) It can be hard to constantly find yourself hitting an insurmountable wall, and even harder when it’s a person. There’s a core of self-loathing to Mimimi’s behavior here, as she can’t see a way past what she’s doing without feeling angry with herself. The “what’s the second highest mountain in Japan?” question was a good way to demonstrate it to Tomozaki – with everyone watching Hinami at number one, who’s going to look at the next best? But, as we hear towards the end, Hinami has felt that anger and frustration as well – in fact, it’s what led to this entire situation. As Tomozaki says towards the end of the book, nobody did anything wrong here.

There’s also a lot of good stuff here about student council elections in Japanese schools, and how you have to balance what kids want vs. what teachers will let you talk about. The reader is absolutely meant to root for Mimimi and Tomozaki here. That said, the reader also suspects the result will be as inevitable as Hinami says it is. (I’m still not sure how the author wants us to feel about Hinami – getting a very “Medaka Kurokami” vibe about her.) And then there’s Tomozaki, who does make some good steps forward here (I really liked his buying the hair wax), but needs to stop framing everything as “this is what normies do” and putting himself outside that box. Also struck by a naïveté I was not expecting from him – even I knew what Mimimi did to Tama, but he’s baffled by it the entire book.

So, to sum up: I enjoyed the plot, I liked the characters, the writing felt smooth and readable (very good translation here), and it doesn’t feel quite as much like a self-help guide compared to the first. Overall, it was excellent. Cannot wait for the next book.

By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

These days, whenever a light novel is licensed that does not in some way shape or form ground itself in fantasy, I take notice. This is the “isekai boom”, and even the titles released that aren’t isekai seem to involve fantasy worlds, adventuring, and demon lords. We have seen a few normal “romantic comedy” LNs – Toradora!, My Youth Romantic Comedy Etc. – but they’re in a tiny minority, and were licensed well after the anime became popular. So Tomozaki, a high school kids title with no fantasy and no anime (at least not yet) was a surprise. I wondered what attracted Yen to it, especially as the publisher rarely deals with North America on their light novel end. I ended up being very happy with it. The novel starts slow, but as both it and its main character gradually find their feet it gets more and more interesting till a final quarter that was fantastic. This is especially interesting because of the odd little genre the book turns out to be: it’s a self-help guide.

Tomozaki is our title character, a quiet and sullen young man who is fantastic at gaming – particularly ‘Atafami’, the current hot new game – but not so good at everyday social interactions. His narrative voice will remind a few people of Hachiman, though he’s not as clever or misanthropic. (In fact, let’s get that out of the way – this is going to get compared to OreGairu, and some of that is by design. Even the cover art styles look similar. There’s even a reference saying that Saitama (where the books take place) can beat Chiba easily (OreGairu’s territory) that made me think the author is well aware of what he’s doing.) In any case, Tomozaki ends up playing a really good player online, and they arrange to meet up. To his shock – and hers – she’s his classmate Hinami, the cute and popular girl. Meanwhile, she’s incredibly disappointed in him, as she assumed he’d be as cool in real life as he was in the game. When he goes off about how life is much harder than a game, she decides to tutor him in how to life.

The first half of the book, as I said, feels like someone wanted to write a self-help manual for the introverted Japanese high schooler but make it interesting. To my surprise, the gaming talk did not bore me at all – it’s made relevant to the conversations throughout, and even when we’re watching characters play Atafami, it doesn’t drown us in stats unless that’s the point. Hinami explains how to make Tomozaki’s real-life character better, starting with learning to smile, then posture, then a new outfit, etc. And conversation. He has to get better at that as well. As the book goes on, it turns out that he and Hinami have a lot more in common than you’d think, and that she’s not explaining this from a superior position – she continues to do every day just what she’s telling him to do. Constant practice, just like in a game.

The book gets better when we start to see the results of her tutelage. Tomozaki doesn’t get perfect immediately, of course, and he’s still socially awkward much of the time. But once he starts treating these tasks – “have two conversations with a girl in class every day”, etc. – like a game that he needs to beat, he shows that he can be very good about it. He’s also observant and speaks his mind, like most LN narrators. And so he can spot that the over-the-top genki girl is putting on something of an act, or that the overly serious girl never starts conversations herself. Towards the end of the book he starts teaching another girl to play Atafami (so she can impress a guy) and he’s now the one giving the excellent advice – and also applying it to life, telling her that it’s never too late to change your character if you don’t like it. His growth is both astonishing and not surprising at all, given his gaming skills.

The book was clearly written as a stand-alone, but there’s more to come. I want to read it. The cast is all likeable (in fact, it’s a safe bet that Hinami, the female lead, is likely the least popular, as always happens in “harem” stories like this) and Tomozaki is relatable without being overbearing or irritating (well, he’s irritating to start with). It’s been called a “kinder, gentler OreGairu” and that’s simplistic but not a bad starting point. I had a ball reading it.