Well then, Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun’s premiere was quite an interesting one for me. We were introduced to our protagonist Tomozaki Fuumiya, who is the top ranked and best Tackfam Player in Japan. While he excels in the game as Nanashi, in the real world he has long given up trying to play the game of ‘Life’ and goes about his days as a ‘loner’. After playing a match with his competitor NO NAME, he is invited to meet in person, only to discover NO NAME is none other than his all-star classmate, Hinami Aoi.
And oof, was the start of their meeting was absolutely brutal. Honestly at that moment, I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about the episode by the time it ended. Aoi was so disappointed that her rival and someone she had looked up to in the game turned out to be a complete slob who has given up on the game of life, that she ripped him a new one. While I can’t disagree with her assessment (because yeah, you shouldn’t show up like you rolled out of bed!), it was still terribly rude of her to tear him down like that. It really left a bad taste in my mouth and I was admittedly more turned off by her attitude towards him than him being poorly dressed. But much to my relief, Fuumiya fought back giving his perspective and why he struggles with his confidence, and as result it actually ended up creating a healthier conversation where Aoi was finally able to understand where he was coming from when he describes how he doesn’t know or have the ability to ‘change characters’ like someone who is talented and beautiful like herself.
So to straighten this out, Aoi brought Fuumiya home, and showed him how a little effort they can change their appearance stats and explained to him about how appearance comes down to two things: Expression and Posture. Just by demonstrating those two things opened his eyes of how much they impact how they are perceived by others. Aoi considers herself to be proof that he can gain communication skills and confidence, provided he puts in the same amount of effort as he does with games. So she challenges him to try, to seriously play the game. Since Fuumiya respects her as a player, he decides to take her word that the game of Life is just as engaging as Tackfam.
The first step of playing this game of Life, is setting up the character creation and learning how to smile. I thought Aoi’s suggestion to Fuumiya to wear a mask so he can practice smiling was absolutely brilliant. This way he will never have to worry about people judging him for it— starting at home of all places when his sister had the audacity to be a bitch about it. Like excuse me, I think he has a very cute smile! It was also very encouraging to see him actually trying it out as soon as he got home.
The next step was all about setting up objectives. Since Aoi is the one helping him out, she’s in charge of setting up the ‘rules’ of the game, and the quests he must complete. And I liked seeing how serious she is about this whole thing because she decided they will be holding a meeting 30 minutes before and after classes every day to go over the tasks for the day and review his performance.
- Ultimate Goal: To be as satisfied with offline life as she is.
- Medium Goal: Have a girlfriend before starting his third year of high school
- Small Goal: Get a third party to notice that he has improved his appearance and/or vibe.
- Daily Tasks: Will change per day, the first one is to talk to at least three girls.
Though I must say, I burst out laughing when she set up the goal for getting him a girlfriend- but in a good way mind you. I understand why he is so uneasy about it, because right now it certainly feels too high for him to reach at the moment. But for her to even put it up there goes to show she believes he will be able to accomplish, which is why she will be giving him smaller tasks to help him reach that point.
Overall despite the rough start they were able to turn things around by making me like Aoi by the end of the episode. The end of their meet-up showed how they have already started to get along, starting with Aoi asking to exchanging friend codes, and the two are set to do their meet ups, so it seem to be more or less on the same page for now. So as long as Aoi isn’t a bitch about it, and Fuumiya plays the game seriously, his initial attitude of self-pity won’t bother me. In fact this was something I was a bit wary of at the beginning of the episode, but it’s the little things he did today, such as willingly agree to take on this challenge, and practice smiling on his own makes me optimistic about how they story will go about his growth as a character. That being said, I am very excited for his transformation as he gains confidence in himself. I’m already excited for the clean hair cut that is teased in the OP/ED. I’m not sure how long that’s going to take, but man he looks super good with it!
I’m not sure if this is a show I want to cover yet, but I would like to try and give it three episodes. But even if I don’t, I will certainly be watching this!
Possibility of Blogging: Moderate
Possibility of Watching: High
I for one see Jaku-chara’s premise as being the anthesis to the typical isekai power fantasy, and in particular, the antidote to isekai power fantasies with a degenerate main character. I’ve watched the first two episodes of Mushoku Tensei, and I have a feeling Rudeus Grayrat, the main character of that series, will stay a degenerate for the rest of his life. It is absolutely an unapologetic power fantasy. In Jaku-chara, Fumiya has to actually learn social skills and how to function like a normal person instead of staying as a guy who doesn’t have to change himself and instantly has OP powers when he gets transported to another world, getting all the girls in the process.
While I realize that there are many convenient things in making the story happen like how Aoi and Fumiya are in the same class in the same school and have interacted before in addition to Aoi being a very attractive high-performing popular girl who decides to make a man of him, I find that this premise is appealing because unlike in generic power fantasies where the main character never has to change himself, this show is about Fumiya actually attempting to learn to function as a normal member of society, and judging by how the show allowed Aoi to tear into him like that, I don’t think Fumiya will have it all easy learning these social skills and that he’ll struggling at times on his journey of self-improvement.
As far as the advice to practice smiling, when I went to a group therapy class a few years, a female therapist recommended that I smile more, and when I objected to that somewhat, she told me to practice turning my mouth up instead. I now see she was trying to get me to improve my facial expression and appear more friendly in my efforts to appear more social and get a girlfriend, which was my goal at the time. That therapist probably saw that I was more eager than other people in the class to improve myself and gave me a helpful nudge given that she didn’t give as much advice to the others.
Well said. It is way more rewarding to see the character put in the effort to improve themselves, that’s why it was so encouraging to see Fuumiya to practice as soon he got home. It won’t be easy and there will probably be time when he fails and want to go back to his comfort zone, but the outcome of striving for self-improvement will make the struggle worth it. 🙂
If you’re interested,Tomozaki-kun’s source light novels have an official English translation.
https://yenpress.com/9781975384616/bottom-tier-character-tomozaki-vol-5-light-novel/
5 volumes available in English, with the translated Vol 6 coming this March 2021.
The Japanese are releasing Vol 9 this coming Jan 19th.
https://www.shogakukan.co.jp/books/09451878
Ahaha! Thank you! I had a feeling it was, but it slipped my mind before I could verify it! I’m excited for this series so will definitely pick up the volumes the next times I catch a sale. 🙂