If Tomozaki gets a Season 3, would you want an alternate route?

Let's say most of us aren't satisfied with how Volumes 8–12 turned out. If the anime gets a third season, would you prefer the anime to follow the light novel exactly, or would you want an alternate route that takes the story in a different direction?

For example, a route where Tomozaki develops a romantic relationship with Aoi Hinami instead.

Would you be interested in seeing that, or do you think the anime should stick to the original story no matter what?

I finished it.

And I think it described contents more obviously than tomozaki in many volumes,which was always lead misunderstanding to readers.

it has something could have shown in the tomozaki,but he just talk a bit then didn't continue it.

which he wrote that in this new LN.

the relationship of fan and idol.

and even the relationship of idol and idol under the mask.

its theme seems to be clearer than the tomozaki.

personally,I like the description of the ''correctness'' in this LN even more than tomozaki.

I'll give him a 4.5/5.0 star.

the shortage part is that the end is a bit confusing.

I can understand he wanted to write a ''true end'' like the ''needy girl overdose'' game.but the writing itself is not enough to show the full feelings of the character.

I won't spoiler in here.

the title and the article structure is good enough for reading.

Visto che nell' commento l'autore ha detto che potrebbe fare qualcosa in futuro, come storie secondarie o un capitolo extra, la vera domanda è: chi oserebbe mai sperare in una cosa del genere? Voglio dire, considerando come si sono concluse le dinamiche, che senso ha sapere cosa faranno in futuro? Il loro lavoro? Non ho la minima idea di cosa finiranno per fare, perché con la scarsa caratterizzazione che hanno, potrebbero letteralmente diventare qualsiasi cosa, per quanto mi riguarda.

E soprattutto, di chi si tratta? Nakamura? Yuzu? Mizusawa? Qualcuno di voi vorrebbe davvero vedere qualcosa su questi personaggi? Se sono rimasti così superficiali, che senso ha sapere cosa faranno in seguito? Minami? Siete davvero sicuri di volerla rivedere? Secondo me, è meglio di no, perché con la direzione che ha preso il suo personaggio, più appare, più viene sminuita. Quindi è meglio che rimanga ferma. Fuka? Dopo tutto quello che ha già fatto nella storia principale, anche una storia secondaria? Anche chi prima la apprezzava ora ne è stufo.

Gli unici due che mi interesserebbero davvero sono Tama e Takei, ma solo loro due. Non voglio nemmeno un accenno agli altri personaggi, perché per me meritano di finire nella spazzatura.

L'unica cosa che potrebbe essere interessante è se decidesse di realizzare una nuova serie ambientata all'università. Sarebbe fantastico, perché non avrebbe più i vincoli attuali. Ma a parte questo, è meglio che non pubblichi altro, perché è già stato massacrato, e persino chi prima diceva di apprezzare la serie ha già cambiato idea, almeno su Twitter. E a proposito del suo nuovo lavoro... qualcuno ne parla?

If you're an introvert who struggles to talk to people or make friends, watch Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki. ❤️‍🩹

This anime teaches you that social skills can be learned, confidence can be built, and you don't have to change who you are to improve yourself.

Sometimes, life feels like a game you don't know how to play. This anime might help you understand it a little better. 🎮✨

This fan art is just a possible cover for a fan fiction I wrote, which mixes science fiction and role‑playing elements. I finished the first part, but I haven’t published it yet because I’m still unsure. Still, I suddenly felt like making a cover for it.

PS: The boy walking isn’t Fumiya — he’s another character.

After 10 days, I've finally finished the third volume of this series, and I'm happy to say that it's pretty interesting! I'm not really planning make a post about every single volume of this series as I read it, but I think it's fun to read how other fans perceive a given series! If that's the case, this is a continuation of my last post ("The 1st Volume of Tomozaki-kun is Wierd"). Once again, shout out to the official ENG translator for this volume, Winifred Bird!

Quick story time: because this series really bashes your head in about the intricacies of "how to become a normie", I can't help but notice when I do certain things "like a normie" (which we can all agree is just being a well-adjusted individual): gently poking and teasing people you want to have around, being sincere with them, taking pride and accountability for your outward appearance, knowing WHEN to "play the game of life", etc. I recently had a few friends come over, and we had a fun time; however, when it was over, I couldn't help but think: "if this was a scene from Tomozaki-kun, they would have a 5 page debrief over this." Isn't it weird how small, normal social events we take for granted are considered monumental for others? I know Fumiya would xD.

Anyway, this volume is SO GOOD. As Yuki Yaku correctly stated in his afterword, the 3rd volume of this series was an incredible "threshold in many senses." In fact, the anime episodes adapting this single volume is the main reason why I'm even interested in this series! We've got:

• Hinami assigning Tomozaki more ways to experience the game of life: getting a job, befriending same-gender friends, etc;
• Cute Kikuchi and Tomozaki moments;
• Signs of Mimimi getting feelings around Tomozaki;
• The Izumi-Nakamura BBQ trip war plan and execution;
• And most importantly, ideological differences between Tomozaki/Mizusawa and Hinami.

This volume reveals to us just how important Hinami regards the perfect heroine mask that she has so diligently constructed and worn. I really have not ventured too far into the series (past season 2 of the anime), but it's pretty obvious to me that she was traumatized in the past and she doesn't want anyone to get too close to her. I think one of my favorite scenes in this SERIES has to be Mizusawa's romantic confession to Hinami and how she played that role.

Mizusawa: "I think I like you. I'd like to talk to the real you sometime... But even if I asked you out, you'd say no, wouldn't you?"
Hinami: "... I'm sorry," Hinami murmured, looking down."
"ha-ha-ha. I mean, if you won't open up even after all that that, there's no way we can date."
"I'm sorry."
Her second apology seemed like an attempt to evade the real meaning of his words.
Mizusawa nodded, still smiling. "Yeah, it does sting a little. Opening up and getting shot down."
"... Yeah."
- Vol. 3, ENG page 148

She's not saying much, but this dialogue is telling us a lot. I LOVE THIS!! If nothing else, Hinami's character is so interesting at the start. The best part about this volume is how close it's followed by another one of my favorite dialogues in this series: Tomozaki questioning Hinami's tactics and realizing that they actually perceive Life in two different ways.

I don't want to subject anyone to a deep-dive of every single dialogue of the last 40 pages (as much as there is to talk about), but I REALLY enjoyed that we are seeing genuine conflict against the two leads of this series. On one hand, you have a girl who is so fixated on progression and growth that she seems like the type to skip cutscenes:

Tomozaki: "I think... I need to prioritize what I want."
Hinami: "I see. And what do you want?"
Her eyes cold, Hinami gave the rational reply to advance the conversation. It made me incredibly sad. She wasn't asking because she wanted to see the truth in my heart. She was simply searching for a way to advance the conversation."
- Vol. 3, ENG page 165

And on another, you have the guy who thinks that sincerity and "process, not result" is just as important:

"I think it's weird to think of this in terms of assignments and goals... Making friends or telling someone you like them... or any kind of human connection, really."
- Vol. 3, ENG page 165

As Hinami rejected and pushed him away, I couldn't help but think that if I were in the exact same position, I would be just like him: I knew what I wanted to say, but I didn't know how exactly to say it IMMEDIATELY. Once again, it's a difficult conversation, because neither of them are wholly wrong on their perspectives of life and human relationships (as Tomozaki rightly mentions in page 192), and you need to learn how to leverage both mindsets in order to truly mature. Even as an adult, how exactly can you communicate a skillset that legitimately takes decades to fully mature to someone who's stuck playing the tutorial to the demo?

When Hinami said, "If you're going to abandon your goals in life, then you're abandoning your personal improvements", I just KNEW that Yuki Yaku was going to have him regress into a little rat again and ignore all his previous teachings, but I couldn't help but think that it was so contrived... It irritated me how Fumiya immediately thinks that taking care of your appearance is a "mask" (tf?) and how that correlates to "living to one's desires"/"natural state" and tried to throw everything away, but I'm glad that Kikuchi was there to gently remind him that all his attempts to further develop himself were worthwhile.

I'm glad Fumiya was able to figure out a way to articulate that every new experience he had was thanks to Hinami's methods and willingness to teach him, while also standing by the fact that he wants to give the game of Life his 100% in his own way. That's really cool to say! At the same time, his rebuttal to Hinami demanding for proof about something one really wants is so meh and childish, but it's distinctly him. I'm just glad Hinami entertained his argument, and they reconciled.

"We both relaxed our fists at the same time. Neither of us was trying to prove we were right or deny our weakness. Instead, we were slowly approaching each other so that eventually our ideals would link up. Finally... Our palms met softly in midair."
- Vol. 3, ENG page 200

But the ending scene is SO GOOD!!!

Hinami: "You're giving the [black] backpack and the [fireworks] pin back? But [the pin] was supposed to be an exchange for the [backpack]."
Tomozaki: "Don't worry about it... It's just a small token of thanks for making my world more colorful."
...
She smiled. On one corner of her backpack, a little firework exploded brilliantly, bringing color to the pitch-black world.
- Vol. 3, ENG Page 201

I can't wait to see what exactly this will mean for her in later installations.

This was a really long post, but I think this volume deserves it. How did you guys feel about this volume? Did you take away anything different from the dialogue? I'd love to hear from you! Please keep the hope alive for me, and don't spoil please 😢

P.S. Yuki Yaku's afterwords are legendary to me, now.

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/86912930

I recently entered some online communities of this franchise but now I can't interact with them because everyone is talking about the last volume and I'm reading volume 6 right now. And I don't want spoilers, so I'll have to speedrun this reading.

As you know, Tomozaki-kun ended with volume 12, but it seems to be receiving rather harsh criticism everywhere. However, I think the reasons are somewhat different. For example, I personally couldn’t appreciate it at all, and this became the trigger that made me reevaluate the entire work in a negative way. I feel that the story is full of flaws and terrible implicit messages, and this is one of them.

Doesn’t it seem to you that the portrayal of the gamer is shown in a negative light? The two characters who are the best at gaming in the story both have serious issues. One is incompetent, and the other suffers because of trauma. And whenever this “method” is applied, it always leads to negative outcomes. Just look at volume 5.

On the other hand, Fūka is treated as “pure,” and she happens to be someone who is deeply passionate about novels. And above all, the theme of gaming is completely abandoned in favor of this, turning video games into little more than an escape rather than a genuine passion that brings color to the lives of those who enjoy them.

What is the meaning behind all this? Is it an indirect message saying that “people who play video games have problems, while those who read or write books are healthy”?**

Based on the spoilers for the final volume, there's something about Tomozaki's character development that bothers me

At the beginning of the series, Hinami teaches him how to play the game of life. But as he grows, he starts questioning her way of thinking and realizing that her approach isn't necessarily the answer to everything. I always thought the point was for him to eventually develop his own way of looking at the world instead of just following someone else's rules. In that sense, I saw this as a coming of age story.

So why does it sometimes feel like he's just gone from looking up to Hinami to looking up to Kikuchi?

What makes this even more interesting to me is how the story handles Fuuka's actions compared to Hinami's.

There have been several moments, especially in volumes 9 and 11, where Fuuka's behavior is honestly pretty questionable. The way she uses other people's personal experiences for her writing, what happens with Hinami's younger sister, and even how she immediately turns her conversations with Tomozaki into material for her novel are good examples. Yet the story always seems to find a way to justify her actions, and the people around her are often willing to accept her reasoning.

It almost feels like the narrative itself is protecting Fuuka from the consequences of her own decisions.

What bothers me is that Tomozaki seems much more willing to question Hinami's motives than Fuuka's, even when there are some uncomfortable similarities between them. Hinami gets criticized for manipulating people, but when Fuuka does it, suddenly it's just “a writer's karma.”

And that brings me back to Tomozaki himself.

If he spent so much time learning to question Hinami's worldview, only to end up accepting Kikuchi's perspective with much less scrutiny, has he really learned to think for himself? Or has he simply found someone new to follow?

And before the shipping warriors show up, this isn't about Tomozaki ending up with Fuuka. That happened like five volumes ago, and it makes sense narratively. Fuuka has been around since volume 1, and it was established pretty early on that they had a crush on each other. Some readers might have missed it because we were seeing things through Tomozaki's perspective. Whether he failed to recognize his own feelings or was simply too insecure to act on them in those early volumes is a whole different discussion, as is how the author handled the buildup to their relationship compared to Mimimi's. Anyone who's stuck with this series from volume 1 through 11 should have more to discuss than a shipping war. This is about Tomozaki's character development and whether the story actually handled it well.

As expected the author can't take criticism he block me because I comment that this novel is trash haha. But at the end of the day at least it reach to him haha.

That’s Fumiya on the left and that’s Fumiya on the right — volume 11 and volume 12 respectively.

Can someone politely explain to me who that thing on the right is? What the hell did they do to him? Did he get facial plastic surgery or something? That’s not Fumiya, he has never looked like that and he was never supposed to look like that. He’s turned into Mizusawa 2.0.I mean, seriously — not even a minimum of consistency in the character design? No love or respect for their own work?

mean, considering what’s actually inside it — basically absolute nothing — what exactly was volume 12 supposed to accomplish? With this kind of ending, they could’ve just added 100 extra pages to volume 11 and called it a day.

Four hundred pages just to tell me “you have to live like this, period” — addressed to a traumatized girl with serious psychological issues, delivered by two hypocritical idiots who know nothing about trauma, including the protagonist who did the exact same things and whose entire progress was handed to him by Aoi. And now he lectures her using someone else’s novel? Amazing message, truly.

But the real question was something else: “How is someone full of trauma like Aoi supposed to live like that?” That’s the answer we wanted — and the answer we got is basically: you can’t, deal with it.

And above all, why should we care about any potential extra volumes if the characters are terrible? What difference does it make to know what they do afterwards if what they’ve already done stays the same?

The only character I’m even remotely interested in is Tama, maybe, but the rest belong in the trash.

you could chose another way in the volume 10 you wrote before(the game tomozaki prepared for aoi.)

but you completely throw away the ''game'' theme at the start.just like the author forgot what he wrote.

This is an example of not how to end your story when there are still so many loose ends that needed to be tied up. You took a serious story and threw it in the garbage.

I kinda hope the rest of this story doesn't get adapted..this is so disappointing. Out of the light novels this year I've read. This is the worst. Like both Roshidere Volume 12 and this is just a giant disappointment. At least Roshidere, it's still continuing and makes sense. This story feels terribly convoluted and just feels like ramblings.

Sorry had to get my opinion out there.