Another volume, another review with me saying “This volume was better than the last one”. This series really has improved with each volume. When I first started this series last year, I thought the first volume was cringeworthy and ‘wish-fulfillment’. To be honest, Tomozaki’s inner monologues WERE cringeworthy and are STILL cringeworthy, but that’s the point. Juxtaposing his inner thoughts with his progress in breaking his shell shows how much of his anxiety about ‘the kuso game of life’ was only him holding himself back. But because it’s painful to read, it at first put me off. And for the ‘wish-fulfillment’ part, if anything, the Tomozaki series has shown the opposite of that. Of course, having a ‘master at the game of life’ teach you how to ‘level up’ can be considered ‘wish-fulfillment’, but it’s not like everything falls into his lap without help. He’s taken Hinami’s teachings and using them to gain meaningful friends. With that being said, the series has done a good job of showing the flaws of Hinami’s cynical worldview. At first, I thought this series was promoting how she thought of ‘life’, but the conflict between her and Tomozaki, who sees life as something to be joined. While it’s only mentioned for a short time in this volume, it’s shown that even Hinami can act out of pure anger, defying her hundred percent calculated nature. This volume keeps the ball rolling, having Tomozaki deal with the fact that eventually, if he wants to ‘level up’, he should probably think about romantic relationships.
Volume six starts off a few days after the climax of volume five, where Hinami psychologically destroyed Erika Konno for harassing Tama-chan. That climax featured the first time we get to see Hinami become angry to the point of doing something for the sake of kicking someone while they’re down. From Hinami herself, “…there are some things even I can’t accept.” This is Hinami accidentally giving us a peek of herself not being ‘Hinami The Perfect’, but ‘Hinami The Human’. Of course, being Hinami, as soon as she opens up that door, she slams it and turns back to her ‘normal’ self. Hinami then gives Tomozaki two assignments for the next week: To think of (at least) two girls that he wants to pursue romantically, and to complete the ‘seven-item photo quest’ for the Instagram that she’s making him start. The seven shots that Hinami wants Tomozaki to shoot are: A shot of him with Nakamura and Takei, a shot of Mizusawa wearing glasses, a shot of Tama-chan making a funny face, a shot of Izumi eating ice cream, a shot of at least two girls that he has never talked to before, a shot of Mimimi eating ramen, and a shot of him with Kikuchi. Sounds easy, huh? Considering Tomozaki’s social anxiety, and how far ahead he’ll have to think in order to get these photos, this might be his hardest assignment yet! And he’ll have to do that while thinking of two girls that he’s interested in enough to pursue romantically. This is also outside of Tomozaki’s comfort-zone since up to this point, he hasn’t even considered the concept of having more than one love interest. Hinami sells him on the idea of pursuing more than one girl once she tells him that getting to know multiple girls is easier than getting to know one, and making the mistake of pursuing only one girl you don’t know well is a losing strategy. On the condition that he be given a week to think about it, Tomozaki promises that he’ll give her two girls that he wants to get to know more.
Along with those two assignments, Tomozaki also becomes heavily involved in the upcoming school festival. Being a ‘bottom-tier character’ until six months ago, Tomozaki never got to experience any school festival before this year. This will be the first year that he won’t go straight home after the beginning of the festival and spend the whole time playing games. Being someone who’s trying to ‘level up’, it’s expected that he will try to be a huge contributor to festival planning and activities. Along with being on the committee, Tomozaki becomes a valuable asset when influencing what activities that the class will do. While it’s obvious that by this point, Tomozaki isn’t a ‘bottom-tier character’ anymore, this volume is the first to solidify the idea of Tomozaki being a dependable and approachable guy. He’s gotten ‘popular’ enough to the point where people in his class that he doesn’t know approach him to talk about the festival. Tomozaki will for sure be busy for the next few weeks, with his assignments from Hinami, along with being a major player in making sure that the festival runs smoothly — but if anyone can do it, it’s our Tomozaki.
One character that I’m glad has a significant appearance in this volume is Mizusawa. The last volume featured him teaming up with Tomozaki in order to resolve the Tama-chan/Konno situation; this one shows him showing Tomozaki tips that even Hinami wouldn’t have been able to give. I’ve mentioned this several times already in other Tomozaki reviews, but this series reminds me of PUA books in the sense of Tomozaki learning how to ‘talk’, and the weird social-dynamics stuff that Hinami believes in. This volume is the first to feature pickup-related material, with Mizusawa showing Tomozaki how he’s able to approach girls and get their LINE easily. Of course, Tomozaki being Tomozaki, doesn’t quite get WHY Mizusawa does this, but still is amazed at his pickup skills. I’ll admit, this scene was one of my favorites in this volume. I had a grin throughout reading it. It’ll be neat to see if Tomozaki uses what he learned from Mizusawa, and how he uses it. Other than that scene, Mizusawa comes in clutch for Tomozaki multiple times, becoming Tomozaki’s best guy friend. While it’s been clearly established that he has an idea of what Tomozaki is ‘up to’, instead of scorning him for being a ‘fraud’ or whatever, he deeply respects Tomozaki and cheers him on. Tomozaki sees Mizusawa as his ‘role model’, while Mizusawa sees Tomozaki as a go-getter, and someone who has been able to get way closer to Hinami than he has.
One thing I like about this series is that the issue of ‘romance’ isn’t drawn out to the point of being silly. A series that Tomozaki has been compared to often, Oregairu, was disliked by many due to how slow the romantic pacing was — Tomozaki completely avoids this fate by the nature of what the series is about. While Tomozaki doesn’t have ‘get a girlfriend’ as a goal, Hinami keeps pushing the idea of him eventually dating someone. Of course, Tomozaki attempting to get closer to girls he’s friends with could cause him to have a change of heart. As per usual from Hinami, she sees things differently than Tomozaki on the issue of dating. She sees a relationship as proof that she’s a ‘top-tier character’, while Tomozaki doesn’t get why anyone would date anyone they didn’t like. The over-arching conflict between the two since the end of volume three has been their belief on how one should live life; Hinami, not believing in ‘true desires’, and believing that the only purpose of life is to be on top, and Tomozaki, who believes that the goal of the ‘game of life’ is to enjoy it to its fullest. Relationships and love aren’t the most important subjects to Tomozaki, but they’re subjects that eventually will rear their head to him, whether he likes it or not. Tomozaki has realized that his classmates like him as a friend — is he ready to realize (and accept) that his classmates might like him in a romantic way?
I have massive respect for the Tomozaki series for being brave enough to keep the ball rolling, and not stalling plot-wise. Yuuki Yaku knows how to efficiently pace his writing, hinting at something throughout the volume, and dumping it near the end, leaving you wanting to know what happens next. In a medium that’s marred by horrible pacing, the Tomozaki series not stalling nor going at the speed of light is refreshing.
The dividends of Tomozaki ‘leveling up’ are starting to show. For example, he’s shocked by the idea that a random girl that he’s never talked to before would want to talk to him about the school festival. He’s also shocked by the fact that his friends take his suggestion as seriously as they would take others. He still considers himself a ‘bottom-tier character’, but it’s obvious that he isn’t one anymore. Of course, knowing Hinami, she still wants Tomozaki to ‘level up’ some more, afraid that his social life will atrophy if he doesn’t keep ‘grinding’ at it. This is the whole point of him starting an Instagram account. Tomozaki also being taken under the wing of Mizusawa, who’s the male equivalent of Hinami, will help him ‘level up’ faster. It’ll be interesting to see what differences in philosophy Mizusawa and Hinami have, with them both being social climbers (Mizusawa being a womanizer, and Hinami wanting to be the best). The next volume won’t be released in English for five months, which makes me sad…the only things I can do during that time are reread the first five volumes, fast-track learning Japanese, and hopefully going out more once I get my vaccine.
85/100
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