10 Second Anime - Gamers! - Episode 10

Chiaki struggles with her feelings for Keita. Karen is a happy girl in love. Keita is a gamer who cares.

DAY 10 - "Gamers and Next Stage"

Meh.

This hodgepodge of an episode teased us with going to the "next stage" past all the misunderstandings, but it was just a tease to throw more jokes at that pile. It was a gag episode! Thank goodness for the joke writing and voice acting, because the animation quality took a nose dive.

Nice reaction shot to Keita wussing out on The Talk. What is up with Chiaki's leg? And that running scene after Aguri saw Tasuku with his arms around Chiaki and Aguri... wow. Karen's two-frame running isn't as bad as Chiaki and Tasuku's barely moving forms.

It wasn't all bad. Aguri had a scene with some man sluts and a Gal from middle school to gauge her growth in accepting gamer nerds. It felt out of place because it's been obvious for the whole season that even though Tasuku and Aguri took on the superficial markers of the popular crowd, they remained people who cared for their former tribe of nerds. Aguri as a devotee of Tasuku seemed a poor choice to reinforce her caring feelings for her "annoying little brother" because it was never established that she ever tried to fit in with the popular crowd by belittling the social misfits. Tasuku already dealt with that kind of business early on, so this moment with Aguri fell a little flat.

It's only real purpose was to put her in an emotionally vulnerable spot to witness her reason for becoming a Gal with his hands around two girls who she's been suspicious of him cheating on her. Which, of course led to the bad animation and to Keita showing he's not a shallow gamer.

Heh.

Oh, so now Keita wants to bring people together to get everything out in the open! Tasuku's Game of Half-Life didn't work out so well, except for roiling Chiaki's feelings for her frenemy and leading to another manufactured misunderstanding of a love confession, but this time will be different!

Or not. Keita no baka! You saw that terrible reaction shot above with Chiaki's leg all out of whack. I wonder if it's not a really subtle meta joke at rag doll glitching. Nah. It's probably really lazy animation.

Aguri wants cake! But the cake is a lie. Always go with pie!

Are they finally admitting that Chiaki was really crushing on Tasuku early in the season when she made her transformation? I thought it was more of a shy girl gaining confidence and trying to get Keita jealous of her. Well, I'm sure there was some puppy love in there with a good looking guy actually talking to a withdrawn gamer girl.

Ha! Karen is the expert on rejecting love confessions! Why is she mad that her boyfriend needs advice on rejecting someone else. Shouldn't she be happy? Who cares! Feelings are irrational!

Konoha can't forget that Keita is the cool guy who likes the same games she does.

Keita and Karen are making a really adorable couple right now.

Okay, they're making an annoying and adorable couple right now.

Tasuku still doesn't know that he "confessed" to Chiaki. Aguri needs to update her relationship chart...

It was a misunderstanding. Tee-hee. Gah! Why haven't you done this for the last six episodes? That was a really good joke setup, though.

Hmmmmm. Keita cares more about Aguri than a game? Hmmmmmmm. What's nice about that scene is even Tasuku doesn't read anything romantic in it anymore. Are we finally going to unravel the big ball of misunderstandings next episode?

Still concentrating on Karen for the end card. You know, we don't have a lot of episodes left to put more Chiaki in there, or even one of Aguri or the fighting game senpai from the official club. Chop, chop!