Title: I Want a Gal Gamer to Praise Me Vol. 1
Author: Geshumaru
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: March 19, 2024
The Story
Raito has gotten into Bpex Legends (ah, parody names); however, he’s terrible at the game and can’t even get a single kill. To remedy this, he took it upon himself to hire a pro gamer to come coach him. The only problem is that this pro-gamer is a 16-year-old busty high school girl named Rion! Despite being flustered by never having a girl in his room before, he takes in her lessons and ends up getting his first win ever in the game.
Once the 3-hour session is over, though, Rion discovers that Raito goes to the same school as her. She doesn’t have anyone to talk to about gaming so she wants to know if they could become friends. The only problem is that Raito doesn’t like going to school but, suddenly, he has found the motivation to start going again!
On his first day back, one of his classmates introduces herself to him. Her name is Yuu and, apparently, she used to be Raito’s childhood friend. Things get a bit embarrassing when Raito remembers her; however, he thought that she was a boy when they were little! Despite the awkwardness, Yuu has taken quite a liking to Raito and, just like Rion, Yuu is a gamer!
Our first volume closes out with Rion inviting Raito to the computer lab after school. There, she has a proposal for him. She wants to start the school’s first-ever gaming club and she invites Raito to form the club with her!
Characters
Raito is a mixed bag of a main character. He’s kind and considerate; however, just like most teenage boys, he gets a bit flustered around girls. Nothing really new there in that aspect; however, if there is one thing he is, he’s determined… at least when it comes to video games. He took matters into his own hands when he realized that playing on his own wasn’t going to make him improve. Paying for a coach is sometimes needed when you can’t execute tutorials on your own. Sometimes you need live input on the things you do and that’s what Raito realized that he needed… he just got more than he bargained for with Rion! Even with a couple of layers to him, Raito is a typical teen male main character. It’s great that he’s determined but it’s not enough to make him super interesting. He’s just run-of-the-mill… but it works in this style of story.
Rion, on the other hand, is a pro gamer. Towards the end of the volume, we learn how she got to be at her level and her simple line of “Don’t you hate getting taken lightly?” carries a lot more weight than it seems on the surface. I feel as if there is a deeper reason to that and it could be the reason why she turned to gaming as an outlet. Another clue is that she said that she doesn’t have people to talk to at school about gaming. You get a sense of loneliness from her that Raito might be able to fill. I just feel there is more to her than what we’ve been given and I like how we got just enough to be introduced to her all while wondering what else lies beneath the surface.
Yuu is pretty cool. Of course, I would say that because she is a tomboy and that’s my favorite female character archetype. Even when Raito thought she was a boy eight years ago, she got a little miffed but made him pay for lunch as a form of punishment and then left it at that. As soon as they ate lunch together, she was back to normal as the two of them caught up. I’m not sure if she’s a pro gamer but she’s definitely into games big time and while the club hasn’t formed yet, it’s super obvious she’s going to join and a classic love triangle is going to begin.
Final Thoughts
I wasn’t sure what to expect here. When I saw that the first volume was only 160 pages and there were 24 chapters in it (20 main chapters and 4 bonus chapters), I thought that maybe it would be a 4-koma style manga; however, it wasn’t. Despite the quick chapters, the pacing felt just right. Things moved along smoothly and everything had a time to unfold and develop. The only little nitpick I had was that they seemed to forget about Rion’s job as a pro-gaming counselor pretty quickly. Then again, Raito was her first-ever client and she does go to school so it’s not like she’s going to be there 24/7.
I can see her job interfering from time to time and with this being a romantic comedy, there’s a great opportunity there for future drama. What if they are meant to hang out as friends but Rion gets called away to another client? What if that client is a boy and it makes Raito jealous? What if Yuu sees that and gets jealous of Raito being jealous? What if one of her new clients is another girl and they end up joining the yet-to-be-formed gaming club? What if the whole series is a comedy on the surface but the true goal is just for Rion to get more friends in her life to fill an empty hole in her heart?
There are so many directions this series can go… How many swerves it can pull? It has me excited thinking about it!
Needless to say, this was a great first volume that took me by surprise. Sure, there are a lot of clichéd accidental pervy moments in here but it does have an ecchi appeal so it fits. Being a nerd myself, this series hit all the right buttons to get me invested!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
