Title: I Want a Gal Gamer to Praise Me Vol. 3
Author: Geshumaro
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 162
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: November 19, 2024
The Story
This volume of I Want a Gal Gamer to Praise Me is all about Yuu! Yuu accepts Raito’s invitation and spends some time over at his house. Before we do that; however, Rion receives a message from Raito in the middle of a practice session. Knowing that it’s from him causes her to make a few mistakes; however, she gets through it just fine.
We bounce back over to Raito’s house where the two of them start playing some retro games for nostalgia’s sake. Yuu then tries something bold but when she finds her efforts are futile, they head to Raito’s room to play some Bpex. That’s when Raito gets to text Rion to see if she wants to come over and maybe play some Bpex with Yuu. That circles back to when Rion received the text. She scurries over to Raito’s house and profusely apologizes for not answering him and not telling him about practice and missing club.
That’s when all of the zany fun starts! Once Yuu discovers that Raito’s coach is a girl and Rion discovers that Raito’s friend is a girl… well… I’m sure you can imagine in a rom-com how this plays out. When all of the overblown comedic dust settles, Rion is a proposition to make!
Characters
Once again, Yuu was the big focal point of the volume and I couldn’t have been happier. Because of my personal tastes in character archetypes, this series could just be about Raito and Yuu and I would die happy. For me, Rion isn’t even needed at all because Yuu just outshines her in every way possible. While Yuu didn’t get much in the way of development lore-wise, we do finally understand that she wants Raito all to herself and gets SUPER jealous of Rion. Plus, her playful attitude is too cute for words. I love tomboys the most out of every slice-of-life character archetype and the fact that Yuu is a tomboy and a gamer makes her THE perfect character in this series… at least for me. I just can’t get enough of her!
Rion, on the other hand, seemed really confused about how she felt about Raito. She’s beginning to question what he is to her which can only mean that the setup has begun for the ship, except it’s not so obvious in this case… more on that later. A lot of her mental dwelling was done through silence and the fact that she simply stood back and watched Yuu go nuts with her assumptions about the two of them. There was no inner monologue by Rion like you would find in most SoL rom-coms but you could just tell from the way everything was laid out and her facial expressions that she wondered about some things. Nice subtle storytelling that you don’t normally expect from a series such as this.
Lastly, Raito. The dude is still as oblivious as ever without being oblivious. He understands what Yuu is saying but he’s just acting like it’s no big deal. Better than just pretending (or purposefully) to be in the dark about stuff, though. That is a nice breath of fresh air as too many main characters just act like they have no clue what a girl means when they strongly hint that naughty stuff could be happening.
Final Thoughts
This was another fun volume! Again, I love Yuu as a character and, as I said, I just can’t get enough of her. She’s sassy, quick-witted, full of energy, a total tease, and loves video games. What’s not to love about that? Gushing aside, I do want to circle back to something that this manga does that very, VERY few slice-of-life rom-com series have been able to pull off… that is… the unpredictable love triangle.
More often than not, a romance series will start by focusing on the two main characters and make it PAINFULLY OBVIOUS that they are going to end up together. Then, along the way for whatever reason, they throw in side characters and make them seem as if they have a chance at stealing the main love interest away only to fail every single time. It seems like a waste of time and adds nothing but artificial drama that, in the end, means nothing because anyone with a quarter of a brain knows that they have zero chance. It would shock me more if a side character ended up getting the girl, thus destroying the entire premise of the manga series but it never happens and so, the supposed love triangle aspect is DoA every single time.
But not here. It was never established that Rion and Raito were going to get shipped. It was never stated that they two were in love, had a crush on one another, or had any prior romantic interest. There’s no backstory about being childhood friends with them, no days spent hanging out or having a deep and rich history. In fact, Rion and Raito started at square one… total strangers who became friends. Obviously, Rion has some sort of attraction to Raito for various reasons but then we introduce Yuu at the perfect time… before anything serious can happen to cement the fact that Rion and Raito will end up as a couple.
We also establish the fact that Yuu is, indeed, a childhood friend and they have that history BUT we have the added twist that Yuu hasn’t seen Raito in a very long time and, therefore, their history means something but that absence… that gap in time, nullifies her from being an instant winner in the love game. This puts Yuu and Rion on a level playing field and makes you wonder… will Raito end up with Rion because they became gaming buddies or will the gap in time close and Raito end up with the childhood friend? You can’t answer that because of the way it was set up.
I can’t believe that I’m finally reading a rom-com with a love triangle that was set up perfectly and, therefore, is unpredictable. My hat is off to Geshumaro. You cracked the code and you did it right! More please. Bring on Volume 4!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
