Top 10 Gamers in Anime

Anime makes everything that seems to be simple in real life interesting. Examples are board games such as Go (Hikaru no Go), and card games (Yu-Gi Oh, Cardfight Vanguard, Duel Masters). Of course, modern games such as MMORPGs are becoming popular in the anime industry. Authors like to put a twist in how games are played: they either make it a death game, create a world where people could escape from, or bring the game to life. These are the top 10 gamers in anime, who know the feeling of becoming addicted to games.

This child brings gaming to a different level. His power allows him to bring video games to life, so his codename is “Gamemaster” and it’s pretty literal. But he doesn’t know how literal it can be. While he didn’t have a lot of friends, he also wanted to wipe out humankind because he felt like an outcast (which he sort of was). He’s really good with games. Like, he wins every game he plays so he starts to find them boring to play. Because of his skill in gaming, he can pretty much apply some of those skills in real life. He’s actually a good driver too, seen when he was on the wheel in a blue pickup truck, on the run from Yusuke.

©Studio Pierrot, 1992

He used to be part of the Sensui Seven, being one of the people who gained superhuman abilities because of the demon plane hole that Sensui opened. His power is called “territory”. He was tasked to make his favorite game, Goblin City, come to life to stop Yusuke’s team. But Kurama later points out that the true nature of his power is actually this: the rules of the game still applies to the real-life game. In Goblin City, the Gamemaster dies if he is beaten, and so Amanuma dies if he gets beaten as well. He ends up alive in the end, but he loses his powers when the demon plane hole closed. But, hey, he’s still really good with games. And he has friends now too. And he doesn’t want to wipe out humankind either anymore~

Unlike most of the characters in this list, Morimori-chan likes to call herself an “elite NEET” for actively choosing the NEET life. She quit her job and began to be a complete shut-in in search for a fulfilling and interesting life. She isn’t exactly a pro-gamer, but what makes her worthy to be in this list is that you could see how much she improves in the MMORPG, Fruits de Mer, and how she tries to cope with her real life situations. The anime made a realistic distinction between characters in the game versus who one is in the real life.

Gintoki is really lazy and doesn’t have a lot of money, so he is always behind on rent. He spends a lot of his time reading Shonen Jump (spot the other anime/manga references) or giving “advice” to younger employees, even though he doesn’t know what he’s talking about half the time. There weren’t really any consoles during his time (except for the Owee), so his kind of games are the likes of Pachinko. But, again, he doesn’t have a lot of money and is always behind on rent, so you can guess he’s not really good at it. He once had to play a game to get his and friends’ bodies back to normal. Well, it’s pretty obvious that he won that. Another time, he had to bring a friend back to reality, and to do that, he had to play another game, of course.

Also known as ‘Kona-chan’, this energetic and mischievous girl’s passion for anime and gaming is prominent throughout the series of Lucky Star to the point she pulls out her infamous all-nighters when exams are near. Her gaming preference leans towards RPG, MMPORG, and visual novels and often plays with her frenemy Kagami and briefly with her teacher, Nanako-sensei. She even has an alias or an MMPORG nickname, ‘Konakona’. Being the total enthusiastic fangirl that she is, she often makes brief mentions (rants) on parodies of several popular video games such as ‘Filna Fantasy’ (Final Fantasy) and ‘Tower of Druaga: The Recovery of Babylim’ (on the OVA).

Also known as the “Black Swordsman” because of his black clothing (bet you didn’t expect that). He’s not really good with words since he doesn’t have a lot of friends, choosing computers over other people. He’s almost always calm, barely showing any distress, such as when SAO was announced to be some Death Game. He has a strong determination to do anything to accomplish whatever matters to him, making him fierce and aggressive in battles. He usually works alone, willingly as a Beater, and is active as a Clearer during boss battles.

Katsuragi Keima reigns as the almighty “Capturing God” or God of Conquest, but what he conquers isn’t lands, castles or enemies… He lives only to capture the hearts of videogame heroines! It doesn’t matter what the genre of the game is, nor the console you need to play it in; If it’s a girl that you can court in a videogame, he will stop at NOTHING to get that sweet lovin’. He is known throughout the online community for being able to 100% complete dating games in record time and putting up extremely detailed walkthroughs. If he so chooses, Keima can enter “God of Conquest mode”, a technique that allows him to play 6 different games by using 6 different consoles simultaneously.

He is often seen playing with 1 or more PFPs that he takes with him everywhere (yes even in baths), so he can keep on gaming nonstop. Despite his constant playing, he does pretty well in academics by downright predicting what the teachers will put on the exams, similar to how he predicts routes in dating sims. Keima prefers to be left alone to his games and is a social outcast because of it, often being called “Otamegane” by his classmates. Little did he know that his prowess in conquering videogame heroines will one day be useful for conquering the hearts of real-life heroines too~

He may be fat, he may be small, but this little piggy transforms into a silver crow when he puts his mind to it. Even before entering the gaming world of Brain Burst, Haruyuki was already a skilled gamer (in squash), thanks to his lonely and timid self who became a recluse after his only friends started dating each other. It was only upon entering Brain Burst, with the help of the beautiful and charismatic Kuroyukihime, that his wing truly (literally) sprouted. He is known as the Silver Crow because of the metallic color of his avatar and because he is the only avatar in that whole world that can fly. At first, his “piggy” and timid self can barely survive in the game, despite his strong and lithe avatar. He learns to be courageous and brave eventually and lives up to his name. He is not that much of an overpowered character since he builds up his skill and learns to fight in a way that he can, instead of blindly charging with his special powers. He learns early that he needs to make up for his lack of fighting knowledge with craftiness. He develops a sense of cunning that could rival even the most cunning of all the characters in the series, Yellow Radio. Haru is a fun gamer to watch and root for because, under the tutelage of Kuroyukihime, he grows as his wings take him to further heights.

A NEET you don’t want to mess with, that’s Ryouta. From spending his days playing the online game “BTOOOM!” to being forcefully transported into an island survival game, this man is more than what he seems to be. Throughout the manga and anime we see how Ryouta is actually quite inceptive, and skilled. He is able to deduce details from observations, combat and fight other inhabitants of the island, and withstand the onslaught of mental trauma the entire game brings. This is what brings Ryouta to a whole new level from other gamers. His skills apply to real life situations, it saves him and it shows that even NEETs (or anyone), shouldn’t be underestimated.

Without delving too deep, Ryouta was shown to be quite the disrespectful person. He really didn’t have much control when it came to real life relationships, but despite this it was later revealed that his disrespectful and rude nature was because of his childhood pain. And even later on it was expounded how this pain got worse and worse until he shut off the people around him and became a NEET. We aren’t perfect people and neither is he, and so his will to change who he is becomes genuine to us. The simple fact that he’s a bomb-throwing-badass makes him worthy enough to be in this list.

As the master strategist of the legendary party Debauchery Tea Party, there is little wonder as to how this particular gamer managed to make his way into our Top List of Gamers in Anime. A half-Alv Enchanter Scribe in the MMORPG Elder Tale, Shiro looks like nothing more than a nerdy beansprout or a glasses otaku. When the monsters arrive and the swords are drawn, he turns into a completely different person, though his appearance stays the same. As a veteran who has been playing since his middle school days, Shiroe has a vast amount of knowledge of the world of Elder Tale, the MMORPG he ends up trapped in due to the “Disaster”. His Overskill is Contract Art Ceremony, a skill that allows him to write up a contract that can even change the very rules of the world. This allowed him to transform a Lander (NPC) into an Adventurer (Player). Another of his amazing skills is Full Control Encounter. This is less of an in-game skill, but a mental skill that he practiced and developed during all those years of grinding and questing. This skill allows him to keep an eye on the remaining MP and resources of all his allies and to predict what will happen in the next 30 seconds. It is a crucial skill for a master strategist to have.

When he is trapped in Elder Tale after the “Disaster”, he uses this vast amount of knowledge to figure out the rules of the new world and build a place for the gamers to stay in. His vast array of gaming knowledge also helps him conquer missions and quests that aid them along the way. When he first started playing, this made him weary of joining a guild and of people who wanted to exploit his gaming skill. This leads him to use his skill in gaming to manipulate people and keep them at a distance, earning him the nickname of the “Villain in Glasses”. Eventually, with the help of some of his friends from Debauchery Tea Party and two lolis, he learns to show his vulnerable side and creates his own guild, Log Horizon.

『　　』, Kuuhaku, Blank or whatever you may want to call them, is a duo comprised of the siblings Sora and Shiro. Well, they are more of a quartet if you meet them in online games where Sora’s hands, Sora’s feet, Shiro’s hands, and Shiro’s feet, each control 『　　』’s different accounts to such a spectacular amount of control that they can defeat an entire guild that uses cheats. Now you might be wondering, what is the price to be this good, to be this dedicated in grinding at games, and to be an urban legend whose existence is disputed because of how inhuman 『　　』 is at games? Well, Sora and Shiro are social outcasts. Both tired of struggling in the real world, they pour their efforts into gaming where they can shine, with Sora handling all the psychological aspects of gaming while the genius Shiro deals with cold logic. Together, they set out to conquer the gaming world. Keyword: together. Being shut-ins as they immersed themselves in games, Sora and Shiro are only ever comfortable socializing if they are together. Once they are separated, they are overcome with anxiety, enough to be unable to properly socialize. Any perfect combination should always have a weakness anyway.

Chosen due to their exceptional skill at playing games, Sora and Shiro soon became transported to the world of Disboard, a place where everything, from elections to geographical territory, are governed by playing games. Unfazed by the rules of Disboard, the siblings set out to conquer the world they prefer living in by doing what they do best: play games.

『　　』 represents an unbreakable trust between Sora and Shiro. Maybe you really just need a team to complement with to make the cut in the gaming world. Or just a very adorable loli sister to help you be motivated every time you try to win games. However, they are also a warning to us, since there’s no Disboard to fall to if our gaming world selves have taken over our true selves. But in the end of it all, isn’t reality the greatest game we all have ever played?