Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki 2nd Stage (2024)

[弱キャラ友崎くん 2nd STAGE]

Director: Shinsuke Yanagi
Studio: Project No. 9
Starring: Gen Sato, Hisako Kanemoto, Ikumi Hasegawa
Episodes: 13

Synopsis:
While Tomozaki has found success in his playthrough of the game of life, new challenges emerge to up the difficulty level.

Impressions:
Based on where the previous season left off, you would think the story would focus on Tomozaki's efforts to get Hinami to genuinely enjoy the game of life, but that idea gets dropped entirely and instead we have Tomozaki take the mentor role for Tama as she tries to undergo a social transformation as a result of a bullying incident where the mob classmates prove themselves to be backbiting garbage monkeys. Hinami also proves to not just be a cynical manipulator but also a massive hypocrite, which further damages her likeability. We tease a little bit about what might be going on under the hood near the end of the season, but nothing more than that. The second half of the season is focused on Hinami pushing Tomozaki to pursue one of the ladies in his life romantically. As with pretty much any romcom scenario where there are going to be multiple options, the result is going to be divisive among the fans. I'm Team Fuuka, but I'm more than happy to admit that Mimimi is the people's champion. We close on a fairly nice note, but I'm worried that story will eventually turn in a direction I really don't want, so I'm tempted just to leave the series here, but I'll probably watch a third season if it ever happens, even though I fear the author will take the bog-standard approach for a thoroughly unsatisfying conclusion. However, that doesn't affect this season, which is a bit of a mixed bag, but production values remain high and if you're invested in the characters, it should be well enough worth a watch.

Rating:
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