Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, Vol. 5

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki Light Novel #5

by Yuki Yaku

THE STUDENT BECOMES THE TEACHER...AND THEN BECOMES THE STUDENT AGAIN?!

Tomozaki never expected he would be mentoring Tama-chan in the ways of the normie to defend her from bullying-especially not when she turns out to have an A-tier character to begin with. To make matters worse, Hinami insists that Tama-chan shouldn't have to change at all, so he's on his own this time. When a powerful new ally joins the party, though, taking down this boss just might be possible...

Genres: Light Novel, Slice Of Life, School

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 17, 2017

Reviews

[nflstreet · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve read my reviews on the other translated Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki light novels, you’ve probably read something like ‘this volume was better than the last’ in almost every one of them. The only exception was my volume four review (from the top of my head). While it’s a repetitive statement, it’s true. Tomozaki is Yuki Yaku’s first light novel series that’s been published, so it’s to be expected that his writing gets better as time goes on. This volume is no different - it was better than volume four, and was the best volume so far. The difference this time is that this volume crosses the boundary into being a ‘good’ book, something that I knew that the Tomozaki series had the potential of doing, but knew would take time considering the dirty business of writing light novels, and the more absurd premises that were present at the beginning of the series.

Volume five begins directly after volume four - with Hanabi Natsubayashi (Tama-chan for short) asking Tomozaki help on how to get out of the current situation she’s in. If you’ve read volume four, you would know that after Yuzu Izumi and Shuji Nakamura started dating, Erika Konno, the ‘Queen of the Class’, became upset to the point that she started picking on a random classmate, not in the slightest related to Izumi and Nakamura getting together, just to vent her anger. The original target of this harassment was Hirabayashi, a defenseless girl that didn’t have the marbles to fight back against Erika - but that harassment was quickly changed to Tama-chan after she called Erika out on her weird behavior. Tama-chan’s instinct of calling out bullshit, while has established that she has a backbone, has also created a situation where to the average viewer, Tama-chan is ‘just as bad’ as Erika, since Tama-chan has the tendency to flip out at what seems like the smallest thing. Erika is discrete with her harassment to the point where you can’t prove that SHE’s the one that did it. It’s a bit of an Al Capone situation. Tama-chan is now stuck in a situation where her desk is constantly getting kicked and her pencil lead is getting constantly broken, not being able to fight back more than she already has without running the risk of becoming more unlikeable than Erika. This is where she turns to Tomozaki for help, seeing that he has dug himself out of the hole of being irrelevant and turned from a loser into a ‘normie’ in a few months.

While the advice I would give to Tama-chan would be direct action (giving Erika a shiner to wear across the school for a week to show that she ‘fucked around and found out’), I can see how this wouldn’t work for this situation. While this worked for me, American high schools and Japanese high schools are very different, at least from what I’ve read and watched. While it decreased the future amount of bullying I received in high school by probably 90%, in this situation, it could’ve made Tama-chan a social outcast due to the weird social hierarchy that exists in this universe. It’s a dramatization folks. What Tomozaki proposes is more acceptable by Japanese norms, and would benefit Tama-chan in the long run. He tells her that she should stop ‘fighting back’, which will help her stop losing favor with her other classmates, and helps her attempt to become more ‘approachable’. While Tama-chan doesn’t have the problem of looking and being a loser that Tomozaki had, she’s very tone-deaf and hard to approach. She only has one close friend in Minami Nanami (‘Mimimi’ for short). If she can change that, then she can gain favor within the class, which would, in turn, make it harder for Erika to pick on her, due to the chance of backlash against her increasing. This volume is different from the other volumes in the case that Tomozaki is the teacher, not the student (There have been other volumes where he’s guided other characters, but this is the first time he’s been asked on how to advance up the social ladder). Now that he’s successfully become ‘normie passing’, he can pass his tips and tricks onto other willing proteges. The methods and practices that Aoi Hinami made him do won’t help Tama-chan that much in this situation, however, due to their starting point. The only crossover is the ‘tone practice’, since Tama-chan tends to have a natural harsh tone to her voice, which to her might not sound bad, but is off-putting to who she’s directing it to. There’s no practicing smiling under a mask, no pretending to have a cold in order to ask a girl for a tissue, no using flashcards to come up with conversation starters, no ‘buying the mannequin’ at clothing stores (this scene from the first volume is still bizarre to me, due to me being a retail worker - while I’ve had the pleasure of putting shirts and pants on mannequins, most of the time the Visual Manager is the one that puts the clothes on them, and I can only assume that Corporate is the one that ‘decides’ what looks good. While I work at a retail store more geared towards older consumers, I assume it’s the same standard for retail stores that attract the whippersnappers.), and no completely trying to copy mannerisms from more popular people. Different problems require different solutions. Speaking of Hinami, she spends the majority of this volume as a background character, She is insistent on saying that Tama-chan ‘shouldn’t have to change’ - which is technically correct, but ignores the reality of the situation she has herself in. This is very un-Hinami-like, considering how hard she has pushed for Tomozaki to change in the past novels. With this, Tomozaki has to recruit other more-sympathetic classmates in his quest of making Tama-chan become more popular, which in return would make her less likely to be harassed by Erika.

In lieu of Hinami refusing to help Tomozaki, he recruits several other people to help Tama-chan improve her ‘likeability rating’ around the classroom. Several classmates who were main characters or side pieces in the previous volumes come to form what’s eventually called ‘Team Tomozaki’. While a team this big wasn’t needed, every little bit helps, especially if they’re trying to fight ‘the queen’. Team Tomozaki comes up with several solutions to help Tama-chan’s situation, but I think the one that sticks out the most is them suggesting that Tama-chan create ‘more vulnerabilities’. While this might seem odd to say, having vulnerabilities makes a person more approachable. More human. In high school, I went the opposite way, trying to seal up any vulnerabilities that I had in order that I couldn’t get made fun of. That worked, somewhat - but what was the cost? I was never close to anyone for most of high school, and only became close friends with people after I opened up a little and became more sincere. I blame the internet and the ‘cool kid’ atmosphere of 4chan at the time for this, but also I know it’s mostly my fault for ever thinking that anyone would want to be friends with a boring and cynical guy. Thankfully for Tama-chan, she has Mimimi, whose extroverted personality and consideration for Tama-chan make sure that Tama-chan is never left out. The person that Tama-chan is told to ‘impersonate’ is Takei, who’s an oafish but well-liked person around the classroom. By ‘impersonate’, I don’t mean like how Tomozaki did with Mizuhara earlier in the story, but ‘impersonate’ as in developing a more cheery tone and create ‘more vulnerabilities’ like Takei has. Takei is a very vulnerable person, with him being aloof and happy-go-lucky. It would be difficult for Tama-chan to pretend to be a Big Fat Party Animal, with her being neither big nor fat (Takei isn’t fat, but he is big for sure), but it wouldn’t be to take notes on how Takei improves the mood in every situation he’s in. Takei and Tama-chan already have one thing in common - they both say what’s on their mind. The difference is when Takei ‘speaks his mind’, it’s associated with a more positive tone, while Tama-chan’s is more associated with a negative one. Another way that Team Tomozaki wants to get Tama-chan to be more likable is to create ‘charm points’. They also call these vulnerabilities, but I wouldn’t consider Hinami having an obsession with cheese and cheese products a vulnerability. No one is going to try to bully you for being a cheesehead unless if they’re a vegan. Tama-chan has a lot of quirks, ‘weaponizing’ one for the purpose of having it being associated with her can help her become more known for reasons other than ‘the girl who hit Erika’ or ‘Mimimi’s friend’. These methods of helping make Tama-chan more popular are better than the ones that Hinami used to help make Tomozaki more popular. It wasn’t really a complaint, but I thought it was funny that most of the suggestions that Hinami had for Tomozaki were something that I could’ve read on a PUA board ten years ago. But with Tama-chan, Tomozaki’s methods are more human, and require less social manipulation. In pulling so many people into ‘Team Tomozaki’, he has accidentally already done most of his job - if Tama-chan becomes friends with these classmates, it’s only logical that her standing in the class hierarchy will improve. Tama-chan isn’t being told to reinvent herself, she’s only being told to come out of her shell.

One of the surprising things about this volume is how the premise of Tomozaki being ‘the best ‘Atafami’ (this series' version of Super Smash Bros.) player’ being pretty much dropped. The word ‘Atafami’ is only said twice this volume, and in passing both times. Tomozaki does not play Atafami once this volume (to the readers’ knowledge at least). Compare this to the last volume, where it was uttered 33 times, and the first volume, where it was mentioned 102 times. To be fair, this volume only takes place within a time-span of around two weeks, give or take. Also, Hinami is mostly MIA, which deprives Tomozaki of the opportunity to talk to his rival on the Atafami leaderboards or ask if she wants to play some friendlies after school. As weird as it might be to completely drop the pretense of Tomozaki being the ‘best Atafami gamer in Japan’, the idea that he was the best player was silly to begin with. I know adding these traits to a main character might make them more relatable and cool to the potential audience, or might fulfill a fantasy for some readers, but the idea in execution is quite childish. Hinami being the second-best Atafami gamer on the leaderboards is even less believable, but that’s something that I’ve already talked about in past reviews and would rather not repeat. The thing is that it would’ve made more sense if Tomozaki was the ‘best at his school’, or hell, the ‘best in his prefecture’ - Saitama has more than seven million people in it, being the best Atafami player out of all of those people is still very impressive, while being somewhat believable. It makes me think that this whole thing wasn’t that real thought out, other than it was a way to get Tomozaki and Hinami to meet each other. While the dialing back of Atafami might be disappointing to others, I find it something that was necessary if the Tomozaki series wanted to escape the purgatory of being ‘just another light novel series’. Atafami will become a major plot point in future volumes, but its purpose of linking the two main characters together has been fulfilled. What this signifies is that the series is moving from your standard occasionally-entertaining-but-otherwise-mediocre light novel series and is actually trying to be something that will be remembered after it’s over. Tomozaki’s skills in dissecting Atafami in order to become ‘the best’ at it has transferred into the ‘normie world’, him being able to help others out with social dilemmas. While the idea of Tomozaki ‘gamifying’ life has also been diminished this volume, he still is able to analyze and come up with good solutions surprisingly often. Tomozaki has become quite the normie.

Another thing that differentiates this volume from others, to me at least, is that it’s the first volume to have a message in it that resonates with me after I’ve finished it. Granted, I only finished it two days ago at this point, but the message of ‘vulnerability’ is one that I think is important to those who are still in high school or university reading this that might be socially maladroit. ‘Taking risks’ and expressing your interests and talking to others is important if you want to have any sort of a happy social life - a message that is sometimes hard to find other places. I wish I was able to read this light novel ten years earlier. Would I have taken any lessons from it? Who knows. But I do know that it would’ve been good to at least have one thing tell me that it’s sometimes okay to ‘be cringe’, and that trying to be cool at all times is a dead end, especially if you aren’t cool to begin with like I was and still am. This is why I like Tomozaki’s end goal for Tama-chan more than Hinami’s end goal for Tomozaki. Tomozaki doesn’t want Tama-chan to become part of the ‘top chaste’ - he just wants her to be accepted in the class enough so that Erika doesn’t see it politically viable to harass her. This volume represents the potential start of an increasingly better series - not just ‘better than the last volume’, but each volume being good, eventually becoming great, and so on. It sucks that it took five volumes for this to happen, but such is the nature of light novels.

The ending of this volume was also the best of the five volumes out so far. It reminded me of the first volume’s ending, other than the fact that the first volume’s ending was embarrassing to read, while this one was satisfying, albeit a bit over-dramatic, to read. It helped that volume five had a good chunk of the previous volume to be the set up for the plot of it, which was a good move on the author’s part. I don’t know if this volume would’ve been worse if the entirety of the Erika Harassment arc was contained within it, but there’s no way that it would’ve been better. While I can’t say that this volume was ‘great’, I can say with full confidence that this volume was ‘good’, and I’m excited to read the sixth volume whenever it comes out. There’s also a Tomozaki anime that’s coming out next season (Winter 2021) that I’m excited for, mostly for the fact that it’s a rare opportunity for me to be the guy that knows what’s going to happen before it actually happens. From what I know, the anime is going to cover six volumes in 12 episodes, so there’s a good chance that the anime looks rushed when it comes out, but that’s the nature of light novel adaptations. I’m more excited about the next volume, especially since I don’t know what Tomozaki will do next. At this point, it seems like he’s already achieved the goal of becoming a ‘normie’ - the only thing he hasn’t done yet is getting a girlfriend. Whatever happens, know that I’ll read it and will for sure write something about it.

[H · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh, mentioned in V4 review but generally find bully stories frustrating. Liked certain parts though: Tomozaki realizing his increasing feelings for Kikuchi and him being teased to be alone with her, Tama being so honest and just hearted even being kind to the cruel bully Erika Konno and stopping the class from ganging up on her after Konno bullied her for weeks after Hinami Aoi's trap reversed Konno's reputation with the class hating Konno. Also like that there's a bit of camaraderie with Team Tomozaki that he gathers and then everyone at the end being friendly.

Also liked what it hinted about Hinami Aoi's darkness and cruelty even if it was just, Tomozaki's true thoughts of Aoi being that he wanted to understand her more, and I also liked what it implied about Mizusawa seeing Tomozaki as a future rival for Aoi.

Don't like the bully situation for 80% of it though. Why not get evidence of the consistent harassment and have multiple students go tell the teacher? If Tomozaki, Mizusawa, Tama, Hinami all went to the teacher and told them how they witnessed Erika Konno's everyday harassment and then recorded her secret kicking the desk everyday or badmouthing Tama, even the teacher would have to take their side given all the evidence and testimony.

And also why the heck didn't Tama take her stuff with her? Was there points that her stuffed charm was alone in the bag with no one watching it? Seriously?

But anyway, I understand it was all to set up/force the drama of Tomozaki vs Aoi's methods and Aoi's methods ultimately proving successful albeit cruel.

Liked that Tama saw through Aoi's true darkness and being disappointed and same for Tomozaki and liked that Tomozaki stood up to get Aoi to stop, as well as Mizusawa suspecting it was all intentional at least halfway ish.

But yeah, just didn't think the bully thing had to be stretched to the extent it was. Eh. Still looking forward to future volumes and enjoying though.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

In it to win it…

Ok, so this is volume 5. If you picked it up at random you won’t have much idea of who everyone is, where they came from, what they’re doing or why. Pro tip: Go read from volume 1! Totally worth it.

For those who are regulars, you barely need a review - this is more of the same shenanigans that has propelled our loner louse from bottom tier to … maybe a little above bottom? Luckily he’s surrounded by people who value him more than he values himself and his journey of self-discovery continues apace. And what better way to learn than by teaching? Yes, in this volume Tomozaki gets an apprentice. Does it work? CAN it work, with such a hopeless case as a teacher? Well, you’ll have to find out by reading the volume won’t you?

[Glasdow Teacosy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much better book than the previous volume. If I had any complaints, it was that there was for too much dialogue and not enough story. There were parts that felt like the conversation was padding things before the ultimate resolution. However, it wasn’t boring. Even worse, I enjoyed it. If that confuses you, don’t worry. It confuses me as well.

Tomozaki is a fun character and riding along with him as he lives his life as a game can definitely be entertaining. I can’t say that I was thrilled with this particular story arc, so I’m glad that it was resolved.

In short, too much dialogue, but full with story elements and character developments which made for an interesting read.

[Major Flamboyant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of good political or court intrigue, but I have never read about a story related to classroom intrigue, and this was quite well-done. I enjoyed this volume. Tama-chan is the main focus of this volume, and it really gave her a lot of development. I hope we get to see some Konno development as well in the future. Casting her as just the villain would be a waste of good opportunity. This volume is the best in the series so far and I would hope that the author maintains or improves on this quality.

[Sebastián · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un volumen que deja con muchas buenas sensaciones, el ver cómo Tama-chan mejora bajo el manto de Tomozaki-kun fue muy placentero y con la tensión de fondo que hubo durante todo el volumen crearon un combinación muy buena entre sentir que todo irá para abajo y para arriba, el final fue la parte más tensa debido a Hinami y realmente da al lector una sensación de miedo al leerlo, al final deja una sensación de incertidumbre sobre como proseguiran las cosas ahora.

[Mad Seabrother · Rating 4 out of 5]

Đoạn cao trào xây dựng tốt thật, giải quyết tình huống cũng ổn, nói chung là hay nhất trong số 5 tập đầu.

[Martina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️