Game On!

As a teacher at Gekkoukan High School, Isako Toriumi is known for her laidback personality. Although she has no issues in the classroom, she sometimes butts heads with her colleagues and feels weighed down by societal pressures. This is ultimately why she loses herself in video games. She often plays MMOs as a form of stress relief, and she’s especially captivated by an RPG called Innocent Sin Online. Using the handle “Maya”, Ms. Toriumi spends most of her spare time online. She uses the game as an outlet for work-related rants and is comfortable enough with her online friends to reveal personal secrets. After admitting that she has a crush on one of her students, she’s mortified to discover that she’s been playing with him online for months! Persona wouldn’t be Persona without a MILFy teacher who wants to bang her students.

Goodman is the president of a mysterious corporation that has its sights set on world domination. He realizes that there are a number of powerful fighters in “NEOGEO World” that could derail his plans, so he sponsors a fighting tournament and invites his would-be adversaries. Goodman hopes to eliminate his enemies in one fell swoop, but the Federation Government derails his scheme by sending in a couple of teenagers to investigate. Ai certainly doesn’t look like a federal agent, and she’s too clumsy to be taken seriously as a fighter. The cheerful girl is seldom seen without her Neo Geo Pocket, and she’s likely to ignore her assignment to play video games. Thankfully, the handheld device somehow allows her to summon weapons from obscure Neo Geo titles! Playing video games in the middle of a street fight is generally not recommended.

Hyperdimension Neptunia takes place in a world called Gamindustri and centers around a great conflict known as the Console Wars. Given the subject matter, it’s only fitting that the main characters would be based on real-world video game consoles and developers. Neptune – who takes her name from the cancelled Sega Neptune – is the main protagonist, and she constantly breaks the fourth wall. She’s patently aware that she’s in a video game, and it’s obvious that she’s a huge gamer herself. Her speech is laced with gamer jargon, and she’s constantly dropping references to specific games and characters. She casually hums the Final Fantasy victory jingle after winning battles, for example, and she occasionally mutters the Konami Code to herself. Neptune would be content to play retro games all day if she didn’t have so many other responsibilities.

You can tell a lot about Francis by his appearance alone. The asocial chameleon is a turbo nerd who devotes his life to anime, comic books, and video games. His shelves are adorned with Nintendo consoles and gaming merchandise, and his collection includes everything from a Yoshi egg to a Tanooki Suit made out of real tanooki fur! He’s so passionate about games that he had to be hospitalized as a result of playing them too hard. Francis has no real friends and only makes time for “hot babes.” Ironically, he has no idea how to talk to girls. When he meets Princess Peach, he’s too timid to engage in a real conversation. Instead, he opens up a dating sim called Swoon.exe and communicates with her through the app. When he’s not striking out with women, he goes on message boards to complain about video games that he hasn’t played.

Jimmy De Santa is a reflection of how gamers are depicted in the media. The 20-year-old has no ambition, and he spends all day smoking pot and playing video games in his bedroom. His online etiquette can only be described as toxic, and his vocabulary is largely comprised of homophobic slurs and rape threats. His father frequently berates him for his disrespectful attitude, but Jimmy carries on as though the world owes him something. (He literally has the word “entitled” tattooed on his neck!) Even though his video game habits are problematic, they help him stay out of trouble. When left to his own devices, Jimmy does a lot of stupid shit. At one point, he falls victim to a shady finance scheme. Later, he tries to sell his father’s yacht for drug money! Relatively speaking, yelling at strangers while playing Righteous Slaughter 7 is downright benign.

Gema Taku is a high school student who dedicates nearly every waking moment to video games. (His name is derived from the Japanese word for gamer, so his fixation is oddly appropriate.) When he’s not playing video games, he’s likely reading, writing, or talking about them. His teachers often chastise for playing games in class, and he’s seldom seen without a portable gaming device. Hoping to find like-minded people, Gema runs an unsanctioned gaming club out of his school’s computer lab. Unfortunately, he has difficulty making friends due to his short temper and abrasive attitude. This doesn’t make him any less passionate, however, and he hopes to develop his own games someday! Although Gema is initially ignored by girls, he eventually becomes a ladies man. This isn’t surprising, since most girls find gamers irresistible!

When we first meet Travis Touchdown, he’s an underemployed twenty-something with no prospects. The porn-minded otaku spends most of his time in a dingy motel room surrounded by wrestling memorabilia and anime collectibles, but he’s forced to expand his horizons when he runs out of video game money. He finally gets his act together by becoming a world-class assassin, but his passion for video games is further explored in Travis Strikes Again. Travis – now pushing 40 – isolates himself in a camper and fills his days with lengthy gaming sessions. His flights of fantasy become reality after a supernatural console somehow transports him into a video game! Travis was neglecting his real life to play video games, but then they became his real life! In that capacity, his story is a cautionary tale about the dangers escapist entertainment.

Chiaki Nanami is a sleep-deprived teenager with asocial tendencies. She’s inexperienced in the ways of the world, but she opens up when talking about video games. She’s known as the “Ultimate Gamer” due to her astonishing knowledge on the subject, and she’s well-versed in (almost) every genre. The girl is so intrigued by games that she occasionally forgets to breathe when she’s playing them! She has more important things to worry about, though, since her classmates are conscripted into a sadistic experiment and forced to kill each other! Chiaki meets her untimely demise when she’s crushed by a giant Tetris block, which is a fitting end for the ultimate gamer. Fortunately, Chiaki is revealed to be an AI program that was created to protect her fellow students! The human version of Chiaki turns out to be something of a gamer herself.

After a hostile robot emerged from the East China Sea and threatened the region, the Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army (MKEA) was deployed. The group initially consisted of armored drones, but the network was disrupted and their adversaries started to adapt to their attacks. In turn, the military decided to place humans in the mechs. Since the technology required incredible reflexes and sharp instincts, the country turned to its eSports scene to find suitable candidates. Hana Song (known online as D.Va) was one of the first recruits. The bubbly teen grew up playing classic games like Starcraft before turning pro, and she was happy to test her skills on a real battlefield rather than a virtual one. Her competitive spirit makes her an ideal mecha pilot, and her bubble butt is well-suited for her skintight jumpsuit.

More than anyone else on this list, 9-Volt is defined by his love of video games. He’s a huge fan of Nintendo in particular, and he has amassed an impressive collection of consoles, games, and licensed merchandise. A shared interest in video games is the foundation for his closest friendship, and he even finds the time to design his own games in his spare time! Despite being in grade school, 9-Volt joins WarioWare, Inc. and produces a series of “microgames” for Mario’s evil doppelganger. His offerings are directly based on existing Nintendo titles, but I appreciate his old school approach. In fact, his retro classics are consistently the highlights of the WareWare games. 9-Volt always has video games on the mind, and his mother has to frequently check in on him to make sure he’s not playing them past his bedtime.