In anime’s history, even in anime’s recent past, video games either online or via console were mainly just for shonen protagonists. There just wasn’t a whole lot of female characters that played or were interested in video games. For me, who is both female and likes games, this was a little disappointing. But recently, year by year and little by little that stereo typical anime “gamer boy” is starting to change. At first it started with girl characters appearing as the strange/wacky/shut-in tech genius, like Futaba Sakura in the anime Persona 5, or Edward in Cowboy Bebop. But slowly as anime continued to evolve, these characters started to take on less exotic personalities. Now when a game loving Otaku looks to the anime world, they can find fairly normal everyday girls and ladies who love video games too and are not hikikomori hackers or meta fish manipulating mad geniuses. These characters go out, have friends, go to school or work, still enjoy girly things, and have pretty average lives.

My Love Story with Yamada kun at LV 999

In the anime My Love Story with Yamada Kun at LV999, the main character Akane isn’t having a good day. She was recently dumped by her boyfriend(who loves online gaming) for another girl that played the same online game. So to get her revenge Akane decided to go to a gaming convention that she just knows her ex would never miss, dressed in her trendiest best. But her plan quickly goes a rye when she trips in the crowd, her super cute outfit gets messed up, and then even worse her ex barely notices her because of the celebrity pro gamer that lends her a hand after her fall. In desperation she blurts out that the pro gamer was her new boyfriend, and (after some quick bribing) the pro gamer Yamada goes along with it. In the past Akane only dabbled in video games because that was her (now ex) boyfriend’s hobby. After she got dumped, Akane searched for an outlet for her grief and oddly enough she found that gaming was the best solace. With a new MMO to try out, she found a great place to vent and was pulled into a cute world with new friends and a rather handsome Yamada kun!

Recovery of an MMO Junkie

In the anime Recovery of an MMO Junkie the main character Moriko has worked hard to become a success in her corporate job, but at the age of 30 she was already burnt out and ready to live her real life as an Elite NEET! Unlike lesser NEETs that became shut ins due to unfortunate circumstances, Moriko is proud to have chosen to live that way and happy to live her life in a MMO game. Keeping nearly all of her social interactions limited to the MMO game, she meets new friends through her male (prince-esque) avatar Hayashi. One of her closest friends is Lily, a princess like avatar that helps Moriko learn the MMO game and a sympathetic ear to listen when Moriko is having trouble. Little did Moriko know that a squabble with a random office worker over piece of chicken at a local convenience store would bring Moriko’s online life closer to reality!

Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte

In this quite long named anime, high school broadcasting club members Endo and Kobayashi decide to play an otome game (a shojo romance game) together while practicing their play by play commentary of the game play. Or rather, Endo dragged Kobayashi into playing the game because she is a huge fan girl for the villainess of the story. Kobayashi is okay with this because he kind of has a crush on Endo, so he’s happy as long as they are spending time together. Well, things go a little wacky when the ML of the game ends up being able to hear the comments Endo and Kobayashi are saying about the game as they play! The ML, Prince Siegwald Fitzenhagen, is convinced that the voices he hears (Endo and Kobayashi) are actually the voices of gods, and that they are bestowing on him sage advice! So the sage advice Endo and Kobayashi decided to bestow is how to save the villainess of the game from becoming a villain.