Akane Kinoshita finds herself being dumped by her boyfriend when she learned he was having an affair with another woman over an online RPG game called Forest of Saviour (FOS) despite her only becoming interested in the game because of his introducing her to it.
Distraught over the breakup, Akane decides to attend an event based on the game to make her former boyfriend jealous. While there, she ends up meeting a stoic young man named Yamada who she happened to know through interacting with his player character.
Loving Yamada at Lv999! (Yamada-kun to Reberu Kyū-hyaku Kyū-jū Kyū no Koi o Suru) is a shoujo manga written and illustrated by Mashiro, which began serialization in Comic Smart's Ganma magazine in 2019. It received an anime adaptation in April 2023 by Madhouse.
This manga provides examples of:
- Age-Gap Romance: Downplayed. While there are only 2 years between them (Yamada is 18 and Akane 20), there is a pretty significant maturity gap between high school and college.
- Blank White Eyes: Everyone gets this look when shocked or surprised, with their eyes turning into plain white ovals.
- Blind Date: Momo (Akane's best friend) arranges a group date for Akane and her after Akane's break-up. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't end successfully.
- Chaste Hero: Yamada admits that he never gets romance and dating and he finds them hard.
- Color Failure: Akane turns into grey whenever she's in an awkward or tough situation.
- Conversation Hog: Upon meeting Akane at a FOS cafe event for the first time, Eita keeps talking and talking endlessly about his opinions on the game without giving Akane a chance to respond. Akane is relieved when she sees that he's just a gamer after all.
- Cross Player: Rurihime who's a young female character in the game FOS, is actually played by a 19-year-old guy called Eita. This also makes him a G.I.R.L.
- Dinner and a Breakup: Akane's ex, Takuma, breaks up with her at a cafe in the first scene of the anime.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Eita's little sister, Runa, dresses like a gothic lolita and acts all arrogant and haughty. Eita got inspired by her style for his female character in the FOS game.
- Eye Catch: The name of the anime shows up in different ways and colors in the middle of the scenes in the show from time to time.
- Facial Dialogue: When Akane and Momo go to a group date Momo set up for Akane, the latter isn't really in the mood and the two have a conversation through their gazes only without the guys on the date noticing a thing.
- Friendless Background: Content with having 300 online friends, Runa has never had real-life friends at school or her age. The first real person she befriends is Akane, who's much older than her.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Runa becomes envious of Akane under the false belief that she would be taking her guild away.
- Innocently Insensitive: After Akane vents to Yamada in the game chat that she has been dumped by her boyfriend who cheated on her with someone he met in this game, he just replies with "Oh, is that right?" and goes back to asking about having a rare item in the game. This frustrates Akane as she goes on an angry rant in the chat about her love situation, and his only reply is "Yes, you're right. I'm not interested" indicating that he's socially awkward.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Akane and Runa become friends and hang out together - after Runa's one-sided rivalry with her gets resolved - even though Runa is a middle schooler and Akane is in college. Akane is even Runa's first real-life friend.
- It's All Junk: Akane reaches this conclusion after her friend helps her tidy and clean up her house of unnecessary things including the broken necklace Akane's ex gave to her. She recalls Yamada's advice of being more selective "because there's only so much storage," and realizes she can't hold onto every single thing that's precious to her and throws it away. She holds onto the stuffed teddy bear that reminds her of her grandma though.
- Jealous Romantic Witness: When Akane sees her ex Takuma and his new girlfriend being lovey-dovey after she dolled herself up to make Takuma jealous, she realized that she lost the so-called "war" and gets piss-drunk to wallow in her sorrow and jealousy.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Akane's real life friend, Momo, is introduced saying that Takuma breaking up with her for a girl he met in-game is Actually Pretty Funny, otherwise displays No Sympathy in regards to said break up, and her response to being called to help Akane sort through some stuff her mother sent over is to start angrily tossing it all outnote . However, she frequently tries to convince Akane to move on from Takuma; and dragging her on group dates, while probably not the most tactful way of going about it, seems to be an attempt to help her do so.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Momo hardly seems like the most supportive friend, as established when she admits to finding the reason Akane got dumped by Takuma funny, but it's hard to deny when she's right.
- She frequently tells Akane to move on from Takuma, and questions why she should care about losing the necklace he bought her when she accidentally leaves it at Yamada's. While she's blatantly displaying No Sympathy in regards to her heartbreak, it's hard not to see her point; not only was Takuma cheating on her before breaking up with her for a girl he met online, but the next time they see each other has him treating her pretty horribly, not even realizing her presence until she outright announces herself, questioning why she came to a real life event for the game they both played as if she's not allowed to be there, and his upset at Akane "dating" Yamada is less because he's jealous of him for "getting" with her, but more out of an almost stalkerish sense of entitlement towards Yamada as a fan who follows him on social media.
- While indirect, her angry response to Akane to just "toss it all" when her mother abruptly sends her all her old stuff is something Akane ends up agreeing with after remembering some blunt advice Yamada gave in regards to inventory management, which is what pushes her toss the (now broken) necklace Takuma bought her and begin to move on.
- While she only ends up half-right, since he turns out to not be old or excessively creepy, she's ultimately spot on about Rurihime actually being a man who could be seen as creepy, as he modelled his avatar after his little sister.
- The Klutz: Akane has a tendency to trip or go absent-minded and stuff she's holding slips out of her hand and drops to the floor.
- Love Hurts: Akane experiences this after Takuma breaks up with her for someone she sees as prettier than her and after drinking so much, she subconsciously clings to Yamada, who takes her passed-out self to his home, and cries about him going away out of her sight as if he's her ex.
- The Matchmaker: Runa plays this role during episode 6, thinking of all cliche romantic tropes to bring Akane and Yamada closer per her brother's request. She fails the first two times, but when she tries the Suggestive Collision trope, she succeeds as Akane's hair gets in Yamada's eye and Akane moves closer to inspect his eye.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: Downplayed as Takezo isn't elderly yet, but he's old enough and is way shorter than most characters.
- Mistaken for Romance: Played with. Akane mistakes the dialogue between Rurihime and Yamada as the two flirting like a boyfriend and girlfriend in the game. She's not technically wrong as Rurihime likes to flirt with Yamada who plays along except Rurihime is actually played by a guy who just likes the aesthetic of playing a girl and acting like one while gaming.
- Most Gamers Are Male: Discussed but in reality, due to FOS being a popular game, there are many girls who play it as well.
- Nice Guy:
- Takezo Kamota has a very kindly demeanor showing concern when Akane causes the glass to break and does his best to encourage and support Akane even in the game that brought them together.
- Akane has a friendly and sweet personality as she takes care of her drunk Best Friend when she's drunk herself and helps her walk properly.
- Pretty Boy:
- Yamada is called "hot" by Akane upon seeing him for the first time and she even wonders how someone this good-looking never had a girlfriend when he tells her he never dated anyone.
- The narrator points out that Eita is attractive as well.
- The Reveal: Eita is behind the player character Rurihime much to Akane's shock as she expected him to be a girl in high school.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Eita is lively, talkative, and kind to Akane, while his little sister Runa disrespects him and quickly grows envious and hateful of Akane and doesn't talk much unless she's addressed.
- Spoiled Brat: Episode 6 delves into Runa's upbringing and personality, as her overprotective mom, gentle dad, and caring brother were the reason she grew up to be spoiled. She was so coddled as a child that she thought if she was quiet and gave airs, someone will show her kindness out of nowhere.
- The Stoic: Yamada barely displays emotions other than stoicism and his default face is devoid of any expressions.
- Symbolically Broken Object: The heart-shaped necklace Takuma bought for Akane breaks after the two break up when Yamada accidentally steps on it.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Akane vomits on her clothes soiling them after becoming completely intoxicated.
