My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999

Characters

Akane Kinoshita is a college student and casual player of the MMORPG Forest of Savior (FoS), which she began playing for her ex-boyfriend. She is mature but sometimes naive, and tends to keep and treasure gifts she receives. In FoS she uses her real name as a nickname and belongs to the guild Chocolate Rabbit.

Akito Yamada, a third-year high school student who rarely expresses emotions, is a locally popular pro-gamer primarily playing FPS games; his FoS avatar is an emotionless afro male character named Yamada. Eita Sasaki, a 19-year-old college student, runs the guild Chocolate Rabbit under a female avatar named Rurihime; he is Akito's childhood friend and created the guild for his little sister. Runa Sasaki, Eita's younger sister, is the model for Rurihime's appearance; she initially dislikes new people but becomes attached to Akane and supports her relationship with Akito. Takezo Kamota is the deputy guildmaster of Chocolate Rabbit, using the name Takezo; his avatar is a small cotton-like creature that grows to monster-size in battle, and in real life he is a middle-aged strawberry farmer with many connections.

Yukari Tsubaki is Akito's classmate who grows closer to him after matching in an FPS battle; she fears falling for him due to expected rejection, later falls for him and is rejected, then starts playing FoS and joins Akane's guild as a female elf avatar named Tsubaki. Momoko Maeda is Akane's best friend who enjoys gokon; she is sharp and sarcastic, opposite to Akane, but always supports her. Takuma Furukawa is Akane's ex-boyfriend who introduced her to FoS before cheating on her with another player; he is also a huge fan of Akito.

Media

The manga My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999! is created by Mashiro. It first appeared on Comic Smart's Ganma! website on March 7, 2019. Media Factory handles the print version under its MF Comics label, and ten volumes had been published by November 2024.

Mangamo releases the English digital edition at the same time as the Japanese one, originally calling it Loving Yamada at Lv999! before switching to the anime's title. In June 2023, Mangamo said it would release a print version with Penguin Random House's Inklore imprint, and the first volume came out on April 2, 2024. An anime adaptation was revealed on September 24, 2022, during Aniplex Online Fest.

Madhouse produced it, with Morio Asaka directing, Yasuhiro Nakanishi writing the scripts, Kunihiko Hamada handling character designs, and Mito and De De Mouse composing the music. It ran from April 2 to June 25, 2023, on Tokyo MX and other channels. The opening song is Gradation by Kana-Boon featuring Yūho Kitazawa, and the ending is Trick Art by Ryujin Kiyoshi. Aniplex of America licensed the show and streamed it on Crunchyroll.

A live-action film was announced on November 7, 2024. Kadokawa Daiei Studio produced it, Yuka Yasukawa directed, Anna Kawahara wrote the screenplay, and Tomoka Takagi was the producer. Kadokawa distributed the film, which premiered on March 28, 2025.

Reception

In the 2020 Next Manga Award, the series ranked ninth in the web manga category and was nominated for the Web Manga General Election by pixiv and Nippon Shuppan Hanbai, Inc. In the 2021 Next Manga Award, it ranked fourth in the web manga category. At AnimeJapan 2021, it ranked ninth in a poll asking which manga people most wanted adapted into an anime.

The series ranked sixth in the 2021 Tsutaya Comic Award and won the grand prize in the 2022 Tsutaya Comic Award. It also won the grand prize in the 2022 Anan Manga Award. By April 2022, the series had one million copies in circulation between digital and print; by October 2022, it had two million copies.

Did You Know?

• Akito Yamada's FoS avatar is an emotionless afro male character.
• Takezo Kamota's avatar is a small cotton-like creature that grows to monster-size during battle.