Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta? – 02

…skylion approves the merlion (my brother from another…uh…fish?)

And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online? It’s the show that always asks the same question, only in a slightly different way each episode….Rusian Rusian Rusian Rusian Rusian!!!!! You know that name by now, don’t you?

Is This the Real Life….or is it Neto-Game?

Jeez, Ako! Would you quit harshing the kayfabe?!

We pretty much start where we left off last episode; given how this show isn’t probably going to be huge on “major plot developments” I think that gives off a very timely feel. We pick up with Kyou’s part of the conversation and why she’s an avid net gamer. For the sake of this program, I think she pretty much made the thesis statement. When your means of having friends is limited, it’s a good way to make a friendly connetion, this net-gaming. How these characters define or find “limited” goes quite a way in describing them. For Kyou, it’s because she has very strict parents. For Ako, it’s probably a huge amount of shyness (I’m not going to broach anything SAD-like at this moment), and for both Akane and Hideki it’s more than likely they’re trying their best not to let their square angles poke out as society tries to commit them to round holes. Gaming gives them options, an outreach, and a volume knob, so to speak.

Two peas in a pod…

Well, just like I admitted last episode with not having a single “I’m a dude” moment in online gaming, I have to admit to not feeling the big deal that both Akane and Hideki are feeling. As I’ve probably mentioned before, most of my RPG experience comes from the sit-down, table-top RGP life. That’s always face to face, and none of my friends and compatriots ever really engaged in the silly, stilted Dungeon Master wears a robe, players attended shitty acting class before showing up to play teh lulz warrior of darkness chuunithing that you sometimes see exaggerated on TV. We were there to game, we took it serious, but we also downed gallons of sugary soft drinks and tried to make each other laugh as much as we could. If we did do dramatics, it was short, sharp shock. The point was that we never really tried to commit to it as something we divided from normal life. It was normal life, that’s what made it so cool.

But, I never had an interesting problem with a game waifu becoming, or trying to become, my real laifu. (actually I have, but that’s the untold story, eh?) That’s a new problem so far as I’m concerned, and it’s such an interesting one worth facing. Ako brings up a very good point, and perhaps the best one the show can enunciate. It (net-gaming) got me you, why should I divorce the game from regular life? Without it, I never would have found the person I now love. There’s a great sense of honesty there, and more than a little naivete, but even that is very much worthy exploring. I’m looking forward to seeing where it all goes.

She gonna get all you secrets, Schwein….

But, in going back to that Round Hole argument, we get to the second crux of the episode. For both Akane and Hideki they see value in that; and I’m not going to judge them on that score. For Ako and Kyou being in that Round Hole isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For Ako it’s a whole lot more intimidating, and her differences cut pretty deep. But that doesn’t mean that Kyou has to be cast as that poor little rich girl. Especially when she uses her resources to her distinct advantage. I love how the show begins with the handclasp of friendship between her and Ako, and ends with her essentially setting up a great deal of the rest of the series to help Ako out, return the handclasp as best she can.

Get a little closer (some NSFW?)

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I’ve seen a ton of complaints about this show as average, cookie-cutter, and the like. Well, I say they’re doing everything right. They keep their own inviting pace, the comedic timing is pretty much spot on (with two foils that end up foiling themselves most the time), it’s got a great theme well worth exploring, and the characters are starting to emerge very well from that “first episode-ness” they started with. Cookie-cutter? Not even close…