Seiren – 05

If it’s good enough for Donald Duck, it’s good enough for her!

Out with the old girl and in with the new girl! So after a bit of a disappointing end to the Hikari Tsuneki arc, how does the new one start?

There Are No Gamer Girls

Gettin’ a little close there, senpai

Nope, none. Actually, while it’s maybe more true that most of the people who say they are girls in an MMO really aren’t, there are plenty of women playing games. They may not play the same games in the same proportions as men, but they’re there. So when Tooru Miyamae happens upon Shouichi, Ikuo, and Araki playing Love Deer (which is a totally wholesome game! Honest! Never mind the ecchi sounds it makes when you pet it!), she reveals herself to be a fellow traveler. Actually, she’s way far ahead of these guys, who don’t want to admit that they’ve been playing as long as she has but aren’t nearly as advanced. But that’s the “in” for this route, that Tooru is a gamer girl, and now has some new friends to play with, even as they try a new game, MiliUsa.

Yeah, adjust your ‘camera’, Araki

The show does pretty well bringing Tooru into the group. Someone who’s not particularly aware of the differences between boys and girls in interest, she’s more interested in the group because of their shared interest in playing games. At first I found it a little odd that Tooru wouldn’t recognize the little brother of one of her best friends, since Shouichi’s older sister Tomoe is in Tooru’s group of friends (with Shiori, who is trying to get Tooru to cosplay and model for her), but having throught about it a little, it’s plausible enough, given the separation between class years and interest groups. Plus, we didn’t see Shouichi and Tomoe interact at all at school in the first arc, and they don’t in this episode either, only when the ice is broken by Tooru already talking to the boys.

“Hey, so this is where the guys without dates are…”

Getting Their, uh, Hopes… Up

Comin’ thru

Something wrong, Shouichi?

I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing that Tooru is a bit on the “clueless girl” side of the gamer girl. Even though she’s an honor student, and really pretty, she’s not acting like a girl around these boys. Sleeping in their gaming space, getting a bit close at karaoke, at the moment none of this is played as being coquettish, just not very aware of what the boys think of it. But she also does a lot of letting them off the hook for not being cool. Faced with a dilemma of what to sing at karaoke, since they only know anisongs, she makes it easy for them by singing a tokusatsu theme song, plus hogging the mic. But she really doesn’t realize what effect she has on them, fanning herself with an open shirt, or asking for a bite of Shouichi’s pudding. It really doesn’t appear that she’s doing it on purpose. She just doesn’t have any guard for that kind of thing.

Somebody got scolded

But it seems like the main thing that will bring Shouichi and Tooru together is their teaming up on GusGal. It’s there that the conflict from her past appears to raise its head, with her over-competitive nature getting the best of her, but also bringing back some bad memories. What I infer is that she’s gone overboard in the past, ticking off her previous playing partners and her other friends, and since then she really hasn’t played much competitive / multiplayer stuff. But it seems like she wants to change a little bit, because she gets Shouichi to agree to team up with her by promising not to kick any more players when they’re already dead. We’ll see how this partnership works out, but I think that there will end up being at least some friction there, as she fights that ‘wanting to win’ nature with Shouichi’s “let’s have fun”.

Taking a bath with her robot friend

Another not bad start to an arc. Tooru is more of an enigma than Hikari was, for sure, and yet is someone that feels more familiar to me, and probably a lot of other gamers. And yes, there are quite a few women gamers, for instance my WoW raid is about 40% women. Tooru seems to be happy to have found people to play with, and people who have reignited her interest in multiplayer games, but I think she feels worry that she will overdo it like before, and end up driving them away. For Shouichi’s part, I think that he’s mostly on the “OMG there’s a pretty girl hanging out with us!” thing. If they keep Araki the same, he’s more likely to be interested in Tooru’s MiliUsa avatar than her real-world self, and Ikuo’s just the hapless friend, so it’s Shouichi or nothing.

About Highway

Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!