Review of Recovery of an MMO Junkie

So the first episodes of Net-juu no Susume really made me want to drop it. I had read a review where someone said that the first episode was kinda of boring so even though I didn't care for the first episode I watched the next one. But I didn't care for the second neither, nor for the third one. So why did I keep watching this anime? I guess I wanted to give it a chance and believe what other people had said about it. It is only around the 5th episode that things start to get better. I think this has to do with thefact that the story starts to focus more in the real world than in the game the characters play. So the action is slip between the mmo Moriko Morioka plays and the real world. And the real world scenes are just so much better than the ones in the game. I thought the game scenes were really annoying. It just felt like whoever made those scenes does not understand how games and online relationships work in general. People don't log into games to hang out and chat. People log in to play. The friendships made while playing are made while playing, not while admiring the game scenarios and graphics. I know these scenes were supposed to be like a caricature but it felt like the show also wanted to be an isekai besides being a show about a NEET in the real world.

So when the story starts to take place mainly in the real world it stats improving a lot and it becomes rather endearing. Sakurai and Koiwai are pretty good characters and their interactions with each other are really nice. But that brings me to the other problem I have with this show: how weak the main character is. We never really understand what kind of person Morioka is because she is always just reacting to what other people tell her. The only moment she seems like having made a decision for herself is when she quits her job but we don't see that happening and never completely understand it. We know why she quit but when we don't see Morioka struggling or talking about it, we can't completely empathize.
We can't really understand why Sakurai would be interested in her either. His friend on the other hand, it is quite obvious why he would want to get to know her: because he got to talk to her while they were both going through similar situations.

But it's not a bad show. The mmo scenes are certainly cringy but towards the last episodes it seems like the show became more self aware and started mocking some of these situations. It has nice animation going for it and some comedy here and there. The story is nice and the whole coincidence thing is actually entertaining. It also doesn't make use of the misunderstandings that could easily been avoided cliche, which is a relief because with this plot it could've easily fallen into that trap. Overall, it's entertaining and, for the most part, a pleasant watch.