Review of Recovery of an MMO Junkie

There are three problems with Net-Juu no Susume: 1. The supporting characters: they're practically scenery. They serve no purpose other than to talk to Morioka about herself. Even when they're the only ones in a scene, all they do is talk about Morioka. They're entirely flat. 2. The in-game scenes: they're simply nowhere near as endearing or interesting to the viewer as the real-life scenes. 3. Over-reliance on coincidence: this isn't as major as the first two. However, Sakurai and Morioka sharing the previous game felt unnecessary. The anime had already done a well enough job showing their connection through the current game, already a largecoincidence in and of itself.

To be honest, if this anime had far less in-game focus and were two episodes or so shorter because of it, it would have been better. It's not lost on me that issues like #1 often come from adaptations of the likes of manga (which this is) losing some of the author's original intention, I should add.

That being said, 5 isn't a bad score: Net-Juu no Susume has its own charm, and I certainly don't regret watching it. As cliche as it is to watch two characters be ridiculously awkward about romance in anime, it's a refreshing change of pace to see it from the girl's perspective as the main character. How sweet the main characters are will tickle you once or twice, too.