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「臆病者な君と私」 (Okubyoumonona Kimi to Watashi)
“You and I, the Cowards”
The writers for this show should be sent to jail for leaving us on such terrible cliffhangers every single week.
General Impressions
With the plot advancing a lot quicker than I expected, this third episode ended up sealing the deal for me when it comes to whether or not I was going to continue coverage. It’s hard to say specifically what it was, but everything that we’ve seen up to this point managed to leave a very positive impression on me.
The biggest of which has to be the dynamic between Hayashi and Lili (and hopefully an eventual dynamic between Moriko and Yuuta). As characters, I can’t get over how cute the two are together. They’re literally the embodiment of what I think every single MMORPG player wishes to achieve once they get past the whole min-max thing. A male playing a female character and a female playing a male character end up becoming something more than simple Guildmates — sounds almost too good to be true right? But in the context of Netojuu, it works so well that I found myself nearly in tears when Lili managed to express her feelings to Hayashi. What’s funny about the whole thing though is that we still don’t know how this will all play out when Yuuta and Moriko eventually meet. Luckily, it looks like the strings of fate are strong between them and if this foreshadowing of that old MMORPG that Moriko used to play means anything, I’m hoping that everything by the end of it all comes together in a huge mashup of disgusting tears and feelings.
That said, it’s probably those exact same points that probably have caused this show to fall off some peoples’ radars. For those of you who expected this to be a show that focused more on the MMORPG elements and less on the romance — I sincerely apologize if I ended up misleading you. I too thought things were going to play out differently than they have, but if it’s any consolation I think it would be great if we got a little more time devoted to the whole RPG thing.
Overall, not too bad for a third episode to really get us into groove. I hope you’ll be joining me as we figure out just what’s going to happen to Moriko and Hayashi!
Preview
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https://randomc.net/image/Netojuu%20no%20Susume/Netojuu%20no%20Susume%20-%2003%20-%2032.jpg
It’s hard not to laugh seeing a 30 years old single woman behaving like a teenager in love.
https://randomc.net/image/Netojuu%20no%20Susume/Netojuu%20no%20Susume%20-%2003%20-%2036.jpg
Does this mean Lily is confirmed to be Yuuta?
Despite everything I’m still enjoying this, it’s not every season that I have the opportunity of watching an anime with an older woman as the lead. And Moriko is cute, CUTE!
But… unfortunately… I can’t shake my disappointment with what the story and script promises for the upcoming episodes till now.
What’s the point in creating an older independent woman just to give her a personality and soul half her age? To where have gone all the life experience that Moriko should have? For what it established with the first episode this series has a huge potential, instead is developing to be just everyday ramcom.
I hope that it’ll break my negative expectations and end shining handling those more serious and delicate problems that hurt Moriko.
It may turn out to be not the case, but it seems implied (or possible) that Mori was so career focused that she has no social/romantic experience to match what you seem to expect from a 30yo woman. She’s single, appears to have not married before, got burnt out from work and is now choosing to live/socialize entirely online to the point of rejecting IRL social opportunities.
As a woman around Mori’s age, I don’t find the above implausible. The “teenager in love” thing also rings true! I’ve seen it even in friends who have already been through marriage, etc. The hormones are still there 🙂 I think age just brings better self-control and reason.
We’re seeing Mori’s very private inner life. She can be as blushy-gushy as she feels like; it’d be a different story if she’s cavorting like that in public.
The element which annoys me here is the plotting is the same style as a teen rom-com: get close to a meaningful reveal but reserve enough mystery and build in enough doubt to drag it out forever. I’d be interested in a story which uses adults to explore the post-confession challenges of an early relationship. Using an elite NEET would be interesting. But nope! Not today, it seems.
Nearing 30 myself, I don’t see any problems here. Sure, I can be more organised, collected and dependable where I need to be. But when I think about last ~10 years of my life I don’t feel much different to be perfectly honest. On the inside, I’m still the same awkward nerdy kid who talks about anime with strangers.
It’s very refreshing to see all that in a medium dominated by portrayals of high school kids.
I agree with danny and LoveTentacle, “makes sense”, but not what we would want to see with an older cast. You expect to see different dramas, like the problem that many women face in corporations where they never gets promotions despite being very competent.
Anyway, I’m intrigued, Sakurai appears to have real “ulterior motives”. And you can’t trust a person who sleeps in empty and clean room. There’s something wrong with him…
It’s seems like you are still too young to know how the mind of a older person works.
You seem to think that, just because someone is old, that person is wise and experienced. That’s what I thought was a was teenager and in my early 20’s as well.
But that’s not how the world works. Just because you are in your 30’s, it doesn’t you have life everything figured out. In fact, it’s in your 30’s that you realize you really have no idea of what the heck you’re doing, even if you have money and a career. And even after that people still struggle. Life is not an American movie, you’re gonna struggle with till the day you die.
And hell, you have an example right here. I’m 31 and I do have career and a good a job. I got a house, a car and I can buy whatever I want. Still, everyday when I wake up, I just don’t want to get out of my bed. When I said I have a “good job”, that’s in terms of have a stable job that pays the bills. I’m set for life, but I’m not happy with my life. I live alone, have no one to talk to and almost zero experience with relationships. This kind of experiences just passed me by during my during my 20’s because I just wasn’t the kind of person that would go out to drink and meet people. All I did was studying in order to get 3 different degrees and then a post-grad degree in a span of 8 years. And now I’m 31 and I feel I’m too old to even start trying to find love or even friends. I’ve become too cynical to even care. Being around other people is more annoying than anything to me.
And even people who I know that got married and have kids, that have a “normal” life… Well, that kind of life also brings all sorts of struggles and dilemmas, since you got a lot of new responsibilities and you have a family to take care of (and they don’t teach how to do that in college).
Nobody has anything figured out. Life is a constant challenge and everyone it pretty at their limit even if they don’t look like it.
Heh, I empathize with you (wish I don’t).
Communication is so hard.
I’m having the impression that Moriko was more like you at the first episode and her reactions regarding the romance are becoming more “anime like” with each new episode.
What I find stretching my suspension of disbelief is the possibility that so many characters/guild members (as assumed by the ending theme) are geographically close, and have knowledge of each other IRL.
Still enjoying the romance and story though.
I heard the author(original source) pretty much stop writing this one cause of bad health….Is it true?
Its easy to guess that lily is yuuta… Ever since episode 2 the hints are there. Its a matter of connecting the dots and expanding it. That green haired clerk in the convenience store is surely the guy in the game with the green hair. Anyway after 3 episodes, this is placed on my permanent watchlist
And oh this anime really is making fun of the fact that most girls are actually males online. I am for one have experience doing that. And because of that experience i can easily pin point fakes from real. Surely most of peeps here have become “role playing GIRLS” in one point of their lives as gamers
Lets see, the “positive” comments here so far combined with the posting of Takaii are making me curious.. But i still wait and watch from afar
@takaii
is the last line an “confirm” that you blog this anime?
OMG! It is me and Hunny! Though we only met in gender swapped avatars a few times before hitting the road and joining guild on our mains. We play so well as a unit we ended up being paired characters in nearly every MMO. My age was merely blurred out. Only in Vent would any telltale hints be seen. But I was a personality on that server as an in-game broadcaster as well as a DJ in RL too. So bio-profiles would be easy for any that had my acct handle or had been teamed in vent/skype. And since he was taking same field as I had while pursuing his BS , I knew he was 1) younger 2) out of HS. I didnt see him except a literal 30 second flash once after for months, and we became a couple in game after 10 months.
This series is soooo moe!!!
Dunno, as an MMO player I’ve found the series to be great (and spot on..)
Great series!
I really love it and have been enjoying it a lot 🙂
I personally appreciate the fact this is not, once again, a series focused inside the MMORPG, there are just too many animes/mangas/lightnovels about this.
I keep on craving for more haha~
This is a good little series, surprisingly entertaining. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, to be honest.
I love/hate the cliffhangers, but it’s good stuff.
It’s also spot-on about a lot of things with regards to MMO players and social interactions. “Don’t worry, I won’t pry about your personal life … BTW ASL?” lol.