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「学校じゃネトゲはできないと思った？」 (Gakkou ja Netoge wa Dekinai to Omotta?)
“I Thought We Couldn’t Play Net Games at School?”
Games and reality are separate, but not always, and definitely not if you’re Ako. Hilarious chaos ensues!
A Purer Love
Though the swords and spells are confined to cyberspace, this is undoubtedly a fantasy. The idea of Ako and Hideki’s—sorry, Ako and Rusian’s relationship is that, at least from Ako’s point of view, it’s purer because they fell in love before they met in real life. Attractiveness or sex didn’t muck up their perception of each other; it was their personalities, their real, truer selves, that connected and fell in love. Which, ya know, is a load of bullshit. There ain’t nothin’ wrong with factoring in physical closeness, and scoffing at people who spend RL time with their significant others is silly. Ako’s point of view is warped.
Which is fine! I point this out not to scoff myself, but simply to point out that it’s a fantasy. Don’t believe it, certainly; it’s a lot easier to keep up a false face when you don’t have to actually be in the presence of the other person, though neither Hideki nor Ako appear to have done this. But it’s fine to play with this fantasy of a “purer love” since the show itself doesn’t seem to embrace Ako’s point of view, or at least not wholly. And hell, when Hideki says he would have married Ako in game even if she were a middle-aged man in real life? If anyone should have a claim to this fantasy love, it’s these two.
Double Tsukkommi
One of the enhancements I’m enjoying about Netoge is how the comedy is set up. Instead of having only one sane man (trope), it runs with two comedic foils (trope), both Hideki and Akane. Aside from just being a less common setup, it’s nice that Hideki isn’t completely bewildered, surrounded by all these crazy girls and having no solace within the group. He has it, since Akane is suffering right with him. They actually get along quite well, though they’re possibly too similar for the love plotline/harem end that some of us are fearing. Speaking of…
Shippers On Board
The biggest evidence I can give for my contention that this won’t go down the harem route, the largely female cast notwithstanding, is—well, it’s the clear setup of Ako and Hideki as a OTP. But next in line is how much Master and Schew-chan seem to be enjoying watching the other two together. I think they both really like Ako and Hideki as a couple! Though perhaps I’m projecting, because I was wearing the same smile as I watch those two idiots flirt. They warm the soul.
Fixing Ako
The focus of the series has appeared: fixing Ako’s lack of boundaries between games and reality. She’s dangerously delusional, to Hideki’s sanity and Akane’s social life. While I’d normally go off on a rant about the futility of trying to fix someone else, in this case, I’m in favor—this girl needs to learn some basic internet common sense, or someone less kind than Hideki is gonna take advantage of her. Plus, the comedy fan in me is rubbing his hands together and repeating, “This gonna be gooood!”
Looking Ahead
My hype hasn’t died down and I really enjoyed the second episode. I’m strongly considering blogging this regularly. Also, I didn’t expect Nekohime to reappear so quickly! We’re out of range of my source knowledge. From here on, it’s all new to me. I repeat: This gonna be good.
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Ako can’t separate games & reality. Hilarious chaos ensues! Poor Hideki & Akane. Master will be all right, though #netoge 02
Random thoughts:
- I like that Hideki gives Ako a hard time, and doesn’t instantly go after her just ’cause she’s a cute girl. Still, couldn’t he give her a chance? Though I guess the story would be too easy then. Fight-o, Ako-chan!
- It’s cool how Master switched over totally to her female version in game after the reveal, while Schwein/Akane goes back and forth in time with her cracking façade.
- Someone’s surprisingly bad at acting. She should have invested in better armor.
- Live long and prosper. Unless you’re Akane, who is dying inside.
- Akane is totally an addict. Net games are a helluva drug.
My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now in paperback!) Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel novella. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: Even if you see it coming, it can still work, Batman does not kill. Superman does not kill., Inside Out: What Emotion Drives You?, and Superhot: Storytelling through gameplay.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「ゼロイチキセキ」 (Zero Ichi Kiseki) by Nanjo Yoshino
Preview
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https://randomc.net/image/Netoge%20no%20Yome%20wa%20Onnanoko%20ja%20Nai%20to%20Omotta/Netoge%20no%20Yome%20wa%20Onnanoko%20ja%20Nai%20to%20Omotta%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2011.jpg
My, what big…apricots you have, Apricot.
She is -ehem-breast-ehem- “Best Girl” for me. XD
I never xpected her to use such… plot armor?
She obviously spent a ton of premium currency to buy sex change potion, and redesigned her appearance.
Her’s and Akane’s avatars are the same. That’s why Akane’s avatar keeps toggling from male version to female version. They’re showing that Kyou isn’t roleplaying, that’s how she really is, while Akane’s in-game gender switches depending on whether she’s in character or not.
It’s all possible through Hideki-vision, or Rusian-vision.
https://randomc.net/image/Netoge%20no%20Yome%20wa%20Onnanoko%20ja%20Nai%20to%20Omotta/Netoge%20no%20Yome%20wa%20Onnanoko%20ja%20Nai%20to%20Omotta%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
I am horribly ashamed to say that I happen to be the same type of gamer as Nekohime. I mostly do it for the poor saps that actually believe that Im a G.I.R.L and would often give me free stuff, help me level, etc, etc.
It’s not my fault that the gamer populations are foolish enough to fall for the cute girl facade. Im just here to capitalize.
Though mind you, my second character after my G.I.R.L character is always a guy with majority of the stuff I harvested from my first character.
Im not schamming anyone okay?! Its not my fault that they are giving me free stuff! And its not like Im not pulling my own weight either! I’m proud to say that in MMORPG’s im a very competent healer/support character (for some reason, my fellow gamers find it more cute if i play as a mature healer)
I’m suspecting that this neko-chara is actually his teacher, based on the opening. After all, his guildmates were actually his schoolmates, so why can’t the neko-chara be his teacher? XD
I played female characters in Mabinogi and Emil Chronicle Online before and for some reason, I had people declare their love for my character after just one party dungeon run. Some of them outright disbelieved me when I mentioned that I’m a guy.
The worst was probably in Emil when someone I had never met before declared undying love for me (that’s the person who disbelieved me when I said I’m a dude). Probably because I’m using an actual (though rare) girl’s name for the character.
I played female characters in these two games because I can doll them up and make them look as cute as possible. I’m not sorry. Cute things are cute.
Nothing strange here. I play a mmorpg where having alts characters is normal (I have 6) and a couple are females. They all have a name and surname. I had a lot of guys whispering me “you are sexy” or “are you a girl :)”.
I had a GIRL character back in my WoW days completely unintentionally. Wasn’t in a party, didn’t talk to anyone, didn’t stop male characters from whispering me trying to give this “cutie” assistance
I have a GIRL character in PSO2 and it makes things go my way more smoothly. Actually the majority in PSO2 are female characters, and I ain’t believing anyone of them!
The female characters there are cute. Last time I played that game, I regretted starting out as a CAST who looked like he is made of bricks. His movement is so floaty for someone who looks bulky. Wouldn’t look strange on a female CAST.
I stopped playing after a day because the gameplay mechanics didn’t feel compelling.
PSO2…
Where the majority is female.. and most of the male character’re a robot….
even though the story heavy imply that the canon gender is male lol
Was I the only one who thought Master’s/Pres’s eyes were kind of weird in some shots? Something about the pupil, maybe… it’s the same size/shape as the others’, but maybe it looks weird with the goldish color?
It was really turning me off of her closeup shots.
So a hookup troll is basically a player who’d take advantage of someone naive like Ako? If I follow that line of thinking Stilts I think that’s why Hideki isn’t taking Ako’s “love” for him for granted even though the chance to hook up with a really cute girl is being handed to him on a silver platter. It wouldn’t be fair to Ako and I admire him for that. I also agree right now I don’t want this to be a harem because they, both as a guild and real life friends, already have great chemistry. Kyoh and Akane switching genders in-game was fun to watch. I especially like how even in the public’s eyes Akane is still an otaku hater but she still tries to help Hideki cover up their gaming life. Now I did say before Ako is probably the waifu of the season, but episode 2 shows there’s more waifu characters in this show. I’m especially warming up to Kyoh. Though I still can’t deny despite her yandere tendencies, Ako is simply a bundle of cuteness and Hideki is just darn lucky. There’s still some other unintroduced characters so I’m hoping we’ll meet them and their real life personas. I also wonder if we’ll see the real Nekohime.
Just going to hide these assumptions but…
Show Spoiler ▼
Good point on Hideki not wanting to be a hookup troll who takes advantage of her. It’s also definitely because he’s taken the idea that games to not equal reality to heart SO MUCH that he’s looking a gift horse in the mouth, though
Oh that classroom bit, that was perfect, made all the more better by the complete lack of attention paid by Ako. Too bad we also didn’t a glimpse of Rusian’s Hideki’s friends with their jaws on the floor, because that would have completed the scene.
I find the “digital” love bit hilarious too because it heralds back all too familiarly to high school. If one was not already a natural, it was too damn easy for one to fall into the white knight pitfall: love her purely for her personality, don’t be like one of those bad boys who only wants her for her looks. See her for who she really is and she will find her way to you. It’s a great strategy, when you like languishing in the outer orbit of beta followers. Yes, I speak from experience 😛
What makes this setup intriguing to me (besides the awkward nostalgia), however, is how the roles are reversed. Usually it’s the guy lacking the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy, with the girl(s) being the smart and grounded ones who ultimately have to save our helpless male MC from his self-made prison. It’s the typical–yet potent–wish fulfillment story every shut-in has fantasized about at one time or another (don’t deny). Instead we have Ako as the crazy one and Hideki as the grounded one. Whether intentional or not, it flips the nature of our expectations as one would expect Hideki to be the butt of all jokes–instead Ako is the recipient. Furthermore we have Master and Akane who, like Hideki, treat reality and gaming as separate spheres, showcasing just how crazy Akane is. In this setup the personality archetypes (tsundere, yandere) can write the story themselves rather than functioning purely as differentiating features for otherwise flat characters. This is a pretty damn impressive foundation for a comedy IMO.
If you don’t pick this up Stilts the gods will damn to covering Comet Lucifer-esque shows for the rest of your blogging days 😛
The best stories have a measure of truth to them, and that’s what makes them so powerful. It’s true of comedies too.
Also, don’t curse meeee! T_T
Hideki: “Whoa, check out this rig! These specs are way too high! This computer is built only to play net games!”
As much as I had a laugh seeing the rest of the Net Game Club try and tempt Akane with high-end gaming rigs (and succeed), only one question comes to my mind when it comes to the topic of gaming rigs:
“Can it run Crysis?”
Also, what kind of upbringing did Ako have that she can’t separate fantasy from reality? (Neglectful or high-pressure parents?) And that shout-out to Touma’s catchphrase… LOL
I am speculating this gear can run games that will be coming out next season, without a hitch, ona top graphics settings…
only one question comes to my mind when it comes to the topic of gaming rigs:
“Can it run Crysis?”
LOL that’s exactly what I asked some 8 years ago to the guy in the PC store when I got my first (and only) PC from my parents for around $1200 (including monitor).
I was a total noob at PCs at that time and the store guy just danced around the question for a bit neither confirming, nor denying it but I was so stoked that I just took it for a yes and walked out happily.
Turned out I couldn’t even get through the installation of the game’s demo and I later learned that my specs would’ve been quite too low to run it anyway.
It didn’t really matter in the end anyway because I ended up spending most of the time playing probably one of the least graphically intensive MMOs of all time (Maplestory) and later League of Legends which can run smoothly at medium to low settings (yes I’m still using it to this day even though it’s starting to suffer from bluescreens quite a lot recently and isn’t as fast as it used to be).
Maplestory? Oh man, I LOVE Maplestory. But due to internet problems and all, I ended up not being able to play it for a certain amount of time before getting right back in only to discover that they’ve begun to remove lots of stuff and such. Kind of a shame really, the charm of the entire game just became lost since then. And all my characters were female too. I did so for purely aesthetical purposes though.
I had the same thing, with the game losing it’s charm. Though to me it was more before I felt the game was adding and changing things too much, which were the game’s charm to me. Maybe I’m just an old man as I started playing Malpestory in it’s earliest days back in 2007-2008.
Somewhere areound 2010 with the Big Bang update and all it just started losing it’s initial charm to me. Back in the days it took the #1 ranked player (who was actually a shared account, or so where the rumors) literal years to get to level 150 (out of the max lvl of 200).
Then a few years later new classes were pumped out left and right, always managing to be more overpowered and with huge movementcreep (before, only the lvl 70+ thief classes had a ‘jumping’ movement skill and the mage had it’s teleport skill, now every lvl 10 character has some kind of ‘flash jump’) and people managed to get these new characters to the max level 200 in a matter of weeks.
Then you had the cash shop imbalancing the economy with expensive ass scrolls that could prevent items from being destroyed at a failed scrolling attempt, etc.
All these things combined just made the game lose it’s charm to me as well and I eventually bid it farewell.
More on topic: I gotta admit that I’m guilty of preferencing female avatars in MMOs as well. though Maplestory must be one of the few where I didn’t make any mostly due to the game’s chibi and pixelated artstyle which didn’t make it very appealing to me aesthetically (to put it bluntly: not much feminine features to be enjoyed, lol) and most female avatars seemed to be actually played by actual females which would make it kinda awkward.
In that sense games like TERA are a godsent where there are races like Elin that are genderlocked, thus minimizing the awkward moments when playing them as a Guy In Real Life.
1) On Maplestory: Yeah, I still remember back when I first started having a go at it back around 2008-2009 and Oh My God, it took you FOREVER to even get to the first job advancement. I think the game struck a nice balance with the leveling system and with various other features back around 2011-2012. Man, MMOs REALLY have changed huh…
2) On female avatars: Based on your replies, I assume you to be from North America, so I haven’t heard of TERA until I watched Digibro’s vid of him ranting about SAO a few months back. And yeah, I do think that in other games, where because they’re in 3D you’re better able to appreciate their appearances more.
BTW Incognito, how did you manage to hyperlink the images to the text you typed? Can’t seem to figure them out just from these HTML tags down here
@Mihashi: I usually use the (open angle bracket)a href=”*insert link here*”(close angle bracket)*insert text here*(open angle bracket)/a(close angle bracket) tags to hyperlink the images to the text. Just replace the “open” and “close” angle brackets with the actual symbols.
But sometimes, when I copy the image links and then format it in a text editor like Notepad, the spaces used in the image links suddenly turn into “%20”. While it’s OK not to change them (it’ll still link to the same image), I usually put spaces in it to keep things consistent with what our bloggers post.
@Tepoc: My condolences for your computer not being able to play Crysis. You’re not alone on that though, I doubt my own rig can either. While it can play Company of Heroes and Rome: Total War on high settings decently, it sometimes struggles to play Company of Heroes 2 on high settings–except for the anti-aliasing which I keep at medium. (And more so with Total War: Rome 2.)
Of course, an awesome gaming rig can’t perform decently in online multiplayer games (like MMORPGs) if the Internet service provider for it is slower than James May’s casual drives off the racetrack.
I think I get what you mean. I’ll try it out later when an opportunity pops up. Thanks for helping!
Also, on PC performance… It’s actually quite a miracle that I was even able to run Shogun 2: Total War. I thought that I couldn’t even keep the game running on low settings, but it did, even though the frame rate was absolute shite. God bless the console! 😀
Here I was wondering if this romance wasn’t progressing a bit too smoothly, considering the main character already has the main girl clinging to him from the start, and then it turns out she has some heavy personality flaws to make up for that. Flaws that cause a lot of hilarity and cringe-inducing moments.
Netoge no Yome, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.
Honestly, I’m kind of impressed. The setup of the first episode took a lot of suspension of disbelief, but the plot turn this episode took grounded the show again, and set up quite the interesting little story. It makes the characters more well-rounded as well, and the character dynamics are already becoming clear – and I quite like them (the straight-guy banter between Hideki and Akane reminds me of Tsuda and Suzu from Seitokai Yakuindomo, for one). Not to mention their game lingo sounds like how players would talk to each other as well (I’ve seen so many western shows screw this up), which often just makes it funnier.
In conclusion, this has easily turned into the most promising comedy of this season, and I’m eager to watch more of it. One of the first shows to give me that ‘gah, another week of waiting’ feeling this season, in fact, so I hope it doesn’t let me down.
Good point on the Seitokai Yakuindomo comparison! I don’t mind being reminded of that show.
I knew the first episode had to do a lot of heavy lifting to set everything up, but that it wasn’t representative of this series until that classroom scene happened at minimum. Glad you enjoyed it!
Aside from Hideki and Akane’s banter, there’s also Kyou’s own outgoing personality that reminds me of Shino which, as I said last episode, are a type I like.
Also…OINK!
XD
This is a by the numbers comedy, which works i guess. The thing that has piqued my interest is the dichotomy of the net and real life and how that plays into ako’s characterization. You have a girl you cant separate these two worlds but when it comes to her feelings for hideki, are they really false. it’s pretty clear that the show is trying to say that while there are some elements that should be separate, there are certain things about net life that arent separate; like the friends you make. Nothing says that you cant share a friendship with them in real life and this show clearly demonstrates that by showing that these four people who only thought they could be friends on the net ended up being friends in real life. Akane wants to detest hideki in real life while being chummy with him on the net; and yet after discovering each other’s identities, they are having a real hard time doing that. Not so separate now huh?
And then with Ako, you have this girl who was probably so alone and hurt in the real world that she found solace in someone who gave her the time of day on the net (thank god this was actually a good person and not some rapist perv) and now she couldnt be happier. Sure she is indulging in this delusion of the net as the real world, but that’s clearly a defense mechanism for her lack of social aptitude. Regardless, in the end, even if she’s using the net as a defense mechanism, does it change the fact that she actually loves this boy. I would say no it doesnt because that safety net (pun unintended?? or was it?? :D) that comes from living in the game world didnt take away from the fact that someone out there truly made her happy. Now she just needs to see this boy as a guy and not some heroic game character (the irony being that this “heroic” game character saved her from depression most likely)
Well said. I do agree that there’s no reason internet friends can’t become real life friends; only distance usually prevents it from happening, and they don’t have that boundary. And Ako, yes it’s certainly a defense mechanism (though hopefully for social ineptitude instead of some straight up trauma or depression, not that intense social ineptitude is easy to deal with, but depression is dangerous), but sometimes you get lucky. Yay \o/
To be honest I didn’t have any real expectation on this story but I was and am proven wrong – and I like that.
Now Stilts, your words.
Though the swords and spells are confined to cyberspace, this is undoubtedly a fantasy. The idea of Ako and Hideki’s—sorry, Ako and Rusian’s relationship is that, at least from Ako’s point of view, it’s purer because they fell in love before they met in real life. Attractiveness or sex didn’t muck up their perception of each other; it was their personalities, their real, truer selves, that connected and fell in love. Which, ya know, is a load of bullshit. There ain’t nothin’ wrong with factoring in physical closeness, and scoffing at people who spend RL time with their significant others is silly. Ako’s point of view is warped.
I thought about it and it make me realize the depth this anime has. True – Ako’s pov is warped but it does contain some truths. Can a man not fall in love without knowing a person’s identity? Yes, they can. Across history people had fallen in love with less information. Is having less information about your partner makes the love less real? What is love anyway?
As distorted as Ako’s pov is – she has a few points. This also applies to Stilts of course – many relationship are build on a foundation of trust and many a times that begins with knowing each other’s identity. So Stilt’s too has a point.
I am completely sold on the premise of the show, as a gamer first, as someone who has created his characters on 50-50 gender spread to balance out population of various fantasy worlds (and I have been very much keeping all the gameplay romance-free anyway… unless NPCs were involved)…
About the premise,? Where to begin? how often do you have in your party the one guy (or girl, as in this case) who completely botches his role – be it healer, tank or dps?
I know the feeling defintely, from kiting mobs in ranged dps around the area while healre revives fallen tank, to desperately juggling targets aggroed by 2 different players, to trying to heal people who aggroed wrong mob, to pain of party being wiped…
Anyway I am sold on the premise mostly due to that while all characters have their problems – obviously being class otaku outcast, strictly hiding your game persona, or being isolated rich oujosama… nothing beats Ako’s total obliviousness to difference between game and reality!
The attempts by 3 half-sane people to fix one completely nuts will be hilarious…
“The attempts by three half-sane people to fix one complete nut will be hilarious.”
That’s a good way to put it!
I’m most impressed that they all kept playing with Ako even though she’s a shit healer. It’s nice that they’re not all power players enough to get frustrated by that (well, they occasionally get frustrated, but not too bad). They’re all good people :3
I think someone should tell Ako, then if she is married to Hideki/Rusian then why doesn’t she live with him? That sentence alone would probably get her attention enough to realize the difference between the game and the real world.
Or possibly create an even crazier situation…..
She would probably ask to move to his house right away.
I really don’t get why some guys are so hung up about crossplaying in RPGs. It’s a role-playing game, which means you’re free to create whatever role you want to play, away from your real life (which is the point of playing such games in the first place).
I would say that it’s the guys who secretly harbor hopes of hooking up with a fellow player offline who are the most vocal about it.
You connect with someone, and you just hope you get Hideki-level lucky, I suppose? I dunno, I was always more interested in raiding than gurlz in MMORPGs.
Akane annoyed me in the first episode, but this time her reactions hit all the right notes with me. Looking forward to continuing this series more than I thought I would
The way Ako looks when she’s talking about “normies” I keep waiting for her to go all yandere on Hideki. God help him if he looks at another girl.
But his party has three real girls.
She’s probably too nice to go full yandere on him. Probably.
Probably.
Another brilliant eyecatch, this time of the Merlion in Singapore. https://randomc.net/image/Netoge%20no%20Yome%20wa%20Onnanoko%20ja%20Nai%20to%20Omotta/Netoge%20no%20Yome%20wa%20Onnanoko%20ja%20Nai%20to%20Omotta%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2018.jpg
I was surprised to see it, being from Singapore myself.
Japan seems to have developed a slight obsession with Singapore in recent years…
Lucky for you, cuz they sure as heck don’t really think much about that place across the bridge :V
You’re Singaporean, you know what I mean 😛
Do you mean the platform, the Esplanade, Marina Bay Sands or something else entirely?
I walk around that area once in a while and I can think of these places being reachable via bridge as a pedestrian.
Another troll series originally drawn by an hentai artist, Epic win. Also, watch the damn spoilers you Dank-Pussies and Dick-Wads!!!
Yeah, this definitely completed the actual premiere feel. I’m sold, I’m on board.
I’m also with you Stilts, liking the “twin straight man” setting very much. Master is a good support and plot driver, and Ako is a good blob of cuteness and comedy material. There’s no out of place fanservice so far despite of being drawn by H artist, and the comedy hits a nostalgic spot in memories of my MMORPG days.
Personally, it’s a very good escapism material in this very bleak entrance of adulthood, I would add.
I kind of feel bad about AKo mental illness but it’s funny. I love how she’s like I am only going to spend my money on apperance and leech off of you guys for exp and Hideki was like “Serioulsy, fuck you.”
I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Wow, that got dark quickly…
https://randomc.net/image/Netoge%20no%20Yome%20wa%20Onnanoko%20ja%20Nai%20to%20Omotta/Netoge%20no%20Yome%20wa%20Onnanoko%20ja%20Nai%20to%20Omotta%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
I am already thinking of dropping the series. The studio should have opted for the serious route: Borrow heavily from Watamote, make Hideki/Rusian a hookup troll and go for a School Days ending.