English Dub Review: Recovery of an MMO Junkie “Secret Triangle”

A lot of complications this episode.

Overview:

Moriko worries about tidying up for her dinner with Koiwai, and Sakurai has his suspicions about Hayashi’s identity. In the meantime, Kanbe’s player is revealed.

Our Take:

This episode is jam-packed with reveals!

Sakurai is revealed to be Lily’s player, playing the game on his downtime. I thought he would remain oblivious for some time, but he really figures things out very quickly. Midway through the episode, he’s almost confirmed that Moriko is behind Hayashi, and takes steps to figure it out. Considering that more often than not the love interest remains oblivious, this was a surprising change. Sakurai has made it pretty clear that he’s romantically interested in Moriko, and that Lily is very comfortable around Hayashi. He is driven, but not too forward to intrude on Moriko’s privacy by asking extremely personal questions as Lily.

Also, Kanbe’s player is revealed to be Tanabe, but he’s very nice about the reveal. They have a good heart to heart, where Kanbe talks to Moriko about why she allowed the misunderstandings about her identity to continue. Moriko admits that it’s because she isn’t exactly proud of her personal life, and telling other people about it makes her uncomfortable. I’ve said this before, but this is a bold move for anime, especially since a fair chunk of their audience living in Japan lives in similar circumstances (unmarried, living alone, large disposable income), so to have Moriko admit that it’s not exactly worth bragging about is rare. It’s even rarer that so many people in an MMO live relatively close to each other, but whatever makes the story keep going!

As a preparation for meeting with Koiwai, Moriko greatly changed her appearance. She knew that she couldn’t just attend the dinner in her tracksuit, so she went shopping for a new outfit and cut her hair. She never had to take care of her appearance while she was living by herself and never going out, but now that she’s interacting with other people, she has to. Her shut-in lifestyle was sustainable, but only for herself. She never really had to interact much with society and societal standards once she quit her job. Despite that, she makes an effort to clean up and looks really nice by the end of the episode. As for what happens when she comes face to face with Sakurai, that will have to wait for next week.