English Dub Review: Recovery of an MMO Junkie “I’m So Embarrassed I Could Die!”

Dress up nicely.

Overview:

Moriko realizes that she got the date of the dinner wrong, but Sakurai takes her out to dinner instead. They bond, but Sakurai fails to confess his feelings.

Our Take:

As it turns out, Sakurai guessed correctly, that Moriko is Hayashi, and she mixed up the date. Even so, he offers to take her out to dinner, and they have a nice time together. In the end, he is unable to confess to her. He thinks it’s cowardly, but I think it’s okay because otherwise it would have felt rushed. From Moriko’s side, having a person confess to you that you think you hardly know is more off-putting than anything, and even a little frightening. They do get along very well, and they are comfortable with each other. For a romantic comedy it’s a little disappointing, but in terms of an actual relationship, it’s good to not let things go too fast.

Her dinner with Koiwai actually goes very well. Thanks to Sakurai’s commentary, Moriko thinks very well of Koiwai. In truth, Koiwai doesn’t have any romantic feelings towards Moriko, and actually wants for Sakurai and her to get together. He is very nice though and compliments her efforts in looking presentable. She isn’t fond of Koiwai’s teasing, but she appreciates that he recognizes that she’s put in a lot of work for their dinner.

However, their dinner shows one thing, that Moriko can be pushed to talk about her hobbies in real life. She thinks of her life as a NEET as something shameful, but she doesn’t find her game hobbies to be the same. She is happy talking extensively about her hobbies and even says that she had some good experiences as a result of playing them. Her online friends are nice and give her confidence to succeed in areas that she didn’t think were possible. That itself is very important– the show doesn’t demonize video games, or the friendships made across the internet. It makes it clear that you can learn things from games, and you can have a lot of fun playing them. Rejecting the real world in favor of a fictional one is the thing that is actually critical about. It’s not about Moriko’s hobby, but instead that her lifestyle solely revolves around that hobby.