Overview (Spoilers Below): After hearing each other’s true feelings at the school festival, Akane and Yamada have become closer than ever. Although Akane now had more confidence in how she felt about Yamada, somewhere in her heart she felt needed to hold herself back. With her thoughts in disarray, she finds out a new development is occurring in their FOS guild. It was decided that a new female member would be added to the guild. Moreover, this was actually someone that Yamada was introducing to them. And she was also his classmate…
Our Take: The relationship between the two gamers continues to chug along when their true feelings unravel during the school festival. But, as we’re all aware, it’s not enough to make it official between Akane and Yamada since they keep holding themselves back. Even when Yamada saved Akane from getting hit by a bicycler and comforted her when she got sick, she still couldn’t admit her true feelings toward him. Isn’t young love something else? From the looks of this week’s episode, it seemed their next-level friendship would be tested again, thanks to the guild’s newest member, whom Yamada invited to join. The latest player to join the Chocolate Rabbit guild is Yukari Tsubaki, Yamada’s moody classmate who also appears to have a crush on him. Unsurprisingly, we got ourselves the usual love triangle seen in other romance shows and movies, with Akane unknowingly finding herself competing against Tsubaki for Yamada’s heart. Based on this episode, Tsubaki could wind up being similar to Runa in which their jealousy could drive the two “lovebirds” apart if things go too far. Speaking of which, it looks like Runa still hasn’t changed a bit, with her worrying that the new guild member would steal the guild’s attention away from her, similar to when she first met Akane. Overall, this is another sweet and humorous episode that further develops the relationship between the two gamers. Sure, it’s moving at a snail’s pace due to Akane’s conflicted feelings, but could we really blame her? She got dumped by the asshole who cheated on her with another woman. So it makes sense that she fears going down the same fate with Yamada, especially when Tsubaki is starting to get a much bigger role in the remaining episodes. It’ll be interesting to see which girl gets to confess to Yamada first before the season concludes.