English Dub Review: Recovery of an MMO Junkie “♀ IRL, ♂ Online”

For all you MMO fans out there now you can see how social inept some girls can be online within this Recovery of an MMO Junkie.

Sword Art Online’s influence is still making echoes throughout the anime industry. Since its launch, there has been an avalanche of countless, players stuck in games anime, like Overlord, Log Horizon and No Game No Life. But with time those sorts of shows has died down a bit to make way for the second wave, that being anime about people playing video games which would include Gamers! and today’s Recovery of an MMO Junkie. This is one of the more spotlighted titles of the season from the fairly new newcomer production studio, Signal.MD, but will it live up to its slight buzz and help put this studio on the map?

OVERVIEW

The story is about Moriko Morioka, played by Terri Doty, who after leaving her job and becoming a NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) has decided to forget all her previous worries and just dive into the latest MMORPG, Fruits de Mer. She downloads the game and makes herself a very handsome male avatar named Hayashi. She does this and swiftly realizes she is out of practice and gets her butt handed to her on every mission. That is a delightfully cute player character named Lily approaches her and offers to help teach her the ropes of the game. From there it becomes an awkward romance of our main girl Moriko trying to win the heart of an online girl through the body of a male avatar.

Recovery of an MMO Junkie reminds me of a handful of positive traits from other romantic comedy anime that I really admire. Firstly, Moriko’s more down to Earth and the average look is rather refreshing take on one of the romantic love interests. More often than not both parties in romance are made to be beyond attractive, mainly just a smidge under supermodel perfection status. It isn’t that Moriko is ugly or anything, I can see herself cleaning up to look really nice, but that isn’t the point. By giving Moriko this disheveled look it opened her character to exhibit her carefree attitude about her real-life self while comparing that to her extensive care into making Hayashi look as handsome as possible. It’s a physical representation of Moriko’s defining character flaw her indifference towards her own appearance but still deep seeded want to be presentable to others. It reminds me a lot of the main character from My Love Story, Takeo Gōda, a big hulking gorilla of a man with very low self-esteem in his looks but self-conscious on how he comes across to others. It’s these sorts of characters that allow for their socially awkward actions to come across as charming rather than creepy as there is a sense of attempt at acting “normal.” It’s just, unfortunately, being “normal” is out of their understanding at the start.

The show explores that aspect much like how Gamers! did in its runtime. By having the main characters speak their feelings through gameplay. Although I prefer Gamers in this aspect as I feel the overdramatic nature of Fruits De Mer game mechanics and how its players interact within the game rather unrealistic. It’s on the same embarrassing roleplaying level as the kids in season 2 of Sword Art Online. That writing is toned down by the mid-section of the episode though which is thankful to see. However, I feel that it feels slightly like the world of the game holds back the romance by being so all over the place. That doesn’t help when Lily played by Natalie Hoover comes off in the dub rather bluntly moe cute. Sounding almost out of breath at times, she lays it on thick which starts off cute and just rotates to feeling indifferent. I would have preferred if the cute girl angle would have reigned in a bit but maybe over the top cute was the point.

The only other negative aspect of the show is, unfortunately, its presentation. Being that this is still within the echoes of Sword Art Online and the countless game shows it, I can’t help but notice how plain this anime looks in comparison. There are certainly some interesting aspects but especially within the game itself, it left a lot to make it feel like a breathing world. At the moment, it feels very disconnected and bland. Moriko’s real-world settings have more vibrancy to find.

OUR TAKE

I do really want to love the show as it has all the components to other animes that I do adore and pulls them off decently well. But that is the problem, it is only decent at this point and the show feels unpolished in those aspects. I wager within an episode or two the series shall hit more of a stride past the inevitable experimentation within the pilot. Recovery of an MMO Junkie definitely has a chance to be an admirable series this season, that awkward gamer love can really tug at the heartstrings. All it needs is a bit more shine.