English Dub Review: Recovery of an MMO Junkie “You and I, and Me and You”

Your friend joins your party.

Overview:

Sakurai finds that he’s conflicted in playing the game, now that he knows that Moriko is Hayashi. To everyone’s surprise, Koiwai announces that he wants to play too.

Our Take:

Sakurai is Lily, and now that he knows that Moriko is Hayashi, he feels a little awkward. Now that he connects a real-life person to an avatar, it’s not exactly the same. At first, he tries to stay away, but he can’t– the game genuinely makes him happy. It’s a bit awkward to hear about his own life and the happenings with Moriko from a false outside perspective, though. Since Lily is Hayashi’s confidant, Sakurai hears Moriko’s side of things, but nothing is a surprise since it involves him too. While he’s flattered when Moriko compliments him, it still isn’t the same. It seems like he’s conflicted that he’s not being entirely forward, which is nice. A lot of people would have taken the info as is, but Sakurai seems to be a fairly honest person.

Hilariously, Koiwai tries to give the game a try too. He’s definitely not a gamer, and even his avatar is funny. Most people go for cute girls, but he chooses a pretty but incredibly buff woman. Moriko worries that he might be put off by her playing a guy, but it turns out that Koiwai decides to play a girl anyway. I still don’t think Koiwai is malicious, but just the kind of person that barrels through everything. He hears from Sakurai and Moriko that games are fun, so he goes and tries it out himself. He gets pranked but laughs it off. He’s the kind of person who’s just out to have a good time and doesn’t really concern himself with the subtleties of the situation.

This series is full of coincidences. From the last bits of the episode, it seems like it’s possible that Sakurai and Moriko also used to partner up in the last game they played. Without being friends or keeping in contact with each other, that is SOME coincidence, if that happens to be true. Really, what’s the probability of that happening?

Score
7.0/10