And you thought there is never a girl online? – Otaku Review
This week we are taking a look at an anime which did not feature in the previous rendition of Otaku Digest. The ecchi, romance, school and comedy anime Netoge no Yoma wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta? Or And you thought there is never a girl online? first aired on April 7 and was adapted from a manga of the same name.
Concept
In the anime we are introduced to Hideki Nishimura a young man who spends his free time in an online world rather than his real one. Openly admitting to being an otaku he is shunned by certain girls in his class. This does not bother him much as he is adored by a young lady in his online world. He trusts no women in this online world following his “black history”. Having confessed his feelings to a girl, she admitted to actually being a boy. This new girl however is completely devoted to Hideki, her name is Ako Tamaki. After the guild they are a part of decide to meet in real life they discover something off about Ako.
Ako Tamaki cannot tell the difference between the online world they quest in and reality where she attends school. She is a loner who has cut herself off from people and finds it difficult to communicate how she feels. Hideki and their friends from the guild come together and work to help and show Ako the differences between virtual reality and reality.
Reality
There have been quite a few “virtual reality” based anime in recent seasons where there’s been a clear divide between the virtual questing reality and the real world. This anime took what I think is an interesting twist on things by actually showing an effect of virtual reality; a character cannot see or process the difference between the two worlds. The anime itself flows really well in terms of character introduction from both the virtual and real world lives. Each character is given their own persona whether it be the closet nerd, the introvert turned online extrovert and of course our dim heroine. For the most part each one is well-developed and they move along well with the story.
It is an interesting concept to attempt to do and in particular in a comedic way. This is where the anime falls short though and all for trying too hard. There were some genuinely funny moments in there that felt natural to the story. but then there were too many forced comedic moments where slapstick was just shoved in to fit within the story.
Fan Service
Most of this comedy was attempted through a lot of fan service which was mainly produced and put out by main female protagonist Ako. She is needlessly ditsy, large chested and baby talks. I understand where creators were going with her but it was overly generic and the worse kind of fan service character.
I will admit the entire premise of the anime does set the characters up in interesting scenarios where Ako will take something done or said the wrong way. She would then fly off the handle, overreact and run away making the others chase her and sort things out.
Realisation
Although an interesting take on an already established premise this anime just could not create break out characters or narrative enough to warrant an entire watch. The animation is simple and cute but relies far too heavily on fan service in order to carry the comedic aspects behind it. The characters although they are interesting fall on the same tropes as the animation and narrative. Reduced development for fan service interactions. The characters are the best part of the anime and maybe if they had have been better used to progress the story rather than relying on fan service tropes it would have been more effective.
If its action and adventuring you are after give this anime a miss but if you want silly romance and comedy with far too much fan service then this is the reality for you.
