Netojuu no Susume Episode 7
Poor Sakurai is having it rough this week. Ever since he told Koiwai he would step back from pursueing Moriko, he has been struggling to interact with her as he usually would. He knew he was risking it all by crossing the boundaries of anonymity he had set for himself, but he had become so close to Moriko, he couldn’t help but cross it – and now he is paying the price. Now since he is aware Hayashi is Moriko, it only makes it harder for him to lock away his feelings for her, while attempting to maintain their friendship as Lily. He doesn’t want to hear about her developing relationship with Koiwai, it’s too much for him. But his longing feelings ended up helping him get back online, only for Moriko to surprise him by talking more about him and their night together than Koiwai, and it made him incredibly happy.
Then a turn of events with Koiwai deciding to give it a shot of playing the MMO is what brings about a fateful reunion. When Koiwai called Moriko to let her know he is going to play the game as well, she doesn’t want him to know her on her main account, so she creates a new and female character, resembling the support she used to play on the MMO she used to play before it closed down.
Truth to be told, I think a lot of us have two accounts for this purpose as well. Sometimes I just want to play quietly or practice on my own, I will play on one account, but when I want to play as a group or with friends, I will play on my main account. Or sometimes, we just want to keep our online lives and relationships separate from our offline life, and that’s completely understandable.
However Koiwai being Koiwai, he of course creates the most ridiculous, and hilarious avatar he could come up with. I didn’t actually have any sort of ideas floating around in my head, but when I saw it, I thought, “YUP. THAT’S TOTALLY HIM!” Poor Moriko, she was stunned! She thought he was going to create some handsome avatar, but boy – FAR FROM IT!
I will say it is kind of funny how Koiwai is unknowingly dragging these two together because up till now, everything he has done has forced upon a reunion between the two. And since he shared the screencap of Moriko’s subsitute avatar, Sakurai realizes the possibility the two had actually were friends in the old game they used to play as well! So by the looks of it, instead of showing up as Lily in game, he like Moriko, created a new character, deliberately making it so he resembled his former avatar, so he would have a chance to have their reunion. <3 And I absolutely cannot wait for it!
[FAST FORWARD 1 WEEK LATER…┏(;￣▽￣)┛]
Netojuu no Susume Episode 8
There are only one way to accurately express how I reacted through the entire episode, and that is of course provide a snippet of my notes:
Notes:
- Moriko is inspecting his character closely. SHE IS SO EMBARASSED. SHE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SAY HIS NAME THAT’S WHY AHAHAHA
- /SCREAMING HE’S OPENING UP TO HER, SAKURAI = HARTH SHARES HE LIKES MMO AND GAMING, MORIKO IS DELIGHTED, SHE WANTS TO KNOW WHICH GAMES HE PLAYED IN THE PAST HEEHEE
- HE TELLS HER ABOUT NANTERSG, SCREAMING. SHE FINALLY ASKS HOW TO PRONOUCE HIS NAME. MORIKO FREAKS. CONNECTS THE DOTS. /SCREAMING
- INSERT GIF OF ME SCREAMING ALL EPISODE
- NanterSG is the game she used to play, and Yuki was the name of her character. SHE IS BLUSHING LIKE CRAZY. She was in love with him then, but she was
- LMAO HARUMI/KOIWAI FELL ASLEEP
- LOL SOS FOOD BC HARUMI IS OFFLINE
- MORIKO MISSED HER CHANCE
- /SCREAMING HE’S LIKE THANKING HER FOR A DATE I CAN’T EVEN AND HE LOGGED OUT SO FAST I CAN’T
- SHE CAN”T DEAL WITH IT, SHE REALLY LIKED HIM BACK THEN. FEELINGS RESUFACING
- SHE IS ACTUALLY CALLING HIM I CAN’T EVEN
- THEY TALK OFFLINE SOBBING I AM SCREAMING
I WAS INTERNALLY SCREAMING FROM START TO FINISH! OH MY GOD, AND THEY JUST HADDDD TO END IT THAT WAY WITH THAT CLIFFHANGER, I CANNOT, I NEED THE NEXT EPISODE, I NEED IT NOW!!!!!!!!!
It was great to learn a bit more about Sakurai and his past. I wouldn’t have expected him to have a backstory where he was adopted by an elderly couple who later died, and the challenges he faced growing up due to his foreign hair color. MMOs became his Fridays comfort, a place where even when he was alone, he didn’t feel lonely because he was interacting with people who are far away – something I think again, SO MANY OF US CAN RELATE TO! (God this has to get Most Relatable Story of the Year!) It only made it more touching of how special MMOs are to him, and the relationship he and Moriko had when they played together on NanterSG as Harth and Yuki.
But you know what I really love about Sakurai, is how he knew he can’t keep the secrets bottled up anymore. He needed to tell her the truth that he is Lily. And while it was hard for him to do that, he still managed to muster the courage, not only once but twice because his phone died on him the first time.
And the relationship the two had as Harth and Yuki only became even more special when we learn Moriko was in love with him, which is crazy and amazing at the same time because WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF REUNITING LIKE THIS?! RIGHT?! (It’s fiction but WHATEVER OKAY, THIS FREAKING ROMANTIC!) Watching her internally freak out as her feelings from the past resurfaced was so fun to watch. But you know what makes it even more special, is while she fell in love with Sakurai online, he fell in love with her offline, which is one hell of a crazy way for two people to fall in love. And now that Moriko already had feelings for him, once she connects the dots like this as Harth, Sakurai and Lily are revealed same person, holy crap she’s going to freak and her feelings are going to go haywire! She won’t know how to handle it, just as we saw of her today when she started connecting the dots how Harth and Sakurai are the same person. (Though I must say, I gotta give her mad props for mustering up the courage to call up Sakurai and ask if he knew Yuki on NanterSG since she missed her chance to do it in-game!)
What’s more beautiful is that Sakurai isn’t fazed at how ‘different’ Moriko is offline to her online character, in fact he embraces all of her. The one thing he keeps telling her is that she does not give herself enough credit. This is quite special because, while Moriko was elated to have reunited with Harth, she was also incredibly ashamed and embarrassed of the fact Sakurai knows that she is a NEET and a lot more gloomier in person than her peppy and positive online avatar, and couldn’t help but feel self-conscious and pathetic.
It is sad how the two lost connection due to the fact Moriko had stopped playing or hadn’t had time, and when she wanted to return, the game was discontinued. But what’s the most interesting thing we learned today was the fact it was this game and her experience with Harth is how she fell in love with MMO games.
We also got a tiny bit more about her work background, but really it has been more of what we already know. It doesn’t look like they are really going to dig much deeper than the fact she did not enjoy her job, but she was devoted to it and wanted to make sure she finishes what needs to be done well.
All in all, THIS EPISODE FELT TOO SHORT DAMNIT OMFGGGGGGGGGGGGGG, I NEED THE NEXT ONE SO BADDDD!!! I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get this out yesterday, I was quite busy and by the time I finished I pretty much passed how. I’m still recovering from being overtired I guess ; v ;||| (Don’t you hate it when you’re tired but you can’t sleep, yet you NEED THAT SLEEP?!) But unless some other curveball is thrown at me next week, all of my entries should be back on schedule.
Still hard to believe there’s only two episodes left for this show, but you know what, with how well its has been paced, I think ten episodes is just right.
