Man Akane is such mood, I’m going to have an entire collection of mood themes by the end of this hahahaha!
It is so endearing to see how invested Akane has gotten into Forest of Spirits. Being able to do hunts and boss fights with her guild-mates is now something is eagerly looks forward to, more so than dates. Better yet, it’s good that she has taken a step back from the dating world, and is just focusing on what is giving her joy in the present as she has found new friends within the guild. So when she gets an invite for an offline Guild Meetup at a cafe that’s doing a Forest of Spirit collab, she agrees, however she soon finds herself in an awkward pickle. Up until now, Akane had formed this image in her head that’s Rurihime was a cute high school, but of course, that wasn’t actually the case. In fact it never even dawned to her that their in-game avatars wouldn’t necessarily match who they are in person. After-all, it’s just a digital skin and just as some boys like to play as female characters, some girls like to play as males. But as Akane is still relatively new to the online gaming-sphere, I suppose it’s understandable why she wouldn’t think twice about it. Though, I suppose one couldn’t necessarily blame her for the mistake when the girl is basically dressed as cutely as Rurihime does in-game…But at the same time, is should be common sense to not assume who the individual is unless said otherwise in a meet-up.
So unfortunately due to her naive assumptions, the girl who she had imeaditely assumed to be Rurihime was someone else entirely, and to make matters worse, one who certainly didn’t share Rurihime’s excitement to meet her. And oof, we see her being pretty clingy with Yamada.
But she wasn’t the only new face we saw today. There was another member in the meetup who is certainly older than the rest, but we’ll have to wait till next week to be properly introduced to him.
All that said, I think it would be fair to say that it was sort of predictable that Rurihime turned out to be, of course, a guy named Eita (who if I may add, is a handsome fella hoho~). He’s the one who formed this guild together with Yamada when they first started playing the game together. The two actually bumped into each other on the way to the cafe and since Akane was struggling to find the place, Eita offered to guide her. At first Akane was concerned that this was another guy who was trying to hit on her by claiming he’s into the same game she is. Fortunately seeing him nerd out about the game assure her that was no the case, unlike the other guy from the group date who struggled to ‘find’ or ‘create’ common grounds with Akane… only to fail miserably once she brings up subjects that exposes the fact he actually doesn’t know anything at all. (Oof, he ought to stick to the things he’s passionate about and knows like the back of his head. Being caught out not knowing enough of the subject he’s using to get his foot in the door is pretty embarrassing. I don’t think he’s a bad guy though, just someone trying really hard to get a girlfriend…)
On that note, it was precisely because of that interaction that Akane also found herself feeling a bit rattle. It started off when she had logged in and spotted Rurihime and Yamada talking alone together in what she interpreted as an intimate moment, which led to the assumption that the two were an item. Though I do have to laugh because even with the way Rurihime messages Yamada, it can absolutely be misunderstood by an outsider who has absolutely no clue what’s going on hahaha! Though I suppose I can understand why Akane would feel the way she did though. She just came out of a breakup, and while I wouldn’t say she has fallen for Yamada just yet, her heart has certainly been tickled by his kindness. That would pretty much explain why she couldn’t help but feel mopey and have doubts about Yamada saying he never had a girlfriend before. She sunk into that negatively, gloomy headspace we all hate that just imagines the worst of things, even when we already know that’s not actually the case.
And to wrap things up, I legit can’t remember if the post-credit scene ever happened in the manga, I went back to do a quickly skimmed, and I didn’t see it– maybe I missed it? Let me know if I did! But if it’s new as I think(?) is it, I suppose they decided to plug it in so that they could properly set up the offline meeting without cutting off in the middle of it. But I liked it a lot, because it showed more of the sweet and considerate side of Yamada’s character. He really doesn’t understand a woman’s heart, and it’s certainly as complicated as it looks for him when Akane is mumbling one thing, but her actions is doing another, creating a contradiction. Poor guy, seeing the indication that she had not only got vomited on her clothes, but his freaking pillow made me go OH NOOOOOOOOO! I’m not sure which would be more mortifying to be honest, both are equally bad…
