Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta? or And you thought there is never a girl online? is new anime series based on a light novel with the same title written by Shibai Kineko. The light novel was published by ASCII Media Works and they have released 10 volumes so far since 2013.

As someone who played MMORPGs and spent countless hours on games such as Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV, this anime series is something that I can relate it. For anyone who I met online, I always assume they were males / guys / men until proven otherwise . The notion of there are no girls online has become a well-known internet joke/meme for last few years. As social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) rises its popularity, people tend to be more open about who they are on the Internet including their gender in comparison to 10 or so years ago.

This anime series made an attempt to tell a story about an MMORPG player who meet another player whom he believed was a girl online. Did it succeed ?

Synopsis

Hideki Nishimura is your average MMORPG otaku and loves to play MMORPG game called Legendary Age (or LA for short) under an alias of Rusian. One day, he decided to propose in the game to a girl named Nekohime who said that she actually was a man. Devastated with the fact that she’s a man, Hideki swore that he would never trust another girl in an online game and decided to play solo for as long as he could. After a year, he learned the fact that it didn’t matter of if it’s a man or woman behind a cute online character. After all, it’s a game and what matters is the cute online characters.

After, Hideki met with another player named Ako who suddenly proposed to him and asked him to marry him. Hideki originally declined her request due to his previous experience, however, Ako insisted on marrying him and proposed to him multiple times. Hideki or Rusian reluctantly agreed and they got married in game.

Rusian plays as a male knight and one of his main roles is to tank and to protect his party member. Ako plays as a female cleric who actually is not good at all in playing LA. Rusian has to constantly babysit her. Ako and Rusian are part of Alley Cat Guild with Schwein, a male knight and he acts as a damage dealer. Alley Cat’s leader is Apricot who is a male mage who is really rich as he has all these premium items which cost real money so, in other words, he’s a premium player.

The four of them has been playing a year and Apricot decided that it’s time for them to meet offline. Rusian or Hideki who believed that there’s no girl online was surprised that all guild members aside from him are girls and not to mention that they all go to the same school as him and live nearby to each other as well.

Thoughts

I know what you think. Yes, it’s another MMORPG related anime. Similar to my previous first impression of Hai to Geisou no Grimgar, I was heavily sceptical on how this anime series will keep me watching each episode and not dropping during mid-season. I predicted that I would drop it around episode 3 or 4. It turned out… I was wrong. Here’s why I didn’t drop it.

Each episode was surprisingly entertaining and was hilarious. I was up to episode 7 and have no plan on drop this series anytime soon. Sure…. it has the typical beach episode etc, however, it still focuses on our two main protagonists, Rusian and Ako. Ako is what I would call an MMORPG addict where she put MMORPG above everything in her life and the fact that she couldn’t tell the difference between real life and the game itself.

I thought this anime series was interesting and was definitely worth to give it a try since it tried to tackle and solve an issue of MMORPG addiction which I definitely could relate to during my MMORPG days.

OP song titled 1st Love Story was sung by Luce Twinkle Wink group ☆. When I first heard it, I thought it was sung by Claris since the tone was really similar to Irony. I felt like they copied the tunes and changed the lyrics ^^;. Does anyone else think so too ?

ED Song titled Zero Ichi Kiseki (ゼロイチキセキ) was sung Yoshino Nanjo. She’s the lead singer of fripSide as well as the seiyuu of Eli in Love Live. HARASHO!! Kashi koi kawaii, Elichika! ;). I’m biassed since Eli is my best girl in Love Live and love fripSide songs, however, this ED was nowhere similar to any fripSide song and it’s quite refreshing to hear her sing different tones/notes/sounds (not sure how I should describe this 🙂 ).

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Ako was voiced by Rina Hidaka and I thought her voice fits Ako perfectly. Looking at her previous roles, many of them came from voicing sister of the main character or sister-like characters surprisingly.

If you’re looking for comedy, something light, entertaining, romance and a little bit of fan service here and there, look no further, check out Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta. Don’t let the copycat theme of MMORPG preventing you from watching this anime and if you played MMORPGs before, you definitely will enjoy this series as it gets to live up to your perfect encounter of meeting a girl online as cute as Ako.

Source: MyAnimeList, Wikipedia