Anime Review - Net-juu no Susume - Relationships, Harsh Work Ethics, and The Prevalence of NEETs

(Update 16/12/17: I also finished the OVA that released today and I loved it. It was more of a comedy gag, but that's the point. It's an OVA and it was enjoyable to see the embarassing moments between Moriko and Sakurai.)

I was browsing through MyAnimeList for an anime that hopefully finished this season and I found this gem. Net-juu no Susume is a romance take on MMO, but what I liked about it is the balance between reality and the virtual world when it comes to the development of the characters' relationships. From the anime, it hints at the harsh reality of Japanese work ethics, where workers are no longer happy with their constant grind at a boring task. As a result, the main character is pushed to the brink and quits her job to become a NEET. The premise is not very realistic in the real world, but I'm not surprised if this is true in Japan. However, the main point of the story is the "recovery from the NEET life", which is what the title is (Recovery of a MMO Junkie).

Story (8/10):

The story essentially involves a 30 year old woman, Moriko Morioka, who quits her job to become a NEET and how she starts to binge on a new MMO called Fruits de Mer. As she ventures out to the world when she needs to buy necessities, she encounters individuals who plays the same MMO too, and starts to develop relationships between them. I'm just giving a brief summary of what happens, but these individuals initially do not know that they were playing with each other already. As a result, that's where all the kek-worthy moments occur, where misunderstandings occur. 

I praise the studio for creating a balance between the MMO world and the real world, when exploring the relationships of these characters. First of all, its a romance, so the MMO aspect is not going to be in depth like Log Horizon or SAO. As a result, we can see how relationships are formed in both the MMO world, and consequently also the real world. That would be really cool in reality, and I'm sure occurrences like these have happened in real life. The balance also serves as a message that we need to differentiate what is real and what is virtual, which brings up the idea of the "recovery of a NEET". I think this balance can occur so successfully is because of the ages of the main characters. We have not seen any anime exploring the idea of an old NEET, which made it even more interesting due to the maturity of the individuals. That is why we could take these characters seriously.

One thing I could have wanted more is the exploration of some of the other characters in the guild. It was kinda random how they randomly introduce one of the guild members near the end and there was no major backstory behind her. There was also no major backstory behind the other members other than Kanbe (or Kazuomi Fujimoto in real life). But this wasn't a major problem since it was more of a romance between the two main characters that have been together in the virtual world for so long, and as a result unconsciously helped each other in the real world through words of support and to help recover from the NEET life.

Characters (9/10):

The characters are all lovable and I could take all of them seriously since they were of a mature age. Of course, I can never understand from the perspective of a mature individual when it comes to worklife, relationships etc, since I am not at that age, but it gives me a different perspective on how life is. 

The character that I found the coolest is Homare Koiwai. He is such a good wingman, helping his younger colleagues create relationships with past workers. Not only does he encourage and support Yuuta Sakurai, but he also makes Moriko think higher of herself. This guy is the MVP and arguably one of the most helpful side characters I have seen so far. Hopefully I can get a wingman like him in real life 😂

Art (7/10):

The art is beautiful and unique. I haven't really seen this type of art before, and this is probably due to the (new?) studio. I haven't heard of this studio before this, and when I searched them up, it looks like they are very new (started since 2015, but not frequent releases). Nevertheless, the art was enjoyable to look at, but not awe-inspiring. But who really cares that much, the main thing is the story (at least decent art).

Sound (8/10):

I LOVE THE OP!!!! It's so goddamn catchy. This season has produced some good quality Opening Songs. Furthermore, the song combined with the animation (and if you are lucky, the subs for the lyrics), makes it feel much more emotional. The ED was good too, but it wasn't too catchy (at least for me).

The voice acting was pretty good, and it suits the characters. I also like how they had different voice actors for the avatars in the MMO from the real world characters. Cost more money than needed, but it was probably necessary since most people like to hide their real identities whilst playing online.

Enjoyment (8/10):

I don't usually download and watch anime that are airing during the current season since I want to get a feel of the whole story, plus I also see whether the anime was well received by the community. When I heard this was finished, and there were decent praise for it, I immediately downloaded it and watched it. WOOOOOOOO. It was enjoyable alright.

Overall (8/10):

I found Net-juu no Susume very rewarding to watch since it involved mature characters, who just enjoy MMOs and have experienced hardships through their lives. From the anime, it hints at the harsh reality of the work place, and how people are forced to conform or else be alienated or become a NEET (like our main character Moriko). However, this was probably just my over-analysis, and of course the anime is focusing on the development of relationships in real life and the virtual world. The ending was pretty heartwarming and everything came to a close. There wasn't any loose ends, but I kinda wished they could have explored a bit more of the other side characters. I was tempted to rate this a 9, if it was longer and explored more of the side characters.