Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend Flat

Episode 4

Something has been bugging me for a while now about Utaha, and this episode brings it to a head stronger than any episode before it. Since she's had many lengthy conversations with Aki over the past year and a half, shouldn't she fully understand by now that Aki's one-track mind can't process the abstract approach she's taking toward enticing a commitment out of him? Or is she getting so caught up in her identity as a writer that she can't separate the more dramatic approach of her novels from how things work in real life? The latter case would be the more interesting one, though there's been no clear indication yet that Utaha is doing that deliberately.

The matter becomes a major plot point because she gets quite upset over Aki saying that her script due to being written more like a novel than a game. I've played enough VNs that I can absolutely understand where Aki is coming from on this. However, it's absolutely not the point that Utaha was trying to get across to him. His utter density devastates her at first, but she eventually rebounds and keeps plugging away at trying to seduce him with blunter sex appeal. This gives us our biggest and most direct doses of fanservice to date in this season, beyond the show's cursory obsession with hips. Utaha still doesn't seem to appreciate that a topless sleepover and a number of double entendres are too indirect though, and she reads further into Aki's insistence on a third game track than what he probably intended. Relationships don't work too well when one of the parties is operating figuratively and the other is operating literally.

In fact, the theme of this episode seems to be that absolutely everything has a double meaning. Normally the series tackles this in a “meta” sense, but in this case it's mostly couched in traditional double meanings. Megumi, of course, picks up on this better than others, and once again her keen insight strikes when she identifies the similarities between one of the game's love interests and a prominent character from one of Utaha's novels, both of which are loosely based on Utaha in a presumable attempt at self-examination. Yet Aki doesn't even let her have that outlet for self-recrimination, as he insists that obsessive type characters have their own appeal too.

The end of the episode – where Megumi takes on the role of Ruri at the school dance – is a neat one. Even if it's apparently being done to help Eriri out of a drawer's block, there are so many different ways to interpret Megumi's tactics. It's also pleasing to see that Megumi is so dedicated to seeing the project finished now, as opposed to just going with the flow like in the first season. Perhaps she sees the game as a model for the production team's romantic dynamics? Whether this is the case or not, the series is settling into a comfortable pace at this point. If only Aki could just get a clue.

Now seems like a good time to start identifying all of the anime paraphernalia in Aki's room. This episode, I clearly saw a variety of Madoka Magica and Sword Art Online figurines, as well as what looked like a High School Fleet figurine. There were one or two others I couldn't place, though. Any helpers here?

Rating: B+

Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend Flat is currently streaming on Amazon's Anime Strike.