Forum - View topicREVIEW: Recovery of an MMO Junkie
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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It's a lost opportunity, they took the easy way but in doing so they lost one more chance to set the show apart. Like someone else said, this is like 90% of all rom-com, with ultimately little to differentiate it from most others. The setting was a unique selling point, but it didn't really use it. Instead of exploiting it to its full potential they just smothered it using coincidence and suspension of disbelief. I just think it should be clear, if someone is thinking about picking it up because they want to watch a show that seriously look at relationship trough MMO, they should look elsewhere. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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@angelmcazares Maybe "all the time" was an overstatement, but it happens a few times each season at least. It's common enough that I don't think of it as unusual or indicative of something special.
The show did rely pretty heavily on coincidences and your "spoiler" was a small bridge to far for me as well, honestly. Other than that hiccup though, I was able to pretty easily accept the cheesiness of this relationship as an inherent aspect of the show, that somehow even added to the appeal. I do understand people taking issue with it though. Especially since they really did not need that last coincidence at all to tell nearly the same story.
I think it did take a serious look at what a relationship born through online interaction can look like. And it had a lot to say about how that connection effects how they interact in real life versus the MMO, etc. A lot of this was touched on in the review.. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Yup! We don't tell people what to review. I mean, we do, but they can write about other stuff besides assignments that they want, and we'll also publish those personal choices for review most of the time. |
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ultimatehaki
Posts: 1090 |
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Faulty memory then. Made in abyss, ID-O, Saga of Tanya the Evil, Flip Flappers, Action Heroine cheer fruits and many others all got the same treatment. This happens every season for a number of shows. |
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myskaros
 Posts: 600 Location: J-Novel Club |
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Blame whoever localized the title. The Japanese title is "Netojuu no Susume," which also doesn't mention MMO anywhere. The original English translated title is "Recommendation of The Wonderful Virtual Life." |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11429 |
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Her name is Moriko Morioka, not Morikawa. Since Nick called her that twice, I have to think it's not a typo.
For all the people calling foul on the coincidences, I can only say it happens. It happened to me more than once in my online rp days where I kept running into people I had played with under different characters, in different rps from science fiction settings to fantasy, or where I learned over time that two players I met in different genres knew each other irl, and we were all in the same city. People with similar interests are drawn to similar venues, and if you live in the same time zone, that alone cuts down on who you're likely to encounter. The six degrees of separation phenomenon also plays a part. In online rp it's more like 2 or 3 degrees. 
I also encountered either personally or by observation, people who had trouble separating in-character from out-of-character and got completely bent to find out they were playing with someone who was a different age and/or gender from their character. So again, it happens. Watching this show was like reliving my online past (except for the romantic entanglements).  Too bad it was so short. I really love these adorkable characters.
@ myskaros: Blame the Japanese then, since both Recovery of an MMO Junkie and Recommendation of the Wonderful Virtual Life are in English in the OP. |
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myskaros
Posts: 600 Location: J-Novel Club |
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Not sure that's fair since the title card on the OP is clearly "Recommendation of the Wonderful Virtual Life," while the "MMO Junkie" part is only in the background for a few seconds at the beginning. The key art also says "Recommendation of the Wonderful Virtual Life." I feel like it had to be one specific person, either on the Japanese side or Crunchyroll's side, who decided to use "MMO Junkie" and now we're stuck with it :/ |
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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Not common, sure, but not "vanishingly slim" - every season, there are a few. One thing I'm finding really curious about this show is that I still have not seen anyone compare it to recent American YA novel "Guy in Real Life" - https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062266835/guy-in-real-life The same basic story/concept. But also a lot of differences. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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It used to be "vanishingly slim" more accurately, but it's definitely an increasing segment of the market now. And you're right, there are usually at least a couple shows per season that fit that criteria. And if you broaden your requirement to just shows that feature adult leads period, there are usually a few more even still. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2458 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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I feel like there was a missed opportunity here, and that's the whole online gender-swap thing. It gave a bit of a twist to what otherwise is a straight-ahead anime version of You've Got Mail / The Shop Around The Corner (and… speaking of… wouldn't this be the easiest anime in years to adapt to western live-action?). But I guess I wanted a little bit more out of what Moriko got out of being a guy online. It was kind of interesting when Fujimoto (I think?) tells Moriko about how much unwanted attention Lily attracted at first, and that kind of plays into Moriko using a male avatar to escape societal expectations of women. But then IRL, she's still trapped in those conventions: self-conscious of how she looks and dresses on her rare trips outside, mostly for dates with the two guys, Sakurai and Koiwai. Later in the series, she even reverts to a female persona online, to show Koiwai the ropes.
And perhaps more interestingly, why is Sakurai RP'ing a girl? Particularly given that Koiwai gives him the girlish nickname "Sakura", I kind of feel like there's something missing from his life that he gets by being Lily, but the series is mum on that. When the series started, I kind of thought it would use the flexibility of online gender more to its advantage, kind of like how Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun did by swapping masculine and feminine traits among its cast (and then swapping them back in the characters they inspire in Nozaki's manga). We didn't get that, and it's fine as it is, but I do think MMO missed out on some rich thematic material. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Ignoring the whole "what is the correct English title" discussion, I don't see why you view the "whimsical" use of an MMO as some kind of betrayal. The offending English title is Recovery of an MMO Junkie. (emphasis mine) That would imply to me that the main character would NOT be playing a lot of MMO and instead be moving AWAY from it. While it is more juvenile and possibly more ludicrous, "And You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online?" is a better example of characters in an online relationship. As for the "misinterpreted text chat", #1, a large chunk of the show has the characters NOT in a "romantic" relationship, so they're chatting about things that are not really likely to be misinterpreted in that way. #2, This really seems like a first, having someone that wishes a rom-com had MORE "oops, I misunderstood what you meant", since MANY rom-coms do THAT ad-nauseum even when people are having face-to-face interactions. I'm personally GLAD the show didn't waste time trying to mine drama from text chat misreadings. |
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Weazul-chan
 Posts: 625 Location: Michigan |
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