And You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online? takes a popular gaming trope that Sword Art Online helped popularize and gives it a unique and powerful representation. This anime, with its harem-esque and fan service-filled storyline, manages to captivate viewers whether they watch it ironically or as a guilty pleasure. Surprisingly, the later episodes of And You Thought... delve into the darker aspects of gaming, leaving viewers pleasantly surprised. This unexpected twist can be seen as a literal interpretation of the metaphorical phenomenon that Sword Art Online expertly conveyed - players getting trapped in the digital world due to their obsession with gaming. However, And You Thought... approaches this concept differently, portraying the players as willingly immersing themselves in the game, ultimately becoming prisoners of their own inner demons.
Is There a Difference Between Real Life & Gaming?
Even prior to these developments, this anime adaptation of the original light novel by Shibai Kineko and Hisas, the illustrator, always held the potential to be a perplexing experience. A group of dedicated gamers, who are part of the same guild in an online RPG called Legendary Age (LA), decide to meet in person. While some of them lead structured lives outside of the game, the majority prefer the virtual world. Ako Tamaki's condition is especially severe, as she struggles to distinguish between the game and reality. Initially, the series treats Ako's confusion with a light-hearted approach, leading viewers to believe that it will solely consist of comedic instances where Ako's actions embarrass or traumatize her guild members. However, as the story progresses, it delves deeper, raising profound questions.
It is not until episode 5 that "And You Thought..." effectively captures the metaphor used in Sword Art Online, where real life becomes so distressing for Ako that she chooses to fully immerse herself in LA. However, this escape from reality proves insufficient. Ako becomes so engrossed in the game that her friends are unable to connect with her, even though they know her real-world address. Essentially, Ako becomes trapped in LA, similar to how the titular VRMMORPG in Sword Art Online prevents its 10,000 players from logging out. Due to her mental imbalance, Ako is unable to stop playing, and this state would have persisted if her "game husband" Hideki Nishimura had not physically intervened.
Reinventing Common Anime Tropes
Sword Art Online initially popularized the RPG subcategory within the isekai genre, where characters are transported to other worlds. Another popular subgenre of isekai is reincarnation stories, where the protagonist dies in the real world and is reborn in a high fantasy setting.
Coincidentally, Ako attempts to fully immerse herself in LA through a process known as reincarnation. Only gamers who leave school or work to dedicate their lives to LA can reach a high enough level to transfer their stats and items to a new character. This episode is clearly a reference to the abundance of reincarnation anime in the industry.
And You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online? is streaming on Crunchyroll.
