First off. I thought this was an excellent episode of Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi o Suru, a major step up.  So we’ll talk about that, but it got me thinking about just how much of a fantasy it is that all these guild members would be living close enough to have a meet-up – never mind accidentally run into each other.  My instant reaction is that it’s a huge suspension of disbelief factor, but I guess when you think about it Tokyo has about 11% of Japan’s population (over 30% if you include the greater metro area).  And that number is significantly higher in the age group likely to be playing a MMORPG like FOS.  So maybe it’s not totally outrageous?

It’s not as though tons of series don’t ask us to buy into anime coincidence, so this isn’t a deal-breaker or anything.  And it does set up the most interesting episode of the series so far, which starts with Akane on a double-date/mixer.  The guy she’s paired off with is a classic superficial zaku, clearly only interested in one thing.  Akane doesn’t even really try to fake an interest (she’s on her phone all night), and he does a half-assed job of pretending to be interested in her.  In fact Akane is much more excited about getting back home and logging on, so she can hang out with Ruri (and maybe Yamada).  This bothers her a bit (it probably should) but she’s already proved herself an expert at denial.

What she sees when she logs in – Yamada and Ruri having some alone time and Ruri seemingly cherishing it – sets Akane’s mind spinning off in a direction which surprises her.  Later she sees Yamada meeting up with a girl who looks suspiciously Ruri-like – she matches Akane’s mental image, anyway – but this seems too on-point not to be the misdirect it will turn out to be.  Eventually Ruri invites Akane to a meet-up at a collaboration cafe for FOS, and Momo – as ever tactless but generally sensible – cautions Akane that she’s taking a big risk.  The RL Ruri might be nothing like the online one, in all sorts of important (and potentially dangerous) ways.

This is an area you can’t be too careful with as far as I’m concerned, and I’m with Momo on this one.  But Akane is lonely and adrift, so she can’t say no to the possibility of a connection.  And indeed, Ruri is seemingly not who they appeared to be.  In fact it probably is a guy, as it’s almost certainly Sasaki Eita (Hanae Natsuki).  He’s the bishie who bumps into Akane (literally) as she’s searching for the cafe.  Eita is obviously a hardcore gamer and as the online conversation would imply, has some prior connection to Yamada.  Also present at the cafe is a very shy older man (Tobita Nobuo – wow!) and the girl Akane thought was Ruri (Kakuma Ai).

I suppose the question of the moment is who that girl actually is.  Yamada-kun doesn’t seem like the liar type, so when he said he’d never had a girlfriend I believe him – I’m thinking younger sister, or at least younger osananajimi with a one-sided crush.  But wait, there’s a very important epilogue after the credits, as Yamada thinks back on the night Akane crashed (and puked) at his pad.  And there was more to it than we knew, as the drunken Akane wept uncontrollably in Yamada’s arms and clearly prompted him to think about emotions he’d never considered before.  I’ve been in his shoes from that night and it’s a horribly uncomfortable experience, but the way events played out has clearly gotten under his skin and piqued his curiosity (and that of his FPS pro gaming team).

This was all way more interesting for me than the first two eps, which were perfectly fine but lacked the intrigue this one had.  With the guild getting together in RL that’s a big level-up for the plot, and all sorts of intriguing routes present themselves from here.  I’m interested in learning more about these people, and ultimately watching characters actually interacting with each other is a lot more engaging than watching them doing so online.