Literature / And You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online?

And You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online? (ネトゲの嫁は女の子じゃないと思った? / Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta?) is a light novel series written by Shibai Kineko and illustrated by Hisasi. The series was published by ASCII Media Works under the Dengeki Bunko imprint from 2013 to 2020, for a total of 21 volumes. The manga adaptation, illustrated by Kazui Ishigami, was serialized in Dengeki G's Comic from 2014 to 2018. Project No. 9 produced an anime adaptation in April 2016.

Ako appears in the Ignition update of Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax as a playable character, with Rusian also joining as an assist character.

Hideki Nishimura is an avid gamer playing the MMORPG Legendary Age as the knight "Rusian". One day he confessed his love to a girl online, but she told him she was a guy in real life. After that he swore never to trust a girl online again.

After two years as a freelancer, he has settled into the Alley Cats Guild and, after much persistence, accepted the in-game proposal of the guild's resident cleric, "Ako". When the guild decides to meet up in real life, he is shocked to discover that his in-game wife is a real girl (full name: Ako Tamaki), and a schoolmate to boot, as do his other two "male" guild-mates, classmate/knight Akane "Schwein" Segawa and Student Council President/mage Kyou "Apricot" Goshouin.

Unfortunately for them, Ako has trouble distinguishing between the real and online worlds, so Hideki, Akane and Kyou work together to help her overcome her issues.

A character sheet is currently in the works. Please contribute.

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The series provides examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects:
  • Ako's sniper shot in Episode 5 follows the bullet, which is the only CGI in a 2D drawn world.
  • During the siege tournament, some of the flags over the keeps are notably in CGI.
• Accidental Pervert: Subverted in episode 9 during the girls' sleepover bath. Akane comments about her A-Cup Angst and Ako is smug about her squishiness, though it is brought up that they don't know what kind of body type Rusian prefers. Ako tries to video chat him to show him everyone nude and ask him and they all freak out, and are unable to stop her. Fortunately for them, Rusian didn't pick up the phone.
• Acquainted in Real Life: Hideki is a hardcore gamer in an MMO and a member of a four-person guild. One day the guild master declares that they'll have an offline meet and Hideki is shocked by his guild members.
  • The cocky swordsman Schwein is actually the cute, petite Tsundere Akane, Hideki's classmate who never stops telling him how gross his gaming and other interests are.
  • The flashy guild master Apricot is actually Kyou, the student council president of Hideki's school.
  • Later, Hideki discovers that Nekohime, the cat-girl he proposed to online who claimed to be a cross-playing old man, is actually his attractive female teacher.
• All-Powerful Bystander: Subverted with the Gamemasters of Legendary Age. Rusian's account gets hacked and then deleted. The Gamemasters refuse to act immediately, because there isn't enough evidence against the culprit who did it. After Rusian and his friends uncover the criminal, the Gamemaster known as Nyack uses his administrator abilities to restore everything he could.
• Almost Kiss: Much to Ako's unhappiness it occurs near the end of episode 12. Akane, Kyou, and Yui-sensei interrupt them with news about an upcoming game patch.
• Animal Motifs: In episode 11, the Emperor Sword guild is in control of Fort Cantor. Not only is their guild emblem a sword bearing Super-Deformed penguin wearing a crown, but the guild members themselves are equipped with penguin themed armor.
• Angrish: In one episode, Ako thinks Hideki is cheating on her in-game. After a few moments of Tranquil Fury, she loses both her temper and her ability to speak coherently.
  Ako: You just don't know... when you're beaten! My anger is euphoric right now, even for me!
  Hideki: Your Japanese took a turn for the worse there... (sub)
  Ako: Oh you have no idea... 'cause you're already beaten I'm so angry it's almost flipped back around to euphoric!
  Hideki: ...Wow, look at the time. (dub)
• Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: After having their true identities revealed, Apricot and Schwein appear as women during the in-game Fantasy Sequence of Legendary Age, because they are portrayed from Rusian's perspective. Whenever a shot of the computer monitors in the real world are shown, both are using male sprites. Players who are not members of the Alley Cats guild always see and identify Apricot and Schwein as male gamers. The second episode does show Schwein shifting between both his in-game male form and Akane's real-life female appearance, which Hideki credits as Akane trying to keep up her online persona and failing. While the same applies to Nanako when she joins the guild, it doesn't for Yui, who retains her appearance as Nekohime online even when the rest of the club follows suit.
  • Played for Laughs even further when the girls hijack Apricot to talk to Hideki, with the avatar shapeshifting between them representing the various mixed messages they attempt to send him.
• The Archmage: Black Wizard, leader of the TMW guild. It's comprised of super hardcore gamers who live and breathe MMO's. Black Wizard is considered among the most powerful PVP and MVP caster builds in Legendary Age.
• Aside Comment: Before the opening of episode 4 of the anime, as Ako attempts to type on an invisible floating keyboard in real life to access her inventory to sell unwanted items for a soda:
  Nishimura: You don't suppose she's actually getting worse?
• Badass Crew: The mercenary guild known as Wallenstein. A single member can slaughter an entire guild single handed. Their leader Bats does exactly that when he betrays the Alley Cats.
• Beach Episode: A cliche one, but with all of them gender-flipped. Showy swimsuits, though no nosebleeds. Rusian gets violated by all three girls putting lotion on him. And instead of the accidental peeking, Ako blatantly tries to join Rusian in the bath only to get stopped by Akane.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • The source of Ako's devotion to Rusian. Her timid personality made her an outcast in the real world, leading to find social escape in Legendary Age. However, repeated clumsiness made her an outcast on the game world as well. Things could have gone tragically wrong, but Rusian appeared and became an honest friend who never abandoned her. His repeated kindness gave her a reason to live, and being his loving wife is Ako's only ambition.
  • A more subdued version occurs when Rusian similarly helps out Sette as a newbie. Ako misinterprets it as the same brand of love.
• Blackmail: Once the Alley Cats learn that Saitou is Nekohime, Kyou coerces her into becoming their club's advisor by threatening to reveal her online identity to everyone.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • A few PC and PC gaming oriented products show up in the anime, under such names like Bazor (For Razer).
  • Hideki regularly treats himself to some PAX Coffee.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: Bats turns on the Alley Cats and takes the same castle he was hired to capture for them, just because he wanted to see their disappointed reactions.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: Kyou buys a lot of premium items that give her a huge advantage in battle, to the annoyance of Hideki and Akane.
• Broken Pedestal: The guild Wallenstein was highly admired by the Alley Cats as a group they'd like to become. However after discovering their Jerkass personalities and Back Stab dishonor, they realize their admiration was very misplaced.
• Butt-Monkey: Besides Ako's inability to distinguish the game and real worlds, part of the series' humor lay with Akane constantly suffering nervous meltdowns from her failed attempts to hide her "weird" Gamer Chick side, as well as getting a lot of hell for her embarrassing character handle "Schwein". Kyou also receives this treatment whenever her guildmates forbid the use of premium items, as well as during their PVP training, when all three of her party members (yes, even Ako) manage to dodge her powerful yet easily-choreographed spells and knock her out.
• Casting Gag: This isn't the first time Rina Hidaka (Ako) has played an avid gamer, only older and bustier than said previous case.
• Cat Girl: Nekohime, who is a dedicated-enough roleplayer to even include the "nyan" when chatting.
• Catchphrase:
  • Schwein uses the "ore-sama" pronoun whenever she's talking about herself. Its use makes the speaker sound incredibly arrogant and supremely confident of themselves. In the Funimation dub it gets translated as "my bad self."
  • Whenever she doesn't understand what someone is talking about, Ako uses a confused, "Yes?"
  • Hideki is always telling Ako (and occasionally himself) that, "games and reality are separate."
• Cavalry Betrayal: In episode eleven, Wallenstein forms an alliance with the Alley Cats to capture a small fort during one of the siege events in the game. The guild leader then tells them to hang around in the fort while they head back to town to resupply. However, Kyou immediately realizes something's amiss when Wallenstein all leaves the fort, and immediately breaks the alliance. The Wallenstein guild leader then heads back inside, and delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle to the Alley Cats members, citing betraying them was mostly a case of It Amused Me.
• Celibate Hero: Schwein claims that dating someone would be a serious distraction from gaming, so she avoids romance. She later admits to herself that Rusian would have been a fine boyfriend, but understands Ako found him first and needs his affection far more than she does.
• Chekhov's Gun: In episode 9 Kyo can be seen reading Friedrich Nietzsche's book Jenseits von Gut und Böse. Later on she directly quotes Nietzsche when Akiyama asks about Nishimura and Tamaki's relationship with the phrase "when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you".
• Chekhov's Gunman: The guild master of a hardcore guild that Hideki originally tried to join tells him that although he wouldn't be a good fit for their guild, he still tells him to come back if he ever needs help in the game since he's at least a fellow gamer. This, along with Nekohime's Instant Fan Club guildmates, comes in very handy after Hideki's account gets hacked, and his items stolen and sold off by the hacker.
• Closet Geek:
  • Akane is very reticent about her gaming habits and goes to great lengths to hide them from her friends.
  • Yui also keeps her online gaming activities hidden from public, as its frowned upon for a teacher. Especially since Nekohime has one of the largest fan clubs in the game, consisting of young students.
• Cold Sniper: Ako quickly proves herself to be The Ace at First-Person Shooter games, and comically begins exhibiting some of the eccentric mannerisms of one.
• The Confidant: Hideki is one for Ako, when not being the focus of her romantic affection. Whenever something troublesome happens, she will run to him and vent her frustration of the situation so he can find an answer.
• Contrived Coincidence: All of the members of Alley Cats just happened to be students at the same school. Even Nekohime turned out to be Nishimura's homeroom teacher.
• Creepy Good: The guildmaster of the guild of people that fully dedicate their lives to the game is disturbing to Rusian, but helps other players without a second's hesitation.
• Cross Player: Akane and Kyou are girls who play male characters online.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • What happens to the Alley Cats when they attempt Player Versus Player events, as they lack the proper gear and knowledge to win.
  • It gets worse and happens again when Bats defeats the entire guild For the Evulz.
• Damager, Healer, Tank: Schwein and Apricot are the damagers, Ako is the healer, and Rusian is the tank. Sette later joins as an additional damager.
• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 9 focuses exclusively on the girls, when they have a sleepover and study session for Ako at Kyou's mansion. Rusian isn't seen until the very end, and since he didn't have any interaction with them beforehand, he's completely clueless as to why they're all asking him for help after Ako says something odd about her relationship with him.
• Deep-Immersion Gaming: With the twist that whenever someone's real-life identity is revealed to Hideki, their Legendary Age avatar invariably becomes their real-life self in cosplay—with the notable exception of Nekohime.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: When the girls apply lotion to Rusian during the Beach Episode, he gets so overstimulated it's implied he has an orgasm due to the way he curls his toes and moans, and then acts as if he's been Defiled Forever.
• Eating the Eye Candy: During episode 7, Ako gets to see Rusian nude in the bath. She absolutely loved what she saw.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Akane thought her "Schwein" avatar name is an Awesome McCoolname. Then Kyou tells her that it is also a German word for "pig", and since then her alias has been gleefully swapped with pig-related nicknames and shortforms.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
  • Everyone calls Kyou "class president" in school. Within the Alley Cats Guild/Net Game Club, they call her Master instead of Apricot. Later in the series Kyou asks Hideki to use her first name without Japanese Honorifics, because they've become close friends. It becomes a Didn't Think This Through moment for her, as she becomes aroused hearing a male non-family member say it for the first time (usually the mannerism is only allowed for a lover or husband).
  • This trope also extends to Hideki, as everyone starts calling him Rusian in the real world because of Ako's repeated use.
• Expy: The gameplay mechanics of Legendary Age mimic those of Ragnarok Online, which at one time was the most popular MMO in Japan.
• Fanservice: In addition to gratuitous breasts and ass shots, Project No. 9 was even fond of detailing the female characters' lips.
• Fantasy Sequence: Everything that happens in the game. Legendary Age is actually an ordinary keyboard and mouse MMO with no virtual reality technology. Imaginary immersion is the explanation for the realistic game world.
• Fire-Forged Friends: The type of relationship Rusian and Schwein share in the game. As the guild's two melee fighters, they put their neck out on the line to ensure enemies never get near the Squishy Wizard Apricot and Ako. From time to time they call each other, "partner," when no one else is around.
• Five-Man Band: The Alley Cats after Sette officially joins. Apricot is The Leader who masterminds the guild's adventures. Rusian is The Lancer, who leads during combat as the tank and tries to keep everyone focused on winning. Sette is The Smart Guy, with awkward comedy relief stemming from her gaming inexperience. She's alert and a very quick thinker, able to outwit others or be a mischief maker when she wants. As the party's damage dealing expert, Schwein is The Big Guy and has the highest physical strength. Love struck and reclusive Ako is The Heart during her "game-wife" thing.
• First Girl Wins: Ako is Hideki's Second Love as an online girl, but the first real girl he has an actual romantic relationship with. Akane and Kyou silently show signs they wouldn't mind being Hideki's girlfriend, while Nanako has openly claimed she never realized he was her type. Out of respect for their friendship, none of the girls attempt to take him away from Ako.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the latter half of episode 6, Kyou mentions the increased rate of account hacking in Legendary Age. This is what happens to Rusian at the end of episode 7 and across episode 8.
  • At the beginning of episode 11, Bats didn't give Apricot a mutually sincere handshake, as he was intending to betray her from the start. This is contrasted to the handshake she shares with Black Wizard near the end.
• Fully-Clothed Nudity: Sort of. When Hideki comes over to Ako's house after she decides to quit school, he unlocks her door despite her protests. Naturally, he walks in on her while she's in her underwear. He immediately slams the door closed. A few minutes later, she invites him in stripping totally and asking him to be gentle.
• G.I.R.L.:
  • As the title states, Hideki believe that this was the case until he met his teammates in real life.
  • Inverted with Schwein and Apricot, who play male characters but are girls in real life.
  • Nekohime admitted to Rusian after he confessed to her that despite being a female character, she is an older guy in real life. Subverted when it's revealed that Nekohime is an actual woman — to be exact, Hideki and Akane's homeroom teacher, Yui Saitou.
  • Played straight with Shoko, who is actually the hacker who stole Rusian's account. The ramifications of this are downplayed.
• Godiva Hair: While enjoying a bath together, all the girls' hair functions this way, as you might expect.
• Graceful Loser: Upon being beaten, Bats and the rest of Wallenquist are more amused than anything that Apricot managed to win via abusing Pay 2 Win items and take their loss with a laugh.
• Hammerspace: As mentioned in Accidental Pervert, Ako pulls out a phone to asks Rusian's opinion on the girls' figures... while in the bath, with literally nowhere she could've logically pulled that from.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Ako and Sette pull these off in episode 12 to compensate their lack of effectiveness in one-on-one Player Versus Player matches.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Black Wizard.
• Hollywood Hacking: Averted. Rusian gets his account hacked, stolen, and maliciously deleted in a very believable (and unfortunately very common) type of phishing scam.
• I Ate WHAT?!: In episode five, while visiting Ako in her room, Hideki notices she has a fridge in her room. She says she has to spend a week without leaving, prompting him to ask how she goes to the bathroom, while drinking a some yellow-colored tea. She then casually mentions that she uses plastic bottles, which then causes him to have a hilarious reaction. However, she was just joking and says she just goes to the bathroom when she needs to.
• I Call It "Vera": Akane calls her computer at school "War Machine" since its specs are a lot more powerful than what she has at home.
• Imagine Spot: Ako remembers her meeting with Rusian as him arriving as a Knight in Shining Armor saving her as a newbie from early-game mobs. Rusian, however, instead remembers himself just nicely approaching Ako, telling her how to log out, and then getting stalked by her until the present moment.
• Informed Flaw:
  • Hideki is called a hardcore anime, manga, and gaming otaku, but aside from playing Legendary Age, we're never shown how he partakes in his supposed anime and manga obsession. As for the hardcore title itself, in Japan a hardcore otaku is the Western's equivalent of a casual otaku - so despite the claim he's not actually hardcore outside of to a Japanese audience.
  • We're told Ako has poor fashion sense, but whenever she's seen wearing something besides her uniform, the outfit could easily be considered something fashionable (has color coordination, looks good with her figure, etc).
  • For the English dub, Hideki says he's an otaku but doesn't specify beyond that, and thus all we see is his gaming pursuits. In addition, no one ever really comments about Ako's fashion sense period. So in both cases, the dub subverts this trope.
• Insane Troll Logic: In Episode 11, Kyou, despite carrying costly items, claims she has not paid money for the game saying that she hasn't paid enough to damage her life, therefore she has not paid money.
• Intimate Lotion Application: When Kyou invites the cast to her family's private beach, she notices Rusian is the only one who hasn't applied sunscreen yet, and when she offers to help him he nervously declines. Not taking no for an answer, Kyou gets the help of Ako and Akane, and all three girls hold him down while rubbing sunscreen all over his body, much to his embarrassment and it's implied he gets so overstimulated he has an "accident" and afterward he comically acts as if he has been Defiled Forever.
• Japanese School Club: The Net Game Club, though it was established primarily to help Ako develop her social skills.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The hacker who briefly stole Hideki's account, deleted his character, and sold off all the items he could for real world cash gets caught in an elaborate sting hatched by Hideki, Akane, and Kyou. His rap sheet of hacking and selling illegal items for money is serious enough that he'll be prosecuted criminally in court for it.
• Lethal Joke Item: In-universe example. When Akane goes to the bathroom in episode three, Hideki and Kyou sneak over to her computer, and dresses her character up in a teddy bear suit, while equipping her with a giant leek. Akane is upset partly because she looks so ridiculous, but also because said leek was buffed up via in-game purchases, allowing her to do a One-Hit Kill on two monsters.
• Let's Wait a While: Hideki and Ako are still virgins because he's waiting until he's married. Of course because Ako already sees them as husband and wife, the situation frustrates her to no end.
• Limited Social Circle: What Ako is fine having with Rusian, Schwein, and Apricot. Getting her to associate with more people is a core part of the plot.
• Limited Wardrobe: Averted. When outside of school and not playing the game, the cast are never shown wearing the same street clothes twice.
• Male Gaze: Pretty much every girl in the anime gets this treatment. Kyou is especially noticeable, with half the shots of her panning up from a full-screen shot of her boobs. Especially conspicuous during the FPS segment of Episode 5, where despite everyone having new costumes, Hideki is the only one who doesn't get an upward panning shot.
• The Many Deaths of You: Rusian suffers very messy deaths from the group of monsters they attack with Ako rendered unable to heal him because she gets distracted.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • Ako's proposal to Rusian is done in the same spot we see Rusian propose to Nekohime. The proposer was also in the same spot in both instances.
  • When Nekohime claimed to be a male gamer, one of Rusian's friends stated, "of course she wasn't a real girl, because she used nyaa in all her chats." Later when tracking down Nekohime's true identity, Ako stated, "of course she was a real girl, because she used nyaa in all her chats."
• Meaningful Name: An alley cat is a homeless domestic cat. The members of the Alley Cats guild are players who don't fit in with other guilds because of their personalities or play styles. If it wasn't for each other, they'd have Solo Class characters and not be in a guild.
  • In case you didn't know, real life's Wallenstein met his demise due to betrayal. Okay, the details were a bit different, but this was the situation here.
• Mysterious Backer: Black Wizard is one for Rusian. While he doesn't directly offer his assistance to solve whatever problem Rusian is experiencing, he's willing to lend advice or allow mentioning his name to help get it resolved faster. He doesn't ask for anything in return for these favors, simply saying it fits his agenda or he enjoys helping Rusian. However, Rusian owes him at least three favors, so if Black Wizard does ask for a service in return, it would be difficult for him to reject it.
• One-Man Army: All five of the Wallenstein guild members. Each has the strength of an entire small guild and can singlehandedly take down dozens of opponents without sweating. It takes trickery, not brute strength, to defeat them.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Because Ako can't distinguish reality from games, she refers to the rest of the group by their online handles while at school, to where most watchers may have trouble remembering "Nishimura Hideki" over "Rusian". Eventually, Hideki is referred to as Rusian by fellow classmates and even the teacher.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Wallenstein, a guild that forms an alliance with the Alley Cats, is so efficient at Player Versus Player that they almost singlehandedly take down an enemy fort on their own.
• Padded Sumo Gameplay: Rusian laments this aloud when paired against the Wallenstein tank player.
• The Plan: Hideki hatches one in episode eight to catch the hacker who stole his account and items, then deleted his character. He, Akane, and Kyou, with a little help from the other characters in the game, create a fake website similar to the one the hacker used to brag about how he stole people's accounts. Though the website is mere days old, they make it appear as if it's been ongoing for years, and lure the hacker into conducting a RMT, or real money trade, where he would sell in-game items for real world cash. Not only is this conduct against the game's terms of service, but the hacker has done this for a long time, and has enough dirt on him that the GM says the company is going to file criminal charges against him in court after they trace his IP address down.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Because her player is wealthy in the real world, Apricot embodies this as a gaming style. She'll spend billions of game credits (thousands of dollars in the real world) to help her guild. Money is easily made and replaced, but true friendship is impossibly rare.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Sette's animal companion and wolf pup, Mu-tan.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Wallenstein slew Nekohime, the Nekohime Elite Guard swore to avenge her at all cost.
• Samus Is a Girl: All of Rusian's guild mates turn out to be this. Ako was not surprising, as she always had a female avatar and always claimed to be female. Nekohime zigzags this trope by having a female avatar, told Rusian she was a man after he proposed to her, then turned out to be his teacher.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!:
  • Apricot is referred to in-series as a "wallet warrior," as she tends to spend money on everything in the cash shops, including boosters and broken weapons. Subverted however, as these sorts of premium items are forbidden in PVP to balance the playing field, rendering Apricot very weak as a result.
  • It later gets double subverted. Drops of Yggdrasil are a premium Healing Potion that work in PVP, but considered Too Awesome to Use with a resale price of 10 million credits each. Apricot ends up using 487 of them. That's almost 5 billion credits! It's mentioned in an earlier episode, that 10 million credits is enough to purchase mid-tier end game gear for a character.
  • While it might start out with a few rough results, Kyou's tendency to just throw money at a problem until it somehow produces a solution, seems to eventually workout for her in the end. This only makes it harder and harder for Hideki or Akane to break her out of the habit.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Kyou shows the occasional signs. She didn't know how to pronounce barbecue, nor had any idea of how to prepare for one. She tends to be Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense and honestly believes throwing enough money at a problem will eventually resolve it.
• Shipper on Deck: Outside of a few antagonists, everyone supports Rusian and Ako being together.
  • Though equally as inexperienced in maintaining successful relationships, Schwein and Apricot offer Rusian advice and scheme dating opportunities.
  • Nekohime believes Rusian pursing a relationship with Ako is vitally important for her to become a normal person.
  • After meeting Rusian, Ako's mother fully supports the idea of him becoming her daughter's husband in the real world. She even gives him the key to Ako's room, fully knowing her daughter likes to lounge in the nude.
• Shout-Out:
  • As mentioned earlier, the gameplay mechanics of Legendary Age mimic those of Ragnarok Online, down to the in-game marriage feature. The main menu background screen for LA even resembles (a perspective-flipped version of) the city of Prontera. Ako's outfit has the same design as the default High Priestess sprite from Ragnarok Online, and how the GM in episode 8 is presented, mimics how direct admin arbitration is conducted on the Japanese servers.
    • Additionally, the scene where Ako attacks Yui in episode 3 is a reference to an Urban Legend of the Japanese community of Ragnarok Online, about a girl with a Yandere-level obsession to a male player.
    • Cemented further in Episode 10: Hideki's Reflect Shield, Shield Boomerang and Smite, Ako's Extra Damage and Skill Canceller, Kyou's Meteor and Cold Bolt and Akane showing what clearly looks like an AGI two-handed Knight build. Not to mention their Siege Warfare looks and happens exactly like the real thing.
    • The infamous Healing Potion spam tactic, because such items have no cool down between use, works exactly the same. When utilized the attacker has to wait until the defender consumes all their potions, before their damage becomes permanent. The defender's objective is to stall until the attacker is incapacitated or gives up. The defender will immediately lose once the potions are gone.
  • In episode 1, when Rusian gets caught in Master's area-of-effect spell and dies, he assumes the Yamcha Death Pose.
  • In episode 2, once Hideki realizes what the Net Game club was established for, he clasps his hand in a specific way and quotes "I'm going to shatter your dreamlike illusion of me to pieces!"
  • Akane calls her school gaming rig "War Machine".
  • One of the "white knights" in Nekohime's old guild looks like Cloud Strife, and is even named after him.
  • In episode 5 (where the Net Gaming Club plays an FPS), Ako quotes Captain MacMillan after sniping three enemies and saving Hideki from being killed. She also uses a sniper variant of the Mosin-Nagant, just like Viktor Reznov and Dimitri Petrenko.
    Ako: Beautiful!
  • In episode 7, the girls tell Rusian the Konami Code during a game of Smashing Watermelons. It actually works!
  • In episode 9, the Matrix Raining Code is used as Apricot's screensaver.
  • In episode 11 and 12, the Alley Cats guild stone looks like a plumbob from The Sims.
  • The manga adaptation frequently uses the ゴゴゴゴゴ (GO GO GO GO GO) and ドドドドド (DO DO DO DO DO) unsound effects from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
  • In the English dub, part of Ako's proposal mentions how it's dangerous to go alone.
  • Also in the English dub, when Ako staggers into the club room in episode 4, Hideki remarks: "Cleric needs food badly!"
  • The anime frequently makes a reference to a famous person in the Japanese Final Fantasy XI community, who sometimes use mangled Japanese despite being Japanese, by having the characters use his sayings, or having them placed in the scenery.
  • In the 4th novel and the 12th episode of the anime, as the Alley Cats combined with the Nekohime Elite Guard prepares for their last battle, Apricot declares, "We are going to engrave our victory on the dawn horizon! Go, Alley Cats Elite Guard!"
  • The sound made by Ako's rod when it hits stuff is rendered as "Kira☆"" in the novels.
  • A reference to the World of Warships community: In the 9th novel, when Kyo and Akane were talking about the former's scores, Kyo objects to Akane describing her as "idiot-alike", or "baka-ppoi". Things happen, and the text states that Master was crying "POI, POI". In all caps, just like the WoWS community sometimes do.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: At the end of episode 11 and throughout episode 12, all the Alley Cats and Nekohime are shown in new outfits. This is to reflect their increased experience levels and acquiring more powerful gear to compete in Player Versus Player matches.
• Single-Target Sexuality: With the exception of Rusian, Ako doesn't even recognize other guys exist and becomes visibly annoyed when any of them try to interact with her. Before she knew who Hideki was, she avoided and ignored him like everyone else. Once she knew they were one and the same, she loathes whenever she has to leave his side.
• The Slacker: The other major problem Ako has, even if her antisocial issues are fixed. She looks forward to becoming a fulltime housewife so she can stay indoors, waste free time playing computer games, and be the one Rusian returns to every day.
• The Smurfette Principle: Pre-revelation, Ako is supposed to be the only girl in the Alley Cats Guild. Then it is reversed into a "The One Guy" situation when it is revealed that Hideki/Rusian is the only real-life guy in the team.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: Using curse words in the game's chat window has them substituted with appropriate pig sound effects. In the sub it's an adorable oink, while the dub uses a more 'vulgar' yet-still-adorable reet.
  Schwein/Akane: (incensed) Stop calling me - reet! - a pig, you mecha nerd!
• Supporting Harem: Averted. At first, Netoge seems set up to be a classic harem anime, but it quickly makes it clear that Ako is the only woman Hideki has any sort of chance with. If anything, the aversion comes in from the fact that Hideki's interactions with all the other major female characters are friendly yet have little to no romantic overtones save for a mild crush Akane has on him, but even she keeps it under wraps well enough that it isn't a major plot point. In fact, all of them actively encourage Hideki to pursue Ako in hopes that it can help her get used to staying in the real world more often. Doesn't stop Ako from thinking everyone else is trying to steal him.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Awesomely averted. During episode 12, Bats taunts Apricot that the remaining one minute is all he needs to defeat her. She taunts back he types slow and there's only 55 seconds left. This actually proves true: had Bats five more seconds during the fight, he would have caused Apricot to run out of Healing Potion and won.
• There Are No Therapists: Ako has a rather extreme case of environment detachment, disinterest in social interaction, and delusional fantasy escape. Collectively these were negatively effecting her academic life and prospects of a successful adulthood, though her only goal is to become a housewife. The solution from the other (high-schooler) girls is to aid her in successfully seducing the guy she likes into becoming her future spouse, because he's an element Ako can work with - overall, the adult's policy is hands-off yet supporting of this process.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In one PVP match Alley Cats observed, the raiding guild were bombarded with an entire volley of attacks that were incredibly powerful. They were wiped out in seconds.
• Those Two Guys: Well, there's three, but otherwise played straight with Hideki's three male classmates, who keep him from otherwise being a total stereotypical Otaku.
• Total Party Kill: Ako's clumsiness at healing is known to frequently cause them. Sette's gaming inexperience and difficulty at understanding tactics becomes another source of them.
• Tsundere: Akane is a non-romantic one, in that she constantly tries (and fails) to deny her gaming life in public. As an extension of this, she's incredibly reluctant to publicly associate with Ako and Nishimura.
• Unkempt Beauty: Ako's hair is visibly unkempt, doesn't bother wearing make-up, and wears generic brand clothing. Part of it is voluntary, as she despises popularity. Everyone still acknowledges she's incredibly attractive.
• Unwanted Harem: The Nekohime Elite Guard is ultimately one for Nekohime. Its membership worships the ground she walks on, working desperately to win her affection. She spends most of her Legendary Age sessions keeping the group under control.
• Villain Respect: Bats is incredibly impressed at Apricot's willingness to spend thousands in real money to buy items that could stall him from killing her. This leads him to Know When to Fold 'Em and not seek revenge.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Apricot's default attire. Even after The Reveal that he is Kyou's Avatar, we then see her wearing the exact same thing. However, despite the clothing leaving her completely topless, her tippet covers whatever dignity she has left.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Hideki's younger sister Mizuki is shown once, unsuccessfully asking her brother for help on homework, then never seen again. In the Light Novel she occasionally plays Legendary Age as Rusian's little sister, Shushu.
• Willfully Weak: Wallenstein prefer to attack Guild Castles in the last 10 minutes of the siege time limit, to make it more challenging for them. If they attack at the beginning, they're guaranteed to win.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: When asking the Black Magician for help on tracking down the hacker who stole his account, Rusian doesn't expect him to agree, only to be caught off guard in this manner when he actually does agree.
• Wrestler in All of Us:
  • Yui viciously lariats Ako when she tries to attack her. After casually mentioning half an episode ago she was in a wrestling club while in college.
  • During the Beach Episode, Yui throws Akane in a giant swing to prove the superiority of grappling techniques over swordplay.

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