Boopkins needs to get ready for a date...... HE MIGHT NEED SOME HELP
Fishy Boopkins finally has a girlfriend! Well, a rental girlfriend— and he is very much stressed before the big date. Upon learning it will be broadcast on TV, the opportunistic SMG3 offers to help Boopkins get prepared, if only to boost his café's business. Can "The Rizzler" succeed in making him cool enough for his date?
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Biology: SMG3 shoves an air pod into Boopkins' gills so the latter can hear what he's supposed to say to Miku. While fish do have ear holes, they're actually located behind their eyes
and not in their gills...though it's fair to question if Boopkins' anatomy is similar to that of one despite his namesake. - Be Yourself: Hatsune Miku is disgusted by the SMG3-fied Boopkins, what with all the weird mannerisms and demeanor he employs to impress her. But when Boopkins shows his dorky, anime-obsessed and most importantly true self once she reluctantly comes back, Miku is instantly charmed and happy to talk with Boopkins about the anime throughout the date.
- The Blind Leading the Blind: SMG3 proves to be just as clueless as Boopkins in how to talk to women despite his self-proclaimed mastery of charisma.
- A Day in the Limelight: SMG3's second consecutive one and Fishy Boopkins' first focus episode since "The Floor is Lava" from over a year ago- in which he tries to make a cool guy out of Fishy so he can have a live, proper date with Hatsune Miku at III's Bomb 'N Coffee (and boost SMG3's clientele).
- Earpiece Conversation: SMG3 tries to give Boopkins lines to say in order to impress Miku through this method.
- Hypocritical Humor: SMG3 is unimpressed and disgusted by Boopkins learning that the moral is to be himself - the same lesson that SMG3 learned in the previous episode.
- Pet the Dog: SMG3 begs Miku to give Boopkins another chance because he was following SMG3's awful advice.
- Series Continuity Error: Boopkins says he's never been on a date... because Saiko apparently doesn't count.
- Shipper with an Agenda: SMG3 only agrees to help Boopkins so that his coffee shop gets positive PR on a successful date.
- Shout-Out: The episode's plot is strikingly similar to Rent-A-Girlfriend's concept, as Boopkins wins a rental girlfriend not unlike how the manga's protagonist manages to order one off a mobile application. As an added bonus, the In-Universe show's title for Boopkins' date is called Rent-a-Girlfriend Live.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- When Miku asks Boopkins what he does for a living, SMG3 tells him to act cool and use him as an example. Going from personal experience on how SMG3 acts and operates, Boopkins immediately tells Miku that he commits war crimes on a televised event, which leaves her appalled rather than impressed.
- Once Boopkins repeating SMG3's pickup lines backfires and leaves Miku more horrified than charmed, he consults the internet for advice and stumbles upon a book called How to: Sigma Male Mindset. The things he tells Boopkins to say are extremely misogynistic and when he propositions Miku, she is disgusted and responds in kind.
- Take That!: The How to: Sigma Male Mindset book is a pretty blatant one to Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer turned social media personality who is an extremely controversial online figure for, among other things, his views on women. Note that when Boopkins' rant starts, an actual recording from Tate is played instead of his voice actor saying it.
