Manga / Recovery of an MMO Junkie

aka: Netojuu No Susume

Our in-game and IRL selves

Recovery of an MMO Junkie, or Net-juu no Susume, is a web manga series by Rin Kokuyo. The manga ran on the Comico Japan app from 2013 to 2015.

The story follows Moriko Morioka, a 30-year-old woman who has recently quit her office job and has become a NEET. Dejected to find that an MMORPG that she played long ago has shut down, and desperately looking for something fulfilling to do with her life, she eventually stumbles upon another MMORPG Fruits de Mer, and decides to give it a try.

Moriko starts playing the game as a male character under the handle Hayashi. After a rough beginning, a girl named Lily eventually comes to her aid and the two quickly hit it off, with Moriko joining soon her in a guild and making more friends in the process. Meanwhile, in real life, Moriko has a chance encounter with a salaryman named Yuta Sakurai.

Has a 10-episode anime adaptation with a special by Signal.MD, which premiered on October 6th, 2017 and is simulcast on both Crunchyroll and Funimation.

On June 30, 2018, it was announced that Comico has ended the manga due to Rin Kokuyō's failing health. Prior to this, Recovery of an MMO Junkie had been on a hiatus since 2015.

---

Recovery of an MMO Junkie has examples of:

• Amazon Chaser: Koiwai states in the manga that his 'type' is usually along the lines of brazen and strongwilled, and the female character he made in Fruits de Mer rocks the Heroic Build.
• Ambiguously Bi:
  • Moriko created a male character because she wanted to be a hot guy as eye candy, and when she first met Sakurai she thought he was so cool he was blinding. But when she met Lily online, Moriko thought 'she's an angel!', and after befriending her is constantly seen gushing about how cute she is. Moriko also absolutely Squees when Lily asks to be partners, acknowledging that the atmosphere feels somewhat romantic and that what she's feeling for Lily might be akin to a crush. The Ship Tease is very strong between the two, even when Moriko is unaware that Lily is being played by a guy.
  • Koiwai flirts and asks Moriko out on a date, but he seems to enjoy teasing Sakurai even more. Much of his teasing is around doing naughty things to Moriko, but some of the teasing borders flirting.
• Apologizes a Lot:
  • Moriko has rock-bottom self-confidence and constantly worries that she's useless or a burden, so she ends up apologizing frequently to those around her.
  • Sakurai isn't nearly as guilty of this as Moriko, but he's highly polite and does his share of apologies. There is a moment where the two of them end up in a comedic feedback loop of endlessly apologizing to one another.
• Art Shift: Hayashi’s Imagine Spot in Episode 3 after receiving Lily’s gift is portrayed with art reminiscent of 70s shoujo manga like The Rose of Versailles to emphasize Moriko's skewed/idealized view of how a man should treat a woman, especially in regards to gift giving.
• Barefoot Loon: Moriko is accustomed to being barefoot, only sometimes wearing socks or cat slippers, reflecting all the time she spends inside and her decreasing mental health, as well as to draw attention to her shyness. During her fever in Episode 6, she tries to put on sandals and trips because she's not used to wearing them. When she's at Sakurai's apartment and has a shower and a change of lent clothes, she takes to walking around barefoot without giving it any thought, even though it's chilly for that. Sakurai notices and shows her he left her a pair of slippers by the entrance to his place just like the ones he's wearing, causing Moriko to notice them for the first time, only to once again neglect them when he heads for the dryer and she barrels ahead of him to avoid letting him see her underwear, and then she finally puts the slippers on. It's all just set-up to show how flustered she is around him.
• Betty and Veronica: Sakurai is the Betty to Koiwai's Veronica, with Moriko of course being the Archie.
• Big Eater: Moriko tends to eat pretty big portions. Her stomach can be heard rumbling pretty often.
• Big Fancy House: Sakurai's family had a large Japanese-style house. He had to sell it after they passed away, partly because it was too large for him to take care of by himself.
• Bland-Name Product: The convenience store that Moriko frequents is called Cowson, in reference to Lawson.
• Boyfriend Bluff: In Episode 3, Lily says that Kanbe offered to pretend that they're "partners" to keep random male players from creeping on her. After she explains this to Hayashi, she asks him to become her partner, which he accepts.
• But Not Too Foreign: Sakurai is half British, which explains his blonde hair. He was adopted, however, and doesn't know his biological parents. He experienced bullying when he was young for his hair color.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The dream that Moriko and Sakurai share in episode 11. It's pretty wild and involves the characters meeting their in-game selves and "Princess Sakura" wearing a Chainmail Bikini.
• Chainmail Bikini: The secret weakness of the Demon King Koiwai in the OVA special is a metal bikini. Morioka is way too embarrassed to actually wear it, although viewers get to see her imagining what she'd look like in it, which is good enough.
• Character Tics: When Moriko gets flustered or overwhelmed at home, she has a tendency to compulsively roll a lint roller on her vicinity.
• Coincidence Magnet: Yuta Sakurai becomes best friends with Moriko Morioka in an MMO. It turns out he has a friend at work who used to talk to Moriko on the phone a lot for business reasons. Yuta was very impressed by a personnel manual Moriko wrote back then. Through the course of the series, he runs into her by accident in a convenience store, where they both want the last piece of chicken. Later, they collide by a street corner where he accidentally knocks her unconscious with his elbow. His friend from work ALSO has a chance encounter with Moriko, recognizes her voice from back then and asks her out. And ... it just so happens that they used to be best friends in another MMO, many years back. And the student behind the counter in the convenience store? He's Yuta's and Moriko's guild leader in the game. This in a country of 127 million people. Lampshaded by Yuta, who repeatedly wonders about a possible connection between two seemingly unrelated things, then dismisses it as ridiculously improbable, only for more evidence to cause him to consider it again.
• Consolation Prize: Fruits De Mer's loot boxes have exclusive cosmetic items, but can also award things like common healing potions.
• Contrived Coincidence: A whole lot of them. For example, Hayashi's, Lily's, and Kanbe's players all happen to live close to each other, and Moriko and Yuta happened to play together in another MMORPG previously.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Subverted in the case of Sakurai, who is upset over the fact his parents passed away before he really got to know them and he went to go live with relatives.
• Coordinated Clothes: Lily and Hayashi first bond because he finds bracelets in a treasure chest that are identical to the ones she wears. Later, Lily buys Hayashi a matching outfit in episode 3.
• Crash-Into Hello: Moriko and Sakurai meet when the latter turns a corner running while talking on his cell phone and knocks Moriko over. Slightly Deconstructed, in that he knocks her unconscious and ends up taking her to the hospital and paying for her care.
• Cross Player: A large number given the relatively small cast. In fact, among the known cast, more characters are crossplaying than not.
  • Moriko is a woman playing as a male character, and Sakurai is a man playing as a female character.
  • One of Lilac's college friends plays a male, which really surprises her.
  • Himeralda is another a male in-game character who is played by a woman in real life. Said woman also sometimes plays as Pokotaro, who is her in-real-life husband.
  • Koiwai after joining the game. His avatar is an extremely busty, muscular, giant of a woman.
• Crush Blush: Moriko gets this in real life pretty much every time Lily says something sweet or cute. Once they start interacting more, she and Sakurai have this expression 90% of the time.
• Cultural Translation: The official release uses the term "lootboxes" instead of Gashapon to refer to Fruits de Mer's random prize rolls.
• Cuteness Proximity: Moriko has this reaction to Lily the first time she meets her, and thereafter can't stop gushing in private about how cute she is.
• Dream Sequence: The second half of the OVA has Moriko fall asleep while playing the game and dream about being transported to the world of Fruits de Mer, where she interacts with other real-life people and in-game characters, including her own avatar. The ending reveals that Yuta fell asleep at his computer and had the same dream.
• Emote Animation: After Lily chides Hayashi for asking about Lily's age, Hayashi begins crying. Lily tells Hayashi she was joking and to stop spamming the cry emote. Cut to real life, where Moriko is crying in real life while mashing on the keyboard.
• Escapism:
  • While it is a major theme of the series, the English title makes the show sound more pejorative than it actually is. If anything, its playing MMOs - becoming an MMO Junkie - that aid Morioka in recovering from her nervous breakdown. The story explores the reasons people game, in particular how Moriko retreated into an MMO after suffering a nervous breakdown at work and becoming depressed. While the show does treat excessive gaming as a problem, gaming itself is considered a perfectly valid hobby, and Moriko's friendships with her guildmates are shown to be perfectly healthy and help contribute to improving her mental state. Overall the Aesop that can be taken away from the series is "Everything in moderation".
  • It turns out that Sakurai himself had a period in his life where gaming was his escape. Feeling ostracized for his mixed heritage and lonely after his parents passed away, Sakurai used gaming as a way to connect with other people without having to leave his home.
• Evolving Credits: At the end of Episode 6, Moriko's post-date appearance replaces her NEET look at the end of the ending credits.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: A variant: Moriko's eyebrows have become thin and raggedy after overdoing it with her online gaming and lack of grooming, along with sporting some lines under her eyes. When she goes to a beauty salon in Episode 5, her looks receive a tune-up and she now has clean and smooth eyebrows and no more exhaustion lines.
• Expy: Nico, one of Hayashi's guildmates, has long blonde hair, white-bluish dress and bunny-ear headband, that makes her look very similar to Chitoge Kirisaki from Nisekoi
• Eyes Always Shut: Himeralda and Pokotaro have eyes like this.
• Fate Drives Us Together:
  • Moriko and Sakurai have a lot of Contrived Coincidences pushing them together, which they acknowledge seems kind of ridiculous. They first meet online as Hayashi and Lily and hit it off, and they encounter each other in the real world waiting in line to buy the same piece of chicken for Christmas. Then by accident Sakurai bumps into Moriko on his way to work because he overslept because he was talking to Hayashi aka Moriko all night. Not only that, but Sakurai's friend Koiwai is an acquaintance of Moriko.
  • Moriko and Sakura's true first meeting was as "Yuki" and "Heath" in an MMO that was shut down some time prior to the start of the series, but after Moriko started to have her breakdown.
  • A non-romantic example also occurs, as it turns out that the guild leader Kanbe is actually the cashier at the convenience store Moriko shops at.
• Fictional Video Game: Fruits De Mer, where much of the series takes place. There was also NanterSG, but it shut down some time before the first episode and was where Moriko and Sakurai first met.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • In episode 1, the names that Moriko scribbled down while considering what to name her character included 'Yuki', which was the name she used for online persona in the game she used to play unknowingly with Sakurai before its service was terminated.
  • He never makes a formal appearance in the anime, but the opening briefly features a silhouette of Pokotaro's in real life player.
  • During the "character creation screen" sequence at the beginning of the anime's opening, you can briefly see Himerelda's gender switch from female to male, which alludes to how Himerelda is played by a woman in real life.
• Friendship Trinket: Hayashi and Lily wear matching bracelets from the first boss Hayashi defeated after Lily trained him.
• The Gadfly: Homare Koiwai really really likes pulling his co-worker Sakurai's chain. He specifically set up a drinking date with Moriko so Sakurai could meet her again, but not before teasing him that he got a date with her. He later also pretends he's on the verge of taking advantage of a drunken, passed out Moriko just to see Sakurai's reaction.
• The Gambling Addict: An analogue. Lily wholeheartedly admits that she's the type who will shell out money for random loot boxes in a game until she gets the items she wants.
• Gamer Chick: Moriko, who has enjoyed playing MMO's for a good few years. When she starts playing a new MMO and gets really into it she even upgrades all her equipment, complete with glowing gaming mouse.
  • Lilac, Nico and Himerelda also count, as they’re consistently shown to be at least equal to their male counterparts in skill.
• Giver of Lame Names: Moriko struggled to give her character a cool-sounding name, but just ended up going with "Hayashi" (which is derived from her own — see Meaningful Name), and she berates herself for not coming up with something better. In the OVA she actually gets to meet Hayashi; he notices her staring and figures she's wondering about his name, saying that he gets that a lot, which makes Moriko mentally apologize to him.
• Happily Adopted: Sakurai was adopted, and while this came with some baggage regarding his peers perception of him, he was happy with and loved by the parents who raised him.
• Happily Married: Turns out, Pokotaro and Himeralda are married in real life.
• Harsh Word Impact: When Kanbe makes less than flattering remarks about Lilac's new equipment, she ends up getting stabbed with several arrows.
• Heroic RRoD: A realistic version is basically what we see happen to Moriko in a flashback to when she was still working. She was alone in an office at 11:00 at night covering work for someone else, and doing her best to keep herself together. A business call during this time was the last straw before she started sobbing over the phone.
• Holiday Mode: It snows in Fruits De Mer around Christmastime, along with displaying other cheesy festive decorations.
• How We Got Here: Episode 9 starts with Moriko showering, yet wondering how she got there, before flashing back to the previous episode's cliffhanger up to this moment.
• Iconic Item: It's only seen in his house, but Koiwai's hamburger-shaped throw pillow is hard to forget.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: Sakurai likes Moriko, but is convinced that Moriko and Koiwai like each other and doesn't want to interfere. Koiwai is pretty transparent about being a Shipper on Deck for Sakurai and Moriko, and Moriko seems to like both guys doesn't try to pursue either of them because she thinks they're too good for a failure like herself. Meanwhile Moriko has a crush on Lily, not knowing she's played by Sakurai. Things change, however, when Moriko learns that Sakurai is actually the irl identity of a friend she made in another mmo years ago.
• Insecure Love Interest: Morioka and Sakurai are both like this, constantly thinking the other must dislike them and self-conscious about every self-perceived 'flaw.' They would be doomed if it wasn't for Koiwai.
• Item Crafting: In one episode Hayashi holds a conversation with Pokotaro while he engages in some of this. It's depicted as him "holding" a cloud between his hands for a bit, before a spell scroll finally poofs out of thin air.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Koiwai is attracted to and genuinely seems to care for Moriko's wellbeing, and even manages to lay the groundwork for a possible relationship with her, but ultimately he turns down the opportunities for himself in favor of using them to help her get closer to Sakurai.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Koiwai. He's an insufferable tease, taking every chance he can possibly get to mess with Sakurai and Moriko. But ultimately he shows he cares about both of them and is determined to help their relationship work. His profile states that despite his impish nature, he never intentionally would cross the line into being hurtful.
• Job System: Like many MMO's there's a job system in place in Fruits De Mer. The quick shots we see of player lists display the jobs of all the characters. Hayashi is a knight, Lily is a conductor. The manga actually covers details about it, such as players getting stat boosts based on their job history.
• Just Friends: Episode 9 has Sakurai misinterpreting Moriko's statement about staying as online friends to be a relationship rejection. She also vehemently denies being his girlfriend when asked by a convenience store worker. In truth Moriko would like become closer, but considers herself too unattractive and unworthy.
• Keet: Koiwai flits around teasing Sakurai and Moriko with a seemingly inexhaustible amount of energy and enthusiasm.
• Loners Are Freaks: Deconstructed in the case of Moriko. She was okay when she wasn't addicted to gaming, but when she got engrossed in it, she fell to the level of a NEET and became very unkempt and unraveled from reality, and has to be progressively rehabilitated in a slow manner.
• Loophole Abuse: The Demon King of the OVA can be instantly defeated by someone wearing an armor bikini. Apparently, he used his powers to make that his weakness as part of a ploy to see Moriko in a bikini... but Sakurai ends up wearing it to defeat him instead.
• Lost in Translation: In episode 2, after Sakurai receives a text message, Koiwai gestures at Sakurai teasingly with first his pinky finger and then his thumb. It seems nonsensical to english speakers, but in Japanese culture the gestures mean that he was asking if Sakurai was being texted by a girlfriend (pinky) or a boyfriend (thumb).
• Love Epiphany: Moriko thinks back to another time when she got really close to a fellow player of an MMORPG, and retroactively realizes that what she felt for that player was probably love. That player was Sakurai.
• Love Triangle: Sakurai develops a hard-hitting crush on Moriko, who in return finds herself drawn to Sakurai. But, she has a shared history with and longstanding gratitude for her former co-worker Koiwai. Meanwhile, Koiwai definitely finds Moriko physically attractive, shows interest in her health and wellbeing, and he even decides to start playing the MMO she seems to enjoy so much. But he's far more interested in setting her up with Sakurai who is his current co-worker and who he's also quite fond of.
• Luminescent Blush: It doesn't take much to get either Moriko or Sakurai flushing red to their ears.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Neither Moriko nor Sakurai fall too much outside of their respective gender norms, but there's a bit of this dynamic going on, considering Moriko chose to play a male game character in an offensive job class, while Sakurai chose to play a female character in a supportive job class. Moriko also has the more 'stereotypical male gamer' computer set up with dual screens, and a glowing mouse and keyboard, while Sakurai makes do with one screen and his keyboard is pink.
• Mean Boss: In the manga it's established that Moriko worked for a really nasty one who would force her to do both their workloads, stay overtime, and blamed her whenever anything went wrong. It got so bad that Moriko felt she had to act as a buffer between her boss and a newer colleague just to keep the newbie from being crushed.
• Meaningful Name: The "Mori" in Moriko and "Hayashi" are both Japanese words for "forest", and are written extremely similarly: Hayashi (林) uses the Kanji for "tree" twice, while "Mori" (森) uses it three times.
• Moment Killer: In episode 8, Sakurai tells Morioka that he's Lily over the phone...and then realizes his phone's battery just died, cutting the call short before she could hear. He tells her in person the next day.
  • In Episode 10, it almost looks like they're going to kiss while in Sakurai's kitchen when his clothes dryer goes off, spooking both of them.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Moriko using a Fruits De Mer cash card is made to look awesome by her drawing and holding it in the air as if she's playing Yu-Gi-Oh!.
• NEET: Moriko becomes a recluse after quitting her office job; while she claims she's an "elite NEET" since she became one by choice, it's heavily implied that she quit her job because the pressure she suffered was simply too much for her. Another member of the guild @Home Party, Nico, vents frustratedly about work and proclaims she also might just become a NEET.
• Never Trust a Title: Recovery of an MMO Junkie sounds like Moriko is a gaming addict. Its actually about how she uses MMOs to recover froma nervous breakdown.
• Nice Guy:
  • Nico. She shows up and playfully teases Koiwai's character a little when he first joins FdM, but gladly helps him level up once Moriko identifies herself as Hayashi (she was using an alt character) and asks for help.
  • Moriko/Hayashi, whom Lily considers an honest and kindhearted person.
  • Likewise, Sakurai/Lily is a nice and supportive person, a quality that appeals to Moriko.
• The Nicknamer: Koiwai gave Moriko the nickname Morimori-chan, and Sakurai the nickname Sakura-chan.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: @Home Party has a policy of not forming in-game romances which is enforced by Kanbe, but there's still a lot of Will They or Won't They? between Hayashi and Lily from episode 1.
• Office Lady: Moriko was an office clerk before she quit due to overwork and depression.
• Old Maid: Moriko states that because she's 30, she is practically an old maid. So she wonders why anyone would be interested in her, let alone two men. Koiwai jokes that he(32) and Sakurai(28) aren't exactly young, either, implying he doesn't buy into the Double Standard associated with this trope.
• Cliffhanger: Episodes 5 and 8 end on them.
• One Degree of Separation: Yuta Sakurai becomes best friends with Moriko Morioka in an MMO. It turns out he has a friend at work who used to talk to Moriko on the phone a lot for business reasons. Yuta was very impressed by a personnel manual Moriko wrote back then. Through the course of the series, he runs into her by accident in a convenience store, where they both want the last piece of chicken. Later, they collide by a street corner where he accidentally knocks her unconscious with his elbow. His friend from work ALSO has a chance encounter with Moriko, recognizes her voice from back then and asks her out. And ... it just so happens that they used to be best friends in another MMO, many years back. And the student behind the counter in the convenience store? He's Yuta's and Moriko's guild leader in the game. This in a country of 127 million people.
• Parental Abandonment: Sakurai twice over. His birth parents died when he was young, and his adoptive parents died when he was in college.
• Passing the Torch: @Home Party's previous guildmaster gives Kanbe the leadership role after being reassigned overseas.
• Personality Blood Types: Briefly discussed in Episode 3, where Koiwai calls Sakurai a stickler and asks if he's an A Type (he is), then uses his own O bloody type to justify his glib antics. A disclaimer immediately appears, stating that personality have nothing to do with blood types.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Lily and Hayashi have light pink and light blue hair, respectively. Subverted by the fact that the players of the characters are the opposite genders, and Sakurai still seems to prefer pink and Moriko blue in their personal lives.
• Pixellation: Played for Laughs. Kanbe's chest is pixellated while he tries on a corset for the amusement of the others.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The manga covers a lot more of the MMO mechanics and adventures taking place in Fruits De Mer, and it has a larger cast of side characters, but the anime chose to instead hone in and focus on the romance between Moriko and Sakurai.
• Random Number God: Discussed; when Hayashi says he wants to get the rare items from a lootbox event, the rest of the group cringes and says he's probably triggered the "Greed Sensor", which gives you poor rolls when you get too greedy. Sure enough, all Hayashi ends up getting out of the event is a ton of common healing potions.
• Red String of Fate: The level of coincidences between Moriko and Sakurai stretch beyond ridiculous, best friends in multiple MMOs without knowing it, fated meetings (including a Crash-Into Hello), and other coincidences make them fate's plaything.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Koiwai is the red to Sakurai's blue.
• Remember the New Guy?: Nico is first mentioned offhandedly as a guild member by Pokotaro in episode 3, but doesn't make her first actual appearance until episode 7, and does so with little fanfare.
• Repetitive Name: Moriko Morioka. Moriko herself realizes that her name is a bit unusual.
• The Reveal: In episode 5, the clerk at Morioka's local convenience store, Kazuomi Fujimoto, is revealed to be Kanbe's in-real-life identity.
  • As of episode 8, not only have Morioka and Sakurai revealed themselves to be Yuki and Harth over the phone, but the episode ends with a Cliffhanger after Sakurai tells Morioka that he's actually Lily.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: Hayashi faces one as the boss of an early quest, as well as for a class change quest. In the former case, his inexperience and poor gear result in him repeatedly losing, and in the latter case, his being distracted, as well as Lily not being around, causes the group to fail.
• Romantic Wingman: Koiwai somehow manages to be the world's most obnoxious wingman for Sakurai and Moriko while still being effective. He teases relentlessly, yet he assists in getting Sakurai back in touch with Moriko when it seems like their interactions dead-ended. He also helps boost Moriko's near-nonexistent confidence while putting in a good word for Sakurai at the same time.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Lily has pink hair and is incredibly kind to others.
• Running Gag: Whenever Sakurai and Morioka meet in person, Morioka's stomach will grumble. Morioka also expresses nervousness by way of sticky-roller.
• Secret-Keeper: Once Kazuomi learns that Hayashi's player is Moriko in real life, he promises to keep that secret to himself. In fact, Kanbe seems to know a lot about the various members of his guild, like that Himeralda and Pokotaro are married in real life, and that Lily's player is a guy, but keeps all that knowledge to himself.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Episode 5 has Moriko putting care into her appearance again after being asked out on a date by Koiwai. While she was still employed, she also looked nice, having neatly groomed hair and wearing a suit.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Koiwai may enjoy teasing both Moriko and Sakurai but he's definitely a shipper for the two of them, and goes out of his way several times to ensure they get to see one another.
  • Himeralda and Lilac get way too excited about the possibility of Hayashi forming a romance after he asks them advice on how to thank a 'woman' who helped him out in real life.
• Significant Haircut: Moriko gets one in Episode 5. Unlike most, she has a stylist do it instead of cutting it off herself. She realizes it's unattractive how badly she's let it go and wants to re-beautify it in recognition of the fact her hair has become unruly from spending too much time indoors, in an effort to clean up her act.
• Sneeze Cut:
  • While Moriko and Koiwai are out chatting and having drinks, Koiwai mentions that Sakurai is pretty passionate when it comes to gaming, even if he doesn't look like the type. Cut to Sakurai suddenly sneezing in his apartment.
  • When Sakurai is fretting about how to talk to Moriko when things are feeling awkward, he briefly wonders what Koiwai would say in such a situation. We then see Koiwai sneezing, and wondering if Sakurai is talking about him.
• Squishy Wizard: The manga shows the @Home Party guild members who are capable of attacking is almost entirely made up of these. Both Lilac and Pokotaro are this in the literal sense, being magic casters who specialized in high attack stats and DPS with really crappy defense in consequence. Meanwhile Kanbe is an assassin which is also a class with fairly low defense, and Hayashi is said to have pretty bad defense for a Knight class character.
• Stalker with a Crush: Sakurai falls for Moriko hard, and soon after meeting her looks up information about where she worked, and starts frequenting the convenience store he saw her at in hopes of running into her again. He also obsessively checks his phone for possible messages from her, and overanalyzes their interactions. He's mortified when Koiwai points out he's basically become a stalker.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • Lily usually acts like a sweetie, but she's also jaded, typically having a more sour look when talking to players other than Hayashi. As a support role, she gets tons of party invites, and even has to contend with people who assume she's having affairs with other players. Additionally, Sakurai deliberately tries to play Lily as a cheerful person which means often bottling up anything troubling.
  • Moriko admits that in the past, she played up being more cheerful and outgoing while online, even if she was miserable in real life, because she wanted people to like her.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Sakurai and Koiwai have this dynamic, with Sakurai being more serious and Koiwai being an upbeat, almost compulsive prankster.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • During a heart-to-heart with "Lily", Morioka tells her about her meeting and trip to the hospital with Sakurai, except that she flips the genders and doesn't give names to avoid revealing she's actually a woman in real life. Sakurai, who is actually "Lily's" player, averts believing it to be a Contrived Coincidence when he hears this, and realizes Hayashi is actually Morioka because of the impossibility of the situation being that specifically similar to what he experienced as well.
  • Sakurai has to sell his family's home after his parents pass away, partly because it's too large for him to take care of by himself.
• The Team Benefactor: @Home Party's rarely-seen Nico. According to Pokotaro, she tends to give expensive pieces of equipment to guildmates and dismisses their thanks by saying that helping one of them helps the entire group.
• Team Dad:
  • Kanbe, as the guildmaster, looks out for the well-being of the members of @Home Party. Ironically he's one of the younger members of the guild, who works as a convenience store clerk and currently is interviewing for more permanent jobs.
  • He has a funny way of showing it, but Koiwai is actually like this for Sakurai and Moriko. At 32 years old he's the eldest cast member with a confirmed age, and he looks out for both Sakurai and Moriko. Apart from being an obnoxious Shipper on Deck for the two, he lent a caring ear to Moriko when she started crying from stress at work, and took both her and Sakurai home safely when they passed out drunk on separate occasions. Sakurai even once mockingly refers to Koiwai as 'mom'.
• Third Wheel:
  • Koiwai sets up a date with Moriko and invites Sakurai to come along. Sakurai is reluctant because he feels he'd just be in their way, not understanding that Koiwai set up the date so that Sakurai and Moriko could get a chance to talk in the first place.
  • In the OVA, Moriko and Sakurai both get so flustered at the idea of going on a hot springs trip with just the two of them that Sakurai ends up blurting out that if they go, he'll invite Koiwai too so that they have a reason to stay in separate rooms. We are told that indeed, they do end up going on this trip with Koiwai tagging along.
• Tsundere: Kanbe is outright spelled out to be one in his manga profile. He comes off as gruff and callous to others but he looks out for everyone in his guild. He also humors their whims, like trying on cutesy hairstyles and other cosmetic attachments.
• Under the Sea: Hayashi and Lily hang out in an underwater map in episode 1.
• Unkempt Beauty: Moriko often gets embarrassed when she is caught out without makeup on.^note Some of this is a cultural belief. Guys still recognize she's a beautiful woman in such situations. Later explored a bit more in Episode 5, when Moriko realizes she is more literally an embodiment of this when she acknowledges she's got Messy Hair and gets a makeover.
• What Is This Feeling?: Moriko finds herself having warm feelings whenever she sees or talks to Lily online and wonders why that is. Eventually she concludes her feelings are like that of a crush.
• Willfully Weak: In the OVA, Demon King Koiwai deliberately set up his own weakness to be a Chainmail Bikini and had that information spread as common knowledge. It's obvious he really wanted to see Morimori-chan wear it and save 'Princess Sakura' from his clutches.
• Will They or Won't They?: Moriko and Yuta; Hayashi and Lily.

---