New Game!! Episode 4 Review: How Dense… Can You Be?

Idol concerts, romantic girl-on-girl tension, promotions, bears jumping around, important deadlines… this episode of New Game!! has pretty much everything. Let’s have a look at what our favorite game developers have been up to this week!

Japanese Original Episode Title: この… にぶちんめ!

Plot

The episode begins with Hajime freaking out in the bathroom, but wait, it’s not what you think: her bowels are just fine and she’s not pregnant; she’s just stressing over getting tickets for some anime concert. Hifumi overhears that she missed the sale and offers her her own ticket, which she also acquired in the bathroom, but Hajime declines (even though she obviously wants it). Yun invites Hajime to join her and her sisters in the afternoon show, giving her her father’s ticket, so they all get to go, including Aoba and Nene, who accidentally meet with Hifumi at the venue. Back to the office setting, Ko and Hifumi are having something that looks like a conversation (Ko is violently pinching Hifumi’s cheeks) on how they have grown to be more expressive and cheerful around others. Rin walks in on them and demonstrates some serious passive aggressive jealousy towards what is going on, and while Hifumi is freaking out over how to handle this, Ko remains completely oblivious to what is going on. Hifumi tries to fix things by messaging Rin her potatoes and meat recipe. It’s not very effective. She is later summoned to discuss her potential promotion (again) with Ko and Shizuku, and she accepts. The episode ends with the new game’s prototype being approved by the publisher. Yay!

Episode Highlights

Hifumi is a star: I think it’s quite obvious how much the show’s attention has drifted towards Hifumi in this season. She is involved in almost everything that happens throughout the episodes. And she deserves it: she’s an introverted but kind and helpful character, and she’s getting a promotion, being the senior member of the team. How could she not be popular?

Mozuku: Probably the second most important character of this season. His peaceful composure and appreciation for food and rest is something we can all identify with.

Ko’s little kuma-song: How adorable was Ko when sitting in front of her computer, browsing the bear models and singing the bear song? Quite an interesting addition to the episode, making the character seem genuinely cute.

Rin’s awkward romance with Ko: Since the first season, Rin and Ko’s relationship included hints that could potentially allow it to be something more than friendship, like at that time when Ko took Rin home to take care of her while she was ill. This season is emphasizing a lot more on the crush Rin has on Ko, starting from her performance review on the very first episode, and her jealous reaction to Ko’s relationship with Hifumi. Of course, Ko being an airhead doesn’t really help the relationship evolve in that way, and I don’t think we’ll ever get to see the two of them together. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Themes & Trivia

Moon Ranger: …is an obvious reference to Sailor Moon, but then again, what isn’t? There’s Sailor Moon references literally everywhere.

Sitting in Concerts: In large concert venues in Japan, fixed seating is usually the norm. Obviously, standing and rushing to the stage is being frowned about, which is why Yun is warning Hajime that adults are not allowed to stand. However, in smaller concerts, it usually is all-standing, as you may have noticed in other anime like Nana or Detroit Metal City.

Hopefully this won’t turn into a love triangle

As aforementioned, the two main highlights of the episode are Hifumi’s promotion and Rin’s displays of jealousy towards Ko. I do hope they would manage to get together somehow, but in this very light-weight setting, I don’t think any proper romance side story is ever going to evolve. Nevertheless, New Game!! has been doing rather well this season, as expected, and delivering exactly what it’s supposed to.

Did you like Episode 4 of New Game!!? Let us know in the comments below by using either the forum or the Facebook tab! Join us in our new forum and let’s talk about our favorite series! Also, don’t forget the rest of our Summer 2017 reviews!