New Game!! Episode 7 Review: I'm Sensing a Very Intense Gaze

This week’s episode of New Game!! comes with a treat: new characters to be introduced to the Eagle Jump game production team! Looks like Aoba’s secret wish of being a senpai will be fulfilled after all.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 凄く熱い視線を感じる

Plot

The episode begins with Aoba and Umiko surprisingly interviewing Nene for a part-time programmer job. If only she knew what she was getting herself into. Despite the butterflies in her stomach, Nene aces the interview and gets the job. In the meantime, Christina and Shizuku, who had been going through some heavy drinking the night before, are plotting a way to get Christina to be liked by the character design team who supposedly hates her. Shizuku sorts that out by slipping a bit of catnip in a lucky charm and handing it to Christina. Somehow the plan works, with Christina being attacked by Mozuku and the character team running to the rescue.

The next day, the new Eagle Jump recruits show up! Momiji and Tsubame, a graphic designer and a programmer, both Game School graduates, meet Aoba at the entrance, and she escorts them inside. Momiji looks overly stressed, but Tsubame is rather casual. After some regular awkwardness, Yagami realized that the Aoba x Momiji combination is bound to be a problematic one.

Episode Highlights

Nenechi’s finally joined in: I guess most of us have been expecting this turnout, but it’s actually a pleasure to finally see Nene taking her job seriously and joining the game development team. She’s such a loveable character, I’m sure she’ll be adding some valuable laughs here and there. Her formal interview persona was excellent too.

Umiko’ vs Nene’s dress code: Suited up, hair tied in the back, high hills… versus whatever Umiko is wearing along with her flip flops. Very much an expectations vs reality in the workplace for new recruits. The effort to look professional gradually drops over time.

Christina’s personality issues: Like I’ve said before, it might just be me, but people called Christina do tend to have some sort of… issue, and Eagle Jump’s one is not that different; she hates being touched and seems to be using alcohol as a catalyst for her problems. Hmmm.

Shizuku’s shenanigans… again: Slipping catnip into that lucky charm, that’s a bad, bad Shizuku. She did manage to break the ice after all, so I guess we could give her some points for that.

New recruits yay: Even though their introduction was a bit bland, it is always a pleasure to get some new people on the team. While Tsubame seems alright, I admit that I already dislike Momiji. There’s only space for one introverted queen at Eagle Jump and that’s Hifumi, who is, above all, really nice. Momiji looks like a bit of a brat.

Themes & Trivia

Women’s University: I actually had no idea that this is still a thing, but apparently it is. Specifically in Japan, there still is a significant number of women-only colleges…

Omamori: Commonly known as Japanese lucky charms, omamori are usually sold in various religious sites and are said to provide different kinds of luck and protection.

Prepare for trouble

Really sad to see that Aoba has really been cast aside despite all the great work she did with the character designs. Hopefully there will be some sort of twist that will eventually take care of this unfortunate incident. It was, however, great to have so many new characters coming to play! It’s exciting to see how they blend in with the rest.

See you next week for another New Game!! episode review. 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!