Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku Episode 7 Review: Online Gaming and Their Respective Nights

Another week of Wotakoi is over and the anime keeps up with the fun and fluffy atmosphere of the series. This week, we don’t focus too much on the romance but rather on the friendship between the characters. Sometimes, I find myself looking back on an episode and wonder what happened, but then I also think there is happening so much that I can’t complain. I enjoy this series way too much and think every anime fan should watch it. But let’s focus on this week’s episode first.

Japanese Title: Nettoge, sorezore no Yoru (ネットゲー、それぞれの夜)

Episode 7 – Online Gaming and Their Respective Nights

Kabakura is waiting online for the others to come and play an MMORPG with him. Narumi soon joins him and they talk about their gaming style. When Hanako also comes online, they see her flashy outfit. Since Hirotaka takes some time logging in, the three of them wander around and do whatever they do best until a big boss appears and Narumi decides to attack him for all the rewards. Everything seems lost, until at last Hirotaka appears – or rather, his brother Nao, who doesn’t have a clue about how to play this game. The monster nearly kills Nao, but then finally Hirotaka appears and kills it with one strike. The second half of the episode is spent with a girls and boys night out. That being said, of course, the hot topic of the night is the other sex…

Highlights

Online Gaming

It was really refreshing to see them in the game! Their online avatars reveal much about their character when you see them play. One of my favorite moments was when Kabakura realized that Narumi was a higher level than him. And of course, there was Hirotaka to save the day, which made this first half of the episode so perfect for me. I am not much of a gamer myself, but seeing Hirotaka like that, I couldn’t help it but be charmed. Someone who is talented in something is always charming and attractive if you ask me. If anything, I probably would be like Nao. Not experienced but dazzled by the beautiful gaming world. Even when I was a child, I would sit next to my uncle and watch him play Final Fantasy VII or Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven. So, I am Nao. I wouldn’t even be Hanako, because she pays for stuff that her character wears and I am not willing to pay for little pixel pictures on my computer. What if the game closes down? Then I would have spent money to make something look good for nothing… Anyway, Narumi and Hirotaka are made for each other, because they can play together and he can help her improve and he can also protect her character. Poor Kabakura, he probably tries too hard to be good enough to play with them… Just kidding.

Night Out – Boys

Oh dear, how did Kabakura stay so calm when they talked about his girlfriend like that? Looking at her boobs is all fine and all, but do you have to go bragging about it if you already know she has a boyfriend? Please read in the trivia section below if you want to have your question answered why they didn’t tell everybody that they are dating in the first place. Let’s concentrate on the scene here. My personal highlight was that the stupid co-workers didn’t get a face, probably because they were just talking garbage. Hirotaka was also very cute because he was so much himself and in the end was all blushing because he heard that Narumi mentioned him as her boyfriend. There really are times where you could forget that he is head over heels in love with Narumi. Sometimes I think he loves her more than she loves him. But then they are so cute together, so maybe they are balancing each other out… And we already know that Hirotaka is not the best when it comes to showing his feelings.

Night Out – Girls

This scene was not Narumi and Hanako. I think it was their voice actresses talking about Hirotaka and Kabakura. Can you believe they would try to determine whose boyfriend would be on top and who on the bottom? I still can’t believe that they really were fighting over that. Also, it seemed like their evening only went well because they had this theme to fight about. It felt a bit ironic that Hirotaka would think they are close to each other, when all they talk about are pairings and how they don’t agree with the other. Maybe that’s what makes their friendship special.

Hirotaka knows Narumi

We already know that he knows his girlfriend really well, but that he even knows what the conversation was about when he hears it second-hand from his brother – while gaming! – is spectacular.

Trivia

Professional at work

You wouldn’t have guessed it, but telling people that you are dating is not a priority. To be honest, in Japan you do not tell anybody anything about your personal life at work. Mostly. You are there to work, you will never lose the -san (which is why Kabakura and Hanako are calling each other by their last names at work) with your partner and you will make it as comfortable as possible for your co-workers. If they knew you were dating… Well, that would totally make them uncomfortable, right? So only if you get married, you get to tell other people you are dating someone from work. There might be people at work you are close to who know as well, like in our case Hanako knew about Narumi and Hirotaka. But they do not spread news like that because it is not their place to do so.

Knowing this, it still isn’t easy for me to understand why Kabakura didn’t speak up. I personally would have loved to see him tell them off in general. They shouldn’t talk about girls in that way and objectify them, but… Japan still has a long way to go when it comes to that and especially since we are talking about an anime…. It won’t happen. But let a woman dream.

See you next week

This week, there were no instances where I thought the animation was lacking, so I guess that it was just a one-time thing. The way they tell the story of these people makes me feel as if we were friends, which makes it really hard to write a review that is more than just fangirling over the characters or agreeing with them. The only thing I am still waiting for really badly is Nao’s otaku friend! I hope she appears soon!

Also, I went to the WotaKoi cafe last week! Sadly, the food wasn’t as beautifully presented as it usually is, which is why I didn’t take any pictures. But you can see the cute design of the merchandise and collaboration artwork in our Instagram post!