We ended the episode with Yuta, as Lily, frozen after hearing Hayashi’s story. I was so very excited that he was recapping the pieces and putting them together….and then he decided it was all just a coincidence and said nothing about who he is or who she is. Which made me face-palm so hard. I guess if he did though, then the show wouldn’t last very long and there’s got to be at least like…10 to 13 episodes, so we are only halfway (or mostly halfway) there.
It makes me so happy every time Morioka talks about how helpful it is to talk to Lily, but that also makes me nervous. When she finds out who Lily really is, will she lose the person she feels the most comfortable talking to? I really hope not. Because 1. she’d be a huge hypocrite and 2. I think the person you’re dating should be someone you are comfortable being yourself around and talking to and confiding in.
I’m happy to report that my theory about Homare was totally correct and that he intended to set the whole thing up and invite Yuta from the start. Whether Yuta actually gets over his nervous-ness and goes is another story though. Hayashi tells Lily about a date happening that evening, while Homare had planned his get together with Morioka the day after. We know that Morioka has the date wrong, but Yuta takes this as confirmation that Hayashi isn’t Morioka. Of course he does.
We get confirmation that the convenience store clerk, Fujimoto, is in fact, Kanbe. And he while he does tease Morioka as Hayashi about it, he is also very mature about the situation. He respects how everyone plays the game and enjoys it differently and that is ok. The most important thing to Fujimoto is that there is no drama in the guild and he doesn’t think Morioka would do anything to cause that to happen. He gives Morioka a very strange warning though, which is that she shouldn’t ask Lily for too much real-life advice. He’s very cryptic about it too, which is super out of the norm for him…but it turns out he has a good reason: he knows Lily is Yuta. Morioka promptly ignores his advice and asks him about what a woman should wear on a date. Luckily, Kanbe is there to save the day…sort of…he pretty blatantly makes both of them answer questions pertaining to their in-game gender just to make them uncomfortable.
After and enthralling debate between Kanbe and Lily about how a woman’s hair should be and what a woman should wear out on a date, Morioka finally gets her hair done and buys new clothes for her date. Yuta begins to think he was right about the coincidence of Hayashi’s story to Morioka’s…at least, that’s what he tries to tell himself. But he can’t seem to shake the feeling that he’s right and so he rushes to the spot where Homare was supposed to meet Morioka and boom! Second meeting. Thank God Morioka waited an hour…I sure as hell wouldn’t have done that.
Secret Triangle OVERALL SCORE 8.8 / 10
I want to give this episode a full 9, but I just can’t because we are left on such a frustrating cliff hanger and there wasn’t really much development in the relationship between Yuta/Lily and Morioka/Hayashi, which is a pretty major focus of the show. And can we please get some more Kanbe and Lilac development? They will be so freaking cute.
Something this show is good at is giving us previews for the next episode and quotes…but the quotes don’t always match up with what is actually going to happen in the episode. Although, if they change that up for episode 6 and the end quotes are correct, I’m going to be SO mad. But I have faith in Homare. I have faith that he is a good person and a good friend. Yuta needs to get it together though, Homare can’t do all the work for him.
Recovery of an MMO Junkie is now streaming on Crunchyroll with new episodes every Friday!
