Recovery of an MMO Junkie is an anime series based on the manga, with 10 episodes plus an OVA that was released with the Blu-ray. The series follows Morioka Moriko, a 30 year old woman who had quit her daytime job to become a full-time NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). It wasn't as if she was bad at her job either but she decided to escape and go play an online MMORPG game all day instead.
In the game, which is a typical fantasy RPG, she creates a male character called Hayashi. In this game, she ends up meeting another player avatar, Lily, where they party up to defeat a boss. At the end of it, Moriko decides to join her guild, creating a lot of new online friendships in the process. Unbeknownst to Moriko, Lily, while a female avatar... is actually a guy, Sakurai Yuta. Sakurai is socially awkward as well and coincidentally enough, the pair start to interact with each other in real life but does not know about their online personas.
Sakurai bumps into Moriko, they go to the same convenient store, and while they don't always notice each other in these situations, it creates a sort of in-joke for the all-knowing viewer. The series is an interesting spin of the mixture between the online game world and the real world, and the different personalities that the characters take. Of course, liberties were taken in order to allow the game characters to be much more expressive than an actual game would be.
This is a comedy series with a lot of gaming-related concepts, but not enough to alienate non-gaming viewers. There are some extremely funny scenes and puts a positive spin on online gaming, such as the friendships and loyalties built. However, the humor are pretty spaced out so there will be stretches with nary a joke in sight, although it doesn't get boring at all thanks to the quick pacing. It doesn't drag out the premise for too long and this makes it all the better when you can't wait to see how each character reacts.
It's a good thing that at least the characters are clever enough to know who is actually behind the online persona. Having older protagonists (late twenties to early thirties) means fewer typical anime cliches are used here, making it feel different to others as a result. With that said, just when you thought the series was going to use some overused cliche to get Sakurai out of admitting everything to Moriko, it defies that expectation and makes for a pretty charged scene. The anime has nice aesthetics, and the bright colorful setting of the game world contrasts nicely with the real world.
Through it all though, you can't help but feel that it is very coincidental that in an online game, with the guild that Moriko is part of, all have players who live in fairly close proximity in real life. It is even more coincidental when you consider the various things that connect Moriko and Sakurai together. Unfortunately, while it introduces the real-life counterparts controlling the game characters, aside from Koiwai, the rest of the supporting characters feel underused.
The series culminates into an excellent final episode where the awkwardness and shyness of both characters are endearing. The way their relationship comes together was perfect and exactly how you would want or expect it to happen. The OVA is split into two mini stories, set after the final episode. This is neat in that you get to find out what happens afterwards and while both are side stories with the sole purpose of having some stupid fun, they're enjoyable. Overall, Recovery of an MMO Junkie puts forward a unique premise, runs with it, resolves it halfway and then sets up an excellent ending. While the laughs don't come consistently, the characters are endearing and you are eager to see how everything pans out.
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