And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online? is comprised of 12 episodes and based upon the light novel series. It follows Nishimira Hideki, a high school student that plays the online game Legendary Age. He is part of a four-character party under the name Rusian. He was burnt before when he had proposed in-game to a female avatar only for them to reject him stating that they are actually a middle aged man in real life. Ever since then, he does not believe in in-game marriages anymore until Ako, the healer in the party, kept proposing to him until he accepts. Nishimira accepts once he changes his thinking to that real life and games are two separate realities.
During a conversation one day, the party decides to meet in real life and to their surprise, they actually all live fairly close to one another. They meet up only for Nishimira to be surprised at who he meets: Ako, Akane and Kyo. All of them are female, after Nishimira had so adamantly thought that everyone had to be male. Needless to say, their interactions during when they first meet up are quite amusing. The anime is full of contrived coincidences, especially for an online game in such a dense population. It is more than likely that anyone they meet should be physically quite far away but that isn't the case here. The other three are even part of the same high school as Nishimira.
However, problems soon arise once they find out that Ako can't tell reality and their online gaming personas apart. Thus, soon, they decide to play together in real life with the aim of curing Ako. They each have their own issues though, with Akane being your token tsundere and Kyo, despite appearances, is actually a loner. There are plenty of obstacles along the way of trying to cure Ako, and Nishimira falls for her soon enough. Ako's actions in real life leads to all the other students to think of them in a way that is not what it truly is. Despite feeling that the series should have some heavy fan service, that isn't the case since most of its attempts are quite subdued (except for Kyo's in-game costume).
Once the real life players are shown, they quickly turn up in the game instead of using their actual in-game avatars, making it easier to remember who is playing who. The series is less about the adventures they have within the game and more on Nishimira and Ako's interactions. It is slice-of-life in a way and the group goes on trips together, as well as sleepovers. It also deals with more interesting elements such as the implications of your account getting hacked and how to deal with it like losing all the gear that you spent hours getting.
The series gets better as they are eventually joined by more characters into their party. There were some scenes where it shows the collective power and teamwork of the online players. It all leads to a pretty good ending where the party works hard together in order to participate and win at a PvP event. Overall, despite the somewhat unique premise, And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online? is a fairly run-of-the-mill anime. There were some genuine laugh out loud moments but not enough surprises to make it stand out amongst others.
---------------------------------------------------
For other anime reviews, have a look at this page.