New Game!! is the second season that’s based upon the four panel manga series. It is twelve episodes long. It follows Aoba, who has now reached her one year anniversary as a character designer at the games developer Eagle Jump. After shipment of the previous game, the developer is now planning and producing their next game. Thus, Aoba gets to experience the joys of making a game from start to finish, which also allows this season to show off some different things.
Of course, nothing is normal here and Aoba’s colleagues are unusual and quirky, although they are the ones that make up the soul of the anime (and of course the game that they’re developing). At the heart of it is Yagami, the talented lead character designer, who is also Aoba’s boss. Yagami is a victim of her own success, and her past failures continues to haunt her.
Hifumi is the shy one with a social anxiety problem, although she has started to open up more. She even goes so far as to instigate a conversation with Aoba and invite her out for lunch. Hajime is the airheaded energetic character, who’s love for anime knows no bounds. While Yun doesn’t really have anything that makes her stand out, she does have younger twin siblings and she is the monster designer. The team already works well together, although there are still some obstacles as is natural in the workplace.
The anime confidently steps into its own pace. It’s a mix of workplace slice-of-life and the social aspect outside of work hours for the characters. Funnily enough, the anime knows that it’s weird to have all the characters be female, so it even has Aoba ask that question herself, only to get a humorous response from her boss. The season also isn’t shy to push the relationships between characters to the forefront, constantly teasing them without really having the characters commit to one.
As the company is developing a new game from scratch, not based off any existing property, Aoba gets to experience what it takes to get it through. She lives through the stress of completing the first prototype and getting the go ahead from the publisher, to working overtime to finalise the alpha version. While she has much more input now that she is here from the beginning, it’s also clear that she has a lot to learn. What’s great is that she’s still human, so she isn’t completely positive and idealistic about everything, she gets jealous too, and have situations where she isn’t terrible confident of her actions.
The seasons tries hard at adding and differentiating itself from the previous season. It injects some new characters, with a rival of sorts of both Aoba and Nene. It shows some of the darker side of office politics but of course, will have the issues resolve itself and everyone become friends afterwards. We’re shown how Aoba feels the pressure from the competition and her role in the new game. The same goes for Nene who is now focusing on also getting into the game industry, but lacks any sort of skills at first. Despite her outward personality, she’s actually talented and committed to making this happen.
At times, this season doesn’t feel as focused as the first, so it kind of flies by when the season finale comes and the game is ready to be shipped. It still felt like it was in the earlier stages. During the process, we do find out more about Aoba’s colleagues, such as how they hang out with each other outside of work, what they do, and how they were before they started work. This is quite interesting, but when the season also focuses on the new characters a bit too much, it can feel like it is taking the focus away from the existing characters.
At the end, there are several surprising developments that you would not have expected. The story made some bold decisions in how it treated several characters going forward, but it also highlights the fact that nothing stays the game, and that people moves on in order to improve themselves. It’s sad and also encouraging in a way, and is realistic. This also serves at a really good stopping point for the season, but it’s a shame that there’s no third season to continue the story so there is still plenty of potential.
Overall, New Game!! continues to carry on the strong story of the first season. It’s refreshing to have an anime that doesn’t focus completely on middle or high schoolers, even if some characters in the anime act as well. It shows off both the good and bad of adult life in the workforce, although despite its best efforts, it doesn’t quite paint a rosy picture of what it is like to work, especially in the game industry with its infamous crunch culture. Nevertheless, the characters are charming and they are the draw of the anime, and in that aspect, this is an enjoyable watch.
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