And you thought there is never a girl online?

Episode 9

Although Netoge hasn't been a heavy fanservice show, it has always had tastes of it, so it was probably inevitable that a fanservice-focused episode would pop up eventually. The curious thing is that Hideki isn't present for it at all until the very end.

It doesn't jump into that mode right away, though. The premise of the episode is the club girls plus Nanako gathering at Kyo's mansion for a summer study session, since Ako is dragging her heels about getting any of her summer homework done, and it gives Kyo an excuse to invite friends over to her house for the first time. Hideki wasn't invited because it's a sleep-over, but the girls may have also been thinking that his presence would be a distraction for Ako. The joke is on them though, because they gradually discover that an Ako without her beloved Hideki around is an unmanageable Ako. She has difficulty focusing, is prone to wandering off to explore Kyo's family's mansion RPG-style (with Nanako in tow), and explains things with a logic that the other girls find frighteningly compelling. By the end of the episode, they all come to wonder how Hideki can so smoothly deal with her and appreciate his ability to manage her more.

As demeaning as that sounds about Ako, there are plenty of full-fledged adults in this world who are total messes without a partner to help them, much less teenagers. Without Hideki around to fill that role, the girls are getting a better sense of how much of a handful she can be. Hence the scene at the end where the girls each log in to Legendary Age via Kyo's account and complain to Hideki about it, giving the artists an excuse to show each of the girls in Master's normal just-covering-the-tits outfit.

And that's only part of where the fanservice comes in. The feature attraction is a steamed-up palatial bath scene that should offer plenty of nudity when it comes out in uncensored form, as well as some breast size-related antics; this may be the only place where you'll hear developing big breasts described in game terms. It's mostly standard fan service fare, but it does juice up the series' sex appeal factor.

In general though, this is a light-hearted, laid-back episode compared to the series' recent tension. It does show Nanako continuing to prod Ako toward being friendlier and more aware of differences between the game and real life, although Akane and Kyo's reactions to some of this suggest that they have pretty much given up on pushing too hard, especially over naming conventions. (Notice how everyone but Nanako is now referring to each other by their game name.) The rating is lower because there's nothing much really going on here beyond the fan service and mildly entertaining goofiness, but it's still a good amount of fun.

Rating: C+

And you thought there is never a girl online? is currently streaming on Funimation.