Aoba can’t wait for the character competition after Hazuki announces it. Will she make the cut?
Last time, Hazuki decided to have a character design competition. The winner will become the project’s character designer. From this, Aoba is eager to enter. Kou eventually hands out the specifications of the game. It’s going to be a dungeon action game where the player defeat animals and monsters to advance to the next level.
It’s surprising to see that Yun didn’t want to participate. She thinks the competition is a foregone conclusion since Kou will win for sure. Of course, she starts to regret that decision later on.
Nonetheless, Aoba want to win this although she has no idea what character to create. So, she looks for inspiration from Kou. The day before the competition, she pulls an all-nighter to finish the drawings. After looking at her sleeping bag, she comes up with a brilliant idea for a character.
As for Hajime, she slacked off. Since she is sleepy, it gives one the impression that she worked hard. It’s not the case since she binged watched anime. It’s obvious that she is looking for inspiration, but became immersed in the anime she watched. Kou thought that Hajime finished the drawing that she can’t wait to see them. Thankfully, Hazuki decided on a design at the competition before Hajime can present hers. In other words, she is lucky. It’s such a shame we didn’t get to see what she drew.
On the day of the competition, there is a big upset. Hazuki surprisingly rejects Kou’s character designs since they look too familiar to the ones in Fairies Story. This upsets Kou, but not as much compared to what happens later. Hazuki says the same thing to Aoba, until she saw the last drawing. Yes, it’s a girl in a bear’s costume based on Aoba’s sleeping bag, which is cute. Hazuki decides to go with this design, although Aoba needs to improve it. While Aoba is happy that she passed the first round, she saw Kou being upset. This makes her sad.
From this, I am glad that Yun realizes she made herself look bad for not participating in the competition. I guess she saw Aoba putting in a lot of effort in her character design. Because of this, Yun realized that she made herself into a fool by not entering. Next time, she wants to challenge herself knowing that there is a chance that she might make it. As they say, if you don’t try, you will never achieve what you want to do.
When Aoba asks for advice, Kou becomes upset that Hazuki accepted Aoba’s designs and not her own. Although she apologizes, it’s obvious that the results upset her. After all, this is the first time Hazuki rejects her character design.
However, this is not the end of the world. Thankfully, Rin notices and cheers Kou up reminding her that she won the competition despite being a new hire. From this, Rin thinks that Kou should return the favor and help Aoba out.
With that, Kou helps Aoba with the drawings while she works on most of the character design. Thankfully, Hazuki accepted Aoba’s revised design. Kou acknowledged that she helped Aoba out by giving advice. From this, it looks like Kou and Aoba will work together on the character designs for the next game. At least Aoba achieved the dream she waited for.
A fine balance between serious and fun is most appreciated. New Game! does it well.
Happy Aoba is best Aoba.
Ko can always count on her wifey to help show her the way. Glad she was able to set things right with Aoba and not have her frustration drag for too long.
Hopefully Yun and Hajime’s efforts won’t go unnoticed. Also hope Yun finds the answer she’s looking for.
At least it ended well, but as I said, Aoba’s dream is to work with Kou, not beat her. But yes, at least Rin is there to lead her in the right direction. Still, I have to admit that it’s sad to see Aoba upset. I think it’s the first time she cried.
Yup. Seeing Aoba sad hit viewers right in the kokoro.
Hopefully we won’t see Aoba this sad again.
Precisely. There will be more difficult obstacles ahead for her, certainly but hopefully not so hard that it’ll bring her to tears again.
I really liked this episode. Like Made in Abyss the first ep is a vague “world-establishing episode” and the second ep gives the entire show true life by laying out some of the world’s rules and giving the show its direction from hence forth.
I was really about to drop the show after enjoying the first season due to season 2’s first ep having a thick layer of “cute fan service”. I like cute things but there’s gotta be a reason for extra cuteness. Plain out “so CUTE” doesn’t win me over o.o
Looking forward to episode 3~
It’s understandable given that the first episode of every season seem to be light-hearted before it gets to the actual season. But aside from that, I think the characters are probably the thing that makes the show enjoyable aside from giving an insight of how video game development goes.
Not sure if we will be seeing more of these, but straying from the usual comedy for seriousness (if, just slightly) is a refreshing change of pace. Always feel like Aoba has the most interesting dynamic with characters (Ko, Nene, etc…) who isn’t Hifumi, strangely enough.
While the comedy is enjoyable, I hope that there is a bit more serious moments. Of course, game development can’t go this smoothly. But I do think the interactions with Aoba and the other characters make the show fun to watch. Hopefully, we will see Hifumi open up more and overcome her shyness. Sure, some people don’t like her because of her shyness, but I think she made progress thanks to Aoba.