Recovery of an MMO Junkie Episode 1 Review

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30 years old. Out of work. Out of education. What would you do to fill your days? Play an MMO, of course! This is where we find our protagonist Morioka Moriko at the start of “Recovery of an MMO Junkie,” a comedy that is set to explore the ways people use digital worlds to escape their daily lives. Morioka's speedy descent into MMO obsession is a bit by the numbers, but creates a number of story threads that did capture my interest, for better or worse. At the episode’s start, we find Morioka mindlessly wandering home to her apartment. Upon entering the door she quietly announces “I’m home,” to her vacant room, and tosses a bouquet of flowers (presumably a gift for her last day of work) in the trash, telling us everything we need to know about her former life. Searching for a way to fill her empty hours, she boots up her computer and downloads an MMO called “Fruits de Mer”. I appreciate how efficiently the show uses its time, dropping a ton of little hints about Morioka’s life across this short sequence. Despite her telling us she chose this new life, the whole situation feels a little somber and I can’t help but wonder what secrets Morioka’s past holds. With Morioka’s introduction complete, it's time to meet her avatar: “hot guy character” Hayashi. Why she decides to make a male character goes unexplained, but it doesn’t take long for her and Hayashi to find themselves in a sticky situation with an online friend. Hayashi’s MMO escapades include the usual fare of questing and grinding, not doing much to differentiate itself from other MMO anime, but seeing Morioka take joy in even the smallest victories brought a smile to my face. Hayashi’s MMO adventures can feel a little bland, but his online friendships quickly prove to be more compelling. Hayashi’s blooming social life serves as a stark parallel to Morioka’s drab reality, which is the most interesting part of the show for me so far. Lucky for me, Recovery of an MMO Junkie offers us one last look at Morioka’s real life before the episode’s end, which we can plainly see has taken a turn for the worse. Seeing her decline makes me wonder why she ditched her old life. Did she simply not like her job, or was there some kind of tragedy? I hope the show finds time to answer these questions between the MMO antics, and maybe even take a chance to analyze the pros and cons of digital escapism like Morioka’s. It’s hard to say after one episode if the show wants to tackle this subject matter on a deeper level, but if it does, it's already off to a strong start.

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