Workplace Impressions in New Game!!

(Spoilers for up until episode 7 in this review) Impressions are considered to be very important (by some individuals). There are even several proverbs or phrases that pertain to this specific topic such as “don’t judge a book by its cover” or “you’re sharper than you look.”

This episode was essentially split into 3 separate parts and each part heavily revolved around impressions.

The first part was about revising your opinions on long-time friends. Aoba was asked to help interview a potential new hire and, to her surprise, the new hire was her childhood friend! Nene impressed Aoba with her honesty and drive to improve – in fact, even Umiko admits that she has high expectations for Nene who actually isn’t quite skilled enough to join but Umiko lets her in because she believes Nene will quickly reach said expectations. Nene also demonstrates that she recognized Aoba’s artstyle and just knew that Aoba was the character designer for PECO. All in all, Aoba’s childhood friend showed amazing growth compared to how she was in the first season while proving that she cares for Aoba since she is very familiar with and appreciate of Aoba’s artstyle.

The second part revealed Wako/Christina, the woman who had supposedly forced Eagle Jump to assign Kou as the designer of the key visuals instead of Aoba, to be a powerless underling who couldn’t overturn her company’s decision. In truth, she honestly felt Aoba should have drawn the key visuals! Learning that made me really really like her – Christina had the devil behind her and the deep blue sea before her and she had no choice but to do what she must.

At any rate, Christina is afraid that the character team hates her now after what she did, which would make asking Kou to draw promotion art awkward. However, Shizuku gives her a charm full of catnip, which causes Shizuku’s cat to pounce on her. Unable to ignore Christina’s alarmed yell, Aoba and the others rush to her aid and they are able to patch things up.

The third part has two new hires joining Eagle Jump as interns. Narumi Tsubame is to be a progammer and she already has stolen my heart because she’s a cheerful trickster. Meanwhile, her childhood friend, Mochizuki Momiji, admires Kou (just like Aoba) and decides Aoba is her sworn rival (since Aoba is her age and very accomplished due to being the character designer of PECO). In other words, the initial impressions between the new hires and Aoba (and Kou) are already a little messy. That should translate into some lively scenes in the upcoming episodes! I’m looking forward to seeing how Tsubame and Momo will interact with the Old Guard character team of Eagle Jump.

In short, it was yet another episode where characters continue to develop while real life issues continue to be put on display (c’mon, most people are concerned with initial impressions, right?). New Game!! is on a roll this season! More touching scenes between Umiko and Nene is always a plus in my book, too!

Also, there’s a new ED but Tsubame doesn’t get much screentime. That’s demerit.