And you thought there is never a girl online?

ネトゲの嫁は女の子じゃないと思った？ (Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta?)

6.7(1)

OtakuDen

6.7(310,829)

MAL Score

Ranked #6910

Popularity #415

Comedy
Ecchi
Romance
School
Video Game

Episodes: 12
Duration: 24 min per ep
Aired: Apr 7, 2016 to Jun 23, 2016
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Hideki Nishimura—known online as “Rusian”—finally works up the nerve to confess to a girl in his favorite MMO, only to be bluntly turned down and told the “girl” is actually an older man. Humiliated and disillusioned, he swears off believing in romance with anyone he meets through a game.

Some time later, Rusian belongs to a small guild with three other players, including Ako, a female-avatar user who openly adores him and insists they should get married. Suspicious that she could be another catfish, he goes along with it anyway, deciding it doesn’t matter as long as she’s cute in-game. When the guild agrees to meet in person, Rusian learns the truth: Ako—and the rest of the group—are real girls, and they’re also his classmates.

Otaku Consensus

Otaku Den Consensus: And you thought there is never a girl online? earns its cult popularity by treating MMO etiquette, otaku social anxiety, and school-club “rehabilitation” as actual comic material rather than window dressing. Shinsuke Yanagi’s brisk direction, Tatsuya Takahashi’s compact 12-episode structure, and Project No.9’s clean character-focused presentation keep the jokes moving, while the most persistent criticism is that its ecchi and harem shorthand undercut the sharper observations. Its 6.66 MAL score and 63/100 AniList score reflect the split: broadly watched, easy to binge, and more thoughtful than its fanservice packaging suggests.

Why You Should Watch

Watch this if you want a romcom about gamers that actually understands online identity, guild dynamics, and the emotional mess of confusing avatars with people, but you do not want a heavy isekai or a stats-menu power fantasy. It scratches the social-comedy itch of Gamers! with more MMO specificity, and it has a lighter, hornier cousin energy to Wotakoi’s otaku relationship humor. The best reason to queue it is the way its school-club setup turns “touch grass” into an ongoing comic experiment: awkward boundaries, online marriage etiquette, party-role banter, and recovery from terminal net-brain all become jokes with a point. Expect TV-14 fanservice and harem framing, but also more character correction and actual gamer psychology than the title advertises.

Key Characters

H
Hideki Nishimura(VA: Toshiyuki Toyonaga)
Hideki works because he is not just a passive harem lead; his gamer cynicism, online manners, and attempts to set real-world boundaries give the comedy a surprisingly grounded center.
A
Ako(VA: Rina Hidaka)
Ako is the show’s most polarizing hook, combining hikikomori-coded dependence, yandere-leaning devotion, and sincere vulnerability in a way that turns a joke archetype into the series’ main social problem.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Project No.9 gives the series a bright, clean TV-comedy look built around readable character reactions rather than spectacle, matching the review consensus that the image is sharp and the character designs carry the presentation.
2
The series composition by Tatsuya Takahashi is unusually organized for a harem romcom: the school-club framework repeatedly converts online behavior into real-life correction, aligning with AniList’s high Rehabilitation and School Club tags.
3
Its MMO material is not just background flavor; AniList rates Video Games at 97% and Virtual World at 77%, and reviewers noted that the show includes more action than expected for a romantic comedy.
4
The tone is deliberately mixed: Comedy, Ecchi, and Romance sit beside TV-14 material such as simulated violence, fanservice, mild sexual situations, and mature themes, making it more abrasive than a pure cozy gamer romance.
5
Maiko Iuchi’s music and Satoki Iida’s sound direction support a rapid switch between clubroom farce, online-game skirmishes, and romantic embarrassment, which is essential to the show’s pacing across only 12 episodes.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The anime aired as a one-cour Spring 2016 series from April 7 to June 23, finishing at 12 episodes with no split-cour continuation.
Fun fact 2: It adapts Shibai Kineko’s original story, with Hisasi credited for the original character designs and Akane Yano handling the anime character designs.
Fun fact 3: The production credits pair director Shinsuke Yanagi with art director Masakazu Miyake, director of photography Gaku Hirooka, editor Akari Saitou, and sound director Satoki Iida.
Fun fact 4: Its database footprint is unusually large for a mid-scoring romcom: on MyAnimeList it holds a 6.66/10 from 310,829 votes, ranks #6910, but sits far higher in popularity at #415.
Fun fact 5: AniList’s tag distribution explains why it is remembered more as a gamer-culture piece than a standard harem: Video Games is listed at 97%, Otaku Culture at 81%, Primarily Female Cast at 80%, and Hikikomori at 75%.