I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about this series–  an adaptation of a romance light novel.  Luckily this anime is being written by the writer of the light novel and manga series so there’s no worry it won’t be adapted correctly.  Something I hadn’t noticed before was the music–  it’s bright and contains a well-suited nature for this show’s overall tone–  a comedy romance anime.  K-On’s composer Hajime Hyakkoku knows exactly where Saenai is headed and has a good sense to write some sensible music scores for this that work out entertainingly.  Director Kanta Kamei is giving a good gradual build-up with these girls here.  It hasn’t rushed right into the story as we are still getting to know everyone and their talents that will make the circle design a solid game.

The story is coming together here and I’m really enjoying where this is headed especially with this episode.  Tomoya is still trying to figure out what he wants to write about with his game–  gradual motivation that dives into the varied girls of this series a ton.  Instead of dallying around using Eriri’s angry emotions and Utaha’s passive aggressive conversations Saenai winds up taking these personality traits to give Tomoya a driving competitive edge that he needs to find a romance story worth telling and illustrations worth seeing.

Emphasizing this is Eriri’s responses in Tomoya’s room–  I like how he doesn’t notice her until he comes back upstairs with two drinks.  His head is just like all the posters, manga and light novels that separates himself from reality.

Their interactions are always great–  generic yet its the premise of the series that pushes this to the max.  I like how she ends up hiding every trace of herself from Tomoya’s place when Utaha shows up–  their both vying for the affections of him and its nice to see that his story to the viewer is clear as day but to him he can’t come up with a single plot for his game.

Megumi is slowly turning into the heroine of his dream game–  so refreshing in this second half!  At last!  Her transformation into a girl filled with moe and it is all due to what had to be done to establish this within her–  Eriri and Utaha’s talents as illustrator and novelist associating with one another to help Megumi shift away from being plain.

I think its nice to see this balance between the three girls come into play here–  working together to give Megumi an image that Tomoya can take inspiration from.  A love story within a love story and now the reality of it is finally falling into place without the otaku-obsessed Tomoya even realizing it!

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 9/10

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