All in the Character: Morioka Moriko

Hey all! Welcome to "All in the Character", a series where I break down characters from games and anime. This is a series I hope will expand my knologly of what makes a good character in terms of design, personality and story. Either way, I have lot of characters I want to examine.

Today, I wanted to start this series with a character that I love a lot from the series Recovery of an MMO Junkie, a series that I love a lot for it's basic yet interesting story, and very relatable characters. So let's take a look into the main charter Morioka Moriko.

Design
One thing that I love about Morioka is her design. One thing that I hate the idea of being formal, because to me that shows a person that can be self entitled, always serious, and doesn't allow themselves to let loose often. Morioka basic design shows her to be very layed back.

As you can see here, Moriko has some character quirks in her design, such as being a hard worker at her former job, which is represented by her baggy eyes and unkempt hair. However, I would also put this down to her wanting to be more relaxed and not caring about her appearance, as we can see by the fact she is a NEET. In anime, this term refers to the idea that a person is Not in Education, Employment or Training. This is somewhat contrasted by her Fruits de Mur character, Hayashi, who is a very stereotypical young man in an MMO, which I think works.

However, as the series goes on, Moriko appearance changes her to not be embarrassed when Koiwai invites her to dinner. I couldn't find a image with the 3 views of this look so apologies for that, but for me it implies an internal change, and the fact that she wants to be part of the real world now, so she has to fit in. 

And I must say, this look works for her.

Personality and Story
This one may be short compared to the design section, but that's because we have already covered some of these points. Moriko was a hard worker at her old job, showing that she is very selfless. However, this came at a cost, as she went countless nights without any sleep, hence why she has the bags under her eyes. The shows starts right as she left her job, and her previous game, Nanter SG, was shut down. Moriko isn't too phased by this, as she hasn't played in half a year.  From there, she finds Fruits de Mur, and begins playing that instead.

Because you are one! It don't take a genius to put 2 and 2 together,MoriMori-chan!

Moriko makes 2 things clear about her self, she's an introvert and she's 30. The introverted feelings comes from being over stressed at her Job, and when quitting, she even said that "I chose the NEET Life. I'm a elite NEET." From this, I can tell that Moriko has had enough of Humans due to the stress she suffered in her old job. That changes when she meets Sakurai, who is still very kind to her, though that might be due to the fact that she was elbowed by him.

Either, this and a chance encounter with Koiwai results in her getting a new look, because of the fact that she now beginning to warm up to what the real world is offer her. It ends with her wanting strengthen her bond in real life with Sakurai, as she feels the bond offered with MMO's is weaker. That's debatable, but moving on!

Moriko, how are you not familler with stress eating at your age?

Speaking of age, Moriko's age is 30 years old, but she feels as she is younger in my opinion, because of the way she acts in certain situations. Watch the following clip from 0:50 to 1:22 before going any further.

Moriko here is overjoyed, to the point where she thinks she even has a crush(talk about being relatable at the moment...). However, she even think she shouldn't being thinking like this in her 30's. This makes me think that Moriko is somewhat a big kid, which isn't a bad thing at all! After all, it's what's some of us really creative. At least that's how I see it.

In a One Sentence Summary

Between her kind heart, layed back appearance and age consciousness, Morioka Moriko is definitely a highlight of her show.

Huh. Surprised how this short this was. Still, this was fun! Next for this will be... IDK really. Still I hope you enjoyed it! Next one will be more polished I promised.

But for now, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care.

Written By Nana Marfo
​MMO Junkie(C)Signal.MD/Comico

P.S Once Again, I send my well wishes and support to Ms.Kokuyō, and I really hope she gets better.

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