After half the series, FINALLY we get this school festival out of the way.

We begin the episode with one of the great misunderstandings of the anime:

It only goes downhill from there.

Much of the episode involves Rina being jealous of Itsuki and Aika’s “relationship.”  Naturally, everyone thinks they’ve become a couple even though all they’re doing is fighting Darkers in PSO2.  Speaking of, we finally get a cameo that I’d been looking forward to:

Yeah, so this girl looks completely unrecognizable from the Matoi I’m used to.  To be fair, I never managed to complete the story mode, and I’ve heard Matoi goes through some important changes.  Still, It’s hard to think that this girl is the same as the amnesiac cutie I met back in 2013…

We also get a little subplot about one of the council members being excited to meet Orga-Cats IRL.  No one told him Orga is a GIRL.  It’s one of the funnier moments of the series, but the joke gets dragged a bit too long.

It seems quite a few of Itsuki’s PSO2 friends showed up.

Unfortunately for me, at some point Rina talks to Itsuki, and the misunderstanding about him and Aika dating gets cleared up.  Oh yeah, I neglected to mention that Rina was being jealous and not knowing why (you’re in love with him, you stupid girl).  That kinda went without saying.

Anyway, more Darkers show up in the real world, and Rina is there to freak out.  And also to awaken to Photon Arts for some reason, transforming into her PSO2 character.  That’s… her regular character and not some weird variant like Itsuki did.  Yeah, I don’t get these weird rules either.  Anyway, she saves Itsuki just long enough for the Darkers to capture her, proving once again that she’s fucking useless.

It’s weird, but I suddenly realize that it’s the school romcom crap that I get the most entertainment from.  That’s impressive.  You’ve gone and made me uninterested in PSO2.  Though I suppose it’s still a mission accomplished since you make me want to play the actual game to remind myself how much better it is.