A little girl stares at a poster promoting Karamazov’s upcoming live event. Did Karamazov just influenced another poor soul? Sure seems like it as we see a butterfly flutter by. Elsewhere, Karamazov hears about Kache long, overdue breakup, so they thinks it’s time for a makeover. I thought they would pay for said makeover, but no such luck. Even influencers with hundreds of thousands of subs can be cheap, huh? And geez, a thousand bucks for these simple outfits? Kache just quit her job. She shouldn’t be dropping a hundred bucks on anything, much less a thousand on clothes. Now, I do agree that good clothes can give you a major boost in confidence, but I dunno if you necessarily need to spend this much money. Kache says she feels lighter, but of course she does! She’s a thousand bucks lighter! And we haven’t even gotten to the accessories! Again, Karamazov are huge, right? So why not help their friend out? Or do they think they’re being charitable by even hanging out with Kache in the first place?

The episode opens with Kache seemingly trying to convince herself that she’s not like the others — that she’s merely ordinary, plain, boring, and thus utterly insignificant before the massive star powers of those like KAngel or Karamazov (though judging by their sub counts, I still don’t think they’re anywhere near the same level). But there’s a moment in this monologue that I find particularly interesting. I dunno what you call them (if they even have an official name), but there are these massive displays made up of smaller, tinier screens. Kache comes across one of them lying on the ground and picks it up. Neither the smaller screen or the bigger one are active. But when she puts the one in her hands back into its rightful place, the whole thing comes to life. Before you know it, KAngel looms over everyone. The internet superstar has her hands clasped together and her eyes closed as if she’s praying. This facade makes me think of the Virgin Mary or religious saints. And again, this display was defunct until Kache completed the “puzzle.” This “monument” to KAngel literally didn’t exist until she had every single “pixel.” It’s like how idols would be nothing without their fans. What even is a goddess without her worshippers? So Kache can lambast her position as a lowly “normie” all she wants, but it’s a reciprocal relationship. Sure, there are way more people like her than there are massive internet superstars, but the fans clearly matter. If they didn’t, content creators wouldn’t need to ego surf. If they didn’t, content creators wouldn’t desperately look for validation. And likewise, if fans were merely insignificant grains of sand, then why would their criticism — even anonymous ones — hurt so much?

Ame’s parents bickered a lot. The mother seemingly retaliated by trashing one of the kid’s stuffed doll. Its sad, dark eyes looked up at her while the cold, bright “eyes” of the car waited to ferry Ame away. The doll would then take on a Rosebud-like significance the child. Even years later, we would see her use the doll as an online avatar. Maybe this is why reincarnation and transformation became so important to Ame. It would be too cruel to think that her doll simply died and left her forever. If it could reincarnate, on the other hand, then it is still out there somewhere, living a new, better life. Meanwhile, Ame’s father takes her to live with her grandmother. She seemed like a nice, gentle enough woman.

Karamazov’s follower counts are kinda paltry, aren’t they? Plus, followers themselves mean little. How many people are watching each stream concurrently? They’re not being view-botted, are they? How many superchats are they getting? KAngel has a serious follower count, but how many of those accounts are still active? How many of them watch every stream? How many of us sometimes click to follow someone just to never watch any of their content again? It happens a lot. Nevertheless, Karamazov claims to have the momentum. Maybe they’ve been growing super fast. Sure, but that usually slows down greatly once you’ve breached a million subs. If you can keep the momentum up after that, then I’d say that’s remarkable.

Even though I’ve owned the game for over a year now, I still haven’t started it. I haven’t even booted it up. After watching this opening episode, maybe I should. But going in blind for now is okay, I think, because the anime seems to be its own thing. Well, not exactly. It obviously has callbacks to the game — callbacks I can neither recognize nor appreciate — but I think I can still enjoy the adaptation without some of the context. And boy is the opening episode an information overload — an overdose, even. Blink and you’ll miss out. Is there a story? Not in the traditional sense. Instead, we bounce around like the terminally bored, clicking through various sites, looking and hoping for something to catch our attention.