Episode list

With one year passed since Aoba began working at Eagle Jump, Aoba and the others are disappointed that there are no new hires. Meanwhile, Nene asks Umiko for advice on programming her own video game, which she asks to keep a secret from Aoba. The next day, Rin and Shizuku hold interviews with each of the employees about how they felt about the past year, during which Hifumi is offered the role of character leader for the next project while Hajime tries pitching her own game idea. Afterwards, the team holds a flower viewing party, during which Shizuku announces there will be a character design contest for the studio's next game; the same contest that landed Ko her role as character designer in the first Fairies Story game.

The contest gets underway, with participants tasked with designing a character who can absorb enemy abilities. While eager to participate, Aoba feels somewhat uneasy comparing herself to Ko, who Yun believes is destined to win. Meanwhile, everyone assumes Hajime is tired from working on her own design when she had really just been binge watching anime all night. To everyone's surprise, Shizuku rejects Ko's designs, feeling they are too similar to Fairies Story, and instead approves a design Aoba drew up based on her bear sleeping bag, asking her to build upon it for the next contest. Frustrated by her loss, Ko lashes out at Aoba when she comes to her for advice, leaving them both filled with remorse. Reflecting on her own experiences of her seniors being harsh towards her out of jealousy, Ko helps Aoba to refine her designs in time for the next contest, which leads Shizuku to appoint both of them as the main character designers for their next game prototype.

As work begins on the new game, Peco, Aoba feels downhearted that she is unable to provide much useful input concerning the modeling of her character design. Noticing Aoba's funk, Hifumi invites her to lunch in order to cheer her up. Meanwhile, Nene continues to work hard on her own Nene Quest game, which she once again shows to Umiko for her feedback.

Hajime misses out on snagging tickets for a Moon Ranger concert, so Yun invites her to join her and her siblings for an afternoon show, while Aoba and Nene come across Hifumi at an evening show. Later, Hifumi becomes anxious over Ko being completely dense when it comes to how jealous Rin gets over her. Afterwards, Hifumi is once again approached about taking over Ko's role as character team leader, which she accepts, while the game's prototype is approved by the publisher.

As Hifumi begins her duties as character team leader, Yun ends up lying about being able to make her deadline. Unable to find the time to catch up due to family obligations, Yun comes clean and gets help from Hifumi on how to improve her workflow. Meanwhile, Hajime tries to come up with an idea for an underwater gameplay mechanic for Peco, asking for Aoba and Yun's help. Later, as Aoba struggles to come up with a design for the game's antagonist, she comes to Shizuku to figure out the character's backstory. Afterwards, Aoba and Nene go to a hot spring inn with their high school friend Hotaru Hoshikawa, reflecting on old times and future goals.

Upon finally completing her Nene Quest game, Nene has Aoba and Hotaru play the finished result together, becoming delighted at how much they are enjoying it. Later, however, Aoba and Ko are shocked when Wako Christina Yamato, a producer from the game's publisher, informs them that the publisher wants Ko to draw the key visuals for Peco instead of Aoba in order to promote the game as a Fairies Story follow-up title. As Ko's complaints end up falling on deaf ears, Aoba requests a chance to once again compete against Ko for the key visuals. Spending the next week giving her all on her illustration for the competition, Aoba is ultimately met with an overwhelming sense of defeat when she sees Ko's finished piece, but sees her own piece to completion regardless. As Ko's visual is chosen, Aoba accepts the result and looks forward to the next opportunity she gets.

Umiko brings in Aoba to interview a new applicant who, to Aoba's surprise, turns out to be Nene. Impressed by her ability to remain serious while in front of Aoba, Umiko hires Nene as a part-time programmer. Meanwhile, as Wako worries that the character team hates her following the key visual incident, Shizuku gives her a charm containing catnip that causes the office cat Mozuku to latch onto her, helping her to break the ice with the others. Later, Eagle Jump gets two new interns; a graphic artist named Momiji Mochizuki and a programmer named Tsubame Narumi. Being a fan of Ko's work herself, Momiji is surprised to find that Aoba is the main character designer for Peco and starts seeing her as a rival.

As Aoba, Hajime, and Yun struggle with picking out a restaurant for the new hires' welcoming party, Shizuku has them practice being maids in a maid café for no real purpose. Once a restaurant is eventually picked and the party gets underway, Nene and Tsubame get to know each other while the character team try to get Momiji to loosen up around them. Later, Hifumi tries to help Momiji, who has been eating lunch by herself, open up more, encouraging her to spend more time with the rest of the team.

While accompanying Yun and her siblings to a hero show, Hajime comes across one of her high school friends, Akki, but is too ashamed to tell her that she works in video games. Hearing that Hajime always hid her otaku hobbies from her friends, Yun shows her that she used to be a geek herself during school, changing her image once she came to Tokyo. As Nene and Tsubame are tasked with programming some mini-games, Tsubame explains how she got into programming out of wanting to make a game together with Momiji. Upon hearing that Nene just took up programming on a whim, however, Tsubame suddenly looks down on her, claiming that she only got into the company because of her connections with Umiko. Taking this criticism to heart, Nene becomes determined to study programming seriously. Later, Momiji and Tsubame find themselves in trouble when a cockroach shows up in their apartment.

Tsubame is tasked with programming a 'red light green light' style mini-game designed to Hajime's specifications. However, every time Tsubame thinks her job is done, other staff members bring up issues with the mini-game, leading Hajime to make further changes to the design document. These delays lead Hajime to feel guilty after Tsubame voices her concerns over how it might affect her evaluation. After hearing from Umiko about how the situation is tough on Hajime as well, Tsubame finally manages to complete a satisfactory revision of the mini-game, only to be told to expand upon it by Shizuku. Meanwhile, Nene roughly finishes a ball maze mini-game Umiko asked her to do, but is met with criticism from Tsubame about its glitchy state. Taking her words seriously, Nene attempts to add a flashier "hard mode" to her mini-game but fails to get it working properly by her deadline. Despite this, Umiko commends Nene for completing her given task, encouraging her to refine her mini-game in her spare time before having her do more debugging work for the remainder of her contract. Later, Ko and Rin spend the evening talking about the changes they've been through, during which Ko gives Rin a present as a thanks for everything she has done for her.

Running into Ko and Momiji at the cafeteria, Nene learns from Momiji that Tsubame is going against her parents' wishes and will have to take over her family's inn if she fails to get into Eagle Jump. Nene then explains how Hotaru helped give Aoba the motivation to apply for her job. Just then, the programming team discovers that Tsubame's code is full of bugs, as she prioritized speed over checking it thoroughly. Just as Tsubame fears that she has ruined her chances with the company, Nene decides to help her with debugging all the errors, making up with her in the process. With all the bugs successfully removed before the deadline, Umiko decides to officially hire Tsubame and renew Nene's contract. Meanwhile, Rin overhears Ko speaking with Wako, becoming shocked to learn that she is planning to leave Eagle Jump. Later, Ko encourages Aoba and Momiji to take part in a gameplay demonstration of the near-finished game, giving them a chance to see the results of all their hard work.

At a promotional event for Peco, Ko tells Rin that she is going to France for a few years to develop a game at another company and build upon her experience, while Momiji hears from Hifumi about how Ko was picked over Aoba for the key visuals. While giving an interview on her work on the game, Ko brings Aoba up on stage to properly acknowledge her for her character designs. Afterwards, Ko informs the others about her plans, coming as a particular shock to Aoba. On the day of Ko's flight, Momiji encourages Aoba to see Ko off at the airport. As Aoba's vents her frustrations, Ko reveals that she came to her decision after seeing Aoba work so hard on the key visual contest, inspiring her to improve on herself. After the rest of the team come to see her off, Ko sets off for France while neglecting to inform Momiji that she had also passed her internship. A week later, Peco goes on sale to great reception, motivating Aoba to work hard on her next game.