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Not a single case of Klein being the butt of a joke, not a single case of Klein trying to be a ladies’ man, and Klein being an active member of the group (both for playing games and searching for Kirito), simply being treated as a normal friend in the group, just like everyone else.

First off, he gets to make a badass entrance in GGO, and it’s not downplayed by having him be incompetent or get killed. He simply gets to be awesome, just like the rest of them. This also sets him up as the group’s driver.

Next, he’s hanging out in the bar with everyone else, chatting about their opponents and such, it’s all a great time. Klein even gets to cheer Sinon up with a great line pointing out that they really won, seeing as they make the PK group run away. Liz gives him a little tease about them not actually even knowing who the PK group is, but it’s not a “classic Klein joke/tease”, and really it would be weird if Liz didn’t tease Klein even once.

Next up, Klein gets to be the cool guy driving with Asuna and Sugu. Asuna thanks him (polite as always), and he says not to worry about it (naturally). Note there are absolutely zero cases of Klein making awkward jokes about driving two cute girls around, or anything remotely similar. He’s just driving two close friends around looking for another lost friend. I also want to point out the subtext of Klein and Asuna going way back as (highly skilled) companions in the clearing group is always at play here, as it was in Phantom Bullet.

Next we see one of my favourite Klein moments, the script writing right here in phenomenal. After telling Asuna it was no big deal driving them, after a pause, to keep the conversation going he mentions how he just saw Kirito in GGO, and he hopes he’s okay. This is part one of excellent conversation skills.

Part two is even better. As he says this, Sugu, naturally, looks all sad and worried and says mournfully that Kirito is always getting involved in things like this. Klein, realizing he’s just made the mood even worse for Sugu, looks back at her and immediately, but naturally, changes the subject to asking about Rath being in Roppongi.

With the subject on Rath and the Soul Translator instead of Kirito, we get some nice proper plot and detective conversations between the three of them (Klein figuring out plot points doesn’t get to happen enough), concluding with Klein noting how thorough Rath was by not applying for patents to their world-changing invention.

Look at this, he’s just there, with them, as an equally legitimate part of the group.

After the three Fairy Dance heroines discuss the events of that arc, the subject comes back to the Soul Translator, and Asuna turns the conversation directly to Klein when “The Commander” comes up, again, fitting their history together.

Huge props to the anime team for this, because literally all of Klein’s appearances so far are anime-original (in the LNs he doesn’t appear whatsoever until much, much later).

The rest of the main group’s appearances are great too (there wasn’t a single “being after Kirito” or “jealous” moment from any of the girls), but I feel Klein has been handled exceptionally well, and I really hope this sort of interaction is what we see from Klein and the group as a whole in the future.