08-12-2012, 11:24 PM | #26 |
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I doubt he really said that. Horriblesubs actually subbed this week's episode rather than ripping off CR like they usually do, and they tend to put a bunch of lines like that in their subs (you should watch their take on the first episode of AKB0048.)
As for my thoughts on the episode....eeeeeh. After episode 3, my enthusiasm for this show has gotten pretty low. I didn't really dislike the episode, but I wasn't crazy for it either. The best thing from this episode would probably be the Asuna end picture. Though as a character, like the show itself, I don't really care for her. |
08-13-2012, 06:16 PM | #27 |
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Watched Episode 5 today. Still haven't read any of your posts and will probably hold off until I've watched Episode 6 some time later today. However, for now I'll offer my own thoughts.
I felt it was a pretty good episode as far as Sword Art Online goes. That isn't saying too much as the series has been hugely disappointing thus far, an inferior .hack//SIGN in just about every sense other than Eyecandy Asuna. The character animation is disappointingly similar to The Idolmaster's low-budget faces interspersed with higher-budget (but still not ufotable-level or P.A. Works-level) faces. The music's practically nonexistent being as forgettable as it has been. And the plot is pretty ho-hum too. However, pessimism aside, this was one of the series' better episodes so far. So I felt, anyway. So it'll be interesting to see Episode 05 spoiler discussion: Spoiler: show On to Episode 06! P.S. LOL @ the gratuitous butt shots! The Asuna one was okay but the one with the blue-haired girl was what were they THINKING!? P.P.S. Or should I call her Assuna?
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08-13-2012, 08:04 PM | #28 |
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Well, Episode 06 sure was disappointing. ^^; Don't want to beat dead horses so I'll actually try to restrict my complaint-points for this to one sentence a piece @ 20 words or fewer. Here we go! In order!
Episode 06: Spoiler: show See? I promised you I'd keep it real short. But the fact that I managed to list off, *counts*, seven different things which were bad about this episode without even really trying ... yeah, this episode was chock full of disappointments and moments of disgusted disbelief. ^^; SAO keeps cruelly reminding us that the author ain't no Akiba Shakespeare. And no, you can't use the double negative against me. I'll spell it out more clearly: this guy can't write very well. ^^; Sure, he had an interesting (if borrowed! ) initial premise, but what he's done with it has been so disappointing that even if the show isn't bad I'm this close to just dropping it all together. I won't, obviously, because (1) the fans keep promising it gets so much better and (2) Asuna , but seriously, these two reasons may not be enough to keep me checking in. Were it any other season, SAO would probably be something I'd drop right around now. But Summer 2012 is such a weak season and I so very much want Sword Art Online to be the incredible lovechild of Battle Royale and .hack//SIGN that it was meant to be. That's perhaps the greatest single disappointment I've had with the show so far: it's just "Kirito helps random strangers out with life's problems" week in and week out, not Battle Royale like fans of the series billed this as. Maybe that means it will become more Battle Royaley later? But for now, it's just Kirito and occasionally Asuna, neither of which seems to have particularly special or fun-to-watch powers. A good Battle Royale is all about the various contestants having demonstrated powers, key advantages and disadvantages, and so far SAO has none of that. Kirito is merely "an able swordsman" and Asuna is merely "an able swordswoman." That's it. Even Kirito's Level 1 item drop black jacket has all been forgotten by this point. But oh well. Negativity in the above paragraph pushed to the side, I actually enjoyed this episode a lot more (LOL!) than I thought I would. I glimpsed a few of your guys' comments (outside of the spoiler boxes only) and you guys didn't have very nice things to say about this week's episode. So I went in with some pretty low expectations, and to be honest the episode stayed above them until around that 15m43 mark I mentioned earlier. It was around then (and with the person who talks a lot soon after, if you know what I mean) that the episode plummeted towards the abyss of low expectations I had coming in. But before then it was cute. Even if Kirito is unamusingly awkward and even if Asuna is unamusingly schizoid, I do still like them, or at least I want to like them, and I like that this episode represented another stepping stone in what I can only imagine will become both their romantic and their professional relationships. If I had to update my episode rankings, 4 > 5 > 1 > 3 > 6 > 2
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08-13-2012, 08:56 PM | #29 |
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Reply to Doppel's thoughts on Episode 05:
Spoiler: show Reply to Yuki's thoughts on Episode 05: Spoiler: show Reply to Doppel's thoughts on Episode 06: Spoiler: show Reply to Char's thoughts on Episode 6: Spoiler: show Reply to bbb's thoughts on Episode 6: Spoiler: show Phew! @_@ I think that's everyone.
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Last edited by Talon87; 08-13-2012 at 09:01 PM. |
08-16-2012, 09:14 PM | #31 | |
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Re: Asuna
Quote:
Spoiler: show I still think you're kinda confusing "cooties" for... Whatever it is she's doing, but meh. ^^; Aside from that, you guys pretty much made all the complaints already. Decent mystery with weak motive and characterization. Next!
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08-19-2012, 01:30 AM | #32 |
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Episode 7, this is one of the episodes I've been waiting for based on what I've read in the light novels. It was a part of the side-stories in the novel, so it's a side-episode (mostly at least), but it was one of my favorites in the light novels.
Haven't watched it yet besides the intro, please don't suck. EDIT: Nothing really spoiler worthy but I might edit it again so: Spoiler: show Last edited by Char; 08-19-2012 at 02:16 AM. |
08-19-2012, 04:44 AM | #33 |
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I hate to go all ape-anal every week, but this episode was pretty weak and was saved from an "F" by its last 15-20 seconds. It wasn't nearly as bad and insulting as last week's partial birth abortion, but I think SAO is definitely found its equilibrium of mediocrity.
Spoiler: show 6/10
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08-19-2012, 11:35 AM | #34 |
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Oh wow, I look away for a while and the thread bursts into life.
What I personally am getting annoyed by in this show is the fact that after episode 1 pretty much every bit of story follows the pattern of "Girl X gets the hots for Kirito, Kirito doesn't get it, Asuna comes play alpha female". Sometimes the Asuna-part is left out, but...seriously, writing team? I almost get the image that 95% of SAO are teenage-girls. What happened to Klein and all the, you know, males? They only seem to show up to be laughed at or to die for dramatic effect. I'm almost tempted to count Kirito as a chick since his art is the exact same way as the girls' to top off the whole thing. As for Asuna...my lord. I find it very, very hard to like her for some reason. Spoiler: show
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08-19-2012, 01:32 PM | #35 |
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I found this side-story to be slightly more entertaining than most of the others, but other than that I agree that this is still pretty flawed. This is supposedly the last side-story episode, and the real plot will be starting in the next episode, so I'm still holding my hopes that this will get better.
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08-19-2012, 04:53 PM | #36 |
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Watched Episode 07. Am I the first person here to have really enjoyed it? ^^; Cliché but well-executed, I felt. I don't really feel like defending the episode's merits right now and I don't feel like repeating what's already been said about its weaknesses so I guess I'll just update my episode list for this week:
4 > 5 > 1 > 7 > 3 > 6 > 2 (with 1 and 7's spots and subsequently 5 and 7's spots possibly switched) And I guess I'll say a few very brief things: - liked Lizbeth - don't bear Asuna any ill will - disappointed with just how haremy this series has turned out to be - going to laugh if/when every single one of these girls (even the Episode 03 girl!? XD) comes back and teams up with Kirito
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08-19-2012, 09:42 PM | #37 |
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I thought 7 was one of the better episodes. It wasn't great, but it didn't leave me going "HAAAAH?!" during multiple occasions. I did once though.
Lizbeth's interactions with Kirito were actually kinda nice. It wasn't the same bad tsundere attempts we get with Asuna. It would have been better if it wasn't for the other girls he had similar moments with. Kirito....I can't help but feel he's talking out of his ass. I don't buy a damn bit of his speech to Lizbeth. Also like last week, the end picture was nice. |
08-20-2012, 06:13 AM | #38 |
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I wouldn't put that beyond the writing team. But in that case I want at least an OAV detailing the absolute slaughtering of Kirito when all the single otakus in the SAO-universe find out.
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08-25-2012, 12:33 AM | #39 |
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Just watched episode one...
Holy Hell, I actually care about the characters. Most anime that people convince me to watch are bad. I forget exactly what I've seen, but it's been mostly garbage. This is actually interesting to me, probably because of the whole, "trapped inside a video game" thing. But it's not only that, though. When Klein left, I actually felt emotions. Very well written so far... haven't looked at what any of you have said about it because spoilers, though. But from what I hear, just about everyone thinks it's great.
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08-25-2012, 07:45 PM | #40 |
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Hm Episode 8.
Weren't they still up to the 70s Floors before the 2 year skip? If so, that's some fail progression. Kirito still being able to kick everyone's ass is kinda lame. I want to see more strong players aside from Kirito and Asuna. Maybe that guy in the cloak with that symbol on his hand will be there to give Kirito a hard time. Either way, this episode was somewhat funny and a nice set up for the boss fight next episode. I will rage if they skip over that too.
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08-26-2012, 11:43 AM | #41 |
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Episode 8 was a pretty good episode for SAO and possibly my favorite one yet. There were a few problems here and there but I'll save those for after I discuss the things I liked or found interesting.
Spoiler: show It's going to be hard to keep the episode ranking system going week after week so I'm going to retire it, but I will say that Episode 8 has been one of my favorites so far. You can tell we're finally onto a real story (though whether it lasts for only one more episode or for the remainder of the series who can tell); the episode finally gives us more than the tired "Girl of the Week™ meets the legendary solo beater Kirito" formula.
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08-26-2012, 01:39 PM | #42 |
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Why did they censor the meal???
Spoiler: show It was a good episode relative to the series standards (worth an 8/10) but I wouldn't classify it as a solid episode compared to other shows because, again, persistent problems are persistent.
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08-26-2012, 01:53 PM | #43 | |
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Quote:
Spoiler: show Dont judge the anime just yet. The anime WAS just beating around the bush with side stories but as of this episode 8, I can say it officially moved into the main plot line.The Anime is only good for a visualization of the setting and the battles. The manga sucks and the novel are the best thing I have ever read in my life. |
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08-26-2012, 03:42 PM | #44 | |
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Quote:
That's what I was thinking the entire meal. "TO HELL WITH RELATIONSHIP-DEVELOPMENT, SHOW ME THE FOOD!" I seriously mean this, I wanted to see the stew more than Kirito and Asuna going at it. It's actually...very sad.
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08-27-2012, 07:08 PM | #45 |
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I have a treat for those of you who 1) have a niconico douga account and 2) are dissatisfied with SAO. I bring you an improved SAO! There's three episodes of this, and while it shortens SAO even more than the anime already shortens it, it tells SAO in the nonsensical manner it was meant to be told!
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08-27-2012, 08:17 PM | #46 |
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What's especially funny is that it makes perfect sense, even if the show proper doesn't.
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08-31-2012, 04:43 PM | #47 |
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Snuck a peek at the first two books recently (didn't read anything, just looked at their covers and the artwork at the start of each volume from the distance of my bed) and I gotta say that it's all kinds of confusing and laughable that the fans keep referring to all the episodes we've watched so far as "side stories" when, from what I can tell, ...
Spoiler: show As for whether I'll actually read the books or not, doubtful. A, I want to be surprised by the show first. B, the story just doesn't seem very good anyway. And C, from what I did see of the translation (got up off of the bed to take a closer look at some things we've already seen in the anime) I didn't get a good impression. Whoever translated it from Japanese to English in a lot of places translated things very poorly / amateurishly as compared with the CrunchyRoll+UTW translation of the very same words being spoken in the anime. Seems like it'd be as painful as trying to enjoy Fate/Zero by first reading the books. (DON'T DO IT! >_<) The only difference here being that Fate/Zero's anime was amazing whereas SAO's anime is decidedly not. ^^;
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08-31-2012, 06:34 PM | #48 |
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The history of SAO was that it started out as a doujin that was picked up by a major publisher. I'd imagine that the main story, that of Asuna-Kirito was written for a single volume (Volume 1) and the material after that an attempt to cash in on the one-shot's success.
To take a recent example for comparison, Another was a one volume story written as a stand-alone work. Stuff later was released to cash in on the brand and anime, but the author wrote it for the one volume format. The detachment between the attitudes, and perhaps amateurish attempt at trying to tell how Episode 1 Kirito became Episode 8 Kirito probably explains the load of inconsistency. But I was expecting the anime to smooth that stuff out, not present it as is and try to get viewers to accept it.
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08-31-2012, 06:49 PM | #49 | |
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I think, understandably, the company's #1 focus was preserving the novel in the book-to-TV transition precisely because of how often fans like myself bitch and nag when the original source material is tampered with (usually because when they change things for television they end up making things worse than what they were originally in the novel!). They saw how pleased fans were with ufotable's adaptation of Fate/Zero last fall (which is surely when talks and development for Accel World's and SAO's animes began) and they set out to do the same. But that only works when the source material, like Urobuchi Gen's writing, is solid. When it's weak, well, ... ^^;
Regarding SAO starting off as a doujin novel, Wikipedia has this to say: Quote:
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08-31-2012, 07:42 PM | #50 |
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Hey Talon, if you're reading stuff online about SAO, surely you've stumbled upon two years of glop glop, yes?
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