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Old 07-11-2012, 01:25 PM   #1
Talon87
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Sword Art Online


"In the year 2022, the virtual reality MMORPG Sword Art Online (SAO) is released. A virtual reality helmet called a Nerve Gear which sends signals to their brain allows players to experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. But an unexpected event occurs on November 6, 2022 when the creator of SAO prevents the players from logging out. He issues them a challenge: if they wish to be free and log out of the game, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, should their avatars die in-game, so too will their bodies in the real world. As the game's 10,000 players try to accept their new deadly predicament, Kirito, a skilled player who tested the beta version of the game, is determined to reach the 100th floor and earn his freedom. Along with Asuna, his partner and love interest, and their friends, Kirito and his allies will face many obstacles and discover the true purpose of SAO." - adapted from Wikipedia
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Old 07-11-2012, 01:25 PM   #2
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Old 07-11-2012, 02:06 PM   #3
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Disclaimer: not putting any of this inside of a spoiler box. If you don't want the first episode spoiled for you and already planned on watching this, then please do go ahead and check it out before reading this post. Thanks.

Just watched the first episode of this today. I was afraid it wasn't going to be very good given the misgivings both Doppelganger and bbb have had about Accel World, the other of this author's two bestsellers, but so far the story looks promising ... though I do have misgivings of my own as to whether or not I should watch this one now or wait until it's all or mostly done airing. ^^;

Let's get one thing out of the way early on: Sword Art Online is not terribly original. In fact, you can sum it up pretty nicely as the merger of two earlier franchises. The first, less famous franchise SAO takes inspiration from is .hack//SIGN. Like the ambitious Bee Train anime of the early 2000s, SAO is a story about the terror of being locked inside of an MMORPG with no way of logging out. Sure, there are differences regarding the specifics -- for instance, in .hack//SIGN Tsukasa quite frankly doesn't know how to log out or if he even can whereas in SAO the knowledge of how to log out is there but is coupled with the added knowledge that attempting to log out will fry the player's brain in the real world -- but at its core this is a "oh shit I can't log out of the MMO ;_;" story. The second, more famous franchise from which SAO derives is none other than Battle Royale. Yes, ladies and gents: this is yet another entry into the ever-growing list of animes which take inspiration from the story of a group of 30 classmates stranded on a tropical island who must kill or be killed if they hope to win the game and escape the island with their lives. Again, the specifics are somewhat changed here -- in SAO, for example, there's no explicit mandate to kill or be killed, it's simply something that you know players are going to start doing as they realize that the most efficient way to ensure more resources for their own end-game attempts to grind in order to beat the Level 100 endgame boss is to off one's fellow players -- but at its core this is a Battle Royale series. Before the antagonist has even finished explaining the situation to the players, he reports that already over 200 of the 10,000 players have died due to their families attempting to remove the NerveGears from their heads back on the outside world. This sets things in motion / this primes the audience to expect the deaths to continue to pile up as we press on through the series.

So if SAO is not original, then what is it? It's entertaining, for starters. I enjoyed .hack//SIGN and I enjoy a good battle royale so the combination of the two ideas is certainly like the combination of lime and peanut sauce on noodles as far as I'm concerned. While it borrows heavily from earlier works of science fiction and fantasy, Sword Art Online sets us up by the end of the episode to expect a former ally to possibly become a future enemy not because he's a bad person but because dem's da brakes -- you gotta do what you can to stay alive in this world and we only hung out together for one day and have now spent the past x weeks apart. This is an idea I know I've seen many times before, though strangely I can't really point to any one of them in particular , but the point I'm trying to make by bringing this up is not that SAO is completely derivative of older writings (which it well may be!) but that what it does it does anywhere from a grade of C - Average on up.

What else is SAO? Well, it's both pretty and not pretty. To be honest, the poster up top is the prettiest you're ever going to see these characters. It's deceitfully well-drawn compared with the actual character animations waiting for you inside, something we don't normally have happen to us in the world of regular anime (so I'm kinda startled and bummed out to have it happen here). Without looking things up and if I had to bet money, I would place $50 down that the studio handling SAO is the same studio who did THE iDOLM@STER anime last year. Just like iM@S, SAO has this bizarro juxtaposition of high-budget backgrounds with low-budget foregrounds (i.e. characters and the items they immediately interact with). The world of SAO is really gorgeous, like the very sort of thing you'd expect .hack//SIGN to have been were it animated in 2012 instead of 2002. It's not quite as artistically beautiful as .hack//SIGN yet but it also hasn't gotten a chance to show us much outside of the town square. However, the people are ridiculously low budget in terms of how they've been animated. Reminds me a lot of iM@S. Which is a real shame considering that characters are going to be as omnipresent onscreen as are beautiful environs in a story such as this. Perhaps rather than being an anime Sword Art Online ought to have been a series of OAVs, one for each novel just like Kara no Kyoukai. Oh well though. Can't take it back now.

Aside from that, there isn't much to say yet. We've only met three important characters -- Kirito, Klein, and Kayaba Akihiko (the game's creator) -- and we've only heard the most basic aspects of the premise so far. We still haven't met the girl in the picture up top, Asuna, nor has Kirito really formulated anything more of a plan than "try to always stay one step ahead of the pack." That takes us to my main concern for this series: pacing. I feel like this show is going to be a colossal tease to watch in a weekly format. Especially if Episode 01 is any indication, each week's episode isn't going to be enough to sate my appetite. So I'm torn between putting this one off until October and watching it now with you guys and discussing it weekly. If I see weekly discussions, then sure, we can all watch it weekly together. Otherwise, I may just hold off on this one for now. We'll see.
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Old 07-11-2012, 04:08 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Without looking things up and if I had to bet money, I would place $50 down that the studio handling SAO is the same studio who did THE iDOLM@STER anime last year.
You, sir, have just earned yourself $22.5. The rest was taken by the IRS.
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Old 07-15-2012, 04:20 PM   #5
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Watched Episode 02 just now. Honestly, I found it to be pretty darn disappointing. The episode was a highly-flawed poor man's Kaiji. The author of this book seems to be struggling to weave a narrative which compellingly examines human nature. Whereas Fukumoto's Kaiji is a masterpiece of human behavioral analysis, the Sword Art Online guy's writing is very unsatisfying, pock-marked with plot holes and other internal inconsistencies throughout. To explain some of what I mean, we'll have to go into spoiler specifics for Episode 02:

Spoiler: show
One example is how he tries to portray some of the neophytes as being spiteful towards the beta testers and how they blame the beta testers for allowing 2,000 people to needlessly die. The way he handles this feels very rough and amateurish. For instance, he tries to generate conflict by having the leader of the newbies accuse Kirito of allowing Blue Haired Guy to senselessly die. But this was clearly not true, anyone could see. The blue-haired guy charged in on his own. Kirito then calls out to him and to everybody else to GTFO. If he wanted the blue-haired guy to die, he'd have said nothing and pretended to be just as shocked as everybody else by the enemy A.I.'s unpredicted behavior. For another example, the way he has Kirito happily accepting the role of pariah makes absolutely no sense to me. In an MMO where you can easily die by being slashed once by a sword and where once you die you stay dead for good (not to mention dying IRL), it amounts to suicide to invite the mob to "come at me, bro" the way that Kirito did at the end there. What the hell. This would be like if Funai had accused Kaiji of cheating and then Kaiji had told everybody, "Yeah, I cheated. >D So what? COME AT ME, BRO!" Kaiji would have been so fucked if he had reacted like that.

Another thing I don't like is how rough Asuna feels as a character. She's portrayed as this holy-shit-way-better-than-you'd-think character but then at the end of the episode she's portrayed as being just as naive and innocent and purehearted as Kirito superficially judges her to be. What the hell. I get the whole "lol she doesn't know about party info" joke but the way they have her being all happy to have learned Kirito's name doesn't jive with her abstention from joining him. If she has a crush on him to the point she shyly wanted to know his name but was too shy to ask directly, then why the hell wouldn't she join him in exile? And if the answer is "because she's smart enough to realize that it'd be suicide to join such an outcast," then why the hell is she going to eventually wind up with him anyway? The OP credits and all the promotional art make it pretty damn clear that Kirito and Asuna form a duo. So why the incongruous behavior?

The bit with the blue-haired guy going for the treasure was one of the worst. When they hinted at that, I thought, "Aha. Classic Fukumoto" and figured they were revealing that he had deceived everybody and was merely interested in the selfish gain of the finishing blow treasure. However, he then acts like a goody-goody on his deathbed begging Kirito to help the squad out. And then even more bafflingly Kirito somehow concludes that this guy really was a genuinely nice person and that he wanted to get the treasure for the sake of the group. What!? How does that even make sense!? A solo treasure can't be shared by the group and even if someone else had gotten the finishing death blow they could have given him the treasure. (And if there's binds-on-pickup issues like in World of Warcraft then as squad leader he could have told everybody from the start what his plan was and why it was in the squad's best interest to let the leader have the item drop.) The fact that he kept it a secret from everybody and deviously grinned at Kirito as he went in for the kill totally spelled selfish betrayal but what followed was night-and-day opposite to that. So fucking confusing.

There were lots more but I think those examples are good enough for now. My point, pretty simply, is that the episode's human dynamics were both hard to follow at times and also incongruous with how real people would behave when put in similar circumstances. I hesitate to say I'm very disappointed in this episode but I'm certainly at least disappointed in it. Not fond of the end-of-episode development for Kirito. Not fond of the episode plot overall. Just blah, blah, blah. Here's hoping the third episode, which will likely cap off the introductory stuff, is much stronger than this episode was.

The episode's one saving grace? Good lord is Asuna beautiful.

Last edited by Talon87; 07-15-2012 at 04:22 PM.
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Old 07-15-2012, 08:16 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
For instance, he tries to generate conflict by having the leader of the newbies accuse Kirito of allowing Blue Haired Guy to senselessly die. But this was clearly not true, anyone could see. The blue-haired guy charged in on his own.
I presume he saw Kirito with the healing salve and didn't apply it.

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Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
This would be like if Funai had accused Kaiji of cheating and then Kaiji had told everybody, "Yeah, I cheated. >D So what? COME AT ME, BRO!" Kaiji would have been so fucked if he had reacted like that.
What was weird was how we didn't see the rationale that lead him to act so superior to the other players. We've seen Lelouch do this for good reason, but Kirito doesn't have that kind of clout yet.

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Another thing I don't like is how rough Asuna feels as a character. She's portrayed as this holy-shit-way-better-than-you'd-think character but then at the end of the episode she's portrayed as being just as naive and innocent and purehearted as Kirito superficially judges her to be. What the hell. I get the whole "lol she doesn't know about party info" joke but the way they have her being all happy to have learned Kirito's name doesn't jive with her abstention from joining him. If she has a crush on him to the point she shyly wanted to know his name but was too shy to ask directly, then why the hell wouldn't she join him in exile? And if the answer is "because she's smart enough to realize that it'd be suicide to join such an outcast," then why the hell is she going to eventually wind up with him anyway? The OP credits and all the promotional art make it pretty damn clear that Kirito and Asuna form a duo. So why the incongruous behavior?
This I actually liked a bit. The story's going to be devoted to the two of them, after-all, so I can excuse what amounts to just an introductory episode. We can conclude 1) Asuna isn't a beta tester, and 2) is surprisingly good at SAO. Kirito isn't opposed to friends, but he obviously doesn't care for Asuna at all and doesn't need her.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
The bit with the blue-haired guy going for the treasure was one of the worst. When they hinted at that, I thought, "Aha. Classic Fukumoto" and figured they were revealing that he had deceived everybody and was merely interested in the selfish gain of the finishing blow treasure. However, he then acts like a goody-goody on his deathbed begging Kirito to help the squad out. And then even more bafflingly Kirito somehow concludes that this guy really was a genuinely nice person and that he wanted to get the treasure for the sake of the group. What!? How does that even make sense!? A solo treasure can't be shared by the group and even if someone else had gotten the finishing death blow they could have given him the treasure. (And if there's binds-on-pickup issues like in World of Warcraft then as squad leader he could have told everybody from the start what his plan was and why it was in the squad's best interest to let the leader have the item drop.) The fact that he kept it a secret from everybody and deviously grinned at Kirito as he went in for the kill totally spelled selfish betrayal but what followed was night-and-day opposite to that. So fucking confusing.
We're in agreement...Kirito's revelation stuck out like a sore thumb. Diabel had so little screen time the conclusions and attitudes reached by the characters didn't line up. I also took contention toward the tension of the fight, even though it was a one-on-one fight it didn't feel like the characters were in any real danger.

The major non-anime comparison I'm going to make with SAO is Diablo. I played the original in 1999 on Battle.net and remember the feeling of being on the edge of new world, that of multiplayer. Diablo had an infamously strong boss on its second level called The Butcher, who was iconic and terrifying for new players. The lower levels of the game were too tough for weak players to take on, and The Butcher's items would help a lot with that, meaning players would be tempted to challenge him, but he'd often kill the players and violently so.

The rudimentary team-work players incorporated to try and beat The Butcher while not dying and incurring penalties reminded me strongly of these first few floors in SAO. The only chance is for players to work together, but without any rules in place to govern them, until a leader emerges. I didn't find the boss fight all that impressive because it lacked this tension.
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Old 07-15-2012, 11:37 PM   #7
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I watched episode 2 as well. My complaints for the episode are pretty much in Suigin's spoiler box, especially Link's (I can't be assed to remember the guy's name) part. While the Asuna thing didn't bother me that much, I did kinda see it as a cheap attempt at making her seem approachable but badass.

The saving grace of the episode for me was the boss fight itself. I thought it was exciting as hell. The teamwork all used to take the boss down and the main guy's experience being what saved everyone who mattered were really nice.
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Old 07-16-2012, 12:37 AM   #8
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I watched the SAO episode after Smile 23, maybe that's why the boss fight didn't impress me? =3=
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Old 07-22-2012, 12:48 AM   #9
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I wasn't really trying to defend SAO last week...my experience was just different from Talon's, as I noted in the Diablo anecdote. I've been through that scrappy experience of struggling through a multiplayer game when the limits of the story hadn't been established yet.

But SAO Episode 03 really makes me want to tear into it. Poor characterization marred by something even more troubling, I went from high anticipation (Episode 01) to modestly put-off (Episode 02) to outright frustrated and pessimistic.

Spoiler: show
The story jumps around like a frog in a pot of boiling water. It's so tough to follow the characterization when the plot leaps from Day 1 in Episode 01, to a month later in Episode 02, to an unspecified time in Episode 03 which promptly skips several times over the episode. Anime is visual - we're supposed to see a character grow and mature over time, not have it implied and narrated to us. Here, the story asks players to fill in the blanks, which is just lazy/stupid and a really haphazard, piss poor final product.

Yes, I get that Kirito wanted to mentor some weaklings, and it was especially prominent because a rare cute female was among the group, but why isn't explained. Why he felt responsible for the re-tarded dungeon scene (so easy to call, yet so bewildering at why it happened like it did) is even more incomprehensible. Why that other guy suicided while blaming him...what?

I can buy why he'd force believe the Nicholas item drop into reviving the dead, but his psyche and rationale are not articulated well enough to really paint a convincing portrait. Obviously, people have no idea what happens to those who "die" in SAO...the fear is you die for real, but you can't confirm that. So the belief that the dead could come back is defensible...but not given the 4 minutes of attention it was given in the episode.


I'd give this a 3/10. Strategically, a poorly directed episode. Weak writing, and I saw some off-model art. Bad, bad, bad.
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Old 07-22-2012, 09:33 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
I wasn't really trying to defend SAO last week...my experience was just different from Talon's, as I noted in the Diablo anecdote. I've been through that scrappy experience of struggling through a multiplayer game when the limits of the story hadn't been established yet.

But SAO Episode 03 really makes me want to tear into it. Poor characterization marred by something even more troubling, I went from high anticipation (Episode 01) to modestly put-off (Episode 02) to outright frustrated and pessimistic.

Spoiler: show
The story jumps around like a frog in a pot of boiling water. It's so tough to follow the characterization when the plot leaps from Day 1 in Episode 01, to a month later in Episode 02, to an unspecified time in Episode 03 which promptly skips several times over the episode. Anime is visual - we're supposed to see a character grow and mature over time, not have it implied and narrated to us. Here, the story asks players to fill in the blanks, which is just lazy/stupid and a really haphazard, piss poor final product.

Yes, I get that Kirito wanted to mentor some weaklings, and it was especially prominent because a rare cute female was among the group, but why isn't explained. Why he felt responsible for the re-tarded dungeon scene (so easy to call, yet so bewildering at why it happened like it did) is even more incomprehensible. Why that other guy suicided while blaming him...what?

I can buy why he'd force believe the Nicholas item drop into reviving the dead, but his psyche and rationale are not articulated well enough to really paint a convincing portrait. Obviously, people have no idea what happens to those who "die" in SAO...the fear is you die for real, but you can't confirm that. So the belief that the dead could come back is defensible...but not given the 4 minutes of attention it was given in the episode.


I'd give this a 3/10. Strategically, a poorly directed episode. Weak writing, and I saw some off-model art. Bad, bad, bad.
First of all, I'd like to clarify that the anime is based on Sword Art Online, the light novel series. You can read the English translation online if you're really desperate to see what happens in the future and the exact details of character development. It also gives the opportunity to see how different or alike the two are shaping to be.

Now, let's get to the nitty-gritty.

Spoiler: show
1. Jumping story

I am under the assumption that SAO is going to be a one cour show (12-13 episodes) so this could be purely an issue of time management. Of course some stuff is going to be cut, since not every anime can be Naruto and go on forever, littered with filler-episodes while at it. From what I've gathered, the SAO-anime is trying to go through side-stories first and then get to the main one, explaining Kirito's heavy avoidance of joining guilds and forming parties first.

If you really want to see jumping in the storyline, do read the original work: the story begins at Floor 82 and jumps back from there. There's also jumps of 10-50 floors back and forth on a regular basis. I'm more than grateful for chronological progression.

Since you mentioned how "the story asks players to fill in the blanks, which is just lazy/stupid and a really haphazard, piss poor final product": some viewers actually enjoy thinking for themselves how the story developed. There's also the light novel that I mentioned earlier and perhaps more of the story will be revealed later in the anime as well. Why should it be necessary to hand out every last plot point in the first three episodes?

As to the skipping of in-game floors in the anime, would it really be necessary to make the viewer watch Kirito and the other go through the game floor by floor? See every bit of leveling up? Perhaps watch the game progress day by day? Especially when most likely nothing that relates to the story happens during this time?

2. Rationality of people who've lost loved ones

Loved ones might be a bit of a stretch but bear with me here.

"Why he felt responsible for the re-tarded dungeon scene (so easy to call, yet so bewildering at why it happened like it did) is even more incomprehensible. Why that other guy suicided while blaming him...what?"

Kirito's suffering from a phenomenan called survivor's guilt. You can also see this happen with survivors of mass-killings and accidents where people have died. "It's my fault, I could've done something, I should've done something, it should've been me who died." It actually makes far more sense than Kirito not feeling anything at all over the incident (which is a sociopathic way to handle it).

As for the guild leader's suicide scene: it is part of normal human psyche that you want an explanation and a reason to why someone died, but also a target for the blame and hate. If you look at any person who's close to someone who died, they will very rarely sit down and calmly start thinking about facts. "Why was it you who survived and not them?" and emotional responses always come first. This feeds Kirito's survivor's guilt even more.

Let's also not forget that the Black Cats were teenagers. Death is going to hit that much harder and most of us have not yet developed any ways to cope with it at that age, so suicide is even more likely.

3. Death in SAO

Well this should be simple. If you were told that bullets will kill you, would you go get yourself shot because there's no way to confirm this it at the time? "It could be a lie, let's not worry about our lives!"

I hope survival instinct isn't something that needs to be explained to the viewers.
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Old 07-22-2012, 04:21 PM   #11
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Just finished Episode 03 for myself. I'm going to write up my thoughts first. Then I'm going to read Doppel's and Kaisap's spoiler boxes and write up some additional thoughts.

Initial Thoughts:

Spoiler: show
The author of SAO seems to be incredibly poor at writing consistent characters, characters whose actions we feel fit them given what we've seen or heard from those characters in the past. In Episode 01, we see Kirito wanting to strike out on his own with a two-man team of just him and Klein. He isn't willing to join a guild because he knows that joining a guild will slow him down, that a guild is only as strong as its weakest link, etc etc, and that in a game of life and death you can't take chances like that. When Klein tells him he has to bring his buddies along, Kirito parts ways with him, unwilling to give up even a day's advantage to the other players on the server. He has to get to the next village and he has to get there now. In Episode 02, we're sent some mixed signals about Kirito's guild aspirations. The episode begins with Kirito going to a rally where a group is talking about forming to help get everyone past the boss of Level 1. You'd think Kirito would want to do this on his own, given what he told Klein in the previous episode, and sure enough we do see him forming a team of only two (versus the teams of six that everybody else forms). But still: the fact that he forms a team at all suggests he realizes, "Okay, maybe I can't do this on my own after all." Then at the end of the episode, he loses his marbles, more or less tells everyone to "COME AT ME, BRO!", and heads off all on his own with the boss's item drop adorning his back. Now we come to this week. While it was a cute tale that I enjoyed watching, it made absolutely no sense for Kirito to now be enthusiastic about joining this group of scrubs. Yes, it makes sense that someone would want to do that. Yes, I can see how someone might feel that it's worth it to stay behind (and risk falling behind the pack and perhaps losing one's one and only chance to get out of this hellhole!) if it means trying to pull one's fellow man along. It's heroic behavior and it makes sense, certainly. But it doesn't make sense coming out of Kirito. Not after what we saw in Episode 01 and definitely not after what we saw in Episode 02. If something had happened to Kirito to warrant this change of heart, then that would have been fine: but no such thing happened at all. (Or if it did, it sure didn't happen onscreen!) One second he's telling the hottie Asuna "SMELL YA LATER! ;D" and the next second he's blushing about joining a group of d'awww Level 20s while he's sitting pretty at Level 40. It's a total character reversal that reeks of amateur writing. If the author wanted to tell this tale, then great: but he should have done so either with an entirely different character or else he should have better led Kirito towards this development.

This is only one example of many in the episode which display the author's inability to write consistent characters, but in the interests of moving on and not writing a boring essay, I'm going to continue to the next point.

The author of SAO also seems to struggle with writing characters who act reasonably. We already saw Kirito act like a madman at the end of last week's episode; this week, it's not just Kirito but Klein as well who joins him in acting irrationally. First let's get Kirito out of the way. The biggest problem I have with Kirito's rationality in this episode is that he's risking forfeiture of his one shot at freedom in exchange for a slim chance at saving these incapables. This bleeds into the discussion above (with how Kirito's character is inconsistent week to week) so I won't repeat myself. Second, there's Klein. Klein only knew Kirito for ~3-8 hours. The guys probably skipped school/work for the day to stay home and play the game on launch day. We know Klein was planning on getting pizza for dinner so it's not like he could've been there any longer, any longer, than 16 hours. So now we're suddenly supposed to believe that this guy Klein, who only knew Kirito for no more than 16 hours and very probably something more like 2 or 3, would be willing to sacrifice himself and all of his guildmates just so Kirito could go and get an item which may or may not even exist? This is the sort of suicidal thing you do for a bro-for-life character, not for a "hey we talked on Launch Day and then we only saw each other one other time between then and now and that time I tried to talk to you you ended up brushing me off" character. I like Klein, I like how the author wants us to like Klein and wants to show Klein doing good things for the hero, but this is retarded character writing. ^^;

Overall, and despite the aforementioned points, I actually enjoyed this episode. It was a cute tale with the right dash of success and tragedy to make us feel for Kirito. I felt that Sachi was pretty well-conceived: she felt like the most real person we've met yet in this series. It was nice to see Klein return (even if his actions were a little unbelievable ^^; ). I also liked how the episode resolved the very thing I noted at the start. Right when the OP started to play, I paused the episode to go to the kitchen to cook some stuff up. I said to myself, "Y'know, what he's doing is really morally suspect. ^^; I know why he's doing it. He's gotta do it, for himself, for his own safety's sake. In a situation like this it would be suicide to let players who are stronger than you know that they're stronger and it would also be bad to let players who are weaker than you know that they're weaker. You always want to keep your hand close to your chest. Bluff your superiors into thinking that you're not so weak so that maybe they won't attack you and easily beat you; and bluff your inferiors into thinking that you're as weak as they are so that if they do try and pull any funny business, you can kick their asses and their true colors will have been revealed to you. But still! What he's telling them is going to get them killed. By telling them that they're at about his level, they're going to mistakenly believe that the things Kirito is capable of doing are things they too will be capable of doing in just a few more levels. And then they're going to go off and trigger a hornet's nest and get themselves killed." Well, I was right. ^_^; But I didn't expect it to happen this very episode! I figured this was something which could potentially never happen or which could happen way late in the series. But nope: what I thought to myself while cooking up some food turned out to be the main plot point of this week's episode. So it was neat to see them address it and it's even better of them to have gotten it out of the way. Now at least we know that when Kirito meets Asuna and eventually opens up to her, he'll be more likely to tell her his real level. Even if he withholds the truth from her, we know he won't lie to her and say "Oh yeah I'm level 38" when really he's Level 75.

If I had to rate the episodes, I would say ...
  • overall feeling: 3 > 1 > 2
  • quality of writing: 1 > 3 > 2
The writing has gone downhill and I have very low confidence in this author now, but at least the flavor of what he's trying to pull has improved somewhat. Anyway, it's still early so there' plenty of time for this series to sink or swim.

And now, on to your guys' posts.

@Doppel: Yeah, I forgot to bring up the issue of the time jumps. Man oh man did those make me laugh. Here, a spoiler box:

Spoiler: show
Episode 1: either Floor 0 or Floor 1, however you want to cut it
Episode 2: Floor 1, with them just beating the Level 1 boss at the end of the episode
Episode 3: it opens with Floor 11 before the OP credits, jumps to Floor 20 right after the OP credits ^^;, jumps to Floor 27 when the guild leader goes to buy a house for his guild, and then jumps to Floor 49 after we see the Floor 27 scene where everybody except Kirito dies. What the hell!?

Not much else to say. You make good points that I agree with.

@Kaisap: Hey, welcome to our little neck of the woods. First things first: everyone here knows that SAO is based on a series of light novels. ^^; Second, some of your rebuttal points to Doppel to which I'd like to offer my own input:

Spoiler: show
Pacing: even if SAO is going to only be a 12-episode series, that doesn't excuse the pretty poor pacing we've seen thus far. Then you have to consider the reality that SAO, if its first season is a commercial success, is very, very likely to get renewed for a second season -- and they know this. There are a lot of light novels which have been produced in a serial format like this. Haruhi. Shakugan no Shana. Zero no Tsukaima. Kara no Kyoukai. Maria-sama ga Miteru. Then there are other light novel series where the studio does the whole thing in one go because they're committed to it and they know they can do it properly. ToraDora. Fate/Zero. So it isn't enough to say, "Cut 'em some slack, guys: I'd like to see you cram all the stuff they have to cram in to just 12 episodes!" No. ^_^; A typical exchange rate with light novels and anime is six episodes per novel. They could have easily, easily produced a 12-episode series that covered the first two books with a satisfying pacing and sense of direction. So the fact that we are all terribly unsatisfied with the pacing either means:
  1. the studio messed up and needs to hire a new director; or else
  2. the author messed up and the original story is saddled with piss-poor pacing
Survivor's guilt: If that is to be the focus of this series, then I think they've done a very poor job setting it up. It's interesting that you bring it up though because it'll be interesting to see how long he grapples with it and how, if ever, he comes out of it.

Chronology: That's interesting to learn that the original series did things out of chronological order. Usually when an author does that, I feel like he does it for a good reason, so I'm disappointed that the studio decided that they "knew better" and put things into chronological order. Sometimes authors do things out of chronological order precisely because to do them in chronological order would be to invite massive pacing problems! I can't help but to wonder if that's part of what's going on here.

GO READ THE BOOKS!: none of us will probably go and read the books right now because we enjoy being surprised and not having things spoiled for us. Perhaps after the series ends if any of us really loves what we've watched then we'll go seek out the remaining books and read them. But for now, don't expect any of us to lift a finger to read any of the books. Just letting you know so that you don't keep banging your head saying "IT'S EXPLAINED IN THE BOOKS! >.< GO READ THEM!" And speaking of that ...

Book-to-Television adaptations: You shouldn't act like it's excusable that a book is so poorly adapted to television that it's offensively poor to folks who haven't read the books first. ^^; There can be and have been great adaptations from book to television (recently Fate/Zero, a little less recently ToraDora) and there can be and have been ones which are not so great. It is not a failing of the viewer to have not read the books first if the show is so poorly executed as to be perceived as poor by him: instead, it is a failing of the studio to produce a stand-alone work which can be enjoyed without having read the book upon which it was based. Imagine if to enjoy the Lord of the Rings films you had to have read the books first! Imagine if to enjoy Doctor Zhivago or Jurassic Park you had to have read the books first! Great films stand on their own two feet, even those that are adapted from literary works. We should hold animes adapted from light novels to the same standards. It is therefore not a legitimate excuse to say, "Well, SAO is great so long as you've read the books first. ^^; SO QUIT SAYING IT'S BAD, GUYS, AND GO READ THE BOOKS FIRST AND THEN COME BACK! " ^^; If the anime is bad then it's bad regardless of whether or not the books are good.
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Old 07-22-2012, 11:46 PM   #12
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Sorry guys, didn't mean to sound like a smartass. ^^; I just get into my arguments too passionately.

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Old 07-23-2012, 01:33 AM   #13
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No need to apologize, we don't want to spray negativity on the walls and intimidate others from entering marked territory. It's just that we're familiar enough with how fiction (in various formats, mediums) is logically pieced together to be able to evaluate it critically.
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Old 07-28-2012, 07:57 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post

Spoiler: show
Obviously, people have no idea what happens to those who "die" in SAO...the fear is you die for real, but you can't confirm that.
Guess what was brought up in episode 4, albeit shortly?

For starters I'd like to bring up that I have never taken part in an MMO. I don't follow them, I know almost nothing of the mechanics and SAO is almost as much of a learning experience for me as it is entertainment. Apologies if you find that "easy" stuff "everybody knows" hasn't made its way into my data bank yet.

Alright, episode 4!

Here's a very short summary of the plot.

Spoiler: show
A female character, Silica, whose entire presence screams "Little Sister Character, Moe!" loses her partner, a little dragon. Kirito helps her bring it back to life.

Add a healthy dose of Kirito pretty much beating every single without as much as a single drop of sweat. Heck, if blowing at enemies could kill, I bet he'd know how to do that too.

It later turns out that Kirito's main objective was finding and sending to jail a gang of thugs that have been killing other players for their own gain. Kirito is also revealed to be one of the members of the lead group and currently at level 78. Don't think I have to mention what happened to the thugs.


Now, to the little stuff that was mentioned and will hopefully be used more later in the series.

Spoiler: show
Along the way the duo runs into what I understood to be the scum of the MMO: players that kill other players for experience, items etc. The episode brought up a system in the game that goes as follows:

-Normal players have a green cursor above them.
-A player who has committed a crime has an orange cursor above them. This effect is apparently temporary and the cursor turns to green in a few days.
-A player who has killed another player gets a red cursor above their head. Obviously, SAO being SAO, they are murderers in every sense of the word. No idea if the cursor's color changes over time, although I doubt it.

Players can be sent to jail. This was not commented on further, so it might be a temporary punishment or a "you'll stay in SAO forever" -type of deal.

The leader of Team Scum brought up the same argument Dopple shared in a previous post: there's no irrefutable evidence that dying in SAO means you will really die in the real world. Although in this case, it was used as reasoning for why killing other players is no big deal and nothing to lose sleep over.

Whether the criminals are truly evil people or not was also touched upon in a conversation. According to Kirito, many players seem to change personality completely in MMO-games: it's all a game, so why not be the big, bad villain, especially if it's fun?


Now, here are my thoughts on the episode and the mentioned points.

Spoiler: show
1. Little Sister Moe

I'm not a fan of the little sisters in anime. Having three brothers of my own, I fail to see the wonderfulness that anime depicts younger siblings to be 100% of the time. Silica's not a bad character per se - but even she herself has noted that other parties only want her as "a team mascot". This actually bothers her quite a bit from the looks of it.

If the little sister thing wasn't enough, Silica's also involved in far more "potential pantie-shot ahoy!" -scenes than would've been necessary. "DON'T LOOK! SAVE ME, BUT DON'T LOOK!" Yes. Making sure Kirito doesn't see her panties is far more important than her own survival. Right after a scene where she hangs around in her underwear.

I rest my case.

2. Player Killers

Player killers were probably the thing I was expecting in the show the most ever since a friend of mine mentioned that such things exist in the world of MMOs. What kind of effect will there people have on the structure of the game? What about morality?

The thugs in this episode were hardly an example of how player killers work. Getting items, sure, somewhat understandable as a motive. But what about those players (and I'm sure there will be some) who kill other players just for kicks?

"You're level 20, I'm level 50. Bye-bye. "

We shall see.

3. Kirito

What we're seeing of Kirito's moral compass leads me to believe that he'll become a do-gooder to the core - if he hasn't already. He's apparently making his own survival a lower priority than aiding every low-level player he sees.

This reminds me of the guild leader in the previous episode: Kirito himself commented on the guy that with an attitude like his, things at the top could really be shaken up. Saving as many as possible is a positive thing - this is probably somehow connected to the Japanese ideal of the needs of many going before the needs of one.

But did a single player affect Kirito that much? Or can he simply not handle any more people dying on his watch?

4. Villains For Fun

Yes, this happens in real MMOs and RPGs, but I fail to see why anyone would do it for fun in SAO. Let's compare it to the following scenario: it's most unlikely that soldiers in Afghanistan will find a combat situation the best time to RP Solid Snake. Is the uncertainty about dying really all it takes to make you go "I think I'll pretend to be a bad guy"? Or are the inner bullies/psychos of some players emerging at last?


Overall this episode is far lighter than the last one. I'm okay with it, but I still like seeing how the characters act in this most unusual circumstance - the interest is similar to the one I had while watching Battle Royale. The scale is grander and the rules are different, but players are cracking nonetheless.
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Old 07-29-2012, 03:13 AM   #15
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This episode was much better than the last, and as kaisap insinuated it's a setting/set-up episode that explains some of the SAO mechanics. I don't think Talon will care much for that, but it was modestly interesting for me.

While the episode was entertaining on a plot level, for those of us who were lamenting SAO's feeble character development, this episode didn't do anything to absolve those complaints. Kirito's just as incomprehensible as the last time we saw him - he does a random act of charity, but why isn't explained given what we saw in Episode 2, and Episode 3.

This was an OK episode for an introduction chapter, so Silica gets a pass even though she wasn't fleshed out in the slightest. I didn't care for the tentacle fanservice, especially since Kirito just got through saying how she resembled his little sister, then promptly established incest potential by claiming she was actually his cousin. Then we got to the tentacles and him staring at Silica's panties. Not cool man, not cool.

Ratings:

1 - 9/10
2 - 7/10
3 - 3/10
4 - 6/10
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Old 07-29-2012, 03:32 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
This was an OK episode for an introduction chapter, so Silica gets a pass even though she wasn't fleshed out in the slightest. I didn't care for the tentacle fanservice, especially since Kirito just got through saying he she resembled his little sister, then promptly established incest potential by claiming she was actually his cousin. Then we got to the tentacles and him staring at Silica's panties. Not cool man, not cool.
I've actually seen a bunch of couples in anime that are cousins. This is mostly because cousins getting married and having kids isn't illegal in Japan (or where I live either) even if it is uncommon.

What hit me more in that cousin-dialog was
Spoiler: show
the heavily suggested "Kirito was adopted" or that his cousin was. Gotta love NEET-related family drama!


This is probably supposed to count as fleshing out the character, although it's yet another RPG main character stereotype. I'm crossing my fingers this potential good point doesn't fall flat on its face in case writers try to go through where the fence is lowest instead of putting effort into it.
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Old 07-30-2012, 04:56 PM   #17
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Episode 04. Probably the best episode yet. Enough to redeem this series from mediocrity? Sadly, no. But a solid step in the right direction? Maybe. More after the break.

Spoiler: show
Enjoyed this episode quite a bit. Silica was totally charming. They really knocked the imoutokon ball out of the park with this episode. It wasn't offensively loli (despite the fact that a lot of lolikons are hungrily crowning Silica their loli princess, I don't really think of her as "loli," even if she's "the token loli" of a series filled with otherwise non-loli characters). Instead, it was very charming. To make a good comparison, it was like Sunohara's sister Mei in Clannad. To be quite honest, if the OP credits and promotional art didn't make it so clear that Kirito was going to wind up with Asuna, I'd probably be rooting a little for Kirito x Silica right now.

You guys claimed about otaku pandering but I really didn't feel this episode was that tasteless. Pantyshot scenes are ordinarily something I revile but here I couldn't even tell you what her panties looked like. When she got picked up by the tentacle monster she immediately covered them up. When she would fall to the ground and then stick her hands between her legs to cover her crotch, again, it happened all so quickly and thoroughly that you couldn't see anything. The only time I think we ever really saw Silica's undergarments for more than 1 second was when she was in her bedroom preparing to let Kirito in ... and even then it wasn't like a typical panchira flasher scene where they focus on the panties and there's yellow and pink fuzzy baubles glittering in the background and porno jazz playing and some woman making suggestive moaning noises, the kind of crap you often see in trashier series which plug these sorts of panty shots. Here it was a girl just half undressed (for whatever reason) and about to open the door but then realized "oh shit" and put her clothes on first. So like ... what you guys are identifying as tasteless (because it was panty shot humor period), I actually found myself identifying as tasteful (because, amongst panty shot humor scenes in all of anime, this was one of the least obnoxious and most conservative I've seen in a long while). Anyway, yeah. Panty shot crap is dumb but it honestly didn't ruin this episode for me the way it seems to have jeopardized it somewhat for Doppel and even to some extent kaisap.

When they showed the little animal partner dying, I thought, "You have got be kidding me." It was sad ... but it had the potential to have been really sad, gut-wrenchingly sad, with the proper development. I've seen this exact same thing before (*cough**cough*) and done much better. So what gives?, I asked myself. Then they revealed their plans for this episode and all became clear. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! This is going to be all about her getting her animal partner back immediately anyway! His death was just the impetus for Kirito joining Silica. Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii see. "

Spent the next fifteen minutes biting my fingernails wondering whether she'd be able to actually resurrect her animal friend or not. Would she get the flower? or would she be skewered right before Kirito's eyes? It was great to see that she didn't die.

I was surprised by the fact that this story started off in the Level 30s. Weren't we already into the Level 40s last week? , I thought. But then they revealed that Kirito was a front liner who was just down here because ... well, we don't quite 100% yet know why other than the nebulous "because he seems to be a nice guy and because he wants to help protect the weak and guide them safely to the exit." He fights on the front lines because he has to in order to be untouchable, to be one of the most powerful players on the server, but it's not like he considers the front lines his home or like he's rushing to get out of this game. He seems okay with sacrificing time to weaklings at half his level, and it'll be interesting to see more of why as time goes on. Obviously we have last week's episode as a strong supporting column for the answer to that question but it's not enough. You can't just point to last week's episode and say "this is why he's doing this. Survivor's guilt, yo." If you can, if that really is all there is to it, then color me once again unimpressed with the author of these books. ^^;

Episodes 02, 03, and 04 are starting to paint a picture for us of Sword Art Online basically being an anthology of weekly stories that all happen to have Kirito in them somewhere. Episode 02 is more or less "Asuna's First Team Expedition" with Kirito. Episode 03 is more or less "Sachi's Story" with Kirito as a major character in it. And Episode 04 is more or less "Silica's Story" with Kirito as a major character in it. I wouldn't even be surprised at this point if Episode 05 introduces yet another character, yet again without any connection to any of the characters we've previously met other than for Kirito who shows up as this person's guardian angel. It makes for decent television entertainment: not terrible but not great either. To be great, we're going to need to escape this "story of the week" formula and get some real character development going.

While I really liked how Silica felt like her animal partner was a real and true friend, and while the scene where he sacrificed himself for her was really well-executed, tugging at my heartstrings even though we'd only known the little guy for less than five minutes, I do think it's a little silly once you consider that this is a survival game that she and all the others are desperately trying to escape from with their lives and that, once she does, she's never going to see the little dragon tyke again since he's tied to this world. I imagine the author will handwave that concern away ("it's magic! ") and have the animal partner follow her on into the next server and her next set of adventures. But that's assuming she becomes a regular character. Which I'm hoping she will.

Current rankings: 4 > 1 > 3 > 2
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Old 08-05-2012, 10:56 AM   #18
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I liked Episode 05 but it reeked of amateurism.

Spoiler: show
The episode was cleanly divided into two segments - 'character development' and world-building. I use quotes because while SAO is fairly solid at demonstrating the latter, the former is iffy to say the least.

Here, Asuna and Kirito get into a ridiculous argument about NPCs. Um, what? Kirito is feeling moral about beings that aren't even real? A better reason than "NPCs are people too!" must have been left out. I'm struggling to keep my disbelief locked in a closet.

Later (the time jumps are still screwing me up...why not simply say "6 months later" or something?) Asuna rips Kirito then promptly snuggles up next to him, and the rest of the 'character development' involves mixed messages. Asuna offers Kirito a hand-shake, he shakes her hand, then she suddenly remembers men have cooties and wallops him. I'm sorry if I don't find that moe, it seems a tad retarded for my taste. I'm not a fan of stupid girls and that was certainly really stupid.

Kirito's brain is as mysterious to me as a box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes. How did Mr. Kellogg make a snow-flake from corn. Likewise, I don't understand how Kirito goes from "COME AT ME BRO" style loner to sleeping with a girl and hanging out with her guild friends.

Come the mystery of Part II, I couldn't help but suspect Yoruko. Explaining how Sleep PKs work and why someone would have an interest in killing Yoruko's man and herself was good setup (and the only good of this episode), but Kirito and Asuna arranging a meeting with one of the front liner commanders from a huge and powerful guild smelled like she was using them to bait out the guy from protection, so she could murder him.

I didn't expect her to die until she stood by the window. That lowered my expectations a lot...I had felt the author was building tension for a twist, but instead he's having this little mystery play out very predictably (either the weapon-smith is behind it, or his lover is alive and killed him).


5/10 Episode
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Old 08-05-2012, 02:08 PM   #19
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Before Episode 05 came out, people were saying they were praying it would be a two-parter. (They were of course concerned considering that they had also hoped that what ended up becoming Episodes 02 and 03 would have each also been two-parters. ^^; ) From what I gleaned just now from a source (sans spoilers), it sounds like the fans got their wish and this is going to be a two-parter. Thus, I'll be holding off on watching Episode 05 until 06 is out. See you next week!
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Old 08-07-2012, 12:44 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
I liked Episode 05 but it reeked of amateurism.

Spoiler: show
Here, Asuna and Kirito get into a ridiculous argument about NPCs. Um, what? Kirito is feeling moral about beings that aren't even real? A better reason than "NPCs are people too!" must have been left out. I'm struggling to keep my disbelief locked in a closet.
Agreed.

Spoiler: show
I felt the same way about dragonthing in episode 04, but at least the little girl has an excuse by virtue of being innocent and having formed a personal attachment. And Kirito was just being nice because she was a fellow human being who even reminded him of his sister. At the same time, he was manipulating her for his own gain, so we know he can (and perhaps should rightly) be selfish (if he wants to live).

Kirito's creed from the beginning was "I will survive". You'd think he'd be mature enough to recognize where his priorities should lie in order to help himself - not to mention other real people - survive. Like you said, maybe if Kirito had given a stronger speech as to why the villagers shouldn't be sacrificed, his reasoning might've been easier to buy.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
Spoiler: show
Later (the time jumps are still screwing me up...why not simply say "6 months later" or something?) Asuna rips Kirito then promptly snuggles up next to him, and the rest of the 'character development' involves mixed messages. Asuna offers Kirito a hand-shake, he shakes her hand, then she suddenly remembers men have cooties and wallops him. I'm sorry if I don't find that moe, it seems a tad retarded for my taste. I'm not a fan of stupid girls and that was certainly really stupid.
I'm not sure whether you're just being sarcastic and I'm stupidly taking the bait, but female intuition tells me...

Spoiler: show
The reason she let go and punched him wasn't because she suddenly realized "EW BOY GERMS" but because he inadvertently brought up the fact that he saw her in a unattractive compromising position. Girls are weird about being seen when they're not "looking their best" weak defenseless exposed like that especially around guys they like. Don't ask me why.


Just thought I'd offer my view if it helps clear up the craziness of the female mind. XP Unless I'm wrong and you didn't need specification, in which case I'll feel pretty stupid sheepish. ^_^;

It was still a pretty dumb move though, especially given the situation. >_>; On that note...

Spoiler: show
WTH buttservice shot when Kirito's asking a girl about her possible boyfriend's death. =| And again when Asuna was reaching over the table to prevent Kirito from stabbing(?) himself with the same sword that killed the guy. -.- Not cool, man. Save the random fanservice for a less serious scene, please.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
Spoiler: show
Come the mystery of Part II, I couldn't help but suspect Yoruko. Explaining how Sleep PKs work and why someone would have an interest in killing Yoruko's man and herself was good setup (and the only good of this episode), but Kirito and Asuna arranging a meeting with one of the front liner commanders from a huge and powerful guild smelled like she was using them to bait out the guy from protection, so she could murder him.

I didn't expect her to die until she stood by the window. That lowered my expectations a lot...I had felt the author was building tension for a twist, but instead he's having this little mystery play out very predictably (either the weapon-smith is behind it, or his lover is alive and killed him).
I also suspected...

Spoiler: show
Yoruko. But when she went to the window, I immediately thought from the crazy look in her eyes that she'd jump. Which led me to the theory that whoever's killing the players is somehow making them commit suicide - thus exploiting a loophole, Kirito's second possibility. Too bad the knife in her back shot that idea down right away.
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Old 08-09-2012, 05:46 AM   #21
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Just started watching this, not many episodes so I'm caught up already! I like the art. The concept isn't terribly original, but I think the elaboration/feel of the world makes SAO shine a bit more.

Mmm...the series doesn't stand out in any special way to me though, it's just a normal-level Anime so far. Not bad, not terribly good.

I think it has the potential to be good though.
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Old 08-12-2012, 04:50 AM   #22
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Episode 6 would be akin to swallowing several small emeralds, then retrieving them - even if they're gems, they're covered in something nasty.

Spoiler: show
This episode was purely sinusoidal, fluctuating between interesting and retarded. As I suggested early in the show's broad-cast, the interesting part of SAO would be the world logic or game rules/mechanics and how they would be manipulated over time, and how viewers can learn the rules and anticipate things.

The reveal that Yoruko/Kleins were still alive was impressive, it was a twist I liked at how to stage a convincing ploy to weed out the big lieutenant like I figured. But...

Kirito's is a terrible detective. "A ghost wouldn't have a teleport crystal?" How can you rule that out, when a ghost would be a phenomenon with rules you don't understand? Aren't you just dismissing it because you don't want to accept it as a possibility?

And if Asuna could tell Yoruko was still alive through her Friend's list...why didn't she bother to check it earlier??

Did I mention that Asuna's passive-aggressive attitude toward Kirito is starting to get obnoxious? I accepted what LBC said earlier as a possibility for her behaviour (Kirito caught her at a period of vulnerability, and she was conscious of that) but since then she's done the same thing without a hint of what happened the day before. It's really childish, and not even tsundere. She's literally reaching out to him just to pull him close so she can slap him or something. It's not even at the point of "denying feelings violently", it's like a little girl giving a boy in her class a valentine, then going KYAA, COOTIES!

Grimlock's also a moron for standing right there to get caught, then collapsing from a one word accusation by Asuna. Real people aren't so mentally flimsy they'd crumple from something so little, unless Grimlock was incapable of introspection.

The amount of paternalism in this show was blatantly offensive, and the articulated philosophy of love stunted at the elementary school level. Not just what Grimlock said - he's not meant to be the author's voice in this - but Asuna's musings on the role. There's a lot to complain about.

Asuna is basically advocating 100% transparency between married couples, so there aren't any secrets. The two people forfeit all privacy and personalization to be completely consummate with one another. I don't agree with this and I don't think non-amateur writers tend to, either. Strong relationships are built on trust and this kind of "pragmatic solution" obviates the role of trust.

While Grimlock's attitude was definitely meant to be disgusting - he killed (I hope that 'ghost' wasn't a ghost, but was Griselda still living) his wife because she got a little outgoing in SAO (not because she was flirting or anything, no siree bob!) despite having all the "virtuous qualities" he had in a wife. Obedient, loyal, beautiful. You could tell that, even though the author was trying to prop up Grimlock as a monster, that he probably felt that those are the ideal wife qualities in the end.


5/10

-I liked the solutions to the mystery.
-Didn't care for how they were presented
-Didn't care for the characterization.
-Hated the female behaviour dictation
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Old 08-12-2012, 02:58 PM   #23
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Did Kirito really say the line...

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"I'm willing to bet my virginity that it was Grimlock"?
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Old 08-12-2012, 03:19 PM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Char View Post
Did Kirito really say the line...

Spoiler: show
"I'm willing to bet my virginity that it was Grimlock"?
Spoiler: show
Trust me, there are situations and events far worse than that in the light novel
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Old 08-12-2012, 08:14 PM   #25
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I read some of the manga before watching the anime. Watched the anime, moved onto the light novels, and I think (and hope) there are future episodes that'll be of higher quality.

I don't have much to say about Episode 6. I thought it was the worst episode so far. Especially in terms of feel. The buildup in the previous episode was good enough, but the follow-up was lacking.

Spoiler: show
The explanation for the actual "murders," with the teleportation crystals and armor expiring was okay, the solving of the mystery was too unbelievable for me, and whole thing seemed to progress weirdly.

I hated how Grimlock was characterized and how he was caught/how the whole thing ended. Some character development, but I thought it was a messy episode, especially since I want to remain optimistic for this Anime.

3/10. I hope this was just a weak episode (or that I was just imagining things).
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