Okay, so thought I'd finally post some of my thoughts here. I'm up to date in the anime. After episode 13 I decided to go read the novels too, and read all of Fairy Dance, but ended up taking a break after getting a bit bored during the GGO arc.

Now I haven't read the first two Aincard books yet (I do plan to) so I'm basing my judgement on the first 13 eps of the anime + Fairy Dance and the start of Phantom Bullet.

This.

The concept is pretty cool, but like a lot of anime I feel it doesn't quite live up to its potential. There were so many little things that should have been done that the anime glossed over, for example:

One obvious issue (at least for the anime) that I'm sure we can agree on is it kinda skips over a lot of the potential development of the first year. It would have been really interesting to see the transition from playing a game to living it as reality (which you kinda miss anyway because from the start Kirito seems more comfortable doing that then other people). Instead you get a kind of jarring skip from a video game to a fantasy setting and miss out the part in the middle. After the third episode the dark feeling of it being a death game basically disappears, and it's just another fantasy anime.

Kirito's 'beater' status also seems to be glossed over. In the 2nd episode there is this big, overdramatic scene of him coming across as the anti-hero to the other SAO players. But from then on, no one really cares. I think he should have been more isolated from the rest of SAO society - at least for a little while. In fact, the Black Cats of Full Moon arc would have been a good opportunity to show him re-integrating with SAO society.

There were other little psychological effects which could have featured more such as PKers. In the anime they're basically super villains who just go around killing people for fun/greed. But there was a potential to explain it other ways - eg, people who cracked under the stress and couldn't accept a video game was reality.

Another thing I kinda was disappointed by was the fact that after SAO is beaten, everyone seems to forget about it. You'd think some former SAO players would latch onto ALO as well. It should have been a common effect everyone noticed - people who took the game too seriously, didn't take enough risks and treated it like real life. Ie, Lyfa should have straight away guessed Kirito was a former SAO player just from the way he played ALO. The gaming 'culture' within ALO should have been different too - more like a normal game. People in general shouldn't have been treating it like real life, there should have been more trolls, newbies, and generally less of a 'dramatic' and 'series' feel to events in the game.

Another example of this same thing would have been when Suguru and Kirito sparred. As soon as he picks up his bokken, she seems shocked about his stance and how good he is at fighting when her first thought should have been something like "Oh, is he going to try his sword fighting from that game?".

Another thing was how easily Kirito killed his first set of players in ALO. Come on, he's been playing a game for 2 years where killing another player meant literal murder. There should have been something about him having to get over that psychological hurdle.

Suguo and the whole evil corporation using ALO was also done in a very anime-esque fashion. He's such a boring, stereotypical super villain who cackles to himself all day long. He could have been a lot more calculated as befitting his position and plans. The fact his 'researchers' seem to literally take slug-like avatars in the game just seems really juvenile.

And yeah, as I mentioned before GGO completely bored me as an arc (granted I've only read the start so I won't judge the rest of it).

I actually did like the relationship between Kirito and Asuna. It's not often a shounen anime actually has the main love interest *actually* get together. Though should have come later with a bigger build up (more tension to actually get you interested in seeing them together).

The whole thing with Heathcliff was also quite cool.

Most of my annoyances are pretty small things, but I think better focus on the psychological effects and the sociological response of the SAO incident is what would have turned this anime from a stereotypical fantasy into something amazing.

Well, I'll continue reading for now. It seems most people talk up Mother's Rosario a lot. So hopefully that'll get me interested again.

 

How does Kirito just take his sister's sword like that's something that should be possible in a MMO? Also if he had all that money did why didn't he buy decent gear when he had the chance?

 

I don't really remember Kirito taking the sword from his sister in the novel, as he started using two weapons in AO only later in the story. I might be wrong.


I liked the way the newest episode was built, especially rewarding at the ending, although I hoped it would stretch for a few more minutes - then again, this place to cut it is better.


Although I do expect (and part of me dreads it a little) some over-the-top-silly slamming into an invisible ceiling, but we'll see.


Still one of the best stories that have been there even though I did expect some things to be expanded that never got in terms of general story focus.

 

Pretty much skipped around this episode unless Asuna was on screen; I'm really hoping she gets into more trouble before her rescue, and fingers crossed no more weird tentacle rape.

I'm really not too pleased with the second half of this show. The characters have become flat and boring, the bad guy is evil...just because, and there isn't any dramatic tension at all. Sure there are some stakes, but compared to the first half of the show they are such a step down that it doesn't feel as though there is any real threat to the characters at all.

 

They cut my fucking ULULULULULULULULU!

I wanna see the giant elephant-headed jelleyfish!

Tonkiiiiiiiii nooooooooo!

 

That happens every time when someone's diabolical plan is described thus:

"I will marry her against her wishes, and there's nothing you can do!"


I mean, come on, have they heard about a little thing called divorce? Or can't they just use the simple "I'm going to rape her." in place of that bullshit excuse? It's basically the same, but sounds way more serious.

 

I'm pretty sure he's not planning on letting her out of game so she'll eventually die in it. If he does let her out it'll be after screwing with her mind so that she won't divorce him or reveal his plots.

 

This. Did you all miss the part where's he performing large scale experiments on mind rape and memory control?

 

Nah, that was actually one of the times I was paying attention. But like I said, there really isn't any threat towards the main characters at all, or if there actually is then it's presented poorly.

 

I thought his plan was to marry Asuna while she was still catatonic then just torture her until she either broke or Stockholm Syndrome kicked in? Whatever. I'm not sure why I'm still enjoying this - but somehow I am. Fuck.

I agree about the threat level though. I know it's supposed to feel like he's racing against time...but it really doesn't. I think I would enjoy this arc more if Kirito was acting ruthless in his rescue attempt. But I guess he has to be a nice guy doesn't he? Gah.

 

That, and the whole sis-fucking angle that he doesn't know about (yet). How Sugu hasn't connected the dots, urgh. These characters are retarded.

 

Welcome to anime. At least they're not falling on their backs when someone says something ridiculous.

KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

This "sound" is transcripted without change in the English translation of the light novels. I'm not kidding.

 

Besides a big WTF, I am at loss for words for the latest episode.

 

Yeah, I give up.

 

I actually liked this episode. We got to see Kirito is not a uni-dimensional "Must save asuna at all costs", but recognizes that his family has its own importance to him.
On the whole, we see character development from him from completely ignoring his family in earlier episodes to actually caring about his sister, even as he realizes he has no idea how to fix the mess he's in.

 

I was wondering how they'd pull off that last scene, and I was pleasantly surprised. I thought Suguha's voice actor did a really good job there.

In the novels, you kinda get more of her inner thoughts throughout the story - so you know that she's intentionally trying to get over her feelings for her brother, and falls for Kirito. In the anime they didn't do that and condensed it all into that scene, but it actually worked really well. The anime did a better job of getting across Kirito's reaction (complete loss for words) than the novel did.

It's still a bit sad that I think so far, that has been the only scene of the ALO arc I actually thought was good.

 

Spoiler

In my honest opinion, Kirito turning to Gleameyes and going chomp chomp on the Salamanders was a better fight than this one. Here, it was just him getting swarmed by the guardians and dying. Here's hoping the big damn hero entry from the rest of the players are given more than half a minute of showtime.

 

Spoiler

@Tehlaziboi: Yeah, for someone who just came out of a death game, you'd think he wouldn't be so confident to just charge in like that without a care at all for dying. I did like the flashback of stuff from SAO he had when he died. At least it hasn't been *completely* forgotten.

 

Alicization Turning

I just got my copy of Alicization Turning today! I thought I was going to have to wait until mid to late December! Woohoo!