Sword Art Online

[Netto Azure]

Originally Posted by SwiftSign

Just watched :D

I may be being stupid, but what on earth is going to happen in the next episode?

Spoiler:

Since they just beat the game...

It's going to be...

Spoiler:

A new Game called ALfheim Online. Developed 1 year into the SAO incident. Because 300 players are still trapped in there.

Anyways here some preview of the OP/ED

[Pppgggr]

....I watched all 14 episodes of that, and enjoyed it, but DANG did they break the limits they set for their own world. Here're a few issues I had with that series:


If you haven't watched it, PLEASE dont open this spoiler. It's called a spoiler for a reason.

Spoiler:

1.)They claimed that SAO was completely balanced and that nothing unfair would ensue, and then they turned around and gave random players unexplicable advantages, such as Kirito's Dual Blades. Also, if the leader of the Guild was the creator of the game, why would he have cheated during his duel with Kirito? If he wanted everything to be perfectly balanced and fair, then he should have very simply lost the dual.

2.)If the game's creator planned on shutting down that one program that dealt with player sanity, why even create it in the first place? If he had planned that LONG before the game had even reached the Beta stage, then why even create it? And, even if he did have his reasons for creating it/her and locking her from doing anything, then she would have been inable to break out. One thing that needs to be taken into account is that the world they're in is simply a compilation of code. It's not a barrier, it's a set law of the world, and so force of will wouldn't have done anything.

3.)This next one still has to do with force of will. If Kirito died, the game would have instantly told his headset to fry him. Just because he personally doesn't want to, it doesn't mean that the game's programming would bend to his will and allow him to halt the death for a period of time.

4.)When Asuna died, her sword stayed behind. This did not occur on anyone else who died in the series. When they were deleted, so were all of their weapons. It was an occurance that made absolutely no sense.

5.)In the beginning, Kirito expressed that he was a solo player and didn't want to join a guild with anyone, yet later on, he goes ahead and does so for no explainable reason, even after leaving behind both Asuna, and that one guy from the first episode whose name escapes me.

Whoever is writing this series really needs to get everything straight.....When it ended so abruptly in episode 14, I actually thought they were getting horrible ratings and simply had to drop it.

As of now, I'm unsure as to whether or not I'll watch into the next season.....

edit: Replaced 13 with 14. My mind wasnt working.

[jerichob10]

Wow episode 14 was great but...........

Spoiler:

What will happen now that they are in the real world? how will it continue? Will Kirito still be the main character with Asuna? So many questions....

[-Lapras-]

@Pppgggr

1

Spoiler:

they said he got the the dual wield because he has the best reaction time in the game. As for duel thing I have no idea, perhaps he just waned Kirito to be in his crew for a while.

2

Spoiler:

Seemed like it was just a piece of SCIENCE the guy pulled out of his haris tbh. He got rid of it because it meant drama, the whole point of that girl was to bring the two main characters together. And oh, I guess a lot of the fans of this show like little cartoon girls.

3

Spoiler:

THE POWER OF LOVE

4

Spoiler:

I think it said in the book that when a pair marry in the game their items are shared, he probably inherited the sword.

5

Spoiler:

Change of heart. He got lonely and liked those people I guess,

You're right, the writing in this series is bad buuuuut it's a light novel with the purpose of escapism and mindless entertainment.

@jerichob10

Netto answered that just 2 posts before you posted that.

[digi-kun]

1)

Spoiler:

As -Lapras- mentioned, he got Dual Wield for having the best reaction time. The reason this probably isn't a base skill is because Kayaba doesn't want people just rushing to their death because, as per most RPGs, dual wielding usually implies glass cannon.

As for him not just losing the duel, there are probably a couple reasons. First being to keep morale up in the guild. Second to not lose Asuna. Third to gain Kirito. Fourth to maintain the title of "Strongest" so him becoming the final boss mean that much more.

The primary reason was to give Kirito a reason to suspect Heathcliff at the end though. The rest regarding him doing so is mostly my speculation and may or may not be Reki's original intentions.

2)

Spoiler:

Cuz it looks good on paper to the higher ups when he releases the game. Extra safety functions means faster release and less complaining.

Main reason was to get Yui in as Kirito and Asuna's "daughter"

3)

Spoiler:

You're talking about him coming back to stab Heathcliff I assume. Ya, Power of Love is probably the best way to put it, though Cline probably still has that revival item on him as well, so dunno.

4)

Spoiler:

Ya, married = shared inventory. Probably a memento left behind by the system.

5)

Spoiler:

I believe the initial reason was to help them escape and make them more survivable as a group, but he probably warmed up to them at some point

Reki's well aware that there are issues with the SAO story, especially regarding inconsistencies between main story and side stories, since they were written after the fact. I believe I've heard that he plans to go back and rewrite the entire SAO section, but I forget where i heard it and don't have any immediate source at the moment.

[Netto Azure]

Originally Posted by digi-kun

Reki's well aware that there are issues with the SAO story, especially regarding inconsistencies between main story and side stories, since they were written after the fact. I believe I've heard that he plans to go back and rewrite the entire SAO section, but I forget where i heard it and don't have any immediate source at the moment.

I think that's one of the reasons I've been willing to cut the author some slack and defend the series over the past few months during the mass hype backlash, he was pretty straightforward with his acknowledgements of issues and inconsistencies in the story.

And yes, the entire SAO arc is being rewritten under the Banner of "SAO Progressive." It will go floor by floor I believe with the first volume out in 3 days or so. Vol. 1 covers Floors 1-3 If I recall.

So people can truly consider the SAO anime to be literally...SAO Abridged.

[Arcanine]

Since I have a few mins I thought I'd comment on ep 13 and 14 before the new arc starts tomorrow.

Ep 14

Spoiler:

By the looks of it a lot of people hated the first half of the ep. I for one enjoyed it due to the fact that we got to see the side of the game that I know would end up happening... people would try to live out there life there. People find games fun because there's no consequence to losing or dying in the game. Sure you might lose a little money when you respawn, or have to go back to a checkpoint. But if you were thrown into that world how many of us would just quit playing the game (not saying "kill yourself" but do like that old man, just wake up and go fishing every day)? So I for one liked that part of the ep (just like the ep with Liz. If SAO was a normal game I'm sure she could have cleared dungeons and fought powerful monsters for fun. But when she learned she could die she took up crafting and made that her main thing).
Parts of the second half was pretty powerful. When Kirito told Asuna to stay behind and she said she'd kill herself if he died because she had no reason to live. How Kirito was all "She comes first", and so on. Had Asuna not been there Kirito would have died (because the reaper was about to lop his arm off and likely kill him when Asuna showed up). And at the time I thought for sure Kirito was going to have to pick Asuna's life or the life of one (if not both) of his two friends. When the ep ended I thought "WTF? it's over?!!!! But damn... the next ep is going to be one hell of an episode!".

Ep 15

Spoiler:

And then the next ep and 20 seconds in the health bar came up and I was quite ticked because it looked like it was going to be such an awesome battle only to have it happen off air. You'd think I would have gotten used to it by now (since it's happened a time or two) but still it's annoying.
As for Heathcliff, I didn't see that coming, I didn't trust the guy and knew he had something going on back when he fought Kirito, but didn't cross my mind that he made the game. I think Kirito made the right move in fighting him to free everyone (because the way it's been going... they likely wouldn't have made it to the final level). When he was talking to Asuna before the fight I felt for Asuna, because you could see her heart break, she wanted him to win but this was against the person who made it, more so when he requested that she can't kill herself. And when he was talking to everyone before the fight I teared up a little.
I think Asuna breaking the paralysis on her own (unless she used something somehow...), and more so Kirito coming back to life was sort of stupid. Because the show is built on "a realistic fair game" type thing and so them two things are... yea. I know in times of need people can do things they normally can't do if a loved one comes into play. But does this also bleed over into a game (a VR game that reads your mind I might add) built on rules?

Overall I really liked not only the ep but the whole Sword Art Online arc. Can't wait for the next ep to see where they go from here.

[Netto Azure]

Episode 16 Preview

Spoiler:

That's a nice ALfheim Online cover.

So we start with the Egil visit, and then we get the Full-Dive to ALO. Although I am still hoping for some Suguha POV. D:

Still can't wait to see Yui again. :3

[SNOR(es)LAX]

Really love this anime and have been watching non-stop 3 days ago since my friend introduced it to me. (I have school, otherwise I would have watched all 15 released episodes in about 6~7 hours)

My feelings about episode 14 and 15.

Spoiler:

Every episode was really very nice and though I would love to have episode 14 to be a bit longer (especially the fight against that skeleton monster and Healthcliff) I think that that episode was a little weird 'cos Asuna went against the paralysed effect to save Kirito despite it being told as unrecoverable without a potion/orwhateveryoucallthat. I guess its the "power of love" as many shows have and it applies into the gameworld as well.

episode 15

Spoiler:

I really love such episodes in an anime where they focus on the character relationship building and brings the story closer to characters instead of a lot of fighting. I feel that that guy who is going to get engaged to Asuna's a big jerk. All those smelling of her hand and hair is really pissing me off as it is pissing off Kirito. Nevertheless, really looking forward to ALO!

[machomuu]

Episode 16

Spoiler:

I don't know how I feel about Kirito retaining his skills, especially since a death in ALO is supposedly not a death in the real world. He is, again, a demigod, but I don't know exactly how the emotional heartache and impossible obstacles will be presented given the non-permadeath gameplay. Other than that, I was rather satisfied with how they introduced Alfheim, though not much has been revealed about it yet. I'm also glad that Kirito trashed the Beater title, because God knows that name was uncomfortable. Then there's Aura Yui, who, as I suspected, is the new mascot character , which means she'll be both annoying and endearing, much like Teddy from Persona 4 or, in this case, Navi from Ocarina of Time. So, with all of this said, I can't say that I'm not interested to see where they will go with this and where they will go with ALO.

[Broken_Arrow]

so,ots of people kept saying SAO Sao it's a pretty good anime so i decided to read some spoilers and reviews i found out that it's disappointing..tbh i wonder why do you people like it a lot?

[tajaros]

Originally Posted by Broken_Arrow

so,ots of people kept saying SAO Sao it's a pretty good anime so i decided to read some spoilers and reviews i found out that it's disappointing..tbh i wonder why do you people like it a lot?

What? Disappointing?

If you watched you should like it the story is really good.

[Broken_Arrow]

hmmm,what i read and some comments people said about the anime all that made me think it's disappointing to know that about anime which has such fame

[Netto Azure]

Originally Posted by Broken_Arrow

hmmm,what i read and some comments people said about the anime all that made me think it's disappointing to know that about anime which has such fame

You shouldn't let critics dictate your opinion. Try it out and see what you think. If you still don't like it, then it's a difference in taste. No need to torture yourself in wondering why people like it.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Broken_Arrow

hmmm,what i read and some comments people said about the anime all that made me think it's disappointing to know that about anime which has such fame

Well any series is gonna have people who openly dislike it, while you tend to hear less from the fans who enjoy it because they're too busy actually being into it to comment. xD Just because a few reviews or comments say it's bad, that shouldn't reflect your opinion unless the series in general just doesn't look interesting to you. I'm picky about my anime series, but I enjoy SOA, and I'd recommend it. v w v

[J]

i'm pretty sure that there's a bit of a delay between character death and brain frying, since otherwise santa claus's revival item would be useless.

but anyways dudes if you don't like the Power of Friendship and the conjecture that love conquers all, then i suggest you go watch some dark-noir series where everyone dies and does cocaine and dies while doing cocaine and so on and so forth.
or you can just stay in reality; there is nothing more silly than trying to look for reality in fiction.
(while there is such a thing as the willing suspension of disbelief, i don't think it's so serious in SAO)

Originally Posted by Broken_Arrow

so,ots of people kept saying SAO Sao it's a pretty good anime so i decided to read some spoilers and reviews i found out that it's disappointing..tbh i wonder why do you people like it a lot?

so you haven't watched it yourself?
just so you know, by the way, the reviews on ANN are mostly garbage.

Spoiler:

suguha-chwan ´Д`;)ﾊｱﾊｱ

[trapincher]

SAO really "jumped the gun."
If the anime waited till SAO Progressive came out and not just based the Aincrad Arc on the first volume...it would have been a much better anime. The Aincrad arc had too many time gaps.

[SwiftSign]

Originally Posted by trapincher

SAO really "jumped the gun."
If the anime waited till SAO Progressive came out and not just based the Aincrad Arc on the first volume...it would have been a much better anime. The Aincrad arc had too many time gaps.

I kind of liked it like that :/ people were moaning there was too much character building and not enough fightscenes - sure they could have thrown in loads more floors but it would have been mostly unnecessary.

The new ep was cool! Kirito is back to his old look pretty much aha!

[trapincher]

Originally Posted by SwiftSign

I kind of liked it like that :/ people were moaning there was too much character building and not enough fightscenes - sure they could have thrown in loads more floors but it would have been mostly unnecessary.

The new ep was cool! Kirito is back to his old look pretty much aha!

Many people wanted SAO to become a shonen anime or something like that. A MMORPG would make a great setting for a shonen anime. But now that I think of it, it's true that added more floors would be unnecessary. Kirito was already strong in the beginning of the story so there's no point of the added floors. (never thought about that) I guess I wanted more character development for the side characters. (Klein and Agil) I thought they were AWESOME.

I liked Kayaba Akihiko a lot too...haha. He just seemed really cool. (prepares to get bashed)

[machomuu]

Originally Posted by J

but anyways dudes if you don't like the Power of Friendship and the conjecture that love conquers all, then i suggest you go watch some dark-noir series where everyone dies and does cocaine and dies while doing cocaine and so on and so forth.
or you can just stay in reality; there is nothing more silly than trying to look for reality in fiction.

I disagree, I think that looking for reality in fiction makes perfect sense. Things like Eden of the East and Baccano!, to name a couple, are great anime that ground themselves in reality while adding surreal elements without it not making sense. Realism does work to make things more interesting, that's largely why people like a lot of series out there that do so. I've never been a fan of "the power of friendship" or "love conquers all" when used as a character amplifier or an illogical plot point, and it's ruined varipus anime for me (anime that were trying to take themselves seriously). Sometimes it's made them predictable, and other times it is just silly (exempting the cases, such as kids shows, TTGL, and some other shows, where they use the powers of friendship and love as either thematic devices, explained facets of reality, or intentionally illogical powers). However, there are anime that take those themes and use them so that they make sense, such as Angel Beats!, Slayers Next, so on and so forth. Realism can and often does make things better, especially in media. An anime doesn't have to be "uber dark" to be realistic, that would make them far more niche and far less popular. It would alienate age groups, people of various interests and sensitivities, and a bunch of others. All creators of some media, especially those that are surreal, consider how much they want the story to relate to the world we live in, because often times crowds enjoy relatable worlds and relatable characters. Almost all pieced of media, non-fiction or otherwise, use varying degrees of realism. Heck, if there were no realism in anime...nay, in fiction (which is incredibly open-ended), you would see far less people reading books, watching TV, and getting into the jobs that create the aforementioned. Friendship and love can be used in logical manners in anime, in realistic manners that help to drive the surrealism of the media.

Sword Art Online and Dot Hack actually give tribute to that, and they use friendship and love as emotional strength rather than deus ex machina that gives them super strength (save for one, technically two moments in SAO). The real people are the characters, and thus when emotions are involved, its used in a logical sense rather than as a superpower. For instance, the avatars in Dot Hack GU are driven by the thought processes of the user. Emotions aren't simply the matter of the heart, they are also the matter of the mind and the body. When a user feels angry, it's only natural that the avatar will reflect that, even if it is inadvertent. If the user wants to protect something they love, it's only natural that the avatar will act more desperate and less cautious, that's how people are in real life. You can't not have realism in fiction (especially SAO and DH, which are both MMOs meant to be grounded in reality), because then you not only lose logic, but you also exempt incredible amounts of people from being immersed in the work.

Regarding the newest episode, there were some things I found to be odd.

Spoiler:

The things are actually quite small, and they're not really spoilers either, but here they are. The first is a little stupid on Oberon's part, is that he says that Kirito was weak in SAO, and it was surprised that he was the one that cleared it; reason being, Kirito was a beater, and not only that, but he also had an incredibly high level, very high speed and strength stats, and to top it all off, he could dual wield thanks to his reaction time (which is important, since the skill was created for the one who would supposedly win the game. Though, this scene was simply meant to further drive that Oberon is indeed a bad guy with bad intentions (and the little happening at the end of the scene), and regardless it's not important anyway.
The second of the strange things I noticed is, again, minute. When Leafa steps on Recon's foot, he seems to be in pain for several moments. Though, people in both SAO and ALO have often been seen reacting to what would normally inflict pain, and this is either due to natural reactions caused by the brain to simulate the pain (though this is unlikely, as Oberon later says that, even in ALO, pain a cannot be felt), or due to stimulus, roleplaying, or mere slapstick for the sake of the show. It's again, inconsequential and isn't meant to be taken seriously.
There were probably others, but they were too small to really remember.

Other than that, this episode wasn't bad. There was a lot more fanservice than I was expecting (seriously, it had more fanservice in one episode than the show's had in 16 episodes). It did more to flesh out ALO and help us better understand the world, which is always good.

[J]

Originally Posted by machomuu

something

you're not interpreting my statement correctly: i grant that some realism is a crucial element in fiction in certain dosages-- since i don't want everything to be alice in wonderland or finnegans freaking wake-- but what i was speaking out against was the kind of finickyness that has people going all "GOSH giga drill breaker is such a dumb move because angular momentum isn't conserved AT ALL" or whatever. in this context i meant that if you want fiction to mirror reality totally, then there's no point in fiction. i did mention the willing suspension of disbelief, right?

but anyways, for the sake of staying on topic and circumventing one more wall of text--
lizbeth and silica are such great characters and i find it mighty sad that they only appear like one (point one five) episodes each. and then agil and good ol' klein are forgotten also

:(( <-- me sad

for anyone seeing big gaping inconsistencies in plot, i recommend the novels since anime adaptations usually compromise details for time limitations.

[machomuu]

Originally Posted by J

you're not interpreting my statement correctly: i grant that some realism is a crucial element in fiction in certain dosages-- since i don't want everything to be alice in wonderland or finnegans freaking wake-- but what i was speaking out against was the kind of finickyness that has people going all "GOSH giga drill breaker is such a dumb move because angular momentum isn't conserved AT ALL" or whatever. in this context i meant that if you want fiction to mirror reality totally, then there's no point in fiction. i did mention the willing suspension of disbelief, right?

Ah, in that case I completely agree with you. I did misunderstand what you were saying, sorry about that. -_-'

Also, for those of you who are interested, I've uploaded what seems to be the only remaining Japanese Crossing Field video (the theme to SAO) to Youtube. I've added the terms of use and it's unlisted (and on an unrelated note, it's in HD), so it should stay up there for a while. Enjoy.

[SwiftSign]

Almost inactive for a month! D:

Anyone keeping up?

I've been reading so many forums of complaining tweens recently who have been ripping SAO apart. Moaning that it is either too into fanservice or there isn't enough action.

Personally, I barely notice fanservice - most anime have it to some degree and it doesn't take over SAO. With the action it's pretty much the perfect amount, some fighting each episode but not dragged out battles ala Bleach/Naruto/etc.

And this last episode was awesome!

Spoiler:

Kirito got so closeeee! ><

[J]

i must say i liked kirito better when he was an angsty-seclusive hero, as opposed to his current aloof, leap-before-you-look type of hero.
for this reason, i wish they did more episodes in aincrad

[ZetaZaku]

Since it's almost over, they should pick up the pace. Absolutely nothing important happened in the recent episode and everything seemed as dragged on, except the end of the episode. There are more important stuff than Kirito raging and trying to beat what teams of strong player couldn't beat before. Thus the whole middle 10minutes ended up being a waste. If he and his sister tackled the dungeon together, he'd win for sure. I suppose that will actually happen in the next episode.