Gun Gale Online/Sword Art Online II

Just finished episode 2!

I should really finish SAO first. Its so addicting to watch! Been watching all day today! I love you KIRITOOOOOOOO!!
Has anyone been keeping up to date ? Kirito finally entered GGO! He really should tell Shinon he/she's a boy lol.
i really like this seris so far its really good and im glad thier is a topic for this
(Jul. 30, 2014  2:23 PM)Ryûzaki Wrote: Has anyone been keeping up to date ? Kirito finally entered GGO! He really should tell Shinon he/she's a boy lol.
wait,Shinon doesen't know?
(Jul. 31, 2014  12:41 PM)Shido-kun Wrote:
(Jul. 30, 2014  2:23 PM)Ryûzaki Wrote: Has anyone been keeping up to date ? Kirito finally entered GGO! He really should tell Shinon he/she's a boy lol.
wait,Shinon doesen't know?

As of the latest episode, no. Lol, it's kinda funny, though.
LOL, yeah, Kirito even acted like one. I thought I was gonna die laughing. XD
Here is my problem with SAO - after its first quarter, it went to sh!t, but it has the best first quarter of any anime I have seen in a while.

WARNING: Spoilers and rant ahead.

SAO starts off with this awesome take on the VRMMO genre we saw in .hack, but instead of applying the mental trauma of being stuck in a virtual world to a sole mysterious individual, we are told that EVERYBODY in the world is stuck. And as the viewer, our only lens into viewing the damage being done to these people by this game, is Kirito. He is relatable, bad@$$, and his interactions with people in the world were interesting.

That premise is the entire first quarter of SAO, and there it succeeds in strides. Between beautiful animation, and music from my favorite composer (YUKI KAJURA is my heroine), it started off really well.

Now, a lot of people complained that Asuna was given the short end of the stick mid series when she was reduced to a standard female character, but I didnt mind a lot of those episodes. I am a bit of a sucker for good romance, and the characters were sweet together. And despite what some may think, those episodes of them together, not doing any real fighting, was all part of the psyche-aspect of the show. We are shown that even in a situation as grim as the one our characters face, after 2 years, it is possible to find a way to adapt and be happy. And Asuna hadn't lost any of her amazing fighting abilities or resolve (at this point anyway).

....Okay. All good.
Then Yui happened. Tired

In a show about "Virtual Reality", most viewers will wonder about the possibilities of a VRMMO in our own reality. I can't say I would call the show "realistic" but the show was at most times, believable, and it immersed me personally as someone who was drawn to this setting and situation the characters found themselves in. But once Yue was introduced, that level of believably I had completely broke down. Until her introduction, the show was pretty well grounded to real people (minus all the ladies wanting the D from Kirito). But Yue was an unexplained phenomenon that was completely unrealistic. If the creators wanted to make a point and have a character who was a computer program with human-like feelings, that should have been its own story arc....hell, it should have been a different anime. In SAO it simply did not fit at all. It felt damn near like a fan fiction.

The anime went on, almost returning to the type of show it used to be, and then pulled the rushed "conclusion" mid season. I wont harp on this too much, because if the creators felt like they explored all they wanted to in this world, then fine. But I personally felt they could have gone a bit further into the world. And the way the show went about the "shortcut" to the end felt bumpy and awkward....

What really lost me as a viewer was the second half of the first season. Kirito was splashed into a new VR world with no sense of urgency, on top of taking itself too seriously to boot. With the perma-death factor removed, all the stuff Kirito did to help Leifa didn't even matter, and was actually a waste of his time. He was trying to save Asuna (who is no longer the strong female character we knew, and that is a damn shame) and yet he preoccupied his time helping out his new friends with make-believe guilds that affected nothing in the outside world.

And while I didnt have a problem with it, I still feel like his sisters "story arc" could have been used for something else...I really didnt care about how much she wanted her brother sexually, and it continued to make me feel like I was watching amateur animated fan fiction.

But what really bothers me is that Kirito had almost no evident psychological damage from his experiences in SAO in the second half. he was going through physical therapy sure, but the show was definitely ignoring a certain elephant in the room, and that elephant should have been named "understandable-psychological-trauma." Cosndiering this was a show that started with the psyche of a player, I don't think I can ever forgive SAO for glancing over this chance to go deeper, as a viewer anyway/.

Now we are here at SAO II, in the GGO arc; an arc that was given awesome amounts of praise in the graphic novels, mainly because of the new female character, Sinon, and her own psychological problems related to gaming in a VRMMO. I like SAO II so far, except for one thing; Kirito. Why is he even in this story? Why are people looking to him to solve these problems that have nothing to do with him? Just because he beat SAO and shut down ALO? Just because he was the main character before so he still needs to be? Thats a horrible premise, and it takes away from the potential the other new characters may have. Sinon clearly has a story of her own, but that might get cut short or not given enough time to take effect because Kirito is getting screen time as well. What makes things worse is that the show is now self aware that girls love Kirito in an unnatural way. And it seems that the solution the writers came up with was to make him look EXACTLY like a girl. That...that isnt how you solve that type of problem. All that tells me is that the writers must have felt that if Sinon knew Kirito was a boy, she would fall for him as well, which also tells me that the people writing SAO must think very low of women who are near men. Even if this isnt the intention, this is what is being presented to us.

Now to be fair, I am happy with the way things are progressing in SAO II so far. Everything is very to the point (unlike ALO), Kirito didn't hide the fact that he was a guy for very long (thank the gods), and Sinon is the most compelling character this show has ever seen. And one thing that happened in that last episode made me very happy....the fact that Death Gun knew the name "Kirito". Kirito should be internet famous, a legend by now. I was surprised no one knew him in ALO and was starting to get worried that there was zero consistency in the show, like nothing that happened before mattered....Im happy I was wrong there at least for this new season, and I am hoping that his "publicity" will effect his status in GGO.




Anyway that's my rant/2 cents........So ya Smile
That is one of the best reviews I've seen in awhile, hah. I agree with most of the stuff you said. I didn't like the 2nd arc in SAO at all. It did turn all perverted during the last couple of episodes as well.

I think they had to keep Kirito in SAO II for the fanbase and worries they wouldn't get a lot of views.
Thank you Grin

The only thing I can credit SAO's ALO arc with was an interesting villain, and for having the guts to go through the creepy sexual parts that most anime's would have kept as a simple undertone. What I can't ever give them credit for was his "master plan" of brainwashing people. It felt so out of place, like the writers gave him an evil plan just to further justify kicking the carp out of him in the end.

The ending scene of them fighting in the hospital parking lot was the only high point of that story arc for me. It had a lot going for it. Unfortunately for SAO's ALO arc, it's all about the journey, and while the destination(fight at the hospital) was great, oh man that journey.....was....errrr....
I think they tried out some Ecchi with that lol. Do you remember gose tentacle monsters? Yeah, just creepy. At least they had the guts like you said. Most Animes avoid it.

I loved the parking lot scene. It was the best In SAO AOL imo.
I wouldn't say most....but actually I had forgotten about that tentacle scene, which was actually pretty weird and almost makes me regret saying what I did about the sexual stuff...to clarify the only sexual stuff that had merit was when Asuna was being held captive and Kirito was losing.

But hey...after all the shows I have seen, SAO's fanservice was comparatively tame and I am rather numb to it now. However, SAO had some fanservicy-bits get a little out hand and were very cliche and unnecessary, like the tentacle one, which didn't even make sense relative to the game they were playing...
Just started watching this,pretty interesting.
What is Gun Gale and where can I see SAO 2?
You can watch the entire series on Crunchyroll.
Is Crunchy Roll a site?
Yep. One of the better Anime sites out there.

I'm waiting for SAO Vol 13. to be fully translated, anyone know where?
crunchyroll is a website where you can watch almost any anime with proffesional subtitles in 1080p. It is als one of the few sites where this type of viewing is legal, unlike a site such as gogoanime for example. Paying a monthly fee gives you premium access,which means you can watch shows in full subtitles the day it is released in Japan. yes it is easier to use a third party site but you will be subject to variations in quality and fan subs. Crunchyroll, premium user or not, benifits the show makers and ensures everything is legal.[/u]
About to start the first episode after this post. I'm praying to the old gods and the new that it'll be better than the ALO arc, which just plagues the series in my opinion.
(Aug. 06, 2014  7:41 AM)Zancrow Wrote: About to start the first episode after this post. I'm praying to the old gods and the new that it'll be better than the ALO arc, which just plagues the series in my opinion.

IMO, Gun Gale Online is much better right now then ALO.

I think I know who Death Gun might be! XD I'll wait to see if I am.
(Aug. 06, 2014  7:41 AM)Zancrow Wrote: About to start the first episode after this post. I'm praying to the old gods and the new that it'll be better than the ALO arc, which just plagues the series in my opinion.

Go to the last page. find my really long post. TL;DR the answer is yes. But it still has flaws.
See that? Good job episode 6. Beautiful work utilizing psychological trama.

Double posts are bad....I am an older member now I know...but to make up for it, how about a Crunchyroll guest pass? First come first serve Smile Use this to watch the new SAO episode normally available only to premium users.

FMWUBF8ZGFA
http://www.crunchyroll.com/guest_pass
Jusy saw episode six. My question: Why was Kirito scared if he didn't believe in Death Gun? I feel like this episode was slow. Hopefully things speed up next one.
Gonna have to completely disagree.

Kirito didn't believe that killing people within a game that wasn't SAO was possible. But he knew the character of Death Gun was real, and that something bad was going on. So thats why he is in GGO; to discover the real connection

You missed the point it seems; Kirito was scared because of what he had to do back in SAO; Laughing Coffin members nearly killed him and his friends numerous times over the course of 2 hellish years, and he took the lives of 3 people (that we know of) in the process. That's some heavy stuff for just a teenager to deal with.

(Aug. 11, 2014  12:53 PM)LeonTempest Wrote: Gonna have to completely disagree.

Kirito didn't believe that killing people within a game that wasn't SAO was possible. But he knew the character of Death Gun was real, and that something bad was going on. So thats why he is in GGO; to discover the real connection

You missed the point it seems; Kirito was scared because of what he had to do back in SAO; Laughing Coffin members nearly killed him and his friends numerous times over the course of 2 hellish years, and he took the lives of 3 people (that we know of) in the process. That's some heavy stuff for just a teenager to deal with.

I completely understood those points. Meh, maybe your right. Guess I missed that.