Why? Why can’t the guy I call ‘oniichan’ just return my feelings?
• I like how Nagata runs into Sugu at school just to tell her about plans they might have in Alfheim Online. Despite all the futuristic wankery in anime, few shows seem to employ the use of instant messaging. So when a show like Durarara! actually shows young people talking to each other over the Internet, it blows people’s minds.
• Girl, what an interesting fashion choice! A pink sports bra with red stripes and ruby trims? Bold!
Why am I focusing on her attire, you ask? ‘Cause if you so much as point out how A-1 Pictures is lingeringly panning the camera across a middle schooler’s body, it’s obvious that you are the pervert, not the show! On the other hand, the director isn’t a pervert at all! He’s just a big fan of the young, developing girls having proper support as they mature into women! If a pair of breasts just happens to appear onscreen, why, this is just inadvertent!
• Just like it was in Sword Art Online, Kirito can’t ask any hot babes for help without having to fight off her baggage. According to this anime, no woman online can come and go as she pleases.
• These fictional MMOs are weird, man. I’ve never played an MMO where my group would span across multiple play sessions, and if I so much as decide to do something else on my own, the group members bitch and moan. Perhaps the show means she’s in a guild, and the guild has scheduled events (e.g. raids), but the characters clearly call it a party so whatever.
• Nothing you would ever hear coming out of Kirito’s mouth: “Maybe I’ll just let my friend handle her affairs. After all, it’s none of my business, she hasn’t asked for my help, and she looks like she’s capable of doing it herself.” Instead, he saunters forth coolly like a badass butts in and tells off Leafa’s party leader. And of course, now Sigurd wants to fight Kirito:
Who knows if Leafa could’ve just walked away from this incident without any trouble, but we gotta let a man handle this!
• Recon runs all the way up the tower to whine about how Leafa didn’t say goodbye to him before leaving. Again, do these games not have /tells or instant messaging of some sort? Herp derp, I’ll literally run up a tower just to talk to someone. Also, it’s hilarious that he acts as though she’s going to be gone for some extended length of time. You dash through an airport to say your goodbyes to a lover. Or maybe a train station. In an MMO though? Especially when the guy can just talk to her at school the next day? The trope thus makes no sense.
What gets me about the show is how it claims to be about MMOs and virtual reality in general, but there are just so many small immersion-breaking moments. The end result doesn’t feel all that much like you’re watching people playing some high-tech MMO. Instead of strapping on a NerveGear headset, Kirito could’ve simply stepped into a wardrobe and you wouldn’t have to change much about the setting to accommodate this.
• YOU HAVE MY SWORD!
Nice sword, bro.
• I’m sure A-1 Pictures must love these flying scenes ’cause all the characters literally do is turn horizontal and zip across the background. They don’t move a single limb or even so much as twitch their wings.
• Upon learning that Recon knows Leafa in real life, Kirito goes, “I was just a little jealous.” That’s an appropriate thought to have as you embark on your trip to save your e-waifu within a week or she gets NTR’d.
• Speaking of NTR, we come back to the Fairy Queen trying his damndest to convince AsunaTitania that they should virtual fuck. AsunaTitania, however, assures our skeevy villain that Kirito will eventually rescue her. In a video game. ‘Cause that’s how you do it if your mind is trapped in a game. The mechanism that’s keeping AsunaTitania from logging out is literally within the game. Yep.
• Kirito remarks that it’s only 7PM in the real world, so he can keep going for a bit more. I wonder how Sugu’s mom must feel when she comes home at night and finds both her daughter and her nephew just laying there catatonically on their beds.
• Why don’t these guys just log out? I don’t understand why they have to take turns “resting” and guarding each other.
• My, what a nice ergonomic shower head they have!
What a splendid design. I’m pleased to see that the director of the show isn’t just a fan of properly-fitting and stylish sports bras, but an avid enthusiast of bath products as well! He even features a magnificent shower head like that front and center for us all to see. I must simply applaud this directorial masterpiece!
• Sugu’s excited, guys.
• “It’s not like I love you or anything, Kirito! I-I just think about you as I sit here in the nude with a shower head.”
• So even though Yui calls Kirito her father, Leafa decides to ask the pixie whether or not the kid likes her own goddamn father. Well, I guess in her mind, it’s no big deal.
• Gee, what tracer should we pick to tail our targets through a lush green forest? I know, a black bat with red glowing eyes!
• And then the episode just ends like that. It doesn’t feel as we’ve actually gotten anywhere.
You should join us (us being Click, Flawfinder, Myst and Marow) for our SAO watches, I’m just saying.
But yes! Way to have a nice ~parallel~ of Episode 10 with the whole “Women are My Property; A Guide to Guilds” thing. Also, I wonder if Kirito has gone into Imouto’s room and has looked at that poster of a very familiar-looking fairy on her ceiling. We just don’t know.
I think every time he would get close to her doorway he’d find her in her underthings, he’d get embarrassed, she’d just get flustered, and then she’d throw a pillow at his face.
It’s Imouto law.
They’d then proceed to have a cutesy pillow fight which only results in more blushing and awkwardness.
….yeah, it’s best if he didn’t walk in there.
You guys watch it over Skype or something?
Naw, I’m sure it’s totally hazukashii~ to go into the opposite sex’s room.
Yeah, usually after it simulcast airs on Crunchyroll or something.
But Imouto has already done the forbidden act and has slept with her brother!!! Who’s to say Kirito wouldn’t do the same thing to make Imouto join his Harem group….
Oh, I don’t have a Crunchyroll account.
That depends on whether or not Kirito has buckets of semen left to gush out.
I kind of amused by how Mr. Skeevy doesn’t even bother to take ten seconds to look for a character named ‘Kirito’. Like, it would take less time than bragging to Asuna about Kirito’s weakness, and banning him (legitimately since he’s a cheater!) would mind break her further.
Overconfident, I guess.
looks like our titania is smart becouse in this episode she seen the code he was typed in the keyboard by look at the mirror and now she remember it my guess she will try to break out soon
No way, man. She just likes to memorize codes for fun.
Dropped this. I guess the thrill of saving people from getting brainwashed into NPC’s ain’t a thrill when we got useless shtick coming for them.
B-b-but there are just six episodes left or something!
Yeah, but we all know what’s gonna happen anyway even without even trying!
I keep thinking this ended and then I’m weirded out when evidence that it is still airing appears.
This train ain’t never stoppin’.
Oh jeez, this show. I cracked up at that part about the director’s love of bath products. The villain is seeming less cartoonishly evil and more cartoonishly stupid as of late. Seriously, the guy is just incompetent.
This cartoonish villain is beyond incompetent, trust me.
Well, when the hero’s stupid, the villain has to be even dumber for the hero to win.
the only reason i watch this arc is becouse of the end of this arc it going to be the best ending
~Recon’s sword. Wow. First thing I thought was that he was dual wielding – not that it makes much sense even then – then I saw he only has a single scabbard. Why would he use a kitchen knife?
They have to watch over each other because of the big death penalty. Characters lingering in the world for 20+ minutes after logout is absurdly long: EvE has, IIRC, 5 minutes, and it teleports you in a random direction.
Sugu should be really creeped out after hearing the pixie’s response (“He called me his daughter” or something along those lines), especially after learning who Kirito is. She probably won’t be, though. This is SAO after all.
I knew about the death penalty (horrible game design, by the way), but I didn’t know about your character lingering in-game for 20 fucking minutes after you log out (incredibly horrible game design).
Not being a novel reader, I didn’t know about it as well. It is incredibly common in games though, and it’s what we were shown in the episode. 20 minutes (and for what we know, probably more, since imouto came back before being removed from the world) is indeed ridiculously long. I guess this is the kind of game design you’d be allowed to do when you’re the only game on the market, kinda like how different Ultima Online is from the MMOs that followed.
I play a lot of MMOs and I’ve never seen it. I guess you mentioned Eve Online, but you’d never get me to touch that asteroid mining simulator.
Come to think of it, does their mother even live with them?
I… can’t… recall anything from the light novel.
But that’s the only explanation why they are allowed to play this damn VR game! Instead of doing their homework, and in case of Gary Stu, catch up on his schooling which has been stalled for two years,
>_>
You read the light novels? /squint
People in MyAnimeList keep saying:
“The novel is better! It’s really good!”
“The next arc’s better!”
You could say that I got tricked.
Hahaha. <– dry laugh
Are there good reviews on MAL or something?
In the early episodes, the reviews are freaking good. They are all written by the novel readers, and they give this series 9/10 and 10/10, encouraging people to read the novels too. Thankfully the top spots have been taken by people who actually have brains, recently.
Oh well. My first five posts for the anime started off pretty hopeful anyway. I think I finally said, “Fuck it,” when Lisbeth showed up.
Poor Recon, he gets abused by the girl he likes and only gets a kitchen knife in the game. He’s probably the party’s chef.
Hey, depending on the MMO, you can make sick money as a che-… wait, no. :I
Honestly i thought that Asuna was just going to sit there fantasizing about Kirito and NOT use the mirror to see what the gate code was.