I starting watching anime again, i saw sword art online
Sword art online was surprisingly good, i didnt like it at first because it felt like they forced tension with how dieing in the game would cause the person to die in real life, but the show didnt really focus on that so it was much better then i thought I especially liked the non-twist It doesnt change my top 10 list though The series was really poorly paced out, the first 2/3rds of the series takes place over about 2 years, and the last 3rd takes place over 7 days, theres huge times skips during the 2 years, and a ton of stuff crammed into those 7 days, it was the weirdest pacing of any anime ive ever seen
The story in sword art online is good, overall i liked the series, i just think it would better if they split the series into 2 seasons, have the part where they play sword art online in 1 season and the part where they play ALO in a 2nd season, then the first season wouldnt have tons of time skips, and the 2nd season wouldnt be crammed full of stuff My 1 major complaint about sword art online, from a story perspective, is
Spoiler:
When they play Alfheim online, his sister happens to be the first person he meets in the game, wtf kind of coincidence is that, i wouldve just thought that he started in the same area as his sister due to a bug, which could make sense, but they specifically said that the location data from the last time he played sword art online was used is why he was there, which does is fine, but not when he just happens to meet his sister there because not only was his sister the first person he met but she happened to be in the same place he logged out, 2 huge coincidences together for plot convenience, which i hate
And there will probably be a 2nd season of it, since the anime is only about half of the manga, so i dont see why they didnt split it up more
i love stories about digital worlds and their exploits. i think its really interesting how people are kinda just becoming done with this world and seeking refuge in other places where they get to be the hero. then add an element of fiction and suddenly you have earth 2.0. so basically what i'm saying is, yeah i'm torrenting sword art online now.
also, for those who like meta worlds, i would recommend a book called "Ready Player One." its a book about a dystopian future that paints a kinda scary picture about a culture that's really into a game. the game is a semi-real life simulation of millions of different worlds. the game's creator has hidden an easter-egg into the game and its inhabitants have been racing for 5 years to find it. the book has a good premise and starts out strong but loses momentum by not handling the repetition of its elements well. it goes from being a good book to a really fun book, but still worth reading if that's what you want
Im surprised you didnt already see it, hlw mentioned it a while ago, back in november Since you like .hack i figured you wouldve watched it back then But yeah, its a lot like .hack, youll see what i was talking about with the tension thing
Also theres an anime that takes place over the course of many decades, you see the technology of the world in the anime evolve over the years, and technology gets so advanced that theres a virtual world as real as real life, they actually call real life "1.0" and the new virtual world "2.0" Im reluctant to recommend it though because that isnt the focus of the anime and has almost nothing to do with the plot of the anime, and the stuff that the anime does focus on is really weird The only reason i bring it up is because what you said reminded me of it, especially the earth 2.0 part
Last edited by Pat1487 on Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:13 pm; edited 3 times in total (Reason for editing : Added in relevant posts from the top 10 anime topic in quotes since that topic is such a mess we couldnt just move them over here normally)
Serenity09 Moderator
Subject: Sword Art Online Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:40 pm
Sword Art Online overall 7.5 / 10 (if i was rating season 1 alone, 8.5 / 10) Sword Art Online (SAO) is a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), released in 2022. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. On November 6, 2022, the players log in for the first time, and later discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Akihiko Kayaba, SAO's creator, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world.
Spoiler:
so there are a few things that I really liked about the show. people die, which is great. there's a romance that's a lil weird but not weird as fuck (which is above par for anime). the villain isn't pure evil and you could argue that he isn't evil at all. my favorite part of the show is that they have the final boss fight early. i wasn't surprised with who it was but i was surprised that it ended there (in a good way).
the pacing of the show is interesting but a bit weird. the first season skips around in time very liberally while the second takes place in like a week.
the second season was set in a different VR world that was based off of the original (just minus the whole death thing). the idea of "what would a VR world look like after the events of <season 1>" is a pretty cool premise... unfortunately the plot and writing for it sucked massively and the entire second season was a waste of time.
Sword Art Online overall 7.5 / 10 (if i was rating season 1 alone, 8.5 / 10) Sword Art Online (SAO) is a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), released in 2022. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. On November 6, 2022, the players log in for the first time, and later discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Akihiko Kayaba, SAO's creator, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world.
Spoiler:
so there are a few things that I really liked about the show. people die, which is great. there's a romance that's a lil weird but not weird as fuck (which is above par for anime). the villain isn't pure evil and you could argue that he isn't evil at all. my favorite part of the show is that they have the final boss fight early. i wasn't surprised with who it was but i was surprised that it ended there (in a good way).
the pacing of the show is interesting but a bit weird. the first season skips around in time very liberally while the second takes place in like a week.
the second season was set in a different VR world that was based off of the original (just minus the whole death thing). the idea of "what would a VR world look like after the events of <season 1>" is a pretty cool premise... unfortunately the plot and writing for it sucked massively and the entire second season was a waste of time.
SAO only had 1 season, its just that it feels like 2 seasons since it changes mid way through I thought i made a post on this already, but i think it wouldve been better if each part had its own season Like if the first half had 25 episodes so the pacing wasnt so jumpy and if the 2nd half had its own 13 episode season (since it takes place of too short of a time span to have 25 episodes)
I also liked this anime, mainly just the first half, the 2nd half felt too contrived and i didnt really like it, and i hated what they did with asuna during that part I only have 1 major complaint about the first half
Spoiler:
In one of the episodes kirito was helping a girl revive her pet by getting an item and these other players attacked him (i think im remembering this right) He just stood there and took the damage and they were all surprised that he was fine, and he said he had battle regeneration and that the damage he was taking just healed since they did so little to him, they even showed his life bar healing after each hit
That ability is never mentioned again, like when he was poisoned much later youd think that the poison damage would be offset by his passive healing skill but no Healing abilities like that would be ridiculously useful in a situation like that so youd think that everyone that could have a skill like that would put most of their skill points into it, yet battle regen or any skill similar to it is never mentioned other then that 1 time, if they never mentioned it at all it would be fine since such skills just arent in the game, but since the shows says it exists the fact that apparently no one uses it really bothers me
I dont know about you guys, but if something like that happened to me, i would take nothing but tank/healing/dodge skills and pretend to not be a tank when in a group
There should be a second season coming out theres 2 more games in the manga
As pat guessed, SAO will be getting a 2nd season. it'll start airing in July
SAO (novel) is halfway through it's fourth arc. season 1 covered the first two arcs. I haven't read the books so I don't know how this season will be. i'm hoping it will be like the first half of season 1
I do know a few things about the basic premise: The new game is gun focused, but good ol kirito keeps it real with swords Asuna is a secondary character this time around
Im guessing that season 2 will focus on the gun game arc and not touch on the 4th game in the 4th arc since its not done yet At least thats what i hope they do so that the pacing isnt like it was in season 1
And i cant believe the 4th arc is still going, it was going 2 years ago when the first season came out, its also where the idea for accel world came from so you would think it would be over by now
Pat1487 Moderator
Subject: Re: Sword Art Online Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:57 pm
Season 2 has begun and is 2 episodes in already
OP:
Just a warning, be prepared for an abrupt start, you may want to turn your sound down a bit
Its not bad so far, the 2nd ep was a bit disappointing to me though as it wasnt focused on what i wanted to see
Kirito's GGO avatar looks like a girl in the OP, it took me a bit to realize that must be him in GGO, i cant actually tell if he picked a female avatar or if its a male avatar with long hair that just looks like a girl, either way it doesnt seem like something kirito would pick for himself
Spoiler:
Asuna's ALO avatar isnt what i expected either, its weird to see her without her red hair, it would be like if kirito didnt have black hair
Im not sure what to make of Sinon yet, an episode like episode 2 wouldve been better had we known more about sinon first, it ends up feeling like filler with the way they did it
Serenity09 Moderator
Subject: Re: Sword Art Online Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:56 pm
i thought this season ended up pretty silly but had some good points. i also realized that i forgot the golden rule of anime: dont question anime. you didnt help my decline into seriousness since youre always willing to take my ridiculous arguments and help make them more ridiculous. anyways
Spoiler:
i thought the season was okay. like pretty good action, solid animation, passable plot the only real problem i had with it was really whats-his-name at the end. for most of the show his character is plain. makes white look off-white plain. then at the end he fucking just transforms into the exact same villain as last season. like same exact creepy licking manerisms, really wants to violate a girl that he has some unfair advantage over, and also, btw, froths at the mouth. and it's just completely out of nowhere. then they do his motivation and it's just not entirely all there. im tempted to read the light novel (but i never will) to see if its the same in that
Pat1487 Moderator
Subject: Re: Sword Art Online Thu Oct 09, 2014 2:48 pm
I agree with you here
Spoiler:
When deathgun had the same gun that sinon used i was like, come on thats way too coincidental even for anime, so i thought maybe deathgun and sinon were connected somehow, but the only new character that knew sinon that we also knew was whats his face and it seemed ridiculous for him to be working with deathgun and since he was the only option i thought that couldnt be it since it would be weirdly obvious So i just let it slide and accepted the gun thing as coincidence
Then it turns out whats his face is deathguns brother, which makes little sense from the way whats his face acted before and is an even larger coincidence than the same gun thing (back when that looked like a coincidence) I was hoping the explanation was better, though i dont know how it could be better so i dont know what i was expecting I never came up with a theory for how whats his face and deathgun could be working together back when that crossed my mind (as it was too ridiculous to make a theory for) but it wouldnt have been that they were brothers
I hate when the explanation for something that seems like a coincidence is another even more coincidental thing
Other than that though it was good, theres still 1 more ep left for this season on sunday, its ep 14.5 though so it will probably be a recap or possibly aftermath Theres also 24 episodes listed, so theres going to be more after that at some point, probably 1-3 months from now, for some reason anime has been doing half seasons this year, where they do half a 24 ep season, take a couple month break then continue, its really annoying
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Subject: Sword Art Online 
