Forum - View topicEpisode Review: Sword Art Online II
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TUSF
Posts: 191 |
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Nick's issue with the episode was that it tried to make you care about a non-relevant side-quest, by dumping a ton of exposition on you. Compared to one third of the episode being the NPC doing nothing but talk, there wasn't too much in the episode to be happy about. |
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Panoptican
Posts: 160 |
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I can see that the animation team really put some effort behind the fight with the minotaurs, but I think it suffered from some janky animation. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it, but the movements just look funky, like they lack weight. You may say that's intentional because they're in a game, but if it's intentional to make it look worse than it was a bad decision.
Actually overall I feel like this season isn't as well animated as the last season of SAO. Maybe I'm not remembering well, but it feels like there's a lot more stills, shoddy looking characters, and aforementioned janky animation during the fights. |
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JulieYBM
Posts: 209 |
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Episode #17 has a high number of staff, indicating that it was rushed. Action Animation Supervisor Take'uchi Tetsuya did key animation and second key animation, the latter of which implies he had to help add extra drawings to another key animator's work because there wasn't enough time for him to finish.
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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So, has SAO pretty much turned into a straight up fantasy adventure show? We haven't seen a single scene of Kirito or anybody doing anything outside of the game. Not that I have a problem with this, I wouldn't mind the show going down this road. Also, I can't believe Nick wrote this review, the tone of review was, I dunno, very different from his previous ones. Otherwise, the highlight was definitely that fight sequence, the fluid animation, dynamic camera, and effects looked fantastic.
Not to turn this into an East vs West thing, but isn't Anime usually not concerned with animating things with "weight"?. I know a lot of Western animators often criticize anime for this reason although it's not an issue for me at all. And I can think of several anime shows where this isn't true.
On second thought, maybe this explains it. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2402 |
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We did last episode. Not sure why you would be expecting to see anything this episode when pretty much every single character is logged in and playing with them. The other real arcs showed the real world more because what was happening in the game was related to something in the real world. This time there is no real world relevance. And no this isn't a shift for SAO. This is just a fun short story about an event in the game they play. In a couple weeks when SAO gets back to an arc that is based on something written as a novel, expect it to feel like arcs 2 and 3. |
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CoreSignal
Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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I thought last episode was just a one episode stop-over until the next arc. I guess the stop-over is gonna be a couple more episodes. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2402 |
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I didn't get the feeling the anime portrayed that in a way that made sense. It was like a 2 foot jump, and while they did say the sword was heavy, even Sinon was still able to hold it up. I definitely didn't get the feeling that Kirito with his high strength character couldn't make a 2 foot jump while holding it.
I'm pretty sure that was actually explained in the short story as a game mechanic so it might not have entirely been an animation decision. I think enemies couldn't activate their special attacks while being hit by sword skills or something (been a while) so they intentionally chain attacks back to back. Thats why Kirito's skill was significant in that they didn't have enough people in their party to continuously hit with sword skills due to the delay before you can do a new one, and he filled the gap. Also FFXI did have attack chains, so the idea of chaining attacks instead of all hitting them at once is not entirely out there as an mmo mechanic. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4378 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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uh. there was no sexual assault on SAO season 1 and not the reason some people liked Season One's Fairy Dance arc. |
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DLH112
Posts: 115 |
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The finale of fairy dance was prettyquestionable, ... but anyway. I don't think Asuna saying she was losing motivation to clear SAO was completely false/a retcon, though iffy. IIRC once they got the house on floor 22 they wanted to stay there and only very reluctantly returned to the front lines, though I haven't seen or read it in forever. Also, why think Asuna's family is going to have any significance this arc? There was like a 30 second thing that was just a dumb kirito x asuna moment. I think the story is usually just new enemy in mmo + it affecting stuff in the real world and trying to fix that. Something as nuanced as actual family drama that's distant from the plot doesn't seem like it'll affect much.
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gedata
 Posts: 615 |
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This is what I kept hoping for throughout GGO... |
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AnimeKnight2034
Posts: 46 |
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When I saw this show a few years ago I was completely overtaken with Kirito's embrace of the virtual culture. I knew I'd finally found a role model that I could base my life around. Now people also refer to me as "The Black Swordsman," online and offline. And like Kirito I also slept through this entire episode.
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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With the Episode 18 review Nick really seems to be hitting his stride as an anime reviewer. Although he doesn't pick up every topic I would like to see (no review ever does) he hasn't been hitting any false notes that I hear.
I'm more receptive to the low-action episodes like this one. Long ago I read a comment by Ursula LeGuin: "the more action there is it seems that less actually happens." I like a good battle scene now and then but I also believe this. But it seems that too many anime consumers are more like "blow it up and blow it up NOW" and get bored really easily when they don't get it. Oh, well. |
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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I guess Nick didn't pick up on the same cues I did, spoiler[since he kept referring to the new character as "swordsman.]"
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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A nice measured review this episode. I agree. I also found Asuna's family comment somewhat off. I tried twisting around the justify it, but we're given no clues that was the case in Aincrad in season 1.
Can I mention I love the OP for this arc though? Out of all of them it makes me feel like an end to the adventure is near, remembering how far they've come. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18189 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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While I have sometimes disagreed heavily with Nick's take on SAO episodes, I do almost completely agree with him on episode 18. I also took a pause at Asuna's comments about her reason for fighting in Aincard and also thought that the episode seemed to be struggling to avoid just being a "talking heads" episode. And I am also concerned with the intimations about Asuna's family having a significant role here, and for the same reasons Nick mentioned.
Still, I'm fine with having the occasional "the gang just hangs out" episode and am especially pleased that Asuna is finally getting featured screen time again. I also thought the images in the closer - which seemed to show Asuna wearing a shoulder-mounted camera - were intriguing. Have no idea where this story arc might go (I have somehow managed to avoid spoilers on it so far), but as long as Asuna is in the driver's seat, I'm on board. |
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