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REVIEW: Accel World Novel 1


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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4352
Location: New York
PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 1:49 pm Reply with quote
So, does the lead still look like Eric Cartman?
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2599
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 2:07 pm Reply with quote
Laughing In the pictures, yes - from the descriptions, he's a little less cartoony.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 7:25 pm Reply with quote
I've always wondered why Haru would want to be a pig.

Rebecca wrote:
That this sense of self-worth and accomplishment is so wrapped up in this virtual game for the characters is in itself an interesting comment and certainly something that is recognizable in terms of their age group, or human nature in general.


Rebecca wrote:
Nature of their obsession with a game can stretch credulity a bit...


Um, kinda a contradiction there. And let's not forget how crazy people get over WoW.

Also, Brain Burst isn't just a game; it is far, far more than that.
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Animelover12313



Joined: 07 May 2014
Posts: 278
PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:58 pm Reply with quote
I've always love Accel World despite all the hates for it since I'm pretty sure: "THE MC IS A WHINY PIG AND HE'S FAT" doesn't really made the show bad. I mean, what better way to make people mad than having your stereotypical fat guy made the hottest girl in school to be in love with him? I mean it's pretty sad that people were actually jealous of a fictional work but man, it was so much to enjoy all the hates to Haru and just downright dropped the series and doesn't give it the justice that the show clearly deserved. Meanwhile we got such a crap as SAO getting all the hype that it totally didn't deserve at all.
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OH&S



Joined: 15 Jul 2013
Posts: 306
Location: Sydney, Australia
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 2:54 am Reply with quote
^
Did people really hate on AW because of the MC being fat? Underappreciated in comparison to SAO, yes. But hated on?
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誤称



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 549
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 3:35 am Reply with quote
Yes, people hated on AW because of the fat main character.

A lot. It was insulting and juvenile. Par for the course, though.
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Animelover12313



Joined: 07 May 2014
Posts: 278
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 9:14 am Reply with quote
yeah, there were so many people who dropped the show because of Haru. So I guess stereotype is still a thing with these people and that they cannot accept something like this. They didn't even give the show its chance to see the show's real potential.
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Spotlesseden



Joined: 09 Sep 2004
Posts: 3514
Location: earth
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 10:17 am Reply with quote
OH&S wrote:
^
Did people really hate on AW because of the MC being fat? Underappreciated in comparison to SAO, yes. But hated on?


I don't see any hate on AW, Atleast less hate than SAO in almost every forum.
I think AW is less popular than SAO because the MC is fat. This would be alot more popular if the MC is more awesome.


There was an interview with former SJ editor in chief in shonen jump US. He said character is very important because the characters are the story itself.

Know your audience.
Well, atleast in manga character driven story telling is popular than plot driven.

SAO is alot more successful because it's character driven. it's all about the characters.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
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Location: New York
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 10:48 am Reply with quote
誤称 wrote:
Yes, people hated on AW because of the fat main character.

A lot. It was insulting and juvenile. Par for the course, though.


It had nothing to do with how he acted, just the fact that he was anime Cartman?
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Kaioshin_Sama



Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 1215
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:04 am Reply with quote
For me this is my ultimate guilty pleasure franchise (moreso the anime adaptation) in the last little while and I don't think Kuroyukihime is actually annoying at all so much as the breakout character of it all so again yet another ANN review of something I followed that I really just don't agree much with the reviewer. Meh. Confused
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Utsuro no Hako



Joined: 18 May 2012
Posts: 1032
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:39 am Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:

It had nothing to do with how he acted, just the fact that he was anime Cartman?


Exactly. Daru in Steins;Gate was an awesome character with a great design that nobody complained about. Haru was annoying and drawn in an unbelievable way that was at odds with the rest of the characters.
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ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 12:02 pm Reply with quote
Disliking a story because the main character is fat is pretty silly and immature. I did see that hate in the forums when the show was running, and it really irked me. The fact that Haru appeared the way he did added significant depth to his character that wouldn't have existed if he was just another carbon copy bishounen. We should appreciate when artists try those kinds of new things, rather than complain and demand the carbon copies be brought back in.
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lys



Joined: 24 Jun 2004
Posts: 1006
Location: mitten-state
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 12:25 pm Reply with quote
Rebecca, I like that you make a point of the characters' ages and the portrayal they're given in the story. I do lettering for Yen and my schedule went directly from working on a volume of the upcoming Love at Fourteen to a volume of Accel World (manga): I found it amusing how some of the things I enjoyed about Love—realistic portrayal of its young teen protagonists and their life concerns—also showed up in what I expected to be a very different sort of series. Keeping that in mind as I read, I enjoy Accel World much more than if I were to try to see all the drama over disagreements between friends and "just a video game" through my own adult worldview. They're all cute kids :)

(I think that goes for Kuroyukihime as well, at least in the manga: she had moments of insecurity and immaturity that came through as I was reading, and that tempered (or made more tolerable to me) the "cool older girl" image she normally tries to keep up.)

As for that quote from the former SJ editor, I wouldn't take that to refer solely to the character's appearance, but to the combination of appearance and personality and growth and so on. AW's appeal to me is also "all about the characters": I plain don't care 'bout video games or fighting. So I would in no way term Haru's character as a mistake or failure, since he drew my interest in where a more "cool" character might have pushed it away.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 1:36 pm Reply with quote
Spotlesseden wrote:

I don't see any hate on AW, Atleast less hate than SAO in almost every forum.
I think AW is less popular than SAO because the MC is fat. This would be alot more popular if the MC is more awesome.

SAO is alot more successful because it's character driven. it's all about the characters.


Because hating on SAO is just the cool hip thing for western anime watchers to do. Kinda like western Gundam fans hating on Gundam SEED when Gundam stuff pops up. Don't let that fool you into believing it is a real reflection of anything nor should you let that believe that things with less vocal haters are not still more overall disliked.

SAO is a lot more successful because of Kirito. Its not about the characterS. It is about that one character. He is just incredibly popular. Take a look at the kono light novel results, and considering how far the novels of SAO and AW are apart, Asuna being 3 for females and KYH being 16 means KYH is far more appreciated than her novel is (and last year KYH was #4). Haruyuki isn't there at all. SAO is just overall more popular because of the main 2 which makes all the others more well known. The issue is that unlike SAO which has super popular Kirito, Haruyuki is just kind of 'there'.

Though personally, I think inserting a good looking guy who is also just really good like Haru and took away the whiny part people also hate, the author might as well have just used Kirito as the MC... The MC being different actually appeals to me.
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Kaioshin_Sama



Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 1215
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 4:09 pm Reply with quote
SilverTalon01 wrote:
Spotlesseden wrote:

I don't see any hate on AW, Atleast less hate than SAO in almost every forum.
I think AW is less popular than SAO because the MC is fat. This would be alot more popular if the MC is more awesome.

SAO is alot more successful because it's character driven. it's all about the characters.


Because hating on SAO is just the cool hip thing for western anime watchers to do. Kinda like western Gundam fans hating on Gundam SEED when Gundam stuff pops up. Don't let that fool you into believing it is a real reflection of anything nor should you let that believe that things with less vocal haters are not still more overall disliked.

SAO is a lot more successful because of Kirito. Its not about the characterS. It is about that one character. He is just incredibly popular. Take a look at the kono light novel results, and considering how far the novels of SAO and AW are apart, Asuna being 3 for females and KYH being 16 means KYH is far more appreciated than her novel is (and last year KYH was #4). Haruyuki isn't there at all. SAO is just overall more popular because of the main 2 which makes all the others more well known. The issue is that unlike SAO which has super popular Kirito, Haruyuki is just kind of 'there'.

Though personally, I think inserting a good looking guy who is also just really good like Haru and took away the whiny part people also hate, the author might as well have just used Kirito as the MC... The MC being different actually appeals to me.


I prefer a character with at least some flaws that have room for growth even if they are a bit irksome and even annoying foolish at times like Haru to the one dimensional action hero types like Kirito, but obviously I'm in the minority there. I mean hell even James Bond has his demons he has to deal with in some of the movies and which put him at odds with his co-workers like M, but Kirito's biggest dilemma in the SAO series seems to be that he can't save absolutely everyone which on some levels might even come across as unintended egotism and arrogance as if he as a character feels this is somehow unfair and like he thinks he should be able to.

Still I totally get why a character like Kirito would be super popular for the same reason characters like Kira Yamato are popular (in Japan at least) though cause he's pretty much just everything otaku wish they could be in a very modern and current package (he plays games but that's about the extent of his personality and development beyond "he's the hero", though most people probably don't care about that part and would just stop at the part about him playing games which makes him relatable in a very basic sense) without any of the downsides really. Just very cut and dry no frills pure wish fulfillment without any sort of risks taken in his characterization that people might not like, whereas Haru represents everything that the current stock of nerdom are trying to get away from and don't want to be reminded of or have to confront while reading/watching which is a huge risk as a main character that can and often has backfired for viewers on things as seemingly trivial as appearance alone.

Really it's a wonder Accel World even got popular enough to have 16 volumes released and more on the way considering the market it's dealing with. Anyway The key difference between the two though is that Haru starts from what they are trying to get away from and has to work from there which is something people don't really want to see and would rather just skip past to show the end result right away, which I feel Kirito pretty much represents.
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