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EP. REVIEW: Sword Art Online: Alicization


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:00 pm Reply with quote
The pacing of this season is definitely slower than some of the previou I remember but important.

Honestly I think a 4 cour is necessary to draw out the light novel as the arc is fairly long.
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Nodz



Joined: 29 Dec 2013
Posts: 523
PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:44 pm Reply with quote
Stark700 wrote:
The pacing of this season is definitely slower than some of the previou I remember but important.

Honestly I think a 4 cour is necessary to draw out the light novel as the arc is fairly long.


It's funny how people were already complaining about the number of episodes before it was announced to be 48, telling that if it was 24 the adaptation would be butchered. And now that we know it'll be 48 episodes, people complain it was be too long. Rolling Eyes
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Dr. Wily



Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 233
PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:45 pm Reply with quote
I was pumped for this series and the OP gave me hope that maybe all the other series characters might be popping in or even, dare I say, matter in the larger scheme of the plot. But then someone pointed out the girl from Ordinal Scale (that I hadn't seen at the time) was in it and all my hopes dropped through the floor. Hopefully Eugeo gets to develop a little more personality sooner than later because even though I understand why these episodes were so slow (condensing a lot of dry material), that doesn't excuse the fact that they are slow and Kirito needs someone more lively to play off of. I mean no matter what complaints people may have about SAO (and there are flaws I admit), pacing has never been an issue before.

Also the brief GGO scene made me sad because literally every character in the show's GGO outfits are better than their SAO or ALO outfits and we're never gonna see them again.

edit: also this may have been handled better in the source material, but "legendary swordsman" Kirito (who should be actually be decent irl now given that Ordinal Scale is apparently canon) going to stab the leg of the guy holding a syringe of poison in his hand is very stupid. Not to armchair quarterback, but come on dude.
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Key
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:52 pm Reply with quote
Nodz wrote:
It's funny how people were already complaining about the number of episodes before it was announced to be 48, telling that if it was 24 the adaptation would be butchered. And now that we know it'll be 48 episodes, people complain it was be too long. Rolling Eyes

Um, no, some of us were saying before the 48 announcement that four cours seemed too long. Unless the last four novels are beefier than what I've read so far, we're going to see some padding along the way to get this series out to 48-50 eps.
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TUSF



Joined: 11 Oct 2013
Posts: 191
PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
while this episode covers chapters 1 and 2 and part of 3,

Just a nitpick here, but gonna point out that these are sub-chapters of Alicizations "Chapter 1", seeing as Alicization chapters don't reset between volumes (pretty sure one of them even crossed volume boundaries), and Volume 9 only has a "Chapter 1".

Key wrote:
Um, no, some of us were saying before the 48 announcement that four cours seemed too long. Unless the last four novels are beefier than what I've read so far, we're going to see some padding along the way to get this series out to 48-50 eps.

I was one of those that thought it'd be great for 4 cours, but after discussing it with others, and going back to it, knowing the first two cours will probably adapt the first 6 books, it will be kinda awkward to adapt the last four books in two cours.
Now, those last four books are on average longer, but the anime will probably have to pad out a lot of content to make sure it doesn't drag on. Actually, given Ono isn't afraid to throw in anime-original scenes (the GGO fight in Ep 1), I think we'll be getting quite a lot of that later on.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:26 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Kazuto/Kirito has mostly been surrounded by girls, so he hasn't had a close male friend prior to Eugeo – and no, Klein doesn't count.


KEY!!! YOU MADE KLEIN CRY!!

Laughing

Nah, I know what you mean; he simply doesn't get enough screentime. But I am really digging Eugeo's bromance with Kirito already (the tree scene is epic) Anime hyper AND HOW CUTE ARE THEY AS CHILDREN.
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 10:28 pm Reply with quote
I'm just asking rhetorically, as I haven't read the fan translations, Yen Press's translations, nor will I be coming back to check this topic, but with all the talk of time compression/dilation in STL, I'm wondering if that's a not-so-subtle tie-in to Accel World.
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Yttrbio
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Joined: 09 Jun 2011
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:02 am Reply with quote
I guess it could be. What I understood from the show was Kirito was giving an overly-complicated explanation for "instead of virtual reality that provides direct sensory input, it makes you dream."

This is the second show I'm watching this season where I'm thinking "okay, yeah, I'm interested in what comes next, but get to the point." Deliberate pacing is one thing, but this is downright languid.
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Chaos Wings



Joined: 05 May 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:07 am Reply with quote
Always had a love hate relationship with SAO but I get the feeling I'm going to really like this season. The opening episodes have laid out quite a few interesting hooks so I'm excited to see how they play out.

I'm also happy to see that Kirito is finally gonna get a proper bro in the form of Eugeo, who he can fight alongside (I don't count Klein). Him mostly soloing everything and all the pseudo-harem antics were getting a bit stale so a new dynamic should help mix things up a bit.

The part in the OP where they're practising with their swords side by side and when they share a 'secret' bro handshake got me pretty psyched.


Last edited by Chaos Wings on Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:47 am; edited 1 time in total
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:37 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Episode 1 laid enough groundwork about what Kazuto has been doing lately to come to a reasonable conclusion about what probably happened to him after his real-world encounter with Johnny Black. For whatever reason, he was plugged into the STL system, presumably because it's functioning as some sort of life support. Assuming that's the case, it remains unclear why he's not able to contact Kikuoka or whoever else is directly controlling the system from the outside.

My guess is that the interface he was implanted with has malfunctioned after being stabbed and shorted out with poison (a la GGO's stabbing on his ecg patch). Perhaps rather than being a simple monitoring system, it's the mechanism for initiating the dive, and since it's broken they can't monitor or control the dive now.

What with the premise of your soul being a series of tubes like the internet, it wouldn't surprise me if he showed up on Asuna's phone at some point, like Wayne in Phantom in the Twilight. Smile
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jr240483



Joined: 24 Dec 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:45 am Reply with quote
Quote:
In all his adventures up to this point, Kazuto/Kirito has mostly been surrounded by girls, so he hasn't had a close male friend prior to Eugeo – and no, Klein doesn't count.


i wouldn't say that. just because klein don't get enough screen-time (excluding that small moment during the calibur arc , doesn't mean that he have a close relationship with kazuto considering the BS they went through during aincrad!!!

unless he and euego were childhood friends prior to the aincrad incident, i'd say klein do indeed count as a close male friend!!!
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rahzel rose
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Joined: 19 Apr 2011
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:46 am Reply with quote
jr240483 wrote:
unless he and euego were childhood friends prior to the aincrad incident, i'd say klein do indeed count as a close male friend!!!


I’m assuming that what he means is a male friend his own age. Agil and Klein are adults, while the rest of the group is all Kazuto’s age and also all female. So for him to have a guy in his life who is his own age is a little different. (Also I’m sure Kazuto has/had friends at school, but they got zero screen/page time so I wouldn’t count them either.)
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 7:40 am Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
Quote:
Episode 1 laid enough groundwork about what Kazuto has been doing lately to come to a reasonable conclusion about what probably happened to him after his real-world encounter with Johnny Black. For whatever reason, he was plugged into the STL system, presumably because it's functioning as some sort of life support. Assuming that's the case, it remains unclear why he's not able to contact Kikuoka or whoever else is directly controlling the system from the outside.

My guess is that the interface he was implanted with has malfunctioned after being stabbed and shorted out with poison (a la GGO's stabbing on his ecg patch). Perhaps rather than being a simple monitoring system, it's the mechanism for initiating the dive, and since it's broken they can't monitor or control the dive now.

If the series paces the way I think it's going to, you'll find out the truth of the matter in either episode 5 or episode 6 - probably the latter, since one shot in the OP suggests that they're going to take their time with the first part of the second novel.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 12:59 pm Reply with quote
Chaos Wings wrote:


The part in the OP where they're practising with their swords side by side and when they share a 'secret' bro handshake got me pretty psyched.


YESSS.

This is the kind of thing I love.....
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:07 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I am loving this pacing. It's relaxing when it needs to be and tense when it needs to be. I love the BGM too; it's perfect for RPG and makes me feel like I'm fishing in Zelda...or something. xD

It's nice to see the boys teaching each other things and Kirito having a heart-to-heart talk with a girl who is interested in someone else but I do feel bad for Selka because she's probably going to get her heart shattered; Eugeo is fixated on Alice. She's well aware of that though.

Kirito really IS a mature character 'I f**ked up so I'm gonna take responsibility, bro'.

And....THAT SWORD IS GORGEOUS. MAY I HAVE ONE?
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