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REVIEW: Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Blu-ray Parts 1-2




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Siegfriedl88



Joined: 22 Jun 2017
Posts: 347
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 11:58 am Reply with quote
its true i did buy both the books,manga and the anime because of its direct connection with SAO, but its pretty great on its own.

so much too like, i was pleasantly surprised. For one its alot more violent than SAO, even more so when Llenn goes insane! every character interested me, be it Boss, fuka, or even shirley.
finally
Quote:
Music : A-

...the insert songs were so fricking catchy i literally had independence stuck in my head for days, so much so i had too download the 7 song album and burn it too a cd!

might of cost 130 bucks, but it was worth it.
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partially



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 702
Location: Oz
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 5:00 pm Reply with quote
Eh well, it was a character piece. The plot was not worth even a C in my opinion, there really was no plot whatsoever other than "let's win the game" several times repeated. I think this story would have worked better with less game and more real world, looking a bit more in-depth at the divide in character between Kohiruimaki's online persona and self. Alternatively cut the real world altogether and just have the show focused on the game. The real world present in the show was just a vehicle for far too many contrived coincidences. With the final obvious one just ugh. Every person she meets is apparently someone she fights, which may have worked if GGO was a LAN game and the show was about a gaming club, but it really stretches belief too far in this format.
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1323
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 9:21 pm Reply with quote
It truly surprises me to have heard people say this series was vastly inferior to the original, because I feel the opposite is the truth. I'm enjoying the original fine, but this story has rewatchable charm to it for all the reviewer stated--it just altogether clicks better for me.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4784
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 11:23 pm Reply with quote
As someone who is an SAO fan and who thought the original GGO season was my favorite arc, I really enjoyed Alternative but I have some mixed feelings on it. I liked it best when it was focused on just the game and Llenn's friendships in the game. I felt like it lost me some with how over the top Ptohui was. I suppose an over the top antagonist comes with the territory of SAO but it just felt like it clashed with the goal of this show being a more grounded laid back series and I couldn't accept Pitohui's motivations. I do agree the soundtrack was really great and I loved the song at the end of the series. I still need to check out the dub sometime. It's too bad they haven't aired this on Toonami yet.
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roxybudgy



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 129
Location: Western Australia
PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 2:17 am Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
I felt like it lost me some with how over the top Ptohui was. I suppose an over the top antagonist comes with the territory of SAO but it just felt like it clashed with the goal of this show being a more grounded laid back series and I couldn't accept Pitohui's motivations.


The mystery surrounding Pitohui's motivations was what kept me watching... and when they finally revealed everything, I was like "Really?! I don't care anymore".

So my understanding was that everyone was flustered and like-totally-serious over the looming unspecified threat that Pitohui would die IRL for some reason if Karen/LLENN didn't participate in all the shenanigans, so I kept watching out of curiosity to see why this was a life-or-death battle, but then it turns out that Pitohui was essentially spoiler[threatening to kill herself if things didn't go her way, like a spoiled toddler threatening to hold their breath if people don't play with her]. Sure spoiler[threats of suicide] is not something to take lightly, but after revealing Pitohui's (and the guy/groupie, forgot his name)'s motivations, she reminded me of someone I use to know who was over-the-top, over-dramatic, and spoiler[had a few male groupies who worshipped her despite the way she treated them like playthings], and that kind of attitude gets zero sympathy for me. The show tries to portray it as spoiler[a guy who is madly in love with Pitohui and will do anything to save her] but to me it just looks like spoiler[an egomanic who treats others as playthings]. And at that point I no longer gave a hoot whether Pitohui spoiler[dies or not]. But I kept watching to the end because I had already made it so far *shrugs*

No matter how nice the production values were, if I had known that the story was about spoiler[well-meaning people enabling a mentally ill jerk] then I would not have bothered to watch.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4784
PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:35 pm Reply with quote
I feel like Alternative would have been a lot better if it was simply about LLENN learning to overcome her real world insecurities through playing the tournament with her friends instead of trying to make it all over the top dramatic at the end.
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Lobokendo



Joined: 04 Jan 2016
Posts: 135
Location: Somewhere
PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 5:11 am Reply with quote
I think the "twist at the end" wasn't actually meant to be a twist. I think that it was made so obvious because it was trying to parallel Karen realising the truth too so when the scene came up everyone would be on the same page.
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steelmirror



Joined: 22 Oct 2015
Posts: 342
PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 1:28 pm Reply with quote
GGO was a fun, if overall uneven show for me. Llenn was way more likeable than the self-absorbed dopes she spent all season trying to save, and hopefully she either grows beyond having to deal with their crap or provokes them to do some maturing in the future.

On the other hand, I always liked the team of girls and Llen's partner, so most of the supporting cast was perfectly charming. And I'm not a fan of SAO itself, but found this show way more watchable, for whatever that might be worth.

I did think it was funny that Pitohui's whole scene with the lightsaber was just the end of the Rogue One movie, but then the main series was already shameless about ripping off lightsabers so I don't suppose that moves the needle at all.
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