×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
EP. REVIEW: Sword Art Online: Alicization War of Underworld Part 2


Goto page   Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
AksaraKishou



Joined: 16 May 2015
Posts: 1410
Location: End of the World
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:47 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Usagiri


Best typo ever.

Rabbit Slash.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Eddy564



Joined: 14 Sep 2008
Posts: 340
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:49 pm Reply with quote
Bercouli vs. Vecta was everything I had hoped it’d be. I appreciate the change in art style with the animators opting for thicker lines and enhanced detail on facials in order to sell the intensity of the sequences. Bercouli’s sneer as he recognizes his dragon coming to aid was a small but wonderful example of character acting done right in animation.

Two episodes in and this season has started off considerably strong. They aren’t holding any punches and it seems the delayed has done wonders for show’s overall production.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Treecko Tempo



Joined: 25 Sep 2016
Posts: 155
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:00 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I think this is also the first place where the anime reveals that he leaves a child with Fanatio behind.
Question was this hinted (or out right said) a lot more at in the light novels, because when this happen in the episode, I paused the episode trying to think if this was ever alluded to before in the show and could not think of anything.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AksaraKishou



Joined: 16 May 2015
Posts: 1410
Location: End of the World
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:11 pm Reply with quote
Treecko Tempo wrote:
Quote:
I think this is also the first place where the anime reveals that he leaves a child with Fanatio behind.
Question was this hinted (or out right said) a lot more at in the light novels, because when this happen in the episode, I paused the episode trying to think if this was ever alluded to before in the show and could not think of anything.


I mean, what other hint do you need aside from Fanatio naked in his bed on the 1st OP? lel
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2165
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:26 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Kirito in the minds of Asuna, Sinon, and Suguru to help him restore his self-image. This is some shaky science and psychology, and I have trouble believing that something like this could be done so (comparatively) easily, but the writing did box itself into a corner here. The minor problem with the scheme is that a risky decoy maneuver to allow Hisaga(?)
Suguha, Higa
[EDIT: Already corrected. - Key]

I wonder why Gabriel wasn't able to use his cognition drain during his last fight with Bercouli. Was Bercouli too mobile? Did he get used to it?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Treecko Tempo



Joined: 25 Sep 2016
Posts: 155
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:42 pm Reply with quote
AksaraKishou wrote:

I don't even remember what was in that OP. I watched it once through when it came out, too see what it was and never watched that OP again, but looking at it now after your comment, yes they did hint at there relationship in it. But that's also a strange thing to do, why hint to a plot point in a blink and you miss it scene in an opening in the season that that plot point is not relevant at all until you get to this episode.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
rahzel rose
Subscriber



Joined: 19 Apr 2011
Posts: 823
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:54 pm Reply with quote
I didn't get the sense that Bercouli loved Administrator (past or present) but more that he was simply fond of her despite all of her faults. Taking her with him at the end felt more to me like a knight journeying off with his queen, which. Would make sense since he was actually her knight.

That aside, his fight was fantastic. I'm sad to see him go because he was one of my favorite characters.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 5:09 pm Reply with quote
The whole idea of recreating someone's personality from other people's perceptions of them is...I don't even know what word to use to describe that. Insane? Wrong? Idiotic? Sure, in this universe they could create a personality from others' pov, but it wouldn't be anything like the Kirito that Kirito sees himself to be. It would just be a new construct labeled Kirito. It makes about as much sense as trying to rebuild a person out of fragments of their parents' DNA and expecting to get the same person again because you're using the same pieces to start from.

I know it's just a show, but given that this was aimed at angsty teenagers who feel that no one really knows them (and they would be right), I gotta wonder how well that idea will fly (or has flown up to now). I dunno, maybe, like Kirito himself, it feeds into the fantasy that other people who know the real you in all your messy, interior detail can actually exist.


Ahh, rip Bercouli. I was fond of the old man, but he went out like a champ. Crying or Very sad
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Gho5tRUN3R



Joined: 21 Feb 2019
Posts: 14
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:14 pm Reply with quote
You know, when I was watching episodes 13 and 14, I joked with my friend that it would be hilarious if Kirito needed his giant harem to be summoned to him and only then would he wake up.

And then they came up with almost that exact plan. I haven't laughed so hard at this show in a while, but that really got me. I get the writer has himself in a corner, but to be honest, they really don't need Kirito right now. It seems like the good guys have this on lock and have been like this the whole time. There's really no sense of danger other than whenever they decide Asuna isn't fast so she can lose a random arm.

Speaking of arms, I want a tally for how many times someone's arm is casually lopped off in this show. Including dragon wings. Feels like a drinking game waiting to be made.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DRosencraft



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 665
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:41 pm Reply with quote
Gotta say I really loved the Bercoulli fight. I also love the idea that a non-main (so not one of Kirito and Asuna's gang) was able to take down big boss Vecta; foreshadowing wise it sets up well for an "after" future of this world where Asuna isn't a goddess from on high coming down to save the day. It makes for a powerful symbol that a denizen of this world took down the big bad, even if he lost his life in the process.

As for the plan for reviving Kirito... I don't think any other anime has made me vocally chastise it while it was airing. That plan is so full of "nope" I don't even know how to fully explain it all without going into a full rant. I'll just build on what Gina Szanboti said earlier in this thread; a person's vision of themselves which creates their sense of self is different from the view of that person in other's eyes. The very fact that they aren't with you 24/7 in your head defines the fact that they can only know so much about you. I get that they tried to skirt around this by suggesting that the overlap of perceptions from three individuals can cover some of those blind spots, and the apparent suggestion this is meant to be more of a jump start rather than a complete rebuild, but it's still a very, very, tenuous at best. In fact, this is actually a good way of destroying one's sense of self, as it can be traumatic if the way you view yourself is significantly different from the way others view you.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18137
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:22 pm Reply with quote
Gho5tRUN3R wrote:
And then they came up with almost that exact plan. I haven't laughed so hard at this show in a while, but that really got me. I get the writer has himself in a corner, but to be honest, they really don't need Kirito right now. It seems like the good guys have this on lock and have been like this the whole time. There's really no sense of danger other than whenever they decide Asuna isn't fast so she can lose a random arm.

Vassago had already been shown lurking, though, and he's using what's probably a higher-level SAO account.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Nate148



Joined: 24 May 2012
Posts: 465
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:34 pm Reply with quote
Things are brightest before a fall.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Piexouar



Joined: 19 Jun 2020
Posts: 40
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:45 pm Reply with quote
Eddy564 wrote:
I appreciate the change in art style with the animators opting for thicker lines and enhanced detail on facials in order to sell the intensity of the sequences.


That was the work of the photography department, they applied a line filter. https://twitter.com/HiconManiacs/status/1284520306804092930?s=19
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Shayru



Joined: 21 Jul 2020
Posts: 22
PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2020 4:28 am Reply with quote
For those talking about the plan to revive kirito,
First of all the problem they have right now is time, they might get the electricity down any moment if their ennemies get alice to world end altar and if that happens, then kirito dies.

So while the plan indeed isn't sure to work they don't really have an alternative because in a few hours he'll be dead.

For the plan itself, I feel like the goal is more to reconnect his vision of himself than recreating it from everyone else, because yes recreating it would have a lot of problems since others doesn't know the reasoning that went behind each of his actions, but right now the goal is more to make him remember who he was (hence why he reacted to his old friends connecting) because the surge made hime disconnect from himself (but his own self his still here, wether it be locked inside himself or inside the machine, I don't think it has been said anytime said everything about himself was dead that's why Higa was still looking for a way to wake him up, it seems like more of a coma than anything) so that's why even if he the memories of the others only have part of kirito's self it's alright because the goal is to find where is the other part of it (kinda like a puzzle where you'd need to find a piece that was already place from a part of it you got)

On a side note, I'm really enjoying this season and can't wait to see how it'll wrap up, each sao season had it's up and downs but alicizations only had a few problematics eps personnally so I'm really hoping it keeps what it's been doing since the start of alicization (And see if we get more connection to OS since they seem to try to keep that alice)

Also wondering how long is the author planning on continuing, I feel like this year has seen a lot of LN ending so I'm really wondering if Unital Ring will be the last arc because from what I've seen spoiler[All of the seed games getting fused in a single one with a death = account delete (Kinda reminds of Accel Word also might be something there)] it really seems like the plot you'd use when preparing the end of the saga but I guess we'll see, He might also get back to working on Accel world since it's almost been a year without a new novel there
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Kisuke525



Joined: 05 Nov 2019
Posts: 191
PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2020 12:55 pm Reply with quote
Shayru wrote:
For those talking about the plan to revive kirito,
First of all the problem they have right now is time, they might get the electricity down any moment if their ennemies get alice to world end altar and if that happens, then kirito dies.

So while the plan indeed isn't sure to work they don't really have an alternative because in a few hours he'll be dead.

For the plan itself, I feel like the goal is more to reconnect his vision of himself than recreating it from everyone else, because yes recreating it would have a lot of problems since others doesn't know the reasoning that went behind each of his actions, but right now the goal is more to make him remember who he was (hence why he reacted to his old friends connecting) because the surge made hime disconnect from himself (but his own self his still here, wether it be locked inside himself or inside the machine, I don't think it has been said anytime said everything about himself was dead that's why Higa was still looking for a way to wake him up, it seems like more of a coma than anything) so that's why even if he the memories of the others only have part of kirito's self it's alright because the goal is to find where is the other part of it (kinda like a puzzle where you'd need to find a piece that was already place from a part of it you got)

On a side note, I'm really enjoying this season and can't wait to see how it'll wrap up, each sao season had it's up and downs but alicizations only had a few problematics eps personnally so I'm really hoping it keeps what it's been doing since the start of alicization (And see if we get more connection to OS since they seem to try to keep that alice)

Also wondering how long is the author planning on continuing, I feel like this year has seen a lot of LN ending so I'm really wondering if Unital Ring will be the last arc because from what I've seen spoiler[All of the seed games getting fused in a single one with a death = account delete (Kinda reminds of Accel Word also might be something there)] it really seems like the plot you'd use when preparing the end of the saga but I guess we'll see, He might also get back to working on Accel world since it's almost been a year without a new novel there


You pretty much nailed it with your post. I'm really glad to see that some people are paying attention to what is being said and shown instead of half watching and jumping to conclusions like so many watching SAO seem to do. I hope you end up enjoying the rest of the season!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page   Next
Page 1 of 14

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group