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The Stream - A Whole New World

Well, both shows have their issues, but Accel World is clearly better than Sword Art Online in terms of plot and characters, as you would expect from a guy who has had time to develop and improve his writing.

Oh, Noumi is absolutely a badly-written villain, I won't deny that. But Noumi is one bad-written character in an otherwise okay work, whereas Sugou is a badly-written character in a show full of them that also has a crap plot.

Compared to Sword Art Online, the plot of Accel World is a bit better and the characters are a lot better, so to me there is no contest.

ChibiKangaroo wrote:

I agree with you that the villain does seem to have a very interesting side plot going on. However, that is part of the problem that right now it is a side plot. We haven't seen any impact of it or some recognizable implication of what he's doing with it.

Yep, you nailed it. The villain doing all these things should be at the front and centre, not just referenced and then not brought up again (so far at least).

I'm half-way through Scrapped Princess right now and the difference in quality between it and Sword Art Online is just massive. Scrapped Princess actually has good characters who receive proper development, and its plot is complex and multi-faceted and engrossing. Sword Art Online has wish-fulfilment inserts who carry out a plot that is little more than Mario saving Princess Peach.

Key wrote:

Saffire wrote: I'm sure that doing work equal to the preview guide year round is exactly what Zac and his team wants to do. After all, it can't be that much effort right? I sincerely hope you're saying that sarcastically. The Preview Guides are, by a mile, the most intense and stressful times of the year as far as the reviewing business is concerned (at least for me, anyway). I like doing them, but I'm also usually relieved when they're done.

Don't worry, it was pure sarcasm. My point was that's basically what they're asking for.

First, to the person (forget who) who was concerned about how misogynistic SAO supposedly is: that is a gross exaggeration at the least, and I would argue even outright wrong. Don't let such talk deter you from checking out the series.

Oh, come on, both of you. Only one freakin' episode has passed since that revelation was laid out, so actually give the story time to do something with it.

Besides, why should that matter be "front and center" anyway? What could it possibly do in the story if it was, especially given that spoiler[no one beyond Asuna knows anything about it yet, and she's not exactly in a position to tell anyone]?

I'm surprised that you've never seen SP before, dtm42. It won't disappoint you, as it holds its quality through to the end; in fact, I'd probably rank amongst the top three fantasy series of the past decade and certainly among the top 20 overall.

You're absolutely right that SAO is not in its league, but neither I nor anyone else around here has tried to claim that, either. Even I'll agree that the guy trying to claim that it's the smartest series in ages is off his rocker.

Hmm. I seem to be the only one here who is completely LOVING From the New World. Everything is great about it: the animation (yes, even the animation in THAT episode ), the writing, the characters, the, well, everything. I find myself liking Saki more and more as the show goes on. Despite her innocent appearance and mannerisms, and her (mostly) upstanding morality, she can be very very sly.

It's refreshing to see something where the characters are really perceptive, and the story has some genuinely novel and interesting scifi concepts. The directing on this is great too; I'm not sure why no one seems to be as into it as me.

Galap wrote:

Hmm. I seem to be the only one here who is completely LOVING From the New World. Everything is great about it: the animation (yes, even the animation in THAT episode ), the writing, the characters, the, well, everything. I find myself liking Saki more and more as the show goes on. Despite her innocent appearance and mannerisms, and her (mostly) upstanding morality, she can be very very sly. It's refreshing to see something where the characters are really perceptive, and the story has some genuinely novel and interesting scifi concepts. The directing on this is great too; I'm not sure why no one seems to be as into it as me.

Simple. Your opinion that the writing and characters are "great" isn't universally shared. For the first four episodes, the characters were very sketchily delineated. I found it virtually impossible to distinguish the five main characters from each other. One episode contained a 10-minute info dump that introduced some key ideas that should have been dramatized earlier (it actually makes no sense that some of them weren't) and some of the information kind of muddied the waters of what we knew before (and not in an intentional way; I think just because of sloppy writing).

There is good stuff in From the New World and I've enjoyed the last two episodes as much as I enjoyed the first one. But there is definitely stuff to be critical of, so you shouldn't be surprised that not everyone shares your completely uncritical opinion.

I'm not at all surprised that not everyone shares my uncritical opinion; what I'm surprised about is that no one seems to share my high opinion. I don't know. I'd think that from the way the show is, at least some of the reviewers on this site and some of the users would consider this one the show of the season. I guess I'm wrong and it's kind of just a me thing

Oh, come on, both of you. Only one freakin' episode has passed since that revelation was laid out, so actually give the story time to do something with it. On several occasions already points that people complained vociferously about were either addressed or proven to be non-issues by later episodes, after all.

Besides, why should that matter be "front and center" anyway? What could it possibly do in the story if it was, especially given that spoiler[no one beyond Asuna knows anything about it yet, and she's not exactly in a position to tell anyone]?

But already Scrapped Princess has fallen somewhat after episode twelve. Ispoiler[ just watched up to episode sixteen and was very disappointed how slow the plot had become and the sudden hesitancy of the writing. There was no need to repeat the background information so many times. Thanks to some great foreshadowing I already had a good grasp of what was going on even before Natalie and Zefiris started revealing things directly. It was then explained to Pacifica and her siblings at least four times, with Senes and Eirote chiming in too. It's like the writers didn't trust the audience to get it the first or second time so they explained it over and over again for our sake. But it meant that since Pacifica (and even Shannon and Raquel) still couldn't understand it after so many explanations she came across as a moron.]

Still a good show but treating your audience like children who need things spelt out to them is kind of insulting, and the characters suffered for it because they suddenly had to be stupid.

Actually, Key (aka Theron Martin, one of the reviewers of ANN) is someone whom I'm fairly certain DID consider it the show of the season, at least up to episode 4 or so. He hasn't been very active in the discussion thread over in the anime forum lately, though, so I'm not sure if he still has such a high opinion of it.

I do expect that at some point, the villain will do something with this side plot of his. My complaint was more about the fact that the way the villain's grand evil plan has been sidelined into a secondary plot only mentioned in one episode...

To take an example from this season, look at From the New World. As much as some people complain about the artistry of that show, I think they have done a fantastic job of creating a sense of foreboding and some idea of how the behind the curtain evils of this world have an impact on the protagonists, even if we don't know all the answers yet. Couldn't SAO have done at least that at this point? Maybe just show some kind of foreboding scene where some innocent person is "changed" by the villain's evil plan? The fact that they haven't done that yet shows that their priority is more on this love (now triangle) story aspect.

Blood- wrote:

Galap wrote: Hmm. I seem to be the only one here who is completely LOVING From the New World. Everything is great about it: the animation (yes, even the animation in THAT episode ), the writing, the characters, the, well, everything. I find myself liking Saki more and more as the show goes on. Despite her innocent appearance and mannerisms, and her (mostly) upstanding morality, she can be very very sly. It's refreshing to see something where the characters are really perceptive, and the story has some genuinely novel and interesting scifi concepts. The directing on this is great too; I'm not sure why no one seems to be as into it as me. Simple. Your opinion that the writing and characters are "great" isn't universally shared. For the first four episodes, the characters were very sketchily delineated. I found it virtually impossible to distinguish the five main characters from each other. One episode contained a 10-minute info dump that introduced some key ideas that should have been dramatized earlier (it actually makes no sense that some of them weren't) and some of the information kind of muddied the waters of what we knew before (and not in an intentional way; I think just because of sloppy writing). There is good stuff in From the New World and I've enjoyed the last two episodes as much as I enjoyed the first one. But there is definitely stuff to be critical of, so you shouldn't be surprised that not everyone shares your completely uncritical opinion.

I'm not at all surprised that not everyone shares my uncritical opinion; what I'm surprised about is that no one seems to share my high opinion. I don't know. I'd think that from the way the show is, at least some of the reviewers on this site and some of the users would consider this one the show of the season. I guess I'm wrong and it's kind of just a me thing

My point is that SAO has failed in that regard. If you looked at the first 7 episodes or so, you might have thought spoiler[that the show was going to be more about the adventure and the danger and mystery of this death trap scenario, and whether or not the (poorly developed) heroes can survive.] As flawed as it was, that set up had a lot of potential. From episode 8 until now though, that dramatically shifted to spoiler["the whole death trap set up doesn't really matter anymore, now this is just all about whether or not Kirito and Asuna can be together forever."]
As I said in response to your review, spoiler[I did think the switch to the love story worked as far as making a believable love story, and there were moments where it was touching. However, that shift destroyed the sense of adventure. I don't think the second arc has done much of anything to try and get that sense of adventure back.] I think focusing too much on how the villain might spoiler[sexually and/or physically abuse Asuna] rather than what exactly his grand evil idea means for the world is a mistake. To take an example from this season, look at From the New World. As much as some people complain about the artistry of that show, I think they have done a fantastic job of creating a sense of foreboding and some idea of how the behind the curtain evils of this world have an impact on the protagonists, even if we don't know all the answers yet. Couldn't SAO have done at least that at this point? Maybe just show some kind of foreboding scene where some innocent person is "changed" by the villain's evil plan? The fact that they haven't done that yet shows that their priority is more on this love (now triangle) story aspect. The fan service that's been crudely thrown in has been an exclamation point reinforcing this problem. Look, I don't disagree with you that there is much enjoyment to be found in SAO. If there weren't, I wouldn't still be watching (although I have considered dropping it more than once.) However, at a minimum I don't think its a good sign when a show is constantly playing catch up on developing basic concepts BEFORE the audience starts to notice they are missing and complaining about that.

ChibiKangaroo wrote:

I do expect that at some point, the villain will do something with this side plot of his. My complaint was more about the fact that the way the villain's grand evil plan has been sidelined into a secondary plot only mentioned in one episode...

And, again, only one episode has passed since that was first revealed. If we'd gone three or four episodes without it being mentioned again, I'd agree that you have a valid complaint.

I think one of the reasons why I have less of an issue with SAO than a lot of people seem to is that I've never really seen it as being an action-adventure series, nor has that ever been my expectation for it. It has some of those elements, to be sure, but that's never really been the driving force in the series, so I haven't been disappointed when it hasn't played out that way. Really, though, it just comes down to the fact that I've liked what I've seen so far enough that I'm willing to overlook (most of) its flaws. It's still my top-priority view in any given week out of the 6/7 series I'm actively following.

Oh, and I've never seen AtLA, nor have I ever had any interest in it.