Sword Art Online

[tehprognoob]

So I've been searching through the forum and there doesn't seem to be a thread for this franchise, which means that I can make one.

SAO, Sword Art Online, light web novel by Reki Kawahara writing as "Kunori Fumio" with a manga adaptation and now a running anime; set in a futuristic world in which a brand new genre, the VRMMORPG, has opened with the first game of the type, Sword Art Online, an MMORPG that fully immerses the player into the game via direct linkage from the brain. From the first day of official service, ten thousand people are trapped inside the game with no way out and no option to respawn after death. Dying in-game means dying in real life. The only way to survive is to clear all of the game.

Spoiler

I thought that the pacing of the anime was rather poor, and skipped a lot of highly important scenes, such as Kirito meeting Asuna for the first time inside the dungeon she was running with "5 of the same sword" and no HP food (rofl). It was the moment that he actually talks her out of running that dungeon to her death, anyways; he was sensei for a while afterwards. The Scilica arc was retty solid, but the Black Cats bit was not that well-paced at all.

On the upside, this is really, really an approachable MMO story for non-gamers. The Aincrad Arc that introduces the story gets some beautiful followup arcs, the best of which, I say, is Mother's Rosario. I haven't gotten so emotional over a story in a long, long time.

Otherwise, I think, read the book, watch the show, read the manga; it's a great experience.

[Destiny_Gundam]

Only watching the anime right now. May check out the novels at a later date. Didn't like the manga's art.

Anime's pretty good so far. One might think the premise is a .hack rip off but SAO certainly has a lot more things happening that .hack//sign ever did.

Kajiura's doing the music for SAO too but I hardly remember at times. It's far more subdued than her usual full power chanting stuff.

[yazi88]

Anime's pretty good so far. One might think the premise is a .hack rip off but SAO certainly has a lot more things happening that .hack//sign ever did.

Actually, when SAO was originally written as a web novel in 2002, it around pretty much the same time .Hack started to come out. Kinda ironic though.

Also, to anyone who has also seen Accel World, SAO apparently takes place in the same world as they were both written by the same author, SAO seems like it takes place 20 years earlier. There was even a non-canon cross-over between Accel World and SAO...

[Shinji103]

Yeah .hack and SAO are actually from around the same time, it's just that at the time SAO was only a web novel so a lot of people didn't know about it. Thus people are basing their "it's a .hack ripoff" stance on when the anime came out.

I love the novels. And a good deal of that love comes from my being a romance buff. Yes, I admit it. I'm a guy who likes romance in my entertainment. NO SHAME. I love Kirito and Asuna's relationship in the novels, so much so that I was rather disappointed that they were doing the story in chronological order. (episode 2-7 are side stories that happened between chapters 1 and 2 of the novels) I can understand why the staff decided to do so, but personally I would have preferred to go straight to the main story. But like I said, I'm a romance buff, and the romance doesn't really start until the main story, so..... ^^b

Anyway, yeah as tehprognoob said, the pacing early on wasn't so good. Episode 2 should have been a two-parter and ended up cutting out a lot of significant novel material to crunch it into one episode, and episode three should definitely have been two parts. Episode 4 was perfectly fine and good even, and thankfully they wisened up with episodes 5 and 6 and made that side story a two-parter. On average though, I'm liking the anime and it's doing a good job so far.

[Destiny_Gundam]

I know .hack and SAO originated around the same time. But like Shinji103 said, the knee jerk reaction to hearing about the anime is that it's a .hack rip off.

Shinji103, you're hardly alone in your second paragraph. It would be godly if they decided to animated chapter 16.5, kukuku.

Accel World was brought up and while I did get hooked on the manga for that at first, I never really started the anime because after thinking back on it I was bothered by something... While I think it's neat that Haru is short and fat (although cute in a small animal sort of way), as a result I totally can't buy his romance with Ms no-name. I mean, she fell in love with him before his character development when he was all whiney and mopey. Coupled with his looks there's no freakin' way a 14 year old girl would fall for him. Even my belief isn't suspended enough for that. In the first place I'm not a fan of the girl being the older one in the relationship, though it seems this author loves that.

Kirito and Asuna, on the other hand, is a hell of a lot better. They are more or less equals and their relationship seems to be growing at a steady rate, as opposed to Haru getting love struck because a girl was nice to him. SAO kicks Accel World's ass in that regard.

[yazi88]

I find it quite amusing that the author Reki Kawahara actually apologized for

Spoiler

adding a new girl with every new arc that eventually falls for Kirito even though he only has eyes for Asuna.

He doesn't wanna make it a harem story either but somehow it kind of ends up there in a weird way.

Can't wait for Morning Dew Girl do be animated. I also have no shame into admitting that I also like romances and it is one of the defining factors of what I really like about SAO.

Spoiler

Kirito's and Asuna's relationship is really well done that I kind of wish that other shows would follow rather than just having the boy and girl confess at the end of the novel/show/manga.

PS: Also got a box of napkins prepared for the cutness overload and sadness for what happens in Morning Dew Girl.

[Destiny_Gundam]

I think the fact that

Spoiler

Asuna and Kirito hook up early

should be spoiler tagged. Since this is the anime forum, be mindful of novel spoilers. If the anime hasn't covered it yet, tag it.

[Janx_Dolaris]

I think the fact that

Spoiler

Asuna and Kirito hook up early

should be spoiler tagged. Since this is the anime forum, be mindful of novel spoilers. If the anime hasn't covered it yet, tag it.

Should they spoiler tag the intro and end credits then? It seems a rather inevitable thing.

[yazi88]

Whoops, sorry about not putting the spoiler tag up. Thanks for the heads up Destiny Gundam.

[Destiny_Gundam]

Should they spoiler tag the intro and end credits then? It seems a rather inevitable thing.

Heh, that's why I said to spoiler

Spoiler

the fact that they hook up early,

not the fact that they're going to hook up eventually.

[Shinji103]

Yeah, you don't need novel spoilers to know that KiriAsu is a sure thing.

I find it quite amusing that the author Reki Kawahara actually apologized for

Spoiler

adding a new girl with every new arc that eventually falls for Kirito even though he only has eyes for Asuna.

He doesn't wanna make it a harem story either but somehow it kind of ends up there in a weird way.

Have you read the side story There is but one ultimate way?

It's not canon, but Kawahara wrote it.

[tehprognoob]

that came after the alicization arc; i took it to be fapping on the author's part.
And...who else was derp enough to go "FALADOR MASSACRE" at 5 and 6?
Edit: AFAIK Pina can neither tank nor team buff\heal nor pull mobs, which isn't even necessary according to kirito in one of the side stories; poor Scilica is so useless D:
edit edit: um, the girl from Mother's Rosario didn't fall for kirito...

[Destiny_Gundam]

On the whole I think episode 7 was rather good and I really felt for Lizbeth... However it feels that there was a bit lacking between this episode and the last in regards to Kirito and Asuna. I imagine there were probably a few chapters that got left out.

[tehprognoob]

anime jumps between side stories, all of which are attached to different floors of aincrad, which is why the pacing is badly staggered.

[Destiny_Gundam]

Right, but I think there's a notable difference between the way Asuna treated Kirito at the end of the previous episode to the way she acted in this one. We really should have seen the progression between those two points.

[Shinji103]

Well, that's kind of the thing; there actually isn't any novel material covering anything between episodes 6 and 7. So they'd have to go anime-original for anything there, and you know how whiners can be about that.....

The way it was in the novels was, volume 1 started with episode 1 of the anime. (Kayaba trapping them all in the game and stuff) All that is novel-loyal.

However, after the episode 1 material, in the novel it skips ahead to two years after they were all trapped. Kirito and Asuna already know each other and Asuna already has a crush on him.

Episodes 2 to 7 are actually all side stories in the novels that didn't even exist until volume 2 of the novels, after

Spoiler

Kirito beats Kayaba and clears the game, freeing everyone from SAO.

So the reason the anime feels like a patchwork with missing pieces is because it essentially is.

But from next episode on, it's all back to the main story from volume 1 (or at least it shout be; gotta wait for the preview for confirmation), so it won't be patchy anymore. (just one side story left to cover in a few episodes)

[Flame-X]

Well that explains why eps 4-7 felt very filler-ish. Although I thought 2-3 were essential parts of the main story.

I'm glad Asuna strayed away from being a tsundere in this latest ep because in eps 6-7, she getting on my nerves.

[Compass]

Just started it, skipped the entire thread because I saw a whoops somewhere and didn't want anything else spoiled. Burned through episodes 1 and 2. Really like the concept and art. Feels a lot like Tower of Druaga if you guys ever watched that. Gonna see if I can plow through 3 through 7 tonight and catch up on the threads. Thanks for the great find! Been looking for a fantasy-style anime for a while.

[Janx_Dolaris]

I just hope there isnt another "Girl of the week".

[Destiny_Gundam]

Just started it, skipped the entire thread because I saw a whoops somewhere and didn't want anything else spoiled. Burned through episodes 1 and 2. Really like the concept and art. Feels a lot like Tower of Druaga if you guys ever watched that. Gonna see if I can plow through 3 through 7 tonight and catch up on the threads. Thanks for the great find! Been looking for a fantasy-style anime for a while.

Well Tower of Druaga was actually a fantasy anime. SAO takes place in an MMO so it's more sci-fi than anything.