Kirito’s mad dash to save Asuna drives him harder and harder.
What They Say:
Kirito, Asuna, and Yui are finally together again, but the locks placed on Asuna are unbreakable. Before they have a chance to come up with a plan, the fairy king makes his grand entrance.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a good bit of sacrifice in place in order to get through the World Tree, the reveal that there’s no floating city up there is a bit of a surprise, but not an unexpected one. With what we saw of the guardians that were keeping everyone out of it in the previous couple of episodes, there’s just the sense that the players were never actually supposed to get up there at all, or at least not for some time until it could be designed. With Kirito and a normal sized Yui racing around, we get to see some of the high tech structure of it and Kirito comes to the conclusion similar to that and just grinds his teeth all the more about what it is that his nemesis has been up to all this time.
Thankfully, they don’t spend the whole episode trying to get closer to Asuna but rather find her practically from the start, making for a simple but effective reunion. The tears come from Yui as one might expect, but there’s just a certainty and composure between the other two that does make them feel older than they are. But that’s just the calm before the storm as the lockdown Asuna is under comes into play and truly threatens the trio. Sugou’s a bit behind the curve here, having not expected Kirito to make it this far, but he’s definitely a bit cracked at this point since he’s insisting on being called Oberon and just wants to play with his new toys in a cruel manner. Sometimes you can’t always see the deranged nature in the eyes, but Sugou definitely has it for all to see.
And that twisted nature is made all the plain through his actions, something that many villains tend to intimate but never really come up to the line with. Sugou’s gone to a bit of effort to make Asuna as real as she can be, in line with her real body, and forcing Kirito to watch while his life force drains away is just brutal. Of course, there’s a bit of a trick to everything, but seeing Kirito regain control of the situation and to be so effective so quickly really works beautifully. It gives him a strength that’s always been there and it really goes back to the core of things with the ALfheim Online game itself with its origins, something that Kirito has definitely had in the back of his mind. The shift in the power dynamic is really well done and seeing Sugou collapse as he does under the weight of it drives home more of the truth of who he is more than anything else.
In Summary:
Sword Art Online has probably been my favorite simulcast of the year and this penultimate episode, though a touch rushed, is just spot on with what it must do. The final push to rescue Asuna is the key to things and it flows well, giving us the intensity of the hunt, the reunion that’s not overblown and a solid bit of emotion as Kirito has to face one more true danger, this one far more deranged than what he had to face before. And though he is facing it alone, there are those supporting him in intriguing ways that offers up future series potential (i.e. the other light novels) in a way that binds all of this perfectly to the SAO game itself and puts Kirito in an intriguing position. There’s a lot of really wonderful moments here, some disturbing moments as we see what Sugou is capable of and the heartwarming aspects throughout that binds these characters together. Very, very well done.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
