Haru’s knowledge of the Accel World grows, but it comes at the cost of having to live with Yuniko.
What They Say:
The unexpected drama of letting Kuroyukihime and Niko spend the night at his place has left Haruyuki feeling very tired.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Can I rail against Yuniko simply because she takes time away from Kuroyuki? The addition of the character adds that fiery little redhead spunk that seems to be commonplace in many series and I’m admittedly not surprised by her inclusion here. But for me, the real draw has been the lead pair and the confusion that comes with Chiyuri in the picture. The series has treaded water a little bit in the last few episodes, letting Haru take his time in his training that’s necessary to stand tall in the fights that will come, and to defend and support Kuroyuki, but it’s all part and parcel of a fighting series like this so it didn’t bother me, even if it was spinning its wheels. Yuniko just feels like an unnecessary complication.
Haru’s training and understanding of the Accel World is still one of the bigger points going on here and this episode is no exception, especially as Kuroyuki starts to talk more about the various bonds that are shared there and how it’s impacted in real life. Knowing who people are in the real world and battling them in this world can lead to complications and she explains a lot of it to him, especially since there is a chance that the two of them could face each other in the match some day for some strange reason. Nothing is impossible when you get down to it and circumstances can change a lot of things. It’s not something he can easily accept though and going by his reaction, you can see that Haru will actively fight against it in the future and do everything he can to get past such an occurrence.
While the first half runs through this kind of material and a smattering of what Haru is dealing with in living with Yuniko, the second half trie sto ramp up the action side a bit as there’s a decent group that’s come together for the Burst Link in order to fight the matches. It’s all coming together in sentai styled colors though, which kind of bugs me since I’m not a fan of those shows, but with the CG animation and general design of it the whole thing isn’t too awful, though Yuniko again bugs the heck out of me. Showcasing the fighting from the usual one on one matches to something more game world oriented with everyone participating definitely adds a nice new flavor to events, one that’s needed. But the real focus is on Chrome Disaster here and that gets some time spent on it towards the end, making for a fairly good action sequence overall.
In Summary:
Accel World starts to deal more with events as a group now, though we do get some time with them down to various pairings as Haru is stuck with two very different women wanting different things from him. The first half isn’t bad even if it is a bit of an info dump and the second half makes up for it a bit by showing the game world in a bigger form here with what kinds of things happen outside of particular territories. The action is mild but starts off well and gives hint of where it can go as someone surprising but not entirely unexpected arrives on the scene to shake things up – and potentially introduced yet another female character to complicate Haru’s life. I’m still digging aspects of Accel World, but as this series goes on it’s having a harder and harder time holding onto me.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Viz Media
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.
