Kuroyuki’s fight takes center stage here as a new foe is brought into play.
What They Say:
Ruka and Mana introduce Kuroyukihime to their master, Crimson King, who turns out to be an old acquaintance of Kuroyukihime’s. According to Crimson King, a very powerful Enemy is preventing them from hunting down regular Enemy units.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Kuroyuki having hooked up with Ruka and Mana now and having then been introduced to the gent behind them with Crimson King, the show continues to move forward with Kuroyuki as a focal point. Something I definitely like, even if it’s her in her Burst Link mode with the armored unit. Seeing her and the other three working together at first to deal with a critter and the one controlling it is nicely done too since it gives us a big monster to fight and the introduction of another character, Sulfur Pot. He’s not exactly arrogant, but he’s confident in his position and skills to be able to push back against her even as she calls him out on some of his tricks that aren’t easy to discern.
The majority of the episode is a lot of back and forth action which certainly has its appeal as the various players in the game have some skill and tactics to use. The way it works has you enjoying it even if you feel there’s no real threat to anyone. The local is pretty standard for the show which is probably the only down point for me since in a virtual world you’d hope for some more variation and interesting places that the matches could take place. There’s not a lot in the way of reveals here and in the end, it’s definitely something that comes across more as a generic piece of filler that’s used to bring in these three characters so they can be used further down the line. Which isn’t bad per se, but unlike the previous episode, this one has a harder time maintaining its interest level since it’s strictly fighting.
In Summary:
Accel World is setting things up bit by bit for where it wants to go with the rest of the season, but something about this one just didn’t make too much of an impact for me. The real world bits at the end were more interesting than anything else when you get down to it since it feels like more honest material from Kuroyuki. With the majority of this revolving around the fight and little else, it has its appeal similar to when Haru was working through his leveling up aspects. But whereas Haru has a lot of struggles to overcome, Kuroyuki is more composed and confident, making her less interesting to watch in these situations. Which is reinforced with how she is with her friend at the end and the general real world vibe from it all.
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.
