The return of Kirito and Asuna, a murder mystery, and a new MMORPG!
What They Say:
Sequel to Sword Art Online, featuring the next arc “Phantom Bullet”.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Sword Art Online II marks the return to much beloved world and characters of the original hit series, almost a year where we left off. For those of you who missed the first season, I’d suggest going to watching it – the first half is excellent (and the second half isn’t bad, except for a particular subplot involving Kirito and his ‘sister’ (who is really his cousin) that is best left ignored. The long and short of it is though, that Kirito and Asuna adventure through two virtual reality MMORPGs (massive multiplyer online multi-player game), the end result of which is something called ‘The Seed’ is released into the world. The Seed basically allows creators to create rich, deep, and huge MMORPG worlds that people can explore and play within.
The only one of these MMORPGs that has professional players is called ‘Gun Gale Online’, or GGO for short. Players can exchange in-game currency for real money, which means players can actually make a living and go pro playing the game. As the name might suggest, instead of swords and shields, this is a world with pistols and rifles set in a futuristic world.
A mysterious player, calling himself ‘Death Gun’ is supposedly linked with the murder of two of the top pros in GGO – he shoots them in the game (and in one case, not even the actual player but a picture of him on a TV screen), and then they die in real life. An associate of Kirito who works for the government and made a breif cameo in SAO I brings Kirito in on the murders, and given Kirito’s skill and experience dealing with special situations in games like this, asks if he’ll dive into GGO to see if there is any more than coincidence between the in-game attacks and the resulting death of the players in real life. Kirito is of course, hesitant, having almost a year behind him since the events of SAO I. Be it a morbid fascination with how Death Gun is killing players in real life or his own desire to further explore the boundaries and where the line of reality and virtual meet, Kirito agrees to go into GGO and help track down Death Gun.
There’s a few new characters as well. Besides the villainous ‘Death Gun’ who is set to be the antagonist of the series, there are two other characters are are shown briefly but not named, one weilding a lightsaber-esque bladed weapon, and the other behind a massive sniper rifle. It’s not entirely clear yet who the new faces in the show are, but we can presume that given how much screen time they get in the end credits roll, they’ll be important parts of SAO II.
In Summary:
Fans have been excited for the return of SAO ever since rumors began to fly that we’d be getting more worlds created by The Seed in anime form, and so far, the first episode doesn’t disappoint. Beautiful animation, an intriguing world and a mystery that feels like the best suspense movies, if SAO II delivers like this every week it’ll be one of the best shows in recent memory. Kirito being brought back into the folds of the MMO world feels just like someone going to a retired cop because “you’re the only one who can do it”. His experiences in ALO and SAO leaves him in a unique position to assess and investigate the mysterious Death Gun, but he won’t be alone. There are some new characters as well that we’ll learn more about as the series rolls on, but the ties to the original series are strong. Names and experiences that were highlights from SAO I are brought up in passing and casual conversation, which means that if you didn’t watch SAO I, there’s a lot of context that will be lost. I’d suggest watching season one, and just ignore basically 95% of what happens outside of the game world in the second half (it has a subplot that is a particular irritating thing in anime that I despise, but if you can move past and ignore that, SAO was a strong show and the relationship between Kirito and Asuna carries it through to the end).
Technically the show is excellent – the designs, the animation, the music – all superb. This introduction sets up a compelling mystery and brings back many familiar faces, with some deeper mysteries about the long term impact of the events of the first season lurking the background. I’m looking forward to where they go from here, and really hope they keep the momentum going. The biggest issue with a lot of new shows is that they start strong and burnout or go in strange directions after the start, and end much weaker than they start.
Let’s hope SAO II doesn’t do that.
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Intel Alienware laptop, Windows 7, 25” HP2509m screen at 1920×1080 resolution
That sword wielder is kirito. His avatar had a glitch so he is a girl.
I’m already sick with KiritoxAsuna thing. I love seeing Suguha (Lyfa), Lizbeth, Silica that should be given more roles and scenes. SAO at its finest at the second-half where the story more focused and detailed whereas first-half’s kinda lame and boring (except for Sachi arc) IMO ~
SAO at its finest at the second-half?…. dont make me laugh.
Actually, he isn’t a girl. It’s a rare character type. At the beginning, he made sure he wasn’t a girl, and the other guy who wanted to buy his account said that the his male account was wort a lot.
Have you read the novels?