A shocking turning point
Creative Staff
Story: Reki Kawahara
Art: abec
Translation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
It’s been two years since Kirito entered another mysterious fantasy world and met the boy named Eugeo. At the Northern Centoria Master Swordsmanship Academy, the two of them have advanced to become upper rank trainee swordsmen. Now they spend their days training, aiming to one day earn the rank of Integrity Knight, the greatest peacekeepers in the human world. Soon, appropriate for their new ranks, both Kirito and Eugeo are assigned apprentices and they all deepen their bonds while perfecting their bodies and minds. But suddenly, an evil rears its head and threatens their peaceful lives. Eugeo tries to draw his sword to fight but he finds himself helpless as a message appears in words he can’t read. They say–SYSTEM ALERT.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
So, to be honest, this volume starts off as something of a drag. We rejoin Kirito and Eugeo as they’ve advanced just a bit at the academy, now having pages of their own, two young girls by the names of Ronie and Tiese. All the while, those noble bullies from the last volume have apparently taken the first and second ranks when the school year changed over. And so, what we’re treated to is some pretty generic stuff that’s essentially about Eugeo’s timid nice-guy nature clashing up against the haughty pride of the nobles in a world driven by will. Which is an okay setup, but it’s not all too interesting, and feels like a serious step down when we already saw Kirito defeat a more intimidating first-ranking opponent last time around.
Things continue on this way until about a third of the way through the book, when things take a rather serious and dark turn. To put it bluntly, the nobles essentially trap the girls in a situation where the laws of the world are going to let them straight up rape them, with Eugeo being forced to helplessly watch. Fortunately that doesn’t happen, but what follows is Eugeo breaking the Taboo Index to straight up chop of the arm of one of them, which Kirito follows up by chopping two arms off the other guy and sending him into a logic spiral that results in his death. It’s an absolutely brutal and shocking scene from start to finish, and most definitely succeeds in driving in its point of just how vile these characters are, and how twisted the rules of this world can be. And on top of that, it also succeeds in addressing the big complaint I had at the start of this volume, that things had become too bland and formulaic by completely and utterly upending the structure for the arc that had been laid out. That said… I do have one major issue with this whole section and the way things play out, and that’s that the girls are used more as plot devices than actual characters. Which isn’t a new issue for the series exactly, but it’s definitely a bit troubling, especially when using a plot point like this. We don’t really get to know them outside of a very little bit, and instead they just serve more as something to drive the anger of the protagonists above all else. If nothing else, it would have been nice to give them at least another scene or two of focus before getting to this point.
Our heroes then get a further shock when the Integrity Knight who comes to take them away for their crime is seemingly none other than Alice herself! But she certainly isn’t acting like her old self, instead seeming cold and distant. Will our heroes be able to escape from their imprisonment and solve this mystery along the way? And when Kirito finally comes into contact with someone who knows the true nature of this world, just what ramifications will that hold?
In Summary
This volume is an interesting one, as it starts off incredibly slow, only to have a heavy and powerful shift midway through. As a result, the first third or so is a bit on the dull side, but that serves to make the punch of the turn all that much stronger. And while I have some issues with some of the details surrounding it, this book absolutely does succeed at its goals, providing a seriously shocking and powerful scene, and an intriguing aftermath that really shakes things up. And so, I’m definitely left interested to see where things go next, which is more than I felt at the start of this book. So in the end, I’d say that while this book is not without its flaws, it’s definitely an interesting entry in the series that is worth experiencing.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: N/A
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 14+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: August 22nd, 2017
MSRP: $14.00
