“Code 871”
What They Say:
The battle with the Administrator has been won, but the forces of darkness will not wait for Kirito and Alice to recover before invading the Underworld. Unless the pair can rally, the world will experience destruction of unimaginable scale.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Mr. Yanai, why are you turning traitor? He explains that he’s not turning traitor. It certainly doesn’t look that way. He’s just following through with his own goal. Okay, what would that be? He’s simply carrying on the legacy of his boss, Mr. Sugou. Well, no wonder this guy is trash. Yanai also reveals that he was the one that gathered data for his research. He also comments that he was a fan of the virtual tentacle play. I didn’t need to know that last piece of information. Unsurprisingly, he’s also been the one leaking information to the Americans. He’s living the American dream! Higa drops his laptop during this conversation and Yanai proceeds to shoot him in the shoulder. Not cool man.
In the Underworld, Sinon doesn’t know how to react. She wasn’t expecting to see Subtilizer here. Subtilizer remarks that it’s fate. They were destined to see each other again. He regrets not being able to experience the sweetness of her soul in their previous encounter. But you know what? He can have a taste now! Oh boy, I wonder where this is going? He pulls Sinon towards him and she doesn’t resist. Why can’t she free herself!? Subtilizer whispers that he’s going to enjoy stealing her soul and pulls her in even closer. But before he can try anything else, a light flashes from around her neck and pushes her back. What the heck is that? Oh, it’s from Kirito! Yeah, even though he’s still a vegetable, Kirito managed to save Sinon just now. With renewed determination, Sinon is ready to fight Subtilizer. She randomly transforms her bow into her GGO sniper rifle. Okay!? She fires shot after shot and manages to hit Subtilizer. However, he’s able to heal quickly. He also randomly summons his gun from GGO. How are they doing this? I mean, I guess Sinon has a goddess account. But what about Subtilizer? At this point, I legitimately asked a friend who has read the light novels to explain it to me. He told me this episode cut out a lot of the explanations during this scene. Apparently, it all has to do with the willpower system. Oh yeah, I kind of forgot about that. Oops! Well, they still should have explained it here. Either way, the scene ended up feeling underwhelming to me.
On the battlefield, things are not looking good for Asuna’s group. They’re definitely the stronger group but they’re also greatly outnumbered. Maybe they wouldn’t be having so much trouble if they possessed stronger willpower! Yeah, let’s go with that. Rue is about to be defeated when Sakuya saves her. Unfortunately, she gets stabbed for her trouble. I think she just died. That’s a shame. Siune tries convincing any Korean or Chinese players that will listen that they’re being deceived. Eventually, some of the players are willing to hear her out. Particularly, Moonphase wants to know more. He’s soon joined by Mei. They both find it odd that the Japanese players are hackers when they look like they’re the ones trying to protect something. But they need some kind of proof to fully believe them. That’s when PoH starts riling up the masses again. Elsewhere, my favorite couple. Iskahn and Sheyta, are about to meet their end. Except they aren’t because Leafa shows up to save them! She commands Lilpilin to retreat with the pugilists. She’ll handle this. No matter how many enemies stand before her, she won’t let them win! Obviously, Leafa has strong willpower! We’ll let her terrible decisionmaking from earlier in the season slide.
On the Ocean Turtle, Kikuoka and Rinko discover something called “Code 871.” Hmm, isn’t that number on Yanai’s lab coat? 8(ya) 7(na) 1(i)? They quickly realize that he’s the traitor. How’s Higa doing? He’s not dead at least. It wasn’t Yanai’s intention to harm him. In fact, he wanted this to end smoothly with no one dying. Higa points out that he’d be killing Kirito. Oh, him? Yeah, he wants him to die. He killed his precious Administrator! Come again? It’s revealed that he fell in love with the Administrator. So, let me get this straight. He fell in love with the Administrator and helped her sabotage the project. Basically, everything he did was for his waifu. I can’t say this surprises me. I just want you all to know that I’m shaking my head in disappointment though.
Back at the Underworld, Asuna is about killed by one of the players until PoH commands them to stop. That was nice of him. Asuna surveys the battlefield and sees all of her friends gravely wounded. Poor Agi has got like three spears sticking out of him! Lisbeth begins crying in Asuna’s arms. She feels responsible for all of this. It’s not your fault, Liz! PoH is feeling generous and promises to spare everyone if they surrender. They protest at first but Asuna convinces them to do so. It’s more important to live right now. As a gift for surrendering, PoH tells Asuna that he was the one that tipped off her team about Laughing Coffin. Why would he do that? Because he wanted Kirito and the others to become murderers. That’s a dick move. Kirito has regretted that day ever since. Has he know? PoH wants to hear it from him. Kirito is rolled out in front of him. Well, this is probably a good time for him to wake the heck up!
After the credits, an SAO server starts up!?!?!?!? What’s up with that!?
In Summary:
This episode is an example of too many things going on at once. And despite all these moving parts, I never felt invested in anything going on. This may have worked in the light novels but it didn’t translate well into the anime. A lot of the big moments in this episode felt underwhelming. As I mentioned, a little bit of explanation in certain parts would have done wonders. There were more than a few instances that made me shake my head in disappointment, too. I’m not going to lie, some of them did make me laugh though…for all the wrong reasons. This is probably my least favorite episode of the War of the Underworld arc. I will be the first to admit that I’m mostly here for the flashy fights that SAO is famous for. That being said, not every episode needs to have one. All I ask from those episodes is to be entertaining or to move things forward. For example, the episode from the 1st cour where Lisbeth makes her speech to convince everyone to dive into the Underworld was great. That was a good episode. This one not so much. I’ll leave it at that.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, VRV, Funimation
