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 SEASON 1 SPOILERS/STATUS QUO FOR WAR OF UNDERWORLD BEHIND TAGS (mostly) Sword Art Online is a phenomenon. Some people love it, some people hate it, and a whole lot more internet people hatewatch it then make Youtube videos telling you how bad it is. Let's cut the poo poo, if you're in this forum, you know SAO. It's like the DBZ of isekai! ... ...okay, I'll do this right: If you somehow don't know SAO, here's the premise: what if MMOs were in VR? No...like true VR, we're talking next level fully immersive poo poo, not your Oculus. What if those MMOs had real high stakes? Like stakes where, oh say, if you died in the game, a microwave on your VR headset would fry your brain and kill you in real life? Do you like that? Welcome to the world of Sword Art Online, where people continue to play VRMMOs despite them being linked to over 3,000 casualties! Sword Art Online: Alicization is the newest entry in the now huge multimedia franchise that is Sword Art Online. It is based on light novels 9-18 of SAO and covers the Alicization arc of the story (naturally), which is what many fans point to as the high point of the series. Here is a Wikipedia summary Wikipedia posted:Kirito wakes up in the middle of a forest with no memories of how he came here. He deduces that he might have dived into none other than Underworld, a virtual world he had dived as part of his part time job but with the memories of his diving blocked by his employer and is supposedly very realistic that matches even the real world. While exploring the forest, he stumbled upon a boy named Eugeo, who is carrying out his job of cutting down a giant tree. The chance meeting between the two marks the beginning of Kirito's adventure into this mysterious world and here's a press blurb from Aniplex: Aniplex posted:"Where...am I...?" Before he knows it, Kirito has made a full-dive into an epic, fantasy-like virtual world. With only a murky recollection of what happened right before he logged in, he starts to wander around, searching for clues. Staff rundown Director: Manabu Ono Music: Yuki Kajiura Studio: A-1 Pictures Opening: "Adamas" by LiSA Ending: "Iris" by Eir Aoi Opening 2: "Resister" by Asca Ending 2: "Forget-me-not" by ReoNa Ending 2.5 (episode 19): "Niji no Kanata ni" (虹の彼方に Beyond the Rainbow) by ReoNa Opening 3: "Resolution" by Haruka Tomatsu Ending 3: "unlasting" by LiSA So I know what you're saying reading the above: "Volumes 9-18 of the novels? That seems awful long!" You would be correct. This son of a bitch is gonna be not one, not two, but FOUR COURS LONG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j4HzWIU6mY&t=14s GET READY! ahem... so let's talk characters. Actually first let's talk  SPOILERSPlease do not spoil anything past volume 9 of the LNs since that is what Alicization covers. Now as for the rest of the series... take off. SAO is a giant at this point, with light novels to manga to video games to spinoff anime to a feature film all branching from it. Feel free to talk about anything else from the franchise as long as it won't spoil this specific series. so anyway back to Main Characters:    Kazuto Kirigaya/Kirito (VA: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka/Bryce Pappenbrook) The man, the myth, the legend. Kirito is good at video games and just like real life this has scored him multiple girlfriends and potentially lucrative government jobs. This time around, Kirito is testing a new type of FullDive rig (that Kirito just loves him a beta test) called a Soul Translator for a company called Rath. And I'm sure nothing will go horribly awry and result in a "die in the game, die in real life" scenario. You'll notice that Kirito's in-game avatar has a little kid model in addition to the regular model. What's that all about? Oh friend, I'm sure we'll see. War Of Underworld: After fighting through the boss rush of Integrity Knights at the capital, and taking down the evil Administrator (and also losing an arm), Kirito finally got to an in-game administrative console that let him talk to the outside world. Unfortunately when he did, the station his body was in was under attack. Due to whatever terrorist group was attacking, a power surge went through the system, "frying his fluctlight (soul)". Kirito is starting this season catatonic and dead-eyed, with Alice as his caretaker. His sword's special ability is to shoot a big black beam, which I've never seen before. Okay that's not fair, technically his giant black beams also absorb energy, like the bigass tree from which it was created.  Eugeo (VA: Nobunaga Shimazaki/Brandon Winckler) Kirito and Alice's childhood friend, Eugeo is a wood cutter from Rulid Village. He's a very gentle character and is Kirito and Alice's friend. He claims to live in Underworld even though he seems to display more emotion than an average NPC. He was given the Sacred Task of cutting down Gigas Cedar. Season 2: Eugeo loving died after turning himself into the Dragoon from Kirby Air Ride (dare to compare) and slashing Administrator. As one of his final acts, he took Alice's original memory crystal and kid him walked into the sunset with kid her. Kind of selfish if you think about it, but whatever. He most likely won't be around this season, but death's never stopped some characters from appearing before (lookin' at you, Kayaba) or flashback episodes.  you sweet dull boy.Oh, and Eugeo (used to) wield the Blue Rose sword, which makes ice, but then when he uses its  Later pic:  Alice Zuberg/Alice Synthesis Thirty (VA: Ai Kayano/Kayli Mills) The daughter of Rulid Village's chief and third amigo in Kirito and Eugeo's posse. She's sweet yet inquisitive and she makes picnic lunches for the boys. Call me crazy guys but I think Alice might be important to this Alicization story. That's all I got, any more starts going into super spoiler territory. Season 2: So Alice got taken by the Integrity Knights, whereupon the evil Administrator took out her memories and replaced them with a new obedient personality with combat skills. After Kirito and Eugeo made her realize that everything she knew was wrong, she assisted them in defeating Administrator. Now she's caring for Kirito's comatose body/helping to hide him from the Integrity Knights who still want him dead. Oh, her sword's (called the Fragrant Olive Sword) special trick is that it can do Byakuya Kuchiki from Bleach's bankai.   Asuna Yuki/Asuna (VA: Haruka Tomatsu/Cherami Leigh) Kirito's girlfriend/internet wife and former female protagonist. Makes a mean sandwich. After getting a brief time to shine in the Mother's Rosario arc in SAO 2, Asuna seems to be taking the sideline again. Will the former flash shine again?... Season 2: Yes! After realizing Kirito had been moved outside of Japan, Asuna started a whole operation with all their friends to track down his location. Used some disguise skills to sneak into the Ocean Turtle facility and confront Kikuoka about his hosed up experiment. Is blabbing government secrets to the gang over the internet even though you'd imagine they'd want to not let her do that. Will she take a more active role this season? Maybe get in the game? Remains to be seen, though the OP seems to hint at it... then again OPs are known to hint at poo poo that doesn't happen all the time. Okay untagged spoilers for War Of Underworld start here:  Seijirou Kikuoka / Chrysheight (VA: Toshiyuki Morikawa/Matthew Mercer) Kikuoka was introduced in the Phantom Bullet arc as a government dude asking Kirito to solve how Death Gun could be killing people and stop him. After that whole song and dance was done with, he came back to enlist Kirito to test new VR hardware, the Soul Translator (STL) for a new company called Rath. Rath, as it turns out, was a branch of the JSDF, and after Kirito got poisoned he rushed in to do Kirito a solid and save him using the best technology available, the STL out on Kikuoka normally dresses in a suit like you'd expect of a government type but for basically the whole of Alicization, as soon as he got to the Ocean Turtle he decided every day was casual Friday, and just wears a kimono because gently caress it.  Takeru Higa (VA: Kenji Nojima/Brian Beacock) Higa is the Chief Developer of the STL and co-developer of Underworld. He seems to be a pretty nice guy who believes Project Alicization is good and not morally dubious at all. He's also working on developing a robot that can house AIs. That's about all we know about him right now.  Rinko Kojiro (VA: Sanae Kobayashi/Jennifer Losi) Rinko is the developer of the Medicuboid, a full dive VR rig for terminally ill patients. She's also a brilliant electrical engineer. Unfortunately, that all gets overshadowed by her being the ex-lover of Cyber-Hitler himself, Akihiko Kayaba. They were co-workers who fell in love, and when Kayaba started the SAO Incident, Rinko figured out where he was before any cops and went to kill him, but couldn't go through with it. Kayaba then put a bomb in her chest, supposedly to force her into helping him, but in truth it was just so she would have an alibi for aiding and abetting him whenever the cops eventually found them. Hey, speaking of whom, we should probably mention...  Akihiko Kayaba (VA: Koichi Yamadera/David Collins) Kayaba was the lead developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear used to play it. He's also a psycho who trapped 10,000 people in a video game in a "die in the game, die in real life" scenario that cost 3,853 people their lives and countless others to have some sort of hosed up psychological experience. He died in the game, but died in real life only after he did some super-scan of his brain to download himself into the internet that burned out all of his brain cells. Why'd he do it? By his own admission, he doesn't really remember. He's not a part of this series... yet. But Kayaba has shown up as a cyber-ghost on numerous occasions since the original SAO and frankly considering Underworld is both built off his code and the philosophical questions it's been raising about souls, I'd be surprised if he didn't show up.   Shino Asada/Sinon (VA: Miyuki Sawashiro/Michelle Ruff) Sinon was the female protagonist in SAO 2's first arc adapting the "Phantom Bullet" arc from the LNs. She's a master sniper and acted as Kirito's guide through GGO while helping him crack the Death Gun case. Later on she joined the rest of Kirito's Series Characters NOTE: The following characters have been featured in Alicization helping Asuna to locate Kirito, and prooobably won't show up again, but they are players throughout the rest of the series so you never know, there's both a small chance they will appear later and a larger chance you might end up talking about how you wish they were here/are glad they're not here   Suguha Kirigaya/Leafa (VA: Ayana Taketatsu/Cassandra Morris) Kirito's sister who is super in love with him but that's totally okay because they're actually cousins and that's legal in Japan and hey did you know the age of consent there is onlyNOOOOPE. Is responsible for the uncomfortable incest storyline in ALO and also the single most unintentionally hilarious scene I've seen in all of anime. Unlike the majority of the cast, she's actually good at swordsmanship in real life since she's been practicing kendo since childhood.* Also she has big boobs that the camera really likes to linger a lot when she's around and it's super-awkward. *however, if you count the movie, almost everyone's now good at swordsmanship in real life! Watch out Sugu, they're trying to make your skills obsolete!   Ryotaro Tsuboi/Klein (VA: Hiroaki Hirata/Kirk Thornton) The objectively best character in the series, Klein was a rookie that Kirito showed the ropes before SAO became life or death. Klein ended up separating from Kirito to form his own guild, Fuurinkazan. Klein is notable in that he led his clan to the highest part of Aincrad before it ended with zero deaths, which is pretty impressive when you think about it. Also because you could totally base the entire story on him and his guild learning the ropes and clawing their way to the top and it'd be sooo much better than following Kirito. At the end of SAO1, Klein finally got a pizza party, but in SAO2, he tried to gently caress a female NPC that turned out to be Thor. Life is suffering for Klein. Also, Klein is the only cast member to have a car (Kirito has a motorcycle and everyone else is either underage or just doesn't have one), so in the movie and any other scenes in the real world, a lot of people tend to bum rides with him.   Rika Shinozaki/Lisbeth (VA: Ayaha Takagaki/Sarah Williams) Lisbeth is a blacksmith and good friends with Asuna. Has a crush on Kirito. She fell for Kirito when she fell with Kirito, literally, to the bottom of a dragon's nest to make him a sword out of dragon poo poo. Like 2 seconds before she was about to confess her love to him, Asuna showed up and killed the mood. Now she just hangs out with them. Awkward.   Keiko Ayano/Silica (VA: Rina Hidaka/Christine Marie Cabanos) Silica is a dragon tamer who Kirito claimed reminded him of his sister. Now scroll up a bit and look at her then look at Silica again. Yeah I don't see it either. Anyway, while Silica never actually professed to love Kirito, it's super strongly hinted at, then at the end of season 1 she talks with Lisbeth about how one day they're gonna get Kirito (like, both of them? whoa.) Her adventure with Kirito was to save her dragon familiar, Pina (who also somehow transferred to ALO? weird), and led to what was one of the most infamous scenes in all of SAO. Oh, Pina can magically restore HP (albeit only very slowly so it's not good for heavy wounds or mid-combat) but that hasn't really come up since Silica's focus episode in season 1, so I doubt it'll be important.   Andrew Gilbert Mills/Agil (VA: Hiroki Yasumoto/Patrick Seitz) Agil decided risking his life was a bit... risky back in SAO, so he opened a general store and rode out the crazy. In the real world, he runs a cafe with his wife, and is just an all around chill dude. Also kind of acts as an informant at times, like passing on information to Kirito at the start of the Fairy Dance arc as though they were exchanging state secrets. Oh also if the name didn't tip you off, he's from a far off mystical land called America. and finally... ugh...  Yui (VA: Kanae Ito/Stephanie Sheh) Kirito and Asuna's virtual babby. Yui is a rogue computer program that basically came into existence because Kirito and Asuna had the bestest most purest love in the universe. She was found in a forest as an amnesiac girl, then on a quest she remembered her true AI nature, then the system recognized her as an anomaly (her original function was to kind of provide therapy for players and monitor their emotions, but that's not something you want in a death game, so she was intentionally disabled) and tried to purge her but luckily Kirito used his speedbrain to hack the Gibson and save her as an item stored in his personal Nerve Gear (the VR helmet he wears). She used to have hack powers but nowadays just hangs out as a little fairy with the gang. Still kind of useful for recon and I guess some people find her cute. Alrighty, finally, here's two trailers for you to watch, one for Alicization and one for War of Underworld https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHaHh_sX1IM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqp1vwV8usU And with that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t8jLB_kKoA Welcome back to Sword Art Online! TwoPair fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Jul 11, 2020 |
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Oct 2, 2018 05:38
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I am excited for new Sword Art Online  Dr. Gitmo Moneyson posted:Anyone who has never experienced Sword Art Online is missing out horribly, and you should correct that as soon as possible.
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Oct 2, 2018 06:01
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^That's still a very bad, garbage take. I'll be honest, I wish the OP was less biased in its presentation for viewers who never watched SAO before/are jumping on with the new one/more af sincerely enjoy the material, but that's the OP's decision I suppose...
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Oct 2, 2018 09:37
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Julias posted:^That's still a very bad, garbage take. i agree, nobody would ever actually want more sword art online
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Oct 2, 2018 11:16
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TwoPair posted:Eugeo (VA: Nobunaga Shimazaki) 
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Oct 2, 2018 11:52
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Julias posted:^That's still a very bad, garbage take. Sorry I came off as too sarcastic, I was mostly trying to strike an irreverent tone like a lot of the other OPs in threads I like around here. I might have the turned up the sarcasm a little too much. I do genuinely like SAO a lot and I certainly didn't want to make this as a straight up mock thread, though I'd have to be lying to myself (and readers) not to acknowledge that SAO has some very unintentionally funny scenes that it wants the viewer to take dead serious and Kawahari has some big writing flaws (first and foremost to me, his treatment of women). I wanted to write more about the plot of this actual season but every resource is either incredibly vague or a beat-by-beat plot synopsis and I too wanted to go in blind (maybe someone more versed in SAO could've/should've made a thread but I figured if no one had made one 5 days before air then somebody had to) TwoPair fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Oct 2, 2018 |
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Oct 2, 2018 12:43
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wow this series is still goingTwoPair posted:This son of a bitch is gonna be not one, not two, but FOUR COURS LONG. welp ok guess that's not changing any time soon TwoPair posted:Alrighty, finally, here's two trailers for you to watch although I think the first one might actually have a major spoiler but I'm really not sure (pssst, SAO superfans, is it supposed to be a big secret that Alice and Eugeo are AIs?) in that video it looks like kirito gets stabbed by that lethal injector thing, so... quote:Kirito wakes up in the middle of a forest with no memories of how he came here. guesswork in spoilers in case the guesses are correct and turn out to be spoilers is he dying and they stuck him in virtual land for some reason? so he loses his memories so he doesn't know he's dead or dying and the PV said that all the AIs "are indistinguishable from humans" so maybe they're people who died from being injected with that stuff? or maybe people who died in Aincrad? and Alice is someone who remembers that? where the red fern gropes fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Oct 2, 2018 |
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Oct 2, 2018 13:51
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I'm strapped in for Kirito's Wild Ride.
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Oct 2, 2018 14:15
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Julias posted:^That's still a very bad, garbage take. You’re a very bad garbage take.
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Oct 2, 2018 14:38
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I like to think at this point that my liking of SAO has become sincere, but is just for reasons the creators did not intend.
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Oct 2, 2018 14:40
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I'm almost done with the novels for this arc and I think the opening, what the first episode is probably gonna cover, is the most interesting when you don't know what the hell is going on without having read any of the plot blurbs. Looking forward to the adaption, especially if they can streamline some things that kinda drag on in the novels.
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Oct 3, 2018 19:41
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Yeah just reading the blurbs I thought "man I feel like I've been spoiled already"
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Oct 3, 2018 22:40
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https://twitter.com/FUNimation/status/1047509924304093185 Looks like Funimation got the license off Aniplex US.
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Oct 4, 2018 19:20
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For those interested, SAO Abridged episode 13 is up on youtube now. Maybe this time it won't get taken down.
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Oct 5, 2018 19:55
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It's live on Hulu.
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Oct 6, 2018 18:49
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(One of the NPCs from Fatal Bullet appears in the background) Oh okay, cool I guess? (The loving logo of the game is plastered on a building) WHAT
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Oct 6, 2018 19:34
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They really extended the GGO scene which I wish they'd just spent on the previous section since it felt really condensed. It was pretty cool though, gotta admit.
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Oct 6, 2018 19:41
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Ah, I missed the super dull beginning of season info dump in a restaurant. That's SAO!
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Oct 6, 2018 19:48
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When they were in GGO I wished I was watching Alternative instead. Luckily judging by the OP I'm guessing we're not going to spend much more time there. I loved the brain tubes soul light technobabble. SAO science is the best 
Sindai fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Oct 6, 2018 |
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Oct 6, 2018 20:08
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I dunno if Eugeo will be enough to fill the wide gaping void left by pinku but we'll see
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Oct 6, 2018 23:40
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Waffleman_ posted:(One of the NPCs from Fatal Bullet appears in the background) I just got to this scene and I thought "Did they rebrand GGO as an SAO spinoff?" but then I read your post and realized/remembered Fatal Bullet was a real life game and now my mind is reeling at how this works in-universe. Other thoughts:
Anyway I'm totally down so far, especially since it looks like the rest of the gang will be more involved (at least I'm guessing just because of them being in the title sequence) than just a token appearance in the opening GGO bit. TwoPair fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Oct 7, 2018 |
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Oct 7, 2018 02:03
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I watched the episode and I honestly don’t even know why since it was boring as gently caress lol Goddamn I remember why I hated this show in the first place. I might just hate watch the entire thing now
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Oct 7, 2018 02:19
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The episode didn't have much business being 47 minutes long, really.
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Oct 7, 2018 02:22
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TwoPair posted:Ryotaro Tsuboi/Klein (VA: Hiroaki Hirata/Kirk Thornton)
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Oct 7, 2018 02:39
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I can't believe Kirito is loving dead.
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Oct 7, 2018 04:30
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Raxivace posted:I can't believe Kirito is loving dead. I know right. Guess this is the (superior) Klein show now.
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Oct 7, 2018 04:53
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This series just makes me want an anime adaptation of The Evil Within
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Oct 7, 2018 09:59
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YEEES MY SUFFERING CAN BEGIN. HOW TRASH WILL IT BE THIS TIME?
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Oct 7, 2018 13:21
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Admittedly I was a tad tired and a tad tipsy, but I did fall asleep during the first half of the unexpectedly double-length first episode.
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Oct 7, 2018 17:29
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Postal Parcel posted:That's weird. Your description for Agil ended up in Klein's. You may want to fix that OP! I WILL DO NO SUCH THING SIR Also in news of other SAO content: https://twitter.com/Anime/status/1048588708117708800 quote:Players take on the role of Kirito and enjoy day-to-day activities with Asuna like going on a picnic, going to the beach, going to a hot spring, and sleeping in the same bed together. 
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Oct 7, 2018 20:42
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boy that heart monitor thing is creepy and seems kinda out of left field anyway i got sold on this because the op was so good and thankfully the big conflict here seems to be motivated by goofy season 1 remnants instead of stuff from s2 which i skipped. looking forward to more adventures in technology-is-religion/magic wonderland.
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Oct 8, 2018 03:12
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TwoPair posted:Also in news of other SAO content: Never change, SAO.
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Oct 8, 2018 04:11
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Jesus gently caress watching this was like returning to some chuuni bullshit I thought was way out of fashion already. I hate most of the stupid cameo characters that were shown. The beginning was extemely creepy territory with literal age soul whatever the loving regression But I honestly was intrigued thanks to the beginning. Also Kirito and Asuna have absolutely zero chemistry going on but I'll give credit to the series for having a longest running relationship between two characters in anime that I can think of instead of tropey "Will they or will they not" bullshit. Also holy poo poo Asuna and Kirito running into battle was more cringy and awkward than anything I can think of.
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Oct 8, 2018 04:43
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Dessel posted:Jesus gently caress watching this was like returning to some chuuni bullshit I thought was way out of fashion already.
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Oct 8, 2018 05:06
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Is this the thread to post about how cool I actually am and how ironically I'm watching SAO? I am very cool and interesting, if I was in this shonen anime I would kiss all the girls and the boys because I am very cool, I'm only going to enjoy this ironically because I am very interesting. Thank you.
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Oct 8, 2018 21:32
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Yes, we take all kinds
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Oct 8, 2018 21:39
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sao isn't great but it isn't nearly bad enough for me to watch ironically. i have incredibly high standards for godawful trash media.
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Oct 8, 2018 21:54
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SAO is entertaining enough that I don't think it's bad, even if its not good.
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Oct 8, 2018 21:57
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There's definitely a lot worse out there, and SAO is at least fun to watch.
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Oct 8, 2018 23:29
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Yeah, even though I shat on the episode and series earlier I do generally speaking enjoy SAO. KIrito didn't even start bugging me in season 1 yet, but him solving everything and not having believable character faults (that aren't lovely this character is unbelievably dumb so that we can have a story arc) that he could grow as a character is a problem. Or even having some traits/personality to speak of. I'm not hatewatching or watching this series ironically. I am intrigued and carefully hoping that they do some interesting world building or plot lines. The previous GGO series had some promise too but didn't really take its characters anywhere interesting, even though there was good potential to be had. I feel if GGO had done something (not necessarily romantic) with Llenn's and M's relationship it would've been neat seeing them interacting in various ways.
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Oct 8, 2018 23:56
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