OTAKU DIGEST#2 SWORD ART ONLINE II
Hello and welcome to the latest instalment of Otaku Digest! Last week we opened up with one of the biggest animes of the season, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal, so in keeping with covering whats hot, this week I will be looking at the heavily anticipated second season of a little show that took the world by storm. Yes today we will be diving into my first impressions of Sword Art Online II.
Title: Sword Art Online II
Release date: July 5th 2014
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Director: Tomohiko Itou
Writer: Reki Kawahara
Okay, let me get this out of the way up front, Sword Art Online season one had a lot of problems, many of which can be attributed to that god awful second half. While the first half of the show was a somewhat generic shounen set in a MMO, it still had its moments and for the most part told an entertaining if oddly paced action story, rounding off episode 15 with a satisfying conclusion as the credits rolled. Then it continued. It’s rare to see a show drop so heavily in of quality so quickly, but Sword Art Online had quite possibly the worst second half I have ever seen, largely caused by a pointless continuation of a story that was already finished. The sheer madness that was spawned from that second half include a lazily written war for power, a forced incestuous love triangle and an almost tentacle rape scene( no, I am not kidding). Needless to say people were skeptical of this new season coming off the conclusion of the last season, myself included. So how is this new season? Have we gone back to that adventure for freedom? Or are we still stuck in Alfheim online? Lets find out.
As it is accustomed for a new arc in Sword Art Online, we need a new MMO for our heros to adventure in, and this time it’s a gun based MMO named Gun Gale Online. In this world a rogue player that goes by the name “Death Gun” has been hunting down the games top players and assassinating them. It seems like the horrors of Sword Art Online are returning, as the players who were shot by Death Gun in-game are found dead in their VRMMO headsets. Meanwhile, Kirito is living his life happily with Asuna, until one day he is approached by Seijiro Kikuoka, a representative of Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Depart “VR Division”. He asks Kirito if he will enter Gun Gale Online and track down this phantom killer to see if he actually has the ability to kill in-game. The premise is already a lot more engaging than the second half of season one, as the threat of death is back.
The first episode sets up the story and eases us back into the lives of Kirito and Asuna, while the second episode changes gears drastically, focusing entirely on one of the top players in Gun Gail Online, a blue haired sniper named Shino. This episode follows Shino on a mission with a group of other players to ambush a gang of hunters and was pretty much one long action sequence, which to be fair was very impressive.
Visually, A-1 pictures have stepped it up a notch due to the extreme popularity of the first season, meaning this season looks a hell of a lot better, and season one was still a pretty Anime to begin with. Gone are the sprawling green hills of Sword Art and Alfheim Online however, as GGO is a lot more modern in its world design. Massive neon cities and immense desert ruins make up this new world, filled with guns rather than swords or magic. I actually really like the look of GGO, as its finally something different from the generic fantasy worlds of season one. The new character designs on the other hand are a mixed bag. Shino’s design is a little odd, I mean I wouldn’t have picked crotch-less panties, but each to their own. Kirito on the other hand, well that’s a little bit more complicated. It hasn’t happened yet as of the shows airing, but Kirito is…a girl in Gun Gale Online. No, seriously. When he enters the MMO world, the computer registers his character as male, but gives him a female appearance. He has long hair, a more girlish face and feminine body. So we went from human to elf to…. girl? Of course, the only logical next step.
So in the character department we haven’t seen much of a change. We have the cast of the original season returning, including Kirito, Asuna and Kirito’s harem of anime girls ,who are all still fawning over him. Sadly yet again there isn’t really much for Asuna to do, seeing how Kirito is moving to GGO, so she is relegated to only being a love interest for Kirito,she’s barely even being featured in the opening. However, Asuna has been replaced by the new female lead, Shino. While we haven’t seen a whole lot of Shino yet, she seems to be quite the interesting character, using a massive sniper rifle to take down her foes with precision and tactics, showing how different the action of the show will be rather than the magic and swords of season one.
Sword Art Online II has started off slow and steady, but I think that’s a good thing. It’s already been two episodes and Kirito isn’t even in Gun Gale Online yet. Instead we spent time setting the story up and developing our new main female lead. Things could only go up after season one, and so far its looking okay
. The action is still extremely impressive, the music and world are interesting and the threat of death is back so we finally have a reason to care. With a 24 episode run time, I am hopeful that we don’t go down that dark road of season ones second half again.
