Random Thought (January 23, 2013 at 09:15PM)

Random Thought 237

Based on the first 2 episodes, my tentative scores for the Winter series I'm following:

Senran Kagura: 6/10 (Fine)
-Too much fan service, so many jigglypuffs, not so interesting plot, all-girl shinobi main characters, meh fights, I just like the fact that Makise Kurisu's (Steins;Gate) VA is also voicing one of the characters here.

Tamako Market: 8/10 (Very Good)
-Funny series, an anime for all ages, talking bird, very informative with regards to making rice cakes (mochi), very splendid and jaw dropping animation by KyoAni, moe–everybody loves moe characters.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT (Haganai NEXT): 8/10 (Very Good)
-Enjoyed the last season, the funniest of the winter season, love the characters–everyone is unique, Meatier, love Yozora's short hair, Rika's not wearing her glasses is surprisingly cuter for her, best (for matures) harem anime ever.

Photo: Everyone's favorite trap, Yukimura (Haganai)

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Random Thought (December 23, 2012 at 08:08PM)

Random Thought 206
SWORD ART ONLINE (Anime): Final Thoughts

I will not do a thorough review on SAO, since there have been several already online after the final episode aired. I'm writing this entry to show my final thoughts about the series.

If you're my frequent reader, you've already known that at first I thought that this series was a massive rip-off of the light novel slash anime Accel World, since at that time where I got bound to the plot of SAO I was currently watching AW. But after some researching, I found out that both of these series are actually written by only one same author, Reki Kawahara-sensei.

At first, I wasn't really expecting much of this series. I just decided that I just have to give this series a try since I currently have no plan-to-watch series during the Japan Summer 2012 season. In the end I picked-up 3 Summer 2012 shows, 2 were unfortunately garbage for me which in the end I rated 5 and 6. Good thing though these 2 shows are only 1-cour series so that means they only have more or less 12 episodes. SAO on the other hand is a 2-cour show which we all know has 25 episodes all in all. After watching the first episode of SAO, I was hooked up already but as the side stories were shown I was somewhat got bored until the story gets back to the Aincrad arc by more or less episode 7 or 8.

Since I got really hooked up with the Aincrad arc I decided to give the light novel a try. I also did this with Fate/Zero but unfortunately I discontinued it. Surprisingly enough I was able to finish my first light novel volume ever which was of course, SAO Vol. 1: Aincrad. Even though I didn't actually like the side stories in the anime, I also gave the 2nd volume a try. Vol. 2 covers the side story of the Aincrad arc. I must say I enjoyed the side stories in the light novel a lot more than the anime. I was reading it and without noticing I was able to catch-up with the anime pace in short time. I finished reading the 2nd volume before watching the finale of Yui's arc. Then after that I got passed through the Fairy Dance arc, Volumes 3-4. I was able to finish it before this arc aired in the anime. At that time, I felt so proud of myself since I myself is not really a bookworm. During the time when I was reading Fairy Dance, I decided to hold it after finishing it since I believed that the anime will only cover up to Fairy Dance. But since I was so hooked up with the light novel I continued reading the Phantom Bullet arc, Volumes 5-6, and then I got through the 7th volume where the story is in Asuna's POV, titled Mother Rosario (Mother's Rosario in some translations). Unfortunately at the moment I'm stuck with yet another side story volume, Vol. 8: Early and Late. I just wish I can finish it real fast since I really really really want to move on to the Alicization arc already!! XD

So, enough with my first light novel experience. Let's talk about the anime itself. As I have said, this anime contains 25 episodes. If you read the plot beforehand, you'll probably think that that 25 episodes will consume the death game called, Sword Art Online as a whole. To be honest, this was also my first impression. I really have no idea how this was going to end since I found out that the LN is still ongoing and I never really thought that the story of SAO isn't only about the VRMMO SAO. As of now, SAO LN features 4 VRMMO games, Sword Art Online, Alfheim Online, Gun Gale Online, and the current one in the LN, UnderWorld. The anime covered the two VRMMOs, SAO & ALO. SAO (Aincrad) arc covered the first 14 episodes whilst the ALO (Fairy Dance) arc covered the remaining 11 episodes. To be honest, I'm really frustrated on how the producers really rushed the SAO arc. I mean this was indeed the signature arc of the series and this can only mean that they should put all their resources and effort here. I even heard from a classmate of mine that he too was kind of pissed off. Since he didn't read the LN, he didn't even know or had the slightest idea that SAO would end in ep. 14 already. What I only said to him at that time was that, the Light Novel delivered it really well in comparison with the anime. Since the LN was more with words and thoughts from our hero, Kirito, we can actually feel what he feels and we can really feel the fight scenes even more. Thus the readers will never be left off with a negative thought about the series as a whole.

Now let's talk about the music used in the anime. Since SAO is a 2-cour series, one can expect that it will have 2 opening and ending songs. First was the opening song titled, Crossing Field by LiSA. I have known LiSA far long during the Angel Beats! anime so I was really looking forward to her new song when I heard that she'll be the one performing it. And I was never wrong, another epic song from LiSA right after her previous opening single with Fate/Zero almost a year before. The first ending song on the other hand is titled, Yume Sekai (Dream World), which is performed by Haruka Tomatsu which took me a while to find out that she is the seiyuu (VA) of our beloved heroine, Asuna. Kill me now, but I find the ending sequence a little boring since it just focused in one scene, Kirito and Asuna posing opposite with each other whilst the camera is rolling downwards until the song ends. But sure enough the song is really relaxing and comforting at the same time. Might I add, that I really love Amanda Lee's English fandub version of Yume Sekai. If you're interested, you can find her fandub version on YouTube. Lastly, the 2nd opening and ending songs. The 2nd opening song is titled, INNOCENCE by Aoi Eir. Another familiar artist again for me since her debut single is Fate/Zero's 1st ending song titled, MEMORIA. Also, the 2nd ending song which is titled Overfly, was also performed by another artist who performed Fate/Zero's 2nd ending song, Sora wa Takaku Kaze wa Utau, by Luna Haruna. I'm really glad that I'm seeing connections with Fate/Zero and SAO since I'm a huge fan myself of Fate/Zero. Another connection between SAO and Fate/Zero is that the OST of the two are composed by none other the legendary, Yuki Kajiura. I'm a huge fan of her's as well. Her composition really suits dark themed anime which features epic fights, deaths and the likes. And not only that, she can also do calming compositions as well! I'm really psyched to acquire the OST of SAO once it's released by next year!

Okay last but not the least, the characters! Since this series is really aimed for boys or men, majority of the characters are female. Yes, Kirito is such a womanizer! Even his girl cousin fell in love with him, what the hell? But what I like most with Kirito is that he only sticks with his one and only Asuna. In fact I can only name a few male characters in their group of friends besides Kirito: Klein and Egil! And the rest are females, Asuna, Leefa, Silica, Lizbeth, Yui, etc.

Let's wrap things up already since this entry is pretty long as we speak. Lastly, I want to say that I'm really proud myself that Sword Art Online is the 200th anime that I have completed watching (according to MAL). It has been a fun filled 5 months. I'll miss the every weeks that I had waited for a single episode of Sword Art Online. I'm really looking forward to the Phantom Bullet story arc! I really do hope that this arc gets a full 2-cour season. «LINK START!»

Since it lacked in some terms and areas, I'll give Sword Art Online anime a 9 out of 10 (GREAT!) score.

(08.Jul.12 to 23.Dec.12)

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Random Thought (November 15, 2012 at 11:09PM)

Random Thought 168
(Sword Art Online Episode 19 Review: The Lugru Corridor)

Spoiler Alert: This review may contain some spoilers!

In this episode, Kirito, with Leefa’s assistance, is on his way to the world tree in his mission to save his beloved Asuna from her extended suffering after the SAO nightmare incident. We see here that the two are getting along really well, with Leefa starting to fall for Kirito. We all know that in the real world Leefa and Kirito are siblings/cousins. Let’s just stick with siblings since they lived for so long that they had known to be sibling. But at this point in time in the present, they still do not know one another in real life since their avatar are not the same as their real life self as what had happened in SAO before. Kirito still do not know that his little sister, Suguha is in fact playing a VRMMO game.

Kirito just said that he really needs to go up to the world tree without mentioning Asuna’s name. If he mentioned Asuna to Leefa, then she would definitely know that he is her brother Kazuto. Since Kirito thinks this is really a confidencial matter he avoids mentioning Asuna to anyone who he do not know. We’ll just wait and see if they will be finding out each one’s real identity soon!

Later in the episode, Kirito and Leefa are confronted by the Salamander army again. This time the Salamander’s number of soldiers is greater than before with healers on their alliance also This heavily makes Kirito and Leefa’s side on the disadvantage. Leefa assists Kirito by healing him every once in a while, while him rushing towards the Salamander army. This did not help much, but when all hope seem to be lost, Kirito remembers an illusion magic.He uses this magic by making himself look like a monster towards the army’s perspectives. Kirito goes berserk while in this state. The monster Kirito projected to the army is somewhat looks like the Gleam Eyes boss in Floor 74 of SAO. I’m not really sure if it’s just an illusion magic but it really looked so real, considering it destroyed the army as what a monster would actually have done. It also left a trace of destruction at the end. If it was only an illusion then why did Kirito felt a change in his form after he changed back to normal? Well, I’ll just leave it that way without pressing any more minor details. The thing that was really funny was that Yui seems to be enjoying her papa’s going berserk while he devours every single one of the army. While at it, Leefa on the other hand felt a bit intimidated by Kirito’s look.

After the the turned around battle, Kirito and Leefa confront the last Salamander left and ask their purpose. In return, Kirito proposes to trade the winning items he got from the last battle. It turns out that the reason that they were ambushed was because of what had happened during the first encounter of Kirito and Leefa in the game of ALO. They defeated a subleader of the Salamanders. This ambush can be called as a revenge for what had happened.

Prior to the ambush, Leefa received a private message from Recon. The message ended with the letter “S” which made the entire message not entirely understandable. Leefa decides to logout after arriving the town of Lugru, and plans on contacting Recon in the real world. As she speaks to Recon IRL by phone, she finds out that Recon is being held captive by the Salamanders so he was forced to logout. He also mentions that their fellow alliance, Sigurd, is working behind their back with the Salamanders. He tells that the Salamanders plan on attacking on the alliance formation event of the Slyphs and Cait Sith which will be held soon.

The episode ends with Kirito getting a bit sidetracked from his real mission by helping Leefa’s race and alliance in return for her guiding him to the world tree.

I noticed while watching this episode that the pacing with respect to the light novel is getting faster again. The 3rd volume of the LN will pretty much cover until the next episode then the 4th volume will cover up from there up to the final episode which is episode 25. I’m still not sure how will the animation studto A-1 Pictures will be able to compress the entire volume into only 5 episodes. The 4th volume concludes the Fairy Dance arc (aka ALO arc) so it’s pretty crucial when it comes to covering the most important parts in the anime. Well, as I have heard before, nothing is impossible when it comes to anime. I believe in this too, so let’s just see how can A-1 pictures and its staffs deal with this matter.

And yes, no Asuna in this episode. We will surely see her again next time so don’t worry. The question still remains, will the passcode she acquired will help her escape?

So yep, that wraps this episode of SAO. Until next time again! 🙂

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Random Thought (November 04, 2012 at 07:43PM)

Random Thought 157
(Sword Art Online Episode 18 Review: To the World Tree)

Spoiler Alert: This review may contain some spoilers!

Firstly, let’s talk about the opening theme. If you have not already noticed, Sugou Nobuyuki’s part in the opening has been minorly re-edited to reveal his avatar in ALO reflected by the mirror behind him. Right after I noticed that something is different in the opening, I immediately played an older episode, specifically episode 15. And I was right, there is a slight difference. It’s a major spoiler in the series so I’m glad that the animators did not reveal it in the opening of the earlier episodes until Oberon (Sugou’s ALO avatar) was officially revealed.

I’m expecting that the people who are reading this review already watched the previous episode. In the last episode, Lyfa and Oberon’s true selves were revealed. Suguha, Kazuto’s imouto, being Lyfa while Sugou Nobuyuki being the Fairy King Oberon of ALO. To be honest, as I was reading it in the light novel before, I was extremely shocked to see that Suguha is actually playing a VRMMO game, and is actually Lyfa’s real life self. Oberon on the other hand, I was not that surprised considering he and Sugou have the same mannerisms in treating our beloved Asuna. Since these facts are revealed in the previous episode, I am free to put these facts in my future reviews.

In this episode we see Suguha’s point of view in the real world. We see her doing her usual stuff at school and there’s even a part where she stumbles upon with Nagata Shinichi (Recon IRL) on her way. It’s funny when Suguha acts so harshly towards Nagata, when he calls her Lyfa and by her first name while adding the suffix -chan to it.

There’s a part also in the episode where Kirito and Lyfa take turns in logging out. Since they cannot logout immediately in neutral areas and monsters might attack them, they have to take turns in order to watch over the other who is currently offline. As the story is being told, neither of the two know each other’s true self in real life yet, and we all know that they are actually Kazuto and Suguha respectively. It’s funny to know that the two of them are actually in FullDive under the same roof. Being said, the story gets more exciting from there.

And last but not the least, we see Asuna again in this episode. Yes, she is being harrassed again by that scumbag Oberon. If you remember in last week’s episode, Asuna tries to look at Oberon’s index finger as it pushes the keypad buttons of the electronic lock, and see what the code combinations are. She failed at that time since her field of vision wasn’t able to reach that far and was only able to view the pixelized imagery of Oberon’s hand. But this time around, although not well explained in the anime but in the light novel, Asuna faces a huge mirror with the exact angle so she can see Oberon’s direction as he pushes again the keypad buttons. By doing so, she was not restricted by her field of vision and she was able to memorize all the codes completely. Question is, will she successfully escape? Well we’ll surely find out in the next episode! 🙂

So, I’m back on track again with the reviews. Hoping I’ll stick on track again in the future episodes. See you guys again!

«Signing Off»

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Random Thought (November 01, 2012 at 11:07PM)

Random Thought 154
(Sword Art Online Episode 17 Review: Captive Queen)

Spoiler Alert: This review may contain some spoilers!

Despite being a newbie in ALO and having low level equipments and weaponry, the fact that his skills in SAO were also imported to ALO, and ALO’s gameplay is based on real life skills rather than the level-up system, give Kirito a full advantage in this new VR game. Obviously considering from the last episode and the details given, Kirito defeats the Salamander fairies without breaking a sweat.

Being thankful and all for being saved, Lyfa grants Kirito’s request for going to the nearby city, called Sylvain—the Sylphs capital city. It appears to be that Lyfa is actually one of the Sylph faires. Along the way, Lyfa teaches Kirito how to fly without the use of the analog stick. Well obviously, Kirito is a fast learner and was easily able to fly without the aid of the analog stick. After ariving in the city of Sylvain, Kirito and Lyfa stop in a hotel and call it a day and then logged out from ALO. Lyfa’s real life self is revealed upon logging out. And since it’s kind of a major spoiler, I’ll leave it be like this.

Along watching the episode, I just realized that Lyfa
is also voiced by the same person who voiced Kirino Kousaka from Oreimo. It just made me wonder and thought that the tsundere voice of Lyfa kinda looked familiar. So I immediately searched the VA of Lyfa on MyAnimeList.net and looked for the VAs other character roles in some anime and I ended up with Kirino from Oreimo. If you have watched this episode of SAO and Oreimo, you’ll notice a resemblance and similarities between the two characters mentioned.

Moving on. This episode also focuses on Asuna being held captive inside a huge bird cage located on top of the World Tree. The person keeping Asuna captive is Oberon who actually considers himself the Fairy King of ALO. The episode title made a lot more sense when Oberon refer to Asuna as Titania, his Fairy Queen. So who exactly is this Oberon guy? The way he treats and harasses Asuna, will surely rage Asuna fans yet again. Wait, isn’t that a bit familiar? A major spoiler again but the hint I gave is quite obvious already. So who is Oberon’s other self? C’mon I know you know already!

So yeah, it seems that Lyfa will guide Kirito in to the World Tree in order to save Asuna. Lyfa asked Kirito for his own reason but Lyfa didn’t mind Kirito not telling her, and decided to help Kirito nonetheless. I’m pretty sure it’s all clear now ohow the story will go from here on out. This episode made it clearer. The only thing that bothers me with the past episodes of the ALO, is the lack of introductions and stuff that were clearly explained in the light novels. But I think you can just Google them for further details.

That’s that for this week’s episode review. I tried to minimize the spoilers as you can see, and because of it this week’s review isn’t as long as it used to be. Until next time!

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Random Thought (October 24, 2012 at 11:41PM)

Random Thought 146
(Sword Art Online Episode 16 Review: Land of the Fairies)

In the last episode we were left with a cliffhanger where Egil sent a picture attached to an email to Kazuto. The picture contains a pixelated figure of a fairy girl that is trapped inside a somewhat huge bird cage. That fairy really resembles Asuna, that made Kazuto really surprised from what he saw.

Continuing from that part, Kazuto goes to Egil’s in-real-life restobar. Yes, it is revealed that in real life, Egil also runs a shop although not as your typical merchant in SAO but as an owner of a restaurant bar. Although it was not clearly explained in the anime, during the 2-year absence of Egil in the real world, his wife took over of the business. As Egil explains to Kazuto about the photo he had sent him, he slides off an unfamiliar VRMMO game ROM to Kazuto. The title of that game is called, ALfheim Online. It is an online game in which characters are designed as fairies and have the ability to fly. Being very unique to the other VRMMOs, this game has no level-up system. All traits and skills are solely based to the character’s real life athletic skills. That means players who are good in physical activities have the higher advantage of this game. It turns out that the photo that Asuna was in was taken as a screenshot by some players in the game. Knowing it now, Kazuto asks Egil if he can have that copy of the game, Egil willingly accepts. Even though there is now a next generation full drive system called the Amusphere, ALfheim Online (ALO) is still compatible with the Nerve Gear since the two are still somewhat the same, although the former has a higher security protection than the latter.

Kazuto immediately logs in to the game by the time he goes home. Since Kazuto has not read anything about the game making him very unfamiliar to the game, he chooses an avatar class, among the several, that suits him. He chooses the Spriggan class fairy that closely resembles his old black swordsman avatar in SAO. In my opinion, it would really be helpful to read the light novel in order to fully have a background about the fairy classes in ALO plus the map, etc.

Upon logging in with the same name Kirito which he also used in SAO, Kirito experiences a bit of a malfunction in his starting place inside the game. Instead of landing off to the Spriggan territory, he fell down to an unknown forest. Later, he realizes that his skills from SAO are somewhat imported also to ALO but most of his items are unreadable except for the tear shaped pendant he had treasured the most. He activated the item, and it formed into a young lass. That young lass is revealed to be Yui, whom Kirito and Asuna had met in their living together in SAO. You might think how they got imported to ALO right? Yui explains to Kirito that ALO follows the same program as SAO and that it’s actually a copy of SAO that was why Kirito’s skills that were saved in his Nerve Gear were imported to ALO. As we all know that Yui is just an artificial intelligence created for SAO, Yui explains again that her role in ALO now is to navigate players as a navigating pixy. And so, after knowing it, Kirito asks for which is the closest town to them. Yui replies, that the Sylvain, which is a territory of the Sylphs, is the closest one from their current coordinates.

Being still a newbie with the flying ability, Kirito crash lands in the ground just to see and finally meet our new heroine of the series, who is named Lyfa. It turns out Lyfa is being cornered to death by some Salamander class fairies. The episode ends with Kirito defeating one of the Salamader fairies in order to save the yellow-haired-in-green girl, named Lyfa, who have yet to introduce herself to Kirito.

So far, I am absolutely enjoying the Fairy Dance aka ALO arc adaptation from the light novel. Everything so far is flawless in terms of animation delivery—which made up for the loss of some thorough explanations of stuff that were told in the light novel. I really apologize for the delay of this review. Until the next episode review of SAO! 🙂

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Random Thought (October 14, 2012 at 06:36PM)

Random Thought 136
(Sword Art Online Episode 15 Review: Return)

Spoiler Alert: This review may contain some spoilers!

I have decided not to compare this episode to the light novel this time since I don’t see any differences between the two anyway. The pacing of this episode is actually good that it needn’t have to be compared to the light novel.

It’s a start of a new beginning, as Kirito finally wakes up from his long journey in the wold of Sword Art Online, the game of death. In the last episode, Kirito and Asuna bid fairwell as they were both witnessing SAO’s destruction as each floors from bottom to top of the castle floating in the sky, Aincrad, were being destroyed.

After 2 months since the end of SAO, Kirigaya Kazuto (known as Kirito in SAO) finally recovered his health from rehabilitation. Here we are finally introduced to Kirigaya Suguha, Kazuto’s little sister which in the past episodes was revealed to be his cousin. Kazuto was adopted by his Aunt Midori when his parents died in an accident. Kazuto grew up knowing that Suguha and Midori was his real sister and mother until he turned 10 when he found out the truth about it.

In the first episode of SAO, we were shown a glimpse of Suguha as she was about to go on to her kendo practice whilst informing her brother about her leave. It turned out that in the past before the SAO incident, the two weren’t that close to each other. It was when Suguha took over the kendo inheritance while Kazuto became addicted to MMORPGs that their closeness to one another was separated greatly. After the SAO incident, things greatly changed as the two finally able to act like siblings again. They were now able to interact with each other like the old times.

In one scene of this episode, Kazuto challenges Suguha in a kendo sword fight match. Suguha, seems really surprised, accepts the challenge. Kazuto shows off his weird swordsman stance and dashes off to Suguha. Surprised again, Suguha blocks off Kazuto’s attack. While both giving strikes to one another, Suguha uncontrollably hits Kazuto’s head with great force. Suguha feels really sorry but Kazuto says he’s fine and jokingly tells that the final blow was even stronger to defeat Heathcliff.

So you’re wondering where Asuna is? Put it simply, it is revealed that Asuna is still in a coma after the SAO incident and is still being held captive in Full Drive. The question is why? Well, it will be revealed soon enough!

Kazuto visits Asuna in the hospital regularly. Kazuto found out about Asuna’s location after exchanging information with the ones investigating the SAO incident. During his usual visit this time, Asuna’s father goes for a visit together with Sugou Nobuyuki who appeared to be Asuna’s fiance. After being left alone together, Sugou tells Kazuto about his dark plot of using this opportunity to marry Asuna until she is still in a coma, since Asuna will definitely refuse if she has consciousness. Since Yuuki Shouzou (Asuna’s father) is the head of it, if he marries Asuna, a great opportunity for the RECTO Progress Inc. will be given upon him. He tells Kazuto why he deserves to be Asuna’s husband by telling he’s the one supplementing Asuna’s existence after the abolishment of SAO’s servers, by using RECTO Progress Inc.’s technology as a helping tool. Kazuto, feeling pain and anger at the same time, Sugou tells him that their wedding will be held the next week, then he leaves off by saying, “Enjoy your final goodbye, Hero-kun”. In his room, unable to withstand the pain in his heart, Kazuto bursts his tears in front of his sister, Suguha. She tries to comfort him by saying that he should not give up on the ones he love so easily. A slight affection of love towards Kazuto is seen in Suguha’s thoughts as she tries to comfort him.

Yes, apparently there will be a slight of higher than brother-and-sister love in this new story arc. It might be distracting to some cultures. It’s pretty common in manga/anime/light novel anyway, so I easily got used to it somehow.

The next day, Kazuto receives an email from Egil who used to be a merchant in SAO. The email contains an attached photo screenshot of a somewhat fairy girl held captive in a huge bird cage. Really surprised from what he see in the photo, Kazuto uttered the name, “Asuna!”.

And that ends the episode. Next, let’s talk about the new opening and ending theme. If you have not already noticed, they were both sung by the same artists who also sung the two ending themes for the anime Fate/Zero. Aoi Eir performed the opening theme titled INNOCENCE while Luna Haruna performed the ending theme titled Overfly. Both really exceeds my expectations. The opening theme has this charisma where Kazuto is crossing a pedestrian lane while taking his bike then facing back looking to the flying birds in the vast sky. Together with it, is the really epic zoom out effect while everybody around him seems to vanish. After which, everything changes, him to a Spriggan fairy and his surroundings to the world of ALfheim Online. Then comes the really well made title card of SWORD ART ONLINE as the camera faces the World Tree of ALfheim Online. So what is ALfheim online? Let’s just wait for the next episodes! The ending theme on the other hand features the new heroine of this series. You’ve guessed it! It’s none other than Suguha herself. It pretty much tells her story living with her mother and Kazuto. To be honest, I kept raping the replay button due to the epicness of both opening and ending theme. I really can’t wait for their singles to be released! You don’t say? 😀

So that concludes this week’s review of SAO. I really apologize if I gave so much spoilers again as I always have a hard time in making a spoiler-free review, considering what I’m reviewing is basically each of the episodes from the series.

«SIGNING OFF»

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Random Thought (October 12, 2012 at 10:22PM)

Random Thought 134

Watched the first episode of Robotics;Notes. Again, I totally have no clue on what's going to happen next as I don't wanna spoil myself from reading the very plot online. The only reason I picked this series is because of "Steins;Gate" which is also one of the SciFi VN series created by Nitro Plus. Having no clue whatsoever, I can pretty much say that it's a good start for the series. The series is set in a not so distant future where handheld devices called PokeCom are widely used throughout the world. They can be referred to these days tablet devices although they are much too advanced. Based on the first episode, the two main characters are in a Robotics club which is currently facing a problem of being abolished. They need to prove that they are worthy of running the club by making and entering a giant robot in a robot event which will be held in 6 months.

I could say that Robotics;Notes' first episode is what really satisfied me and made me look forward to the entire series the most as compared to the other anime I picked up this season. And this will be my last anime to be picked this autumn season. I'll give my first impression for this series a score of an 8 out of 10.

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Random Thought (October 07, 2012 at 05:13PM)

Random Thought 129
(Sword Art Online Episode 14 Review: The End of the World)

Spoiler Alert: This review may contain some spoilers!

The End of the World—that is the title of this week’s episode of Sword Art Online. Deciphering the title you will only bound to one answer and that is the end of the floating castle, Aincrad, hence, the end of the game of death which is also known as Sword Art Online. The title is actually a spoiler, most especially to those who have not finished the first volume of the light novel yet. You will be surprised that the major plot of SAO only took place in the first volume of the LN with some of the side stories adapted from volume 2 and 8. Considering the fact that the LN has 10 volumes so far and ongoing, one might get curious what happens next after SAO right? I will keep this question unanswered as I cannot give the major spoilers now, can I?

So let’s start off in the light novel reader’s perspective for this episode. It kind of disappointed me in a bit that the really exciting feeling while reading it in the novel was just reduced so much in terms of how it got really rushed in the anime. Well, I cannot really blame the staffs behind it because of the 14 episode time constraints. I really do suggest that people should read the light novel since it’s more dynamic and really well told there. I mean you would also understand more the story’s concept in the light novel since it’s really deeply explained in Kirito’s point of view. And since this anime is based from a light novel, I’m really pleased to say that the adaptation is really good. Although being rushed in terms of how the story is being told, the anime adaptation stayed true to the light novel nevertheless.

I also noticed that the atmosphere during the “big twist” in the story is not as exciting as the ones told in the light novel. Maybe this is just me since then again I read the LN, but the mere fact that it was really rushed in the anime kinda ruined that so called “big twist” atmosphere. So what is this big twist? Watch the episode. I don’t wanna ruin you because of spoiling things.

So, did they really clear the game? Well, since the episode title already spoiled us, then yes, they successfully cleared the game. But how you say? Again, I’ll leave that to you. As a matter of fact it kinda surprised me as well while reading the light novel, since the players only still reached the 75th floor. And what Kayaba Akihiko had told the players in the past was that they need to reach the 100th floor and defeat the final boss in order to clear the game. The only answer I can give is: there is this unexpected thing that happened causing them to clear the game ahead of time. Yes, that’s it. A really great twist indeed that shocked the light novel readers, and now the anime watchers.

It was told that after clearing the game, all the players remaining have successfully logged out. According to Kayaba Akihiko, those who died in whichever world they were in, will never come to life, they will be gone forever. So in the end, players who died in the game, really died in reality. In that sense, what was Kayaba Akihiko’s true motive in creating that game of death? What he only told was that he want to create a world with bounds or rules unparalleled to the world we are in. He thought of creating a floating castle long before when he was still a child. This question was still left unanswered in the end.

I will end this week’s review by saying that I never really expected that this series will be a big hit. At first, I just decided to watch this anime because the plot attracted me. But I never really expected much from this anime. So the moral lesson? Don’t expect too much in the anime (or anything in this sense) you are watching because you might regret it. LOL!

So yeah, this does not end Sword Art Online just yet. A new story arc begins next week. Expect a new Opening and Ending theme! Stay tuned for my next (usual) review next week!

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Random Thought (September 30, 2012 at 06:47PM)

Random Thought 122
(Sword Art Online Episode 13 Review/Summary)

Spoiler Alert: This review contains some spoilers!

This episode continues to the main plot of SAO Vol. 1 in the light novel. In the first half of the episode we find the couple participating in a fishing event held by a man named Nishida. It is revealed that in real life Nishida works as an IT for a High-speed Internet company. He entered SAO in order to survey the game for network security and unfortunately been caught in this game of death. He asks Kirito and Asuna to help him catch the huge sea creature resinding in the lake. This part of the story was kind of rushed although the pacing is good considering it’s just some minor event in the whole main plot.

After the fishing event, the couple have recieved a message from Heathcliff asking assistance in clearing the 75th floor boss. Heathcliff reports that several members of the Knights of the Blood Oath went missing after entering the 75th floor boss stage. Accepting the request after first hesitating Kirito and Asuna goes off to the rendezvous point. There, they both meet two familiar faces, Egil and Cline. With Heathcliff’s command they enter the boss’s room. After entering, they stay still for a bit looking for the boss when suddenly something appeared from the ceiling. The boss’s appearance is somewhat like of a centipede with the name showing “The Skull Reaper” and having five HP bars. Players tremble in fear while the Reaper rushes to them. The Reaper goes beserk killing several party members in one hit. Being in the frontlines Kirito and Asuna head straight off to the Reaper only having able to do the defensive instead of inflicting heavy damage to it. Joining them are Heathcliff, Egil, and cline. They all uses all their might and skills to fight off the the Reaper.

So the episode ends in the cliffhanger. To be honest while watching the episode I was left astounded by the jaw dropping fight scenes that I have never visualized while reading the light novel. What made it more epic is Yuki Kajiura’s composition matchly attached to it. It’s like her composition was really made for it. Well you don’t say? I mean it kinda made me teary while watching the epicness that I can’t even explain by simple words. The same is true while I re-watched the 2nd episode which features the 1st boss fight.

Although I already have witnessed the conclusion of SAO in the light novels, I still feel very excited in the coming episodes. I am most especially excited of course for the epic conclusing of SAO. Comparing what I have visualized in the novel and how it is shown in the anime is what I’m rooting for and enjoying the most. It’s like having two different versions colliding in my mind with different thoughts but having the same idea.

Seeing that I have already completed all the 1-cour series this Summer 2012, I can say the Sword Art Online is the only anime that kept me from wanting more episodes. All of which are just plain crap for me.

«Don’t read if you haven’t finished Vol. 1 of the LN yet»
In the other note, as I have read in one of the forums in MAL, the episode titles for episode 15-17 have been revealed. Based from the title, it is confirmed that Sword Art Online anime will adapt the 2nd arc of the story which is the new VRMMORPG Kirito will be playing next, the ALfheim Online (aka ALO). ALO will immediately start on Episode 15 with the episode title of “Return”, thus ending the SAO story arc by next week! And also, expect a new opening and ending theme by episode 15. The new opening, “INNOCENCE” will be performed by Aoi Eir whilst the new ending, “Overfly” will be performed by Luna Haruna. If you have watched Fate/Zero you will notice that these two also contributed for the ending 1&2 of the said series.

That’s it for now. Until next week!

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