The Sanctuary

Entertainment => Anime => Topic started by: Prometheus on October 18, 2014, 05:30:29 am

Title: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 18, 2014, 05:30:29 am
Having just watched the pilot episode, World of Swords, I wanted to get my thoughts together before watching any more episodes. I really shouldn't have started a new series at 1 in the morning, because I am going to binge the fuck out of this one.

I am astounded by the level of detail in this show. Not the art, which is pretty good, make no mistake, but the tech. Lots of exposition explaining how things work, but it doesn't feel like a dry data dump, which is a rarity in these situations. Aside from the microwave brain interface (cringe) the user interfaces seem to be exactly what good game designers would come up with to take advantage of the tech. The bit about how the 'calibration' was used to mimic their real bodies was quite clever.

Non-tech stuff. I've always found the vilian who just wants to create chaos to be a weak plot catalyst. It can be done well (Hannibal, the Joker), and it's likely that there's more to it than what I've seen so far. Even though I knew what the upcoming reveal was, it was still chilling when the body count was handed down. The mirrors were a nice touch, playing with the whole 'online, no one can tell you're a dog' thing. The parting of the ways at the end of the episode was well done, and makes you feel a lot of sympathy for the characters, recognizing that being kind, even to someone friendly, can wind up getting you killed.

Again, I'm going to binge the rest of this, then report back. Does my first impression hold up to further developments? Does the villain have hidden depths? Are the characters I've seen secretly bastards? Does the writer get bored and just phone in the second half of the series? Some will be revealed in my next update.



And no, I won't be reviewing every series I watch. I liked Detroit Metal City, for example, but didn't have much to say about it.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on October 18, 2014, 06:24:32 am
Having just watched the pilot episode, World of Swords, I wanted to get my thoughts together before watching any more episodes. I really shouldn't have started a new series at 1 in the morning, because I am going to binge the fuck out of this one.

I am astounded by the level of detail in this show. Not the art, which is pretty good, make no mistake, but the tech. Lots of exposition explaining how things work, but it doesn't feel like a dry data dump, which is a rarity in these situations. Aside from the microwave brain interface (cringe) the user interfaces seem to be exactly what good game designers would come up with to take advantage of the tech. The bit about how the 'calibration' was used to mimic their real bodies was quite clever.

Non-tech stuff. I've always found the vilian who just wants to create chaos to be a weak plot catalyst. It can be done well (Hannibal, the Joker), and it's likely that there's more to it than what I've seen so far. Even though I knew what the upcoming reveal was, it was still chilling when the body count was handed down. The mirrors were a nice touch, playing with the whole 'online, no one can tell you're a dog' thing. The parting of the ways at the end of the episode was well done, and makes you feel a lot of sympathy for the characters, recognizing that being kind, even to someone friendly, can wind up getting you killed.

Again, I'm going to binge the rest of this, then report back. Does my first impression hold up to further developments? Does the villain have hidden depths? Are the characters I've seen secretly bastards? Does the writer get bored and just phone in the second half of the series? Some will be revealed in my next update.



And no, I won't be reviewing every series I watch. I liked Detroit Metal City, for example, but didn't have much to say about it.
Like in the abridged series, Kirito is an asshole in episode 2.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 18, 2014, 08:21:37 pm
Christ on crack cocaine! That was fucking GOOD. Forget good, that was SPECTACULAR! It took everything I love about Fullmetal Alchemist and Gurren Lagann, and did it better.

I got the chills. I cried. I laughed a bit. I raged at the heavens. I absolutely cried again. I bitched about the wholly unnecessary tentacle monsters.

All I have to say is that there was a bit of a tone shift in the Alfheim arc, a bit more fanservice, a bit lower quality, I think. When you have a big evil plan; show, don't tell, for maximum impact. Still fantastic.

This 100% unseats Death Note as my all time favorite. Normally, I'd be depressed when something this good is over, because there isn't any more. BUT THERE IS! Time to dive into the sequel series, because FUCK SLEEP.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: equanimity on October 18, 2014, 09:26:30 pm
Wait, there was a sequel series?  What's it called?!

so out of touch :(
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on October 19, 2014, 12:38:54 am
Wait, there was a sequel series?  What's it called?!

so out of touch :(
It's simply called SAO II.
So.... Gun Gale Online FTW!!
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on October 19, 2014, 12:40:07 am
Christ on crack cocaine! That was fucking GOOD. Forget good, that was SPECTACULAR! It took everything I love about Fullmetal Alchemist and Gurren Lagann, and did it better.

I got the chills. I cried. I laughed a bit. I raged at the heavens. I absolutely cried again. I bitched about the wholly unnecessary tentacle monsters.

All I have to say is that there was a bit of a tone shift in the Alfheim arc, a bit more fanservice, a bit lower quality, I think. When you have a big evil plan; show, don't tell, for maximum impact. Still fantastic.

This 100% unseats Death Note as my all time favorite. Normally, I'd be depressed when something this good is over, because there isn't any more. BUT THERE IS! Time to dive into the sequel series, because FUCK SLEEP.
You got a favourite episode/moment? For me if was the FUCkING AWESOME BATTLES!
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on October 19, 2014, 12:57:17 am
Also, if you want the really intense SAO rape scene, don't watch the English dub, watch the sub for Ep 24.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 19, 2014, 11:20:17 pm
I always watch the subs, if I can. Ideally, I'd like to eventually learn Japanese (not just for anime), and seem to be picking up a few words here and there.

Yeah, I originally meant SAO II as the sequel series, which is more like season two. But there is a genuine sequel series, Accel World. I hope it's good. SAO II is actually in the middle of new episodes right now.


-----
Edit: fixed name of sequel
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 19, 2014, 11:31:09 pm
Hmm, favorite moment. A few actually. The battle with the Skull Reaper (holy shit, that isn't just the stuff of nightmares, it's what causes nightmares to run away screaming in fear). Asuna standing there in her underwear while Kirito tires to explain to her that 'spend the night together' wasn't a euphemism. The dual wielding reveal was pretty awesome. And towards the end of the Alfheim arc where he hears Asuna's voice and just goes mindlessly berserk on the barrier.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 20, 2014, 12:01:20 am
Also, 16.5 :biggrin:

But really, it's as bad as everyone says it is.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: AstralPlane on October 21, 2014, 07:08:08 pm
Have to agree that the Alfheim part got to me a lil...not as good at the first bit but still made a great show..
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 21, 2014, 08:33:16 pm
I guess they were stockpiling the awesome for the Gun Gale Online arc, because it was pretty good.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: theKit on October 21, 2014, 08:43:28 pm
Sword Art Online sucks dick. The Elf arc ruined it for me. How the fuck are you going to take a badass female lead character and reduce her to a fucking mario princess?

The INCEST was also unnerving and unnecessary. The fairy villian guy was a fucking joke.

.hack//sign = 10x better.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 21, 2014, 09:30:53 pm
I agree with your points, but they weren't storybreakers for me.

Yes, the incest plot was kinda creepy, but less so from the right perspective:
As for turning Asuna into Princess Peach (seriously, I was thinking the exact same thing while watching it; it's a literal 'your princess is in another castle' plot), she wasn't just sitting there passively. She was scheming and plotting to escape, against impossible odds. She damn near rescued herself at one point, but got caught up attempting to rescue the other 300 as well. Also, keep in mind, the second arc took place over a span of about a week. Biding your time while waiting for an opportunity is different from sitting on your ass, and can easily eat up timeframes like that. While I absolutely would have liked to have seen her do more, it's a case of her her situation being helpless, not her character.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: AstralPlane on October 21, 2014, 09:39:14 pm
I guess they were stockpiling the awesome for the Gun Gale Online arc, because it was pretty good.

IS this kinda like a second season of SAO...
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 21, 2014, 09:49:19 pm
Pretty much. The series format is a little odd. Sword Art Online II is a sequel series, but it behaves more like a season two, and contains plot arcs 3 and 4, from the third and fourth books. Personally, I'm just going to refer to the show by plot arc as opposed to season, for clarity.

Now is a good time to watch the Gun Gale arc, since it just finished. The new arc just started 3 days ago, and so far I'm not blown away. It broke the pattern of starting a new arc with dropping a bomb at the end of the first episode.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: AstralPlane on October 21, 2014, 10:27:34 pm
IS there anywhere I can find the Gun Gale arch? dubbed in English...beside the bay...
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: AstralPlane on October 21, 2014, 10:29:27 pm
Oh and totally off topic but that made the 100th post! yay...Now I guess its 101! :)
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 21, 2014, 10:58:11 pm
Sorry, can't help you there. I actually tend to prefer subs. I didn't even see dubs on the bay earlier. Maybe there's somewhere you can get just dub tracks. Googled around really quick, but nothing jumped out.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: AstralPlane on October 22, 2014, 06:05:52 pm
Oh that fine.. yea I looked at the bay also and they didn't even have ones with good subs is what it said. I should actually try to watch more anime with subs because I've been told that when they get dubbed that sometimes its different then the originals. Not a lot just a few words or so. Thanks for looking around though I will just have to keep an eye out for it.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 23, 2014, 12:57:16 am
From what I've heard, professional dubbing is pretty good now, not like it used to be. Sometimes even contributes to the cultural translation.  I don't have the background to evaluate those claims though. I've picked up enough Japanese to notice that subbers shuffle syntax quite a bit into a more english friendly format. They almost always leave off the honorifics as well. Just something I noticed, doubt it's actually important.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: AstralPlane on October 23, 2014, 07:39:45 pm
Yea I think the only amine I watched with subs was some of Kaze No Stigma....
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on October 25, 2014, 06:19:58 am
I guess they were stockpiling the awesome for the Gun Gale Online arc, because it was pretty good.

IS this kinda like a second season of SAO...
*sighs* Yes...
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on October 25, 2014, 06:23:10 am
A good site for watching the subbed episodes is www.swordartonlineepisodes.org well, that's where I went.
For the dub: http://www.dubbedepisodes.org/watch/sword-art-online-dubbed gives you Ep 1-25 of subs AND dubs
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on October 25, 2014, 10:11:53 pm
New episode today. Again disappointed with the lack of a meaningful struggle. Got a good laugh over "it's a trap." I am very concerned that the current storyline will be worse than the Alfheim one.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: AstralPlane on October 26, 2014, 09:39:13 pm
A good site for watching the subbed episodes is www.swordartonlineepisodes.org well, that's where I went.
For the dub: http://www.dubbedepisodes.org/watch/sword-art-online-dubbed gives you Ep 1-25 of subs AND dubs
Thanks
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on October 27, 2014, 04:51:41 am
A good site for watching the subbed episodes is www.swordartonlineepisodes.org well, that's where I went.
For the dub: http://www.dubbedepisodes.org/watch/sword-art-online-dubbed gives you Ep 1-25 of subs AND dubs
Thanks
No probs!
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on October 27, 2014, 04:52:46 am
IS there anywhere I can find the Gun Gale arch? dubbed in English...beside the bay...
Gun Gale hasn't been dubbed yet. Expect to wait 2-4 more months.
-Balls
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on November 24, 2014, 07:07:14 am
Well, it seems my guess was right. The Excalibur story arc was significantly worse than the Fairy Dance one. Luckily, it was also significantly shorter. The new story, with the Sleeping Knights, is gearing up to be pretty good drama and tragedy though. I like seeing Asuna in the spotlight for a change.

I am not super looking forward to the next few episodes. I already know what the deal with the Sleeping Knights is (thanks to tvtropes), and it's fucking SAD.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on December 01, 2014, 03:20:22 pm
Well, it seems my guess was right. The Excalibur story arc was significantly worse than the Fairy Dance one. Luckily, it was also significantly shorter. The new story, with the Sleeping Knights, is gearing up to be pretty good drama and tragedy though. I like seeing Asuna in the spotlight for a change.

I am not super looking forward to the next few episodes. I already know what the deal with the Sleeping Knights is (thanks to tvtropes), and it's fucking SAD.
Why?
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on December 01, 2014, 11:50:32 pm
It will probably be revealed in the next episode. What has been revealed up until now is that they have been living full time in VR for a very long time, will be disbanding soon, and were crazy desperate to leave their names on a permanent memorial.

Spoiler
The Sleeping Knights are all terminally ill patients. Yuuki has end stage AIDS.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on December 02, 2014, 12:14:10 am
It will probably be revealed in the next episode. What has been revealed up until now is that they have been living full time in VR for a very long time, will be disbanding soon, and were crazy desperate to leave their names on a permanent memorial.

Spoiler
The Sleeping Knights are all terminally ill patients. Yuuki has end stage AIDS.
NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!
YOU BASTARD!
I WANTED TO FIND IT OUT BY MASELF.
Please tell source of information so I can take the site down.

Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: theKit on December 02, 2014, 12:21:30 am
SOA2 is gay as fuck. The whole 'death gun' thing was retarded and makes 0 sense. The whole exaclibar arc was fucking pointless filler. Wasted a whole episode on recap too.

Just marathon'd S;G and that shit was spectacular star to finish.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on December 02, 2014, 03:11:34 am
Dude, you asked. And there's a reason I put it behind a spoiler tag.

The whole 'death gun' thing was retarded and makes 0 sense. The whole exaclibar arc was fucking pointless filler. Wasted a whole episode on recap too.

Just marathon'd S;G and that shit was spectacular star to finish.

Death Gun makes perfect sense (aside from the retarded name) if the point of it was to terrorize the gaming community.

S;G=Steins;Gate? That's actually next on my list after Ixion Saga DT. I love a good time travel story, but it's so hard to not fuck it up. Haven't seen a good one in almost 10 years.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on December 02, 2014, 04:42:59 am
SOA2 is gay as fuck. The whole 'death gun' thing was retarded and makes 0 sense.


The Phantom Bullet Arc was probably the Arc that made the MOST sense. And, with Kirito fighting angst and flashbacks, it's amazing he came out that final battle alive. The whole Arc gave us the most character development and awesome fights since the Aincrad Arc. If anything was gay as fuck, it was the ALpheim Arc, what with the incestous/fan service/lack of fighting
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on December 08, 2014, 08:51:20 am
HOLY SHIT THE NEW EPISODE!

I thought I was prepared for the sad. I was not. I cried like a little bitch.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: BallsDeep69 on December 08, 2014, 12:01:30 pm
HOLY SHIT THE NEW EPISODE!

I thought I was prepared for the sad. I was not. I cried like a little bitch.
Time for me to cry too, I guess.
Title: Re: Sword Art Online, first impressions.
Post by: Prometheus on December 08, 2014, 03:31:58 pm
The first part of the opening sequence makes sense now too, it should have been some obvious foreshadowing, but I didn't get it. I knew it was alluding to something though.

Spoiler
The twins growing up together, then one of them dying.