First Impressions / Sword Art Online

「GGO」 (GGO)
“GGO”

I have a friend who I believe is the same height (or taller?) than Karen and I can say that they’ve complained to me about a lot of the same problems that Karen has.

General Impressions

After last week’s stellar episode, I knew it would be tough for the second episode to keep up. However, whatever this episode lacked in action was fully made up by the story taking a deep dive into Karen’s character. As a super tall girl who has experienced enough traumatizing moments that she’s super self conscious about her height, it was actually really cool to see her use VR as a means of being able to live her “dream” of being the complete opposite of herself. Now, I don’t want to get into a talk about self-image and how accepting yourself is important because as important as that point is, I don’t think now is the time to be talking about it (based on where we are in the story). Getting back to what I was talking about, it was strangely soothing to see Karen find just the right avatar for LLENN. Comparing it to the countless hours some of us spend when facing a detailed character creation screen, I was a little surprised just how happy I was for Karen to find the perfect avatar just for her.

That said, I think that joy may have also been related to the point I mentioned back in the excerpt. One of my good friends is pretty tall (6’1 or 6’2, based on how she’s feeling) and I can only imagine the struggles of dealing with being real tall. From the comments about being a giant to people poking fun at your shoe size, I’m sure someone like Karen would have had a tough time existing in Japan of all places.

Moving on from Karen’s personal struggles, I was also so happy that we got to meet Pitohui or Pito! As one of the coolest looking characters in all the promotional art who also makes some real interesting faces in the opening sequence, I’m glad to see that she’s more than just some FPS fanatic with a crazy bloodlust for lighting up other Players. That and, based on everything we saw this week, it makes you wonder just how much of the P in LLENN’s “P-Chan” is for P-90 or for Pito 🙂

All-in-all, a pretty decent second episode that really did a good job at establishing the key players in the show. As someone who had a little bit of knowledge of the beginning parts of SAO Alternative, I must say that the slight changes that have occurred so far have felt pretty good from a storytelling standpoint and I hope that the showrunners can keep on finding success in their decisions as we dive deeper and deeper into the story.

Anyways, I’ll catch you guys next week. See you then!

P.S. Good luck to all the other Tall Girls out there. Don’t let anyone rain on your parade and don’t forget there are always others who can see you for who you are past your size!

 

Preview

58 Comments

  1. According to other sources, LLENN is 183cm. By East Asian female standards, that is abnormally tall (probably even more so if we narrowed it down to Japanese female height where the average is 158cm).

    Heck, 183 cm is taller than most East Asian males too.

    Okina
    Reply

    3. I knew she was hovering around 182/183 based on information, but the way she’s depicted makes her feel a lot taller than that.

      Then again, I guess most girls in anime don’t surpass 170 (canonically). Still, that scene between her and the Store Clerk made me go “Hm, this guy most be real short. But if you look at everyone around him they’re all similar in height. Hm.”

      However, I guess it does help when you’re trying to sell the story of woes of a tall girl, haha.

      Takaii
      Reply

      1. https://i.imgur.com/aOyCRLR.jpg

        I happen to have this chart handy. An average 170+ cm person will be at the same height as the nose bridge of a 183 cm person. The clerk only reaches somewhere around Karen’s mouth, so he must be somewhat shorter – 165 cm perhaps. Still average for a Japanese, and only slightly shorter than me actually (and I am not considered particularly short for an Asian).

        SMinstrel
        Reply

      2. Nutrition has a lot to do with it too.

        One of my friends has ancestry from Taiwan and he tells me his grandfather, the tallest in his family line at the time, never exceeded 163 cm (about 5’4″ which was still pretty tall).

        And my friend?

        He’s a tick above 5’9″ at 175 cm, probably because of all the processed sugar and available protein while he was growing up, which wasn’t available to his grandparents. His grandfather grew up at a time when Taiwan was part of the Japanese empire, and his son (my friend’s father) moved to the United States in his 30s at 165 cm (about 5’5″).

        Jerry
        Reply

    4. My colleague’s wife has been to Japan and she’s 6’4″ which is about 193 cm.

      The “non-looks” she got from the Japanese crowd who tried “not to notice” were almost as hilarious as the kids who didn’t “know better”.

      Jerry
      Reply

    5. I’m 5’11 and I dated a girl in high school on the basketball team that was right at 6′. She hated heels because they made her 6’3 and she loomed over everyone. One year she wore platform shoes for Halloween and she was over 7′ for a Star Wars character cough cough Vader.
      I still see her pop up every blue moon on Facebook. She married a NBA player and has two beautiful daughters…. that are normal size.

      Big Daddy
      Reply

      1. I am only 169 cm and even I sometimes run into signs (no, seriously). On the flip side of things, sometimes a sign placed very high will still be hit by a truck/bus etc.

        It’s by no means common, but never underestimate the length some shop-owners are willing to go to squeeze in an advertisement sign into the most improbable of places.

        SMinstrel
        Reply

      2. 184 cm here. I have almost cracked my noggin on stuff in Japan. -_- Not to mention some seating in places that was positively brutal. Basically anything built more than 20 years ago was built with the thought that nobody over 165 cm will ever use it. Ugggh.

        But every time I go, it gets a little better.

        Really enjoying this series, though. When I played FFXI, I rolled Taru, and in XIV, I roll Falafel, because I get sick of being a tall guy IRL, so I can relate to LLENN/Karen.

        The only “huh?” SAO moment was the whole, “Every game makes your avatar randomly” montage, tho. Seriously, no game would ever do that. At least not any game that wanted to be popular or profitable.

        s_w
        Reply

  6. I noticed it when Kirito first played ALO but not letting people customize their appearance seems like a very odd choice. It didn’t sound like there was an option besides a random appearance, either.

    Aex
    Reply

      2. @sministrel lol, that’s why i think there is a need of limitation for character customization to prevent traps and perverts…it’s kinda scary imagining some cute girls on VR game actually a big-muscle guy in RL.

        souma
        Reply

    2. I agree, how can they not have character customization right yet? I’m surprise Karen didn’t just give up after the first 5 games she tried.

      Wished they also gave characters more vibrant colors like Karen. I’m sure a ton of people dye their gear all the time (mostly whales or high lvl players who are, well… whales). The most common dyes are white and black.

      ProfChaos
      Reply

      1. Isn’t that just perfect though? VR future and still character customization sucks. It’s the bane of every series. Either character customization is excellent and the game sucks, or vice versa.

        Still I could see how totally random character creation would be its own draw. I always love hearing other girls over mics, I like “banding together” with other girls although I think you’d see a lot less of that if gaming was seen as more accessible to women. And if character creation was random, I can see how it would encourage people to “re-roll” constantly until they got something perfect for them and there wouldn’t just be a bunch of copycat “prettiest” faces walking around. Like FFXIV is a great game, but there’s a fairly universal prettiest possible character because there is so few options so everyone walks around and looks the same or similar.

        Arin
        Reply

    3. From my personal experience, I think FFXIV has done a good job at providing enough customization options to help Players separate themselves from the crowd (glamouring is still the true end game, am I right?)

      In the world of SAO though, I’m not sure if this still applies post Aincrad/SAO Incident, but wasn’t the ability to customize your character removed in favor of using your headset’s data of you to create something similar? But in that vain, what did Karen’s friend mean when Karen could have “recreated” her avatar? Because from how I was understanding it (and I’m probably wrong), it sounded like Karen could re-purchased ALO to re-roll?

      Takaii
      Reply

      1. She wouldn’t have needed to re-purchase ALO to get a new character. The anime series all kind of gloss over character creation(which the books don’t spend much time on either), but as this episode suggests, it would have been entirely possible for Karen to re-roll her ALO character by deleting the tall LLENN character and trying again. Or she could have gone the micro-transaction route and paid for character customization. She didn’t do either of those because the poor first impression completely soured her on the prospect of playing ALO. Thus Karen opting to transfer LLENN into a different game to try there, then repeating the process when she didn’t get something small and cute.

        Krono
        Reply

    4. Ya I was thinking that too, that the headset had data on you to create your character. Because back in SAO I believe you could create your own character but then Kayaba changed everyone’s avatar to look like their real selves (don’t really remember how). So it is possible for the headset to have data on you. Probably why in every game Karen went to she was still the tall. I don’t know why Gun Gale was any different, maybe it’s just a bug.

      ProfChaos
      Reply

      1. The NervGear took a scan of the face and had you measure yourself when you switched it on the first time, which Kayaba used to replace the SAO characters that people made. No idea if the AmuSphere does the same, but it’d make sense.

        Aex
        Reply

    2. I think both shows are good for their own reasons.

      Also, you have to admit that when Kirito unleashed that original Star Burst Stream at like 1 HP, it was pretty fucking cool.

      Takaii
      Reply

    4. You have to be on drugs or something. You’re saying that this cutesy bullshit is better than the original and this little bitch is better tan Kirito or Asuna? Unless your a little girl something is seriously wrong with you and everyone who likes this garbage

      ReDeYeZer0
      Reply

  8. 0-2. Aside the GGO tutorial, the ep feels way flatter than I expected. Karen is just… unnerving to say the least. Her problem isn’t the height, but the fact that she doesn’t have the guts to (really) interact with others and share her thoughts it’s a “GTFO” for me. Being 1.86 myself, I know how we’re seen, but that doesn’t mean that you turn into Shinji Ikari and feel sorry for yourself 24/7, that’s idiotic.
    LLENN going for the “cute but uber-impractical” approach is more realistic, but the matter of fact of a pink character in an FPS is still… weird to say the least

    SeeStriker
    Reply

    1. While I also think the Pink is a definite uh, wildcard in the grand scheme of things, she did mention that the pink she got wasn’t exactly what she was going for.

      Can you imagine if she was aiming for hot pink HAHA

      Takaii
      Reply

  9. “it makes you wonder just how much of the P in LLENN’s “P-Chan” is for P-90 or for Pito :)”

    Oh its definitely for the “Pink” P90.

    Though I am surprised that Llenn doesn’t have a sidearm. Even whit her AGI max it shouldn’t be an issue. She should be carrying the on the Kirito was using in GGO, the FN5/7.

    Oh and before you haters, hate. Yes, I have no issue with SAO/ALO/GGO with Kirito as the MC. Even Ordinal Scale was enjoyable. The reason is that the FN5/7 and the P90 use that same exact ammo round – 5.7x28mm. the FN5/7 was make to complement the P90.

    Timob33
    Reply

    1. Mmm, I think I have an idea why she isn’t carrying a sidearm.

      Show Spoiler ▼

      When it comes to not carrying sidearms at all, I think PUBG has tempered me to the idea of having a single main weapon, haha.

      Takaii
      Reply

    2. + I enjoyed Ordinal Scale! If anything, I remember complaining to my roommates that I was real curious how Kirito was going to stop that Rank 2 P.O.S since his introduction involved him leaping off a god damn bridge in real life.

      Takaii
      Reply

      1. Yup…..Never thought of that. N

        Show Spoiler ▼

        .
        As for O.S……Like with all other anime, suspending belief lets me enjoy them. Unlike most posters who want to rage on an anime for not being real……well, no anime is real. So when a MC is OP or an idiot harem magnet……..just enjoy the Fantasy…..thats all it is. Yes Rank 2 POS would have broke both legs. I was amused that Kirito actually had to work out to gain his abilities.

        Timbo33
        Reply

  10. https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alternative%20Gun%20Gale%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alternative%20Gun%20Gale%20Online%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
    Jesus, she is tall; I didn’t notice she was so tall compared to full grown adults. Anyway, while tall girls are one of my favorite type of heroines, aside from Lovely Complex, don’t know any other anime that features tall girls.

    https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alternative%20Gun%20Gale%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alternative%20Gun%20Gale%20Online%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
    Freiza? Is Goku also going to show up? Anyway, I am surprised that the girl tried so many games. A lot of money must have been used and wasted.

    https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alternative%20Gun%20Gale%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alternative%20Gun%20Gale%20Online%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
    Obviously one type of ideal tutorial. Curious if that is either a well-made NPC or some staff. Well, seeing characters like Skuld or Thor, it is safe to assume that this NPC is very sentient.

    Anyway, while it is nice that games like Gun Gale Online are making big money, from gamers, I find it sad that Kirito didn’t make any money since he was the one that spread the seed for many to use. That poor girl spent and wasted so much money on different games.

    Greed
    Reply

  12. Dang, I say this as a woman, I think I’ve found my anime femcrush. Pito is really attractive, from her personality to her obvious character design. Haven’t liked a girl in anime so much since Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop.

    Other than that, not as interesting as the first episode but I guess a bit of setup is necessary. It was cute that Llenn became the Pink Devil so accidentally.

    Arin
    Reply

    2. Don’t know how many people have watched it here, but Six with Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica was always super attractive to me. My sister is pretty tall for a girl and had a complex when she was in highschool especially. Kids are mean, a lot of boys felt insecure being shorter, and well, she got tall fast and all the boys hadn’t had their growth spurt until later on so it made her feel bad. She still won’t wear heels.

      Arin
      Reply

  18. and, can’t but compare the LLENN playstyle to pz1 c or luchs in wot
    “small cute tanbks aremd with pewpew autocannons, too fast and small for many opponents to hit”

    ewok40k
    Reply

  19. I don’t think this can be considered a spoiler since the anime kind of skipped over it. You see at the start Karen put most of her experience points into dex and agi and some into str and luck. After she started actively hunting players she put most of her exp into agility. She didn’t know it at the time but she basically created a build that was considered to be optimised for killing other players.

    Dark
    Reply

  20. I think when you are too tall or too small it can be quite difficult to deal. I’m 148 cm and the world isn’t made for minions like me ¬¬, the chair is my best friend when i have to get things.

    Ran
    Reply

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