First Impressions / Sword Art Online

「ぼくの英雄」 (Boku no Eiyuu)
“My Hero”

What in the world IS GOING ON HERE?

Before we dive into this week’s episode, don’t forget that Sword Art Online: Alicization will be a split-cour show that will resume later this year in October! Unfortunately, that means it’ll be a while before we get to see the kick off to the next arc called War of Underworld.

Anyways, what a way to mark the halfway point of the season! With everything building up to this point, who would have thought things would have went the way that they did? Eugeo’s gone, old Alice is gone (presumably since her memory fragment also disappeared when Eugeo did), and things in the real world look like they’ve gone to shit. If I’m being honest, I’m rather impressed just how many things happened in a single Sword Art Online episode.

Kicking things off with Eugeo, I have to admit that I was really surprised that the plot ended killing him off. As one of the main characters who’s been there since episode one, his passing definitely had a bigger effect on me than I expected. Not only did it help give all of his prior actions legitimacy, but something about Kirito having to deal with the realities of death just felt so appropriate that even all the cheesy lines weren’t enough to break me away from the emotions that the scene was trying to convey. If I had one tiny complaint about Eugeo’s final scene though, it’d probably be just how little time the story gave to dealing with Alice’s old memories. Assuming we’d just accept things at face value, it would have been nice if there had been a little more time given to Kirito and Eugeo’s struggles about which Alice should exist. That said, the whole thing ended up resolving itself rather quickly since it looks like Eugeo and the young Alice get to live in peace while Kirito and the current Alice get to deal with the present.

Super minor side point, but I thought Quinella’s last scene was real inappropriate and not necessary. Deep down I don’t think she was an “evil” character (evil is really only determined by the victors am I right) and having to see that nasty burnt slave of hers “integrate” himself with her just felt wrong. I get that it’d be nice to see Quinella get what’s coming to her, but I don’t think that was necessarily the way to do it.

Fast forwarding to the end of the episode, I have to ask, was I the only who was kind of shocked that a military-style attack was going on in the real world? That and with tons of bullets flying around, wasn’t it kind of odd to see just how (relatively) calm Higa and Kikuoka were? God, just how crazy can things get from here? In any case, I’ll catch you guys later on once Alicization returns. Stay safe until then!

36 Comments

      1. I’m anime-only so I could have got this wrong, but it looked to me as though “Alice the childhood friend of Eugeo” is “dead” because the part of her memories that were sealed when she was synthesised are gone forever. However, Alice the former Integrity Knight is still very much alive.

        Angelus
        Reply

    2. Alice’s wounds were terrible to behold. Fortunately, most of the damage was from her burns and not from blood loss. Her life had stopped its steady decrease. I propped her up with my left hand, and although she didn’t wake up, her eyebrows did twitch, and a faint breath exhaled from her lips.

      l.kostas
      Reply

    3. Yes, like Angelus said, the real Alice is dead together with Eugeo. its worded better in the LN with her and Eugeo’s fluctlight capsule got ejected from the Storage.
      So the current Alice is somesort of another AI that developed/born when she ‘breakthru’ the Taboo-thingy. tho i kinda missed the detail about that.

      ZethR
      Reply

  6. enlighten me if anyone knows.
    https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20-%2024%20-%20Large%2023.jpg
    Is our nude villainess dead? I was expecting Kirito to seduce her rather than see something random kill her; was expecting her to be “ultron” in Kirito’s world. While the anime didn’t show it, I did hear Kirito had seduce musketeer X, actually would like to find where to read that and if musketeer X will appear again.

    https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20-%2024%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
    Is Rath being attack by terrorists? I was wondering, besides minor crime like Death Gun, what is the worst Laughing Coffin could do in this arc, I guess I found my answer.

    Greed
    Reply

    2. mild spoiler: the clown just died in vain and alone but Quinella’s synthetic soul(also purified perhaps?) returned to the “source” ring of all programs, that’s where we’ll see her next, well, somedayy, if the anime gets that much far.

      anon696
      Reply

  7. Quinella disappearing:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Eugeo and young Alice disappearing:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    What happened in the end of the episode from the novel:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    l.kostas
    Reply

  12. You fool. You damn fool. Did you really think there was enough space for TWO important main male characters in a self-insert harem? More than ONE competent/useful male character for women to fall in love with that ISN’T Kirito? Nonsense. The balance is restored.

    Dewey
    Reply

    1. That reminds me of the predictions I posted in the comments section of the first episode of Alicization in this very site:

      “Any other member of the supporting cast won’t be able to catch up. If they are shown to be equal or better than Kirito at some point, they’ll be imprisoned, broken, suffer som kind of limiting trauma or just die.”

      I suppose it’s “die” this time. At least Eugeo, who could have been the protagonist of his own story, one independent from SAO, didn’t fall under this other prediction (which nevertheless came true in this season too):

      “We’ll have male characters who will become ineffectual, or comic relief, or turn evil, or be rapists. Bonus points if they are all of the above at the same time.”

      Mistic
      Reply

  14. I really enjoyed the second SAO series, and the GGOA spinoff, so I was really looking forward to this. Started the third series last week and binged to the end and… it’s bad. Really bad. I’d always known the Alicization arc was really long, so I sort of just assumed it was also good, else why be so long? But, nope.

    There’s barely enough plot here for 12 episodes, let alone 24. Very few new characters, none of whom are very interesting. And, worst of all, the fights are boring. I go into SAO looking for beautifully animated fights kept interesting by well-defined rules. Now it’s like Dragon Ball Super: no clearly define rules, uninspired fight choreography and scene direction, and each battle is little more than caricatures tossing gobs of energy at each other while shouting.

    Arsene
    Reply

    1. I personally wanted them to up the pacing to somewhat turbo speed and get the arc done in much less episodes. Pacing was always an issue and the lack of stuff happening at times too.

      Lyfe
      Reply

  16. Just what Kirito didn’t need, another person dying on him…

    I bet that when the next cour starts, we’ll learn what happened from Asuna’s side.

    This arc of SAO turned out way better than earlier ones, as I’d hoped since the hour-long first airing. Looking forward to seeing you again in October.

    Player
    Reply

  18. I’m totally obsessed with Sword Art Online. My friend recommended I watch it, because he couldn’t stop raving about it. I was happy to see it was available to watch on Netflix. I’ve been totally binge watching, but trying not to read too many of the comments to avoid spoilers.

    Nano
    Reply

  19. For someone marathoning this show I gotta say this is the most I’ve enjoyed SAO since the first half of the Aincrad arc. The concept of this arc really captivated me, and I love these characters a hell of a lot more than the old cast.

    illusion
    Reply

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