「開戦前夜」 (Kaisen Zenya)
“The Night Before the Battle”

Please show, give us some Asuna. Please.

General Impressions

Man, what an episode! With familiar faces appearing left and right and a huge revelation that Kirito is still (in the Underworld) alive and kicking, I don’t know what more we could have asked for as the story beings to dive into the final load test.

Amongst all of that though, I think what I appreciated the most was just how humor and good feelings were packed in this single episode. During Kirito’s original attack on the Axiom Church, I’m sure we all realized that the Integrity Knights were not bad people. And as we learned that they were actually humans who had their memories wiped and forcefully changed to serve Quinella, I’m sure a lot of us may have hoped that we’d get an opportunity to see all of them again outside of battle. Lo and behold it looks like that wish has finally been granted and I don’t think we could have asked for much more.

From Eldrie to the first dude who Kirito and Eugeo tag teamed to beat together, it was nice to see just how much they’ve all come since the last time we saw them. If I’m being honest though, Fanatio was probably my absolute favorite since she seems to have taken Kirito’s advice extra seriously. Ignoring the bonds of society that were cast upon her due to her gender, it’s fantastic to see her dressing herself a bit simply because she wants to. That and who would have thought someone who had gone to such lengths to hide her gender could break free from that and truly act like themselves? That and I won’t lie that I really enjoyed seeing a jealous Alice feud with a powered up Fanatio.

To be honest, I have no idea how I should feel for this upcoming battle. Looking at it as objectively as possible, neither side is right or wrong. They’re just two different civilizations that have been at odds for thousands upon thousands of years and are finally getting the opportunity to let loose. What is kind of sucks though is Kirito just happened to take out the main source of power that was going to (probably) single handedly destroy the enemy. That said, what’s done is done and it looks like Alice and the rest of humanity will have to fight with everything they have. Hopefully it’ll be enough to hold off the baddies until the cavalry (which I’m assuming is Asuna and the gang) arrive.

In any case, I’ll catch you guys next week where we’ll hopefully see some action! See you then.

 

Preview

15 Comments

  1. Even Fanatio wasnt safe from the allure of the Kirito harem LOL.

    And Alice being jealous means she’s already initiated into it. We all know she’ll eventually go into the real world anyway, cant wait to see the rest of the gang and their usual jealous antics when yet another kirito-girl joins the gang.

    YanDaMan
    1. The Alicization material is actually pretty old considering the age of the web novel. What’ll be more interesting is Kawahara’s writing for the Unital Ring arc and how he’l handle character relationships etc going forward considering he’s writing this material fresh.

      Lyfe
  2. I don’t want to be too critical with the current roster for the good guys but none of the Integrity Knights (Alice included) has my vote of confidence. Partly because we have not really seen what the enemy can really do. Another reason is because none of these knights have successfully defeated Kirito, they’ve all briefly gave Kirito a run for his money but Kirito quickly adapted. While Kirito is suffering from Plot Armor cool down I have a feeling the knights will face defeat and if not defeat then one of them may to die.

    Also, a cat fight between a young women and a teenage girl…why not, I guess? Wait till they find out Kirito is taken and they will only be a number in his harem.

    https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20WoU%20-%2005%20-%2013.jpg

    RenaSayers

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