Got nothing on Korra though.
Well, thanks for S3 fight spoilers. Thanks. D:<
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Sword Art Online II |OT| Two Years Worth of Anticipation
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Well, thanks for S3 fight spoilers. Thanks. D:<
I didn't even know which season that was from. No reason to even watch now. THANKS.
chickdigger802
Banned
i think i missed it but they can't determine it was the occulus rift that caused the heart attack? I feel like there should be enough... something for a warrant?
how does this stuff work in japan?
how does this stuff work in japan?
The first nerve gear could fry a brain. This new version can't do that. And they checked and there was no damage to the brains of the two who died in GGO. It's why Kirito was thinking that another piece of "sense" info was somehow sent into the brain to cause heart failure. I think lol.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Sword Art Online II 1
The first episode of the second season of Sword Art Online is one that serves to remind us of the encroachment of technological progress into our everyday lives. Very much about the liminal space between man and machine, this is a text that very much evokes Donna Haraway's seminal "A Cyborg Manifesto", choosing not only to express its message of post-humanist hybridity via the text itself, but also through its very existence. Coming from the tradition of science fiction master Roberto Orci, the season premiere of Sword Art Online is both startlingly prescient and wonderfully crafted, serving as a shining example of the best the genre has to offer.
The episode begins with a "CG" effect that takes the audience directly into the world of Gun Gale Online. While the audience is unsettled by the sudden transition into this game world, they are greeted with a familiar image:
Consider the fact that this stream also has Nico Nico commentators "wwwww'ing" while watching the stream from some presumably outside source. For the Japanese audience acquainted with the streaming comments of the contemporary "Internet", they must surely feel a moment of uncanny. For the American viewer used to hashtagging their brilliant Twitter comments during the live airing of a television show or news event, this is only a glimpse into the future of television. Nevertheless, this remnant of the past being thrust into the pseudo-future isn't "lazy", as one might think, but brilliant aesthetic. Just as the bar is familiar to the audience, this Nico Nico reference also serves to bridge the gap between the present of 2014 and the future of 2025. It only reinforces the liminality of this space and serves to set up the climax of the opening scene.
When Death Gun violently ejects his hatred into the "television" monitor and kills Zexceed, we see an encroachment of the virtual into the real. Just as the design of the virtual space evokes an assured uncertainty, Death Gun's judgement asks the audience to consider the new possibilities of the world where everyone is not only connected to technology, but becomes technology themselves.
When the show takes the audience out of the liminal and back into the familiar, we are greeted with the safe and familiar face of the neo-feminist heroine Asuna. But through her familiarity, we are introduced to another moment of liminality:
When the hero of this universe meets our strong female protagonist, the director takes no time at all to remind us of the duality of their relationship:
The director earns their chops by pushing the metaphor further:
Duality is at play when Seijirou asks Kirito for help with the Death Gun case.
Which brings us back to the future that this show posits:
The first episode of the second season of Sword Art Online is one that serves to remind us of the encroachment of technological progress into our everyday lives. Very much about the liminal space between man and machine, this is a text that very much evokes Donna Haraway's seminal "A Cyborg Manifesto", choosing not only to express its message of post-humanist hybridity via the text itself, but also through its very existence. Coming from the tradition of science fiction master Roberto Orci, the season premiere of Sword Art Online is both startlingly prescient and wonderfully crafted, serving as a shining example of the best the genre has to offer.
The episode begins with a "CG" effect that takes the audience directly into the world of Gun Gale Online. While the audience is unsettled by the sudden transition into this game world, they are greeted with a familiar image:
It is the first sign that the world of 2025 has truly become a cyborg utopia, as what might be considered nonsensical in 2014 - watching a video inside a video game - is standard fair. The people who play this games are "Pros", ones who can earn a living by championing the post-humanist future through their cybersport pursuits. And as such, this vanguard of humanity has evolved to the point where they choose to relax in neo-Second Life spaces. Watching a Nico Nico stream inside a video game where your downtime is spent aimlessly in a bar is not an absurdity, but an assured moment of careful world building that masterfully foreshadows the doubling in the episode.
Consider the fact that this stream also has Nico Nico commentators "wwwww'ing" while watching the stream from some presumably outside source. For the Japanese audience acquainted with the streaming comments of the contemporary "Internet", they must surely feel a moment of uncanny. For the American viewer used to hashtagging their brilliant Twitter comments during the live airing of a television show or news event, this is only a glimpse into the future of television. Nevertheless, this remnant of the past being thrust into the pseudo-future isn't "lazy", as one might think, but brilliant aesthetic. Just as the bar is familiar to the audience, this Nico Nico reference also serves to bridge the gap between the present of 2014 and the future of 2025. It only reinforces the liminality of this space and serves to set up the climax of the opening scene.
When Death Gun violently ejects his hatred into the "television" monitor and kills Zexceed, we see an encroachment of the virtual into the real. Just as the design of the virtual space evokes an assured uncertainty, Death Gun's judgement asks the audience to consider the new possibilities of the world where everyone is not only connected to technology, but becomes technology themselves.
When the show takes the audience out of the liminal and back into the familiar, we are greeted with the safe and familiar face of the neo-feminist heroine Asuna. But through her familiarity, we are introduced to another moment of liminality:
The director has chosen to perfectly juxtapose Asuna's rhetorical question with a shot of a "CG" leaf flying in the wind. Alluding to the other seminal text that explores liminal spaces, 1994's Forrest Gump, the director recreates the floating feather scene by using a computer animated leaf.
Forrest Gump asks the audience to suspend disbelief and accept Gump's tale, and the feather, as truth. Sword Art Online asks the audience to expose themselves to the artifice of fiction. By contrasting CG with 2D animation, the text itself becomes an example of liminality. This episode is itself a post-humanist project, one that simultaneously defies the expectations of traditional animation and the so-called uncanny valley of CG animation. Whereas shortsighted directors such as Alfonso Cuarón use technology to mask the technological with the real, Sword Art Online exposes the truth of this recombination of art and asks the audience to embrace it.
When the hero of this universe meets our strong female protagonist, the director takes no time at all to remind us of the duality of their relationship:
This shot is simply amazing! Their clothes both bring them together, but also set them apart. As the first couple to raise a child in a virtual space, the director gives the audience a perfect visual representation of their unique status as the first cyber-parents of a universe based on slippery identities.
The director earns their chops by pushing the metaphor further:
Not only are the characters representative of the liminal cyborg future, but the setting itself represents both the ur and the contemporary. The grounds of the Tokyo Imperial Palace represent Japan's noble history, but they also represent the vestigial nature of an obsolete past. In this context however, these grounds also represent the future - a space where those who understand the future of hybridity can express themselves outside of the confines of a suffocating Metropolitan Tokyo. In an episode about liminal spaces, the audience is treated to the ultimate space that literally exists in between time and place. Kirito and Asuna describe this place as the intersection of axises, where everything converges, much like the castle Aincrad from the first season of Sword Art Online. As they explain, the "seed" - which births all virtual worlds in this future - was born from the axis of Aincrad. And much like Aincrad, the Imperial Palace is where the seed of post-human cybernetics will be birthed. Kirito tells Asuna and the audience that he will turn his extraordinary skills toward developing technologies that will blend the virtual world and the real world together and make them indistinguishable. Soon our cyber-parents will be real parents, as Yui is made tangible through Kirito's ambitious plan.
That their fingers are intertwined when the audience learns of Kirito's plans serves to perfectly frame the hybridity that he strives to achieve. Kirito and Asuna have an intimate moment while describing a future where such intimacy will become suspect, all while in a space that is itself strictly liminal. Simply astounding.
Duality is at play when Seijirou asks Kirito for help with the Death Gun case.
While someone shortsighted might describe this ten minute scene as painfully expository, it is clear that this scene is meant to show the hybridity of human knowledge. Just as both Seijirou and Kirito are experts of all things virtual, the audience is soon made into experts themselves through their careful discussion of Death Gun and the deaths of two Gun Gale Online players. Previously, the audience is in a state of both knowing and "unknowing". The prologue is repeated to the audience yet again, as the characters describe what the audience has surely already inferred. And while nothing is confirmed in this scene, the audience is placed in the same mental state as our hero, who is prepared to bravely place himself in the line of fire to stop more game related deaths. The audience's inferences are now those of the characters as well. The harmonic duality of the Seijirou and Kirito is one that the audience becomes complicit with.
Indeed, while the audience sees Kirito's reflection on this glass (which itself is a liminal space between the indoors and outdoors!), it is very easy to imagine that the audience sees themselves in that reflection. This is a shot that represents the interiority of Kirito's mind through the exteriority of Kirito's body, but also offers the audience the chance to directly relate with Kirito and the depth of his character. Not only is liminal hybridity expertly on display in this shot, the audience is invited to be an active agent in of this cybernetic future.
Which brings us back to the future that this show posits:
By invoking the Apple Keynote, we are asked to believe in the cyborg, where humanity ends and machine begins. Just as we are trapped in our "iPhones" now, we will soon be trapped in our "iGlasses" in the near future. This shot is not a cheap shorthand to make the audience believe in a threadbare fictional universe that is devoid of depth. No, it serves as an extended hand asking the audience to grasp it. The future is here. We only have to embrace it.
Twilight Gap
Member
lawl at the post above.
I liked it. Was a slower first episode than I'm used to, but it does have me interested in where things are going now. "Death gun" is cheesy and redundant though, but whatever.
I liked it. Was a slower first episode than I'm used to, but it does have me interested in where things are going now. "Death gun" is cheesy and redundant though, but whatever.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Sword Art Online II 1 addendum:
How could I be remiss in exploring perhaps greatest character introduction shot in the history of visual art?
How could I be remiss in exploring perhaps greatest character introduction shot in the history of visual art?
One might suggest that this shot is simple "fanservice", but one must remember that this is a virtual avatar. This is more than just fanservice, but an expression of post-human sexuality. This lingering camera is not the socalled "male gaze", but instead it is a "cyborg male gaze". We are not meant to sexualize this new character, who is also a strong female protagonist, but instead we are meant to understand that sex will move beyond meeting another person in "meat space" and exchanging bodily fluids with them. In this post-human cyborg future, sex becomes more than just an act of carnal desire culminating in procreation... indeed, it is an act that is much more pure and intimate. Kirito and Asuna becoming parents of the virtual Yui has shown a future where sexless procreation is possible. Without the limitations of meat space, sex itself will become an euphoric strictly mental act that is the culmination of the search for the liminal.
Man, I can't believe so many people are still angry at SAO. The first half of the first season was a very cool dumb action anime. Nothing more, nothing less. I get the feeling some anime 'veterans' got upset because casual watchers hyped the show like crazy.
I got some of that too. One guy I used to work with told me it was the best anime he had ever seen and couldn't shut up about it (I asked, he had only seen DBZ and Naruto besides SAO). Of course SAO doesn't deserve all the praise it got, but there is no need to judge it more harshly because of it.
It's just a dumb action anime. Hopefully this season has some cool moments as well.
I got some of that too. One guy I used to work with told me it was the best anime he had ever seen and couldn't shut up about it (I asked, he had only seen DBZ and Naruto besides SAO). Of course SAO doesn't deserve all the praise it got, but there is no need to judge it more harshly because of it.
It's just a dumb action anime. Hopefully this season has some cool moments as well.
Jex
Member
I've uninstalled my TV because I can't handle the spoilers.
I'd quibble a bit and say first half SAO was still sub-par but it wasn't really crazy sub-par. It did some interesting things structually that didn't pay off (god the third episode is still one of my favourite dumb-ass things ever made) and it has major pacing problems to boot but it wasn't that bad all things considered... considering the average for anime series as a whole.
I mean, if I actually watched the stuff I consider sub par SAO would probably be okay. But for the most part I drop them, which I didn't do for SAO, and it bit me real bad.
So I guess you could say most of the pain was self-inflicted. Personally I blame Toonami.
I mean, if I actually watched the stuff I consider sub par SAO would probably be okay. But for the most part I drop them, which I didn't do for SAO, and it bit me real bad.
So I guess you could say most of the pain was self-inflicted. Personally I blame Toonami.
Dragonborn
Member
Agree completely. Only about a fourth of the first season was any good, and the entire second half was just terrible. I can't get over how terrible Kirito is as a character and how they just completely ruin Asuna. I'll watch this for the mindless action, hopefully it delivers on that at least
Just watched the first episode. Since SAO's gotten even more popular, I would've liked better animation for the season.
It was an ok episode. Mostly covered all the setup and information for this arc, so not much has happened action-wise.
The OP covers stuff from the second half of this arc, so 13 episodes for GGO sounds about right.
Still curious on what they'll do after if it really is 2 cours.
It was an ok episode. Mostly covered all the setup and information for this arc, so not much has happened action-wise.
The OP covers stuff from the second half of this arc, so 13 episodes for GGO sounds about right.
Still curious on what they'll do after if it really is 2 cours.
Probably a mix of Mother's Roasario and Caliber. If I was a betting man I'd say we'd get to the end of GGO, Rewind to the Caliber set up story that was in Fairy Dance (that got nixed from Season 1 because we need more of Asuna being tortured....fucking hell A1) have the Caliber story arc and then Finish off the season with Mother's Rossario.
Sort of makes sense character wise, This arc is Kirito's and Shion's story, then it's a story where Shinon is introduced to the group and then it goes into a story with Asuna and the main side character of MR.
Which would then set up SAO III to be pure fourth arc.
Now let's be fair, Asuna, he blew it up three quarters of the way.
Sort of makes sense character wise, This arc is Kirito's and Shion's story, then it's a story where Shinon is introduced to the group and then it goes into a story with Asuna and the main side character of MR.
Which would then set up SAO III to be pure fourth arc.
Now let's be fair, Asuna, he blew it up three quarters of the way.
Just watch the movie if you don't want to marathon the series. Seriously, the movie was just a recap of the first season <_<
Seconding this if only to see the second half which is dumb goof-off MMOrpging.
TheVampire
Banned
Kinda wish I hadn't read the spoilers of the mystery death thing happens in the new game years ago after I finished the first season since I was desperate for more SAO stuff.
I can't even remember if there was a plot to the damn movie. I mean a real plot besides a very, very tiny side-quest. I had just marathonned the series and then had the movie playing in the background half the time because it was just flashback after flashback after flashback.
NaDannMaGoGo
Member
Got nothing on Korra though.
Damn that IS beautiful. I mean it's probably one of few especially well animated moments, but from what I've heard the overall animation quality of The Last Airbender and this is pretty high.
Eh, I should give TLA a go probably, sounds like some real solid show.
Hexa
Member
They announced it as a flashback OVA with some new footage. What did you expect lol? They had more new stuff than I expected honestly from that description.
After learning that Kirito was dragged back to his bed after SAO sure makes the ending where he gets up and walks alone lose all its impact.
That was also one of the first shots for SAOII. See the suitably named bottom trailer in the OP.
The premise of SAO Season 1 was actually very good. Just the idea of living life and how it affects different people and how they react to it was pretty cool. It was actually good enough that I could tolerate the poor writing and obvious wish fulfillment (which only gets worse as it progresses).
The premise of Season 1 and the shot where Kirito/Kazuto got off the hospital bed were the two greatest things about SAO.
Now it just seems like this a story of some awesome dude playing a game that really doesn't have any crazy consequences.
I didn't really know anything about the series until my gf started watching it on Hulu so I started watching it. Then looked on Wikipedia and there was a movie so I decided to watch it haha.
To be fair, where was he going to go in a medical gown? This isn't the NHS.
Kirito looks good in whatever he wears. He could have walked outside in that and be the most fashionable person in Shibuya.
I'm thinking stickly man who hasn't had a thing to eat that wasn't solid in years would have been frog marched (or more likely, picked up and put) into bed by the Doctors.
The act of going out to get Asuna probably carries more weight then the success he had at that given moment.
The best thing about Sword Art Online really is to read the comments on Neogaf after watching the episode.
iRAWRasaurus
Banned
I def agree with you. I can understand why some things were rushed due to limited time. But the second half of SAO was terrible and destroyed the few good parts of the first arc.
I think SAO is one of those anime that would be better served with a new cast. Kirito's story was told, it had closure.
This new season should've had a fresh new cast. Maybe the MC could have been a solo player in Aincrad that kept to himself and survived with smarts rather than plot armour and handled things with strategy and tactics rather than outright force. Something. Kirito just isn't interesting and neither is Asuna or the weird cousin.
This new season should've had a fresh new cast. Maybe the MC could have been a solo player in Aincrad that kept to himself and survived with smarts rather than plot armour and handled things with strategy and tactics rather than outright force. Something. Kirito just isn't interesting and neither is Asuna or the weird cousin.
chickdigger802
Banned
Real curious how Kirito will become god in this hardcore game quickly. I assume his stats and broke ass plot gear from other games carry over as well?
I think the SAO hate is kind of funny.
Not saying it is great, but I am not quite sure what it did to earn this much scorn.
I think this new arc holds a lot of promise. I like the more grounded idea of one guy killing people from within a game rather then everyone being stuck inside of a game. I like Kirito as a secret agent infiltrating this game, trying to find out what is going on.
I do wish they would do something more interesting with Asuna. She is best as part of the action, not as Kirito's housewife.
First ep was slow, but set a lot of things in motion.
Not saying it is great, but I am not quite sure what it did to earn this much scorn.
I think this new arc holds a lot of promise. I like the more grounded idea of one guy killing people from within a game rather then everyone being stuck inside of a game. I like Kirito as a secret agent infiltrating this game, trying to find out what is going on.
I do wish they would do something more interesting with Asuna. She is best as part of the action, not as Kirito's housewife.
First ep was slow, but set a lot of things in motion.
It makes itself an easy target ("[That sound]") and a bunch of Toonami grognards who forget that shit like IGPX and DICE ran on the same block have a massive hate on for it because god forbid some B- level anime ever get on their hallowed Cartoon Network block.
And that comes from someone who envies the US Toonami block.
On a related note, turns out Sailor Moon Crystal's OP syncs pretty well with IGNITE (if you sync it to when Moon Pride stars in show)
And that comes from someone who envies the US Toonami block.
On a related note, turns out Sailor Moon Crystal's OP syncs pretty well with IGNITE (if you sync it to when Moon Pride stars in show)
I am only holding out for about 3 good fights.
The first series didn't really have any though. Most of it was just Kirito being an idiot and bashing his opponent's shield faster and faster instead of you know, trying to avoid that shield.
Fight with elf dude in second arc is pretty legit.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Oh man, that MS Paint artwork in the OP. Amazing.
So anyways, why isn't there actually an Internet/Twitch streamed TV show about MMOs in the real world like MMO Stream? I mean, that sounds like it would be a fun show about people waving their e-peens when they got world-first clears of raids and won PvP tournaments in WoW and shit like that. Come on real world, step it up here!
So anyways, why isn't there actually an Internet/Twitch streamed TV show about MMOs in the real world like MMO Stream? I mean, that sounds like it would be a fun show about people waving their e-peens when they got world-first clears of raids and won PvP tournaments in WoW and shit like that. Come on real world, step it up here!
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
I'd say those were good fights. Because of the difference in fighting style. A defensive style favouring heavy use of a shield versus Kirito's style of trying to overwhelm the enemy with numerous attacks (which worked the first time until hax).
Like someone mentioned before, the fight against
Eugene
World Tree attempt
tensuke
Member
First ep was decent, it had to set everything up I guess and bridge the gap but I wish it was more hype like season 1's first episode. I like Death Gun, it's a stupid name and all but a metal skeleton in a cloak is pretty badass regardless. Can't wait to see some pew pew in the next one.
Wuthering_Heights
Banned
Watched it, loved it, can't wait for more!
I've said thia multiple times and I'll say it again. SAO suffers from many issues, mostly source material.
First season was definitely way too rushed. Should have given us a 25ep SAO with SAO
rogressive content and either pretended ALO didn't exist, or make it into a short OVA.
That said, I'm down for season 2 because I'm a sucker for kemonomimis and sinonon is gonna have cat ears and a tail and will make a cute noise when her tail is pulled
First season was definitely way too rushed. Should have given us a 25ep SAO with SAO
rogressive content and either pretended ALO didn't exist, or make it into a short OVA.That said, I'm down for season 2 because I'm a sucker for kemonomimis and sinonon is gonna have cat ears and a tail and will make a cute noise when her tail is pulled
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Firehawk you're killing me.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
As much as I hate Kirito and find him extremely bland, that wouldn't make sense.
Kirito was the only thing that actually mattered in the first season.
Might as well make it a completely different series without him.
killer rin
Member
He mentions that everyones stats got reset after the end of the second arc. It was also mentioned that the virtual world seed has made it possible for people to use the same character across games, a central account system of sorts.
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