Sword Art Online Episodes 1-3 Review

Anime fans depending on where your reading this review you'll know that i've been on bit of an anime kick as of late and well I thought that i'd continue this trend. So I thought that i'd pick an anime whose storyline is a little bit easier to pick up on and where apart from the first twp episodes at least the stories are pretty much self contained and so here is my review of the first three episodes of "Sword Art Online" enjoy.

The plot of the first two episodes is Kirito finds himself stuck inside the new game Sword Art Online with thousands if not possibly millions of players and with the only way out being to beat the game and if you die in the game you die in real life. The plot of the third episode however has Kirito dealing with being in a guild and what means in this game. In all honesty I kind of prefer the plot for the first two episodes since it gives you a closer idea of the ideas and themes behind this first arc but with that being said the story in episode is also really nice and the fact that it's a more personal story to me seems about right since we just came of two episodes of setting up Kirito and not really seeing the true threat behind this world.

Starring in these episodes are Bryce Papenbrook as Kirigaya Kazuto (Kirito) and Cassandra Lee Morris as Kirigaya Suguha and Hosaka Tomo aka Argo . Also starring in the episodes are Kirk Thornton (Klein) , Cherami Leigh as Yuuki Asuna (Asuna) , Sean Chiplock as Diavel , Patrick Seitz as Andrew Gilbert Mills (Agil) , Derek Stephen Prince as Kibaou , Lucien Dodge as Keita , Xanthe Huynh as Sachi , Tyler Shamy as Tetsuo , Bobby Thong as Sasamaru and Erik Kimerer as Ducker.

In all honesty the acting in these episodes in my opinion was just OK at best which given how bad this show can get and does get with the second half of it's first season OK is the best that we could ever hope for. That's not to say that the acting is bad because it honestly isn't but the actors aren't really given much to work with in terms of the script and character and so they can only do so much with the stuff that there given.

As you can no doubt work out from the above picture the animation not only for these episodes but also the whole series was done by A-1 Pictures who most notably did work on Fairy Tail. I have to say that while the animation isn't that good in the dialog scenes or the scenes where the characters are just standing still when it comes to the action tho the animation is freaking stunning to look at with each strike and blow leaping of the screen.

Again for those that don't know this show originally started of a series of light novels (don't ask me what a light novel is I don't know) and has since been adapted into several manga as well as an anime series and anime film with a live action American TV series in development. I'm going to be honest I don't think i've read any of the light novels or the manga but I could be wrong tho and as far as I know the manga is still being published to this very day.

When this series first came out it was getting alot of hate from alot of anime fans and quite frankly i don't see why. Since these three episodes have alot of heart and the first arc due to concept has alot of stakes as such in every fight scene no matter how outnumbered our heroes are your always scared that they could die and that's something that you don't get from a lot of anime and I have no idea why that's the case since it's a great way to have dramatic moments but I was cheering this show on from episode 1 and even through the dreadful second arc I was still saying that it's a good show and so i'm not pleased to see that alot of peoples opinion's on the show have changed.

Episode three is in my opinion one of the best episode in this first arc simply because it really hits home how dangerous this world can be. All throughout the first two episodes we are told how dangerous this game is and are barely shown in but in episode three we see an entire guild who are all friends in real life get killed with the group's only female member telling Kirito that there death was not his fault and thanking him for helping them and for being a good friend.

That to me is such a heartbreaking thing to see because we're not seeing a game character talking to another game character we're seeing one human being telling another human being that it's OK and that there death wasn't there fault. That's why episode 3 is so heartbreaking to me and I have to wonder why more anime don't have more scenes like this since it's a really effective way to get people crying since hopefully they'll care for the characters.

Now then this is of course an action series and so that does mean that we have to talk about the action itself. Which I feel is so freaking good because like I said the animation in those sequences is so good every strike and slash leaps of the screen and that to me makes the action more exciting because that's when your going to see alot of the best animation in this series but that's just my opinion tho you guys might think that the animation in the action scenes is pretty freaking bad.

Overall these are a good set of episodes with there biggest issue at least in my opinion is that they don't give us a reason to care for or about Kirito. Which is a shame because the show gets to it's action sequences they can be quite entertaining to see and are in my opinion very well animated but either way i'm glad that I checked these episodes out since they gave me a chance to revisit Sword Art Online as such these episodes get a combined score of 7.5 out of 10.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Sword Art Online fandom wiki page or Google Images. I'll admit I had to idea that the official Sword Art Online fandom had high quality images or even existed for that matter and some of these images are nearly 3 MB each so that goes to tell you how high quality the images are and if you don't use either of these images i'll trap you not inside a game but inside The Last Airbender movie because i'm that cruel and I won't even think of letting you out of the film either.

 

Some Anime Shows I Want To Review

Hello there anime fans as you might have noticed I like to review alot of things and that's because the things I want to talk about are things that havn't been talked about. Yes there is the odd new movie but it's mostly classic stuff and well I mention that because today i'm going to tell you some of the shows that I want to review at some point in the future.

My Hero Academia

When I first started thinking of shows to go on this list this show was nowhere to be found but as I started writing the intro I started to think it would be a really good show to watch. The only thing that's stopping me from doing it is the fact that there's alot of episodes per season to get through and that's very time consuming so i'll do it if they release some recap movies.

Love Live! School Idol Project

Now I do have a Love Live! review in the offing at some point in the new year but i'm also really thinking about reviewing this show. Which would make sense since I did review the movie and I plan of reviewing the Sunshine movie when that's out in the new year.

Love Live! Sunshine!!

As of right now this is the only Love Live! show that I can actually plan on reviewing since i'm getting the first season in a few weeks. I plan on reviewing it because nobody talks about the love live franchise be it good or bad so i'm going to do it just because no one else is and that is really surprising to me since it's a popular franchise.

Attack On Titan

Now that we've had a brief look in the idol genre let's dive back into the action genre because not only do I plan on reviewing Attack On Titan. I actually have a way to do it and it's so freaking simple my plan is simply this just watch the recap movies they cover all of the key episodes anyway so not only would that cut out alot of filler it would also save me a lot of freaking time.

High School DXD

I think every anime reviewer at some point has to take on this mammoth of a show the only thing that I would need to work out as how many episodes to watch. Since there's four seasons of the show and each season has twelve episodes it would be a huge task for any soul to take on. I promise you tho once I work out how many i'd need to watch and if I have the time i'll get right to it but that's a very big if.

 Blood-C

Now this is a show that I do actually plan on reviewing in the next few weeks and since I have the DVD it would be very easy to do. As with anything tho plans could change in a heartbeat so i'll say that if you see the review by next Monday then you'll know that my plans hadn't changed but if you don't see it then something came up that forced me to alter my plans.

Sword Art Online

Now this one would kind of be easy to do since there is a recap film of the first season out there. it's when we get to seasons two and three that things would get difficult to do it's not impossible by any means but i'd have to work out again how many episodes to watch in order to do the review justice but it's one that I look forward to working out and then reviewing.

Dragon Ball Z

As with a shocking amount of shows on this post the only thing that's stopping me from reviewing this show is the amount of episodes. Even if I chose to just watch the Kai series there's still a huge amount of episodes to get through and unlike a few of the shows i've already mentioned there's no recap films here to help me out. So i'd have to watch a huge amount of episodes in order to do this review any kinds of justice.

Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online Anime Review

Sword Art Online fans have had a good few years with not only the movie coming out and being really good but also two different anime series were announced with Sword Art Online: Alicization coming out this fall but that's not the series i'm going to be talking about i'm going to be talking about the spin off series Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online.

So then the plot of this series is Karen Kohiruimaki who is around six feet tall plays Gun Gale Online with her avatar being 5 feet tall and she and a partner enter the bullet of bullets tournament. I will admit that the plot of this series is really lacking but this review is being made after the first four episodes so there's a chance it could get better but as of right now it really is paper thin.

Starring as the main characters are Tomori Kusunoki as Karen Kohiruimaki and Llenn (her avatar name) , Kazuyuki Okitsu ( Andre from Prison School) as M and Yōko Hikasa (who can also be heard as Jivunya Lorezzo in Dances With Dragons) as Pitohui.

Honestly the cast do a fairly solid job all of the characters sound really good and their performances really are top notch but if there was one thing i'd criticize the acting for it's the fact that Llenn has the typical small cute girl anime voice and to me it's eye rolling it's not a knock about the series but it's something I wanted to bring up.

Now usually an SAO series will cover two to three arc's per season so to me it's refreshing that this series only going to cover one light novel and not try to fit in as many as they can regardless if it makes sense or not yes i'm looking at you SAO season 1.

Usually SAO is animated by A-1 Pictures but they are bust animating the third season of not only this show but also Fairy Tail and so in steps studio 3hz who have seen mild success with shows like Flip Flappers and Dimension W. 

For me the animation in this series is pretty good SAO will never be known for having outstanding animation but I feel that the animation is probably the best seen in the SAO series i'm not saying it's better then the movie because of the fact the movie would have a bigger budget but for a TV series the animation is really good.

I do like the fact that this series is really taking it's time in building up it's characters but tho the series has around twelve episodes so that could come back to bite them but tho even the main series doesn't take it's time and while that's fine for that show it's nice to see things done at a slower more natural pace.

I think it's safe to say that Llenn is a pure badass and I love the fact that she really doesn't know how much of a badass she can be and she really is a good character and one that I personally can see being better then Kirito and and Asuna in terms of fan popularity.

   

The main series is known for putting it's best animation in it's fight scenes and sadly the animation in the fight scenes isn't that good which is a shame because this series is pretty much built on having good looking action scenes the ones in this series while not being that bad there clearly not the best the series has to offer but tho i'd still take these actions scenes then the whole ALO arc.

What shocked me when watching this series was the fact that the opening song called ryuusei is sung by SAO veteran Eir Aoi and I have to say she can still get me excited and pumped up because that is one hell of a song and it's one of the few anime songs I make sure to never ever skip that's how good it is.

Overall this is a really good series and if your a die hard fan of SAO then i'd say watch it and I would even kinda say the same thing if your not a fan just because it's not the main show and should be treated differently I give this show a solid 7 out of 10. 

Why Is Sword Art Online So Popular?

Hello there anime fans i really wasn't planning on posting anything today but something has been bugging me and it's this simple question "Why Is Sword Art Online So Popular?" and it's something that i'm hopefully going to try and answer right now but i must first stress that since i havn't read the Light Novels and have only read the original manga and seen the seen anime i will mostly be focusing on the anime.

Now if i remember correctly the original author Reki Kawahara stated in an interview that he wrote the original SAO so it would be popular in America since Americans like games like World Of Warcraft and Call Of Duty so it would make sense that those kinds of mechanics would find there way into the anime.

Any SAO fan would tell you that even tho the writing is weak which lets be honest here it is that (the less said about the ALO arc the better) still doesn't stop the show from being fun for me this show is junk food for the brain you don't need to think to hard on things you just have to enjoy what's going on and for me nothing says fun like the over the top battle scenes which for me is an important thing because not all shows have to have this serious tone to them and because the show is fun it then allows for more character moments like the episode where Kirito and Asuna just lie in the grass that is something you couldn't do if you had this serious tone.

Another thing that i think makes the show the popular is the fact that nearly half the cast is made up of not only beautiful women but also strong and for some independent women as well i'll list Asuna as the prime example of someone who is beautiful , strong and independent even if she eventually turned into a weak character who would always relay on Kirito for everything but during that first arc she was pretty much the second in command to the group trying to find a way out of the game even Kirito wasn't doing that for most of that first arc. I'd say another example is Lisbeth who in her first episode was seen running her own shop i didn't see any other females doing that but like Asuna she eventually fell into the same trap as she let kirito do everything.

Now i think we can all agree on the fact that one of the best things about SAO was the artwork from a visual standpoint the show is a masterpiece even if you can't for some reason get past the overall funness of the show or the fact that it is pure junk food for the brain you might comeback just to see the backgrounds because they were always stunning to look at and for the most part they were nearly always different so you never knew what visual treat you was going to be getting next.

Adding to what i just said about the artwork another thing we can all agree on is the fact the animation during the fight scenes was fantastic and i think this is because the makers knew this is were they would get the most attention from he fans and also because i think that would go back to the likes of WOW and COD because the makers knew that if they wanted that American market they would need great looking action scenes and great looking action to go with it.

I'm not to sure if this is true or not but for me it is and that's the fact the music played a big part in the overall popularity of SAO from the fast paced roller coaster ride that was Crossing Field to the more emotionally driven second opening and even the opening themes of the second series music played a big part in this shows identity but tho that being said the music in the show while it was sometimes great to listen to they always replayed tracks almost to the point where it was annoying and upon a second viewing if you ever heard the track that plays at the end of episode 1 then you knew it was going to hit the fan.

I've already mentioned the lovely ladies of SAO but tho what else i think makes the show popular is the characters them selfs during the first arc they are treated like real people there flawed and not perfect and as i've mentioned several times already that does go away over time but for the characters i think it makes sense as there growing more confident but that still doesn't excuse the fact that Asuna went from a Xena like character to every cheerleader in every horror film made eve. In the first arc you buy into them because you either A) want to be them or B) have experienced the kind of issues that they themselves are going threw and that intern makes them more relatable.

Now since SAO is also a romance anime i have to mention how the show treats i romance which for me fells very natural since the people in SAO have been stuck in there for years it seems natural that they would fall in love with people inside the game yes the writing when it comes to romance could have and perhaps should have been better but since this show is also listen as an action show the makers chose more to focus on that aspect but tho for me as a viewer it was great getting to see Kirito and Asuna bond and go from people who just know each other to a couple.

The last thing that i think makes this show popular is the fact that it's not afraid to punch you in the gut sometimes and that for me makes the show feel more real and it adds to the characters in some way or another i can't recall her name but tho when that girl and her friends that Kirito had befriended  when they all died we got to see how that effected Kirito and not just for that episode either for the rest of the series we got to see him try even harder to save the people that he cares about because he doesn't want to feel that kind of pain ever again.

Overall these are just my humble opinions as to why the show was and still is popular but if you think otherwise then that's great and please feel free to tell me why in the comments below