It's a two-for-one this week as Crunchyroll catches up with their stream. Unfortunately, SAO is walking a fine line with my patience.
Episode 6
Man, this was a bad episode. What was the point of this plotline? What did it accomplish? I can think of a dozen better ways to introduce the marriage system and get Kirito and Asuna to "friend" each other than to use a mystery that was solved by knowledge of game mechanics. I agree strongly with Draggle on this one; if they could come up with a way to fake their deaths, then why didn't they remember the mariage item storage system which is apparently common knowledge? Why does everyone in this show seem to lack common sense?
Admittedly, the armor deterioration thing was interesting, but that explanation was completely undermined by a friend's list. Apparently you can track the position of anyone on the list by just looking up their name, so their over could've been blown at any time. I also have a hard time believing Asuna didn't check this, if only to remove the name after it was believed she was dead.
And then there's the murderer and his motive. "Oh noes! When she's in an MMO, my waifu doesn't act like a submissive 1950's stereotype! Clearly the only solution is murder." What the hell. Of course, I'm using hyperbole here, but I felt that instead of showing how his feelings grew out of fear for their situation and self-perceived inadequacy (which the show was attempting to do) it went for the easy way out with a monologue that makes him look like a nutbar instead.
Even sillier was Asuna stating the obvious, and the murderer dropping to his knees. From his monologue, I'd assumed that he'd come to conclusion that he wanted a possession, not a person, which was why he was going to such lengths. Now the entire thing seems utterly pointless. I guess it makes for a good analogy for SAO up to this point. It seemed good when you read between the lines, but then the show started going out of its way to prove how paper-thin these side-stories are.
Please let the next episode be better.
Episode 7
Okay, this is an improvement. I don't feel like ranting about time I'll never get back anymore. And for watching this back-to-back with Episode 6, that's a pretty good achievement. However, as enjoyable as this episode is, it does rehash a lot of things we've seen already. The story this time around felt like a combination between Sachi's and Silica's (this anime really likes the "Ah" sound in its names, huh?). While I liked Liz and her personality, I'd already seen this before and not that long ago either, so most of the impact it could've had was significantly dulled.
At least there was an interesting fight this time around with a...bad CG dragon. SAO sure has money to burn. Animation decisions aside, I really liked the choreography of the fight. I was a little confused about why the dragon immediately turned on Liz as soon as she stepped out of hiding. I'm sure that there was some kind of MMO-appropriate game explanation as to why that happened and that it wasn't just a easy way to make Liz the damsel in distress while Kirito plays the hero, no sir.
Nitpicking aside, I did enjoy this episode. It's been a while since I've seen something remotely close to character subtlety in this show, and I think that there's more going on with Liz than we're clued in on. She falls for Kirito at the drop of a hat and then gives up on him just as easily, yet she's clearly been around guys at some point in the past, if the picture is anything to go by. Her actions--holding her own hand, stating that she wants to find something "real"--speak to someone steal learning how to deal with being alone. I hope that she's not just a throwaway character because I think this could be an interesting thing to develop in the show if done right. I'm not holding my breath, though.
If the preview title isn't lying, I think that we might get the real plot next week. If so, that's going to be the moment of truth for me. I could really have done without these side story episodes, since I only enjoyed two of them. I read some speculation that this was done to familiarize newcomers with the terminology, but if that the case, the writing is lazy. The meaning should be clear from the story, otherwise the terms are unnecessary. Anyway, I'm still trying to hold on to that optimism that I had for the first two episodes, but this show isn't making it easy. It would be nice to see the show earn its hype.
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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