Impression
An embarrassed Sinon is cute too!
A happy Sinon quickly became a very pissed off Sinon after that little fanservice scene. Ah well, Kirito had it coming – he was fully aware he was tricking her the entire time they were together after all. It was actually hilarious how all that friendliness immediately evaporated after she learned that Kirito-chan was actually Kirito-kun, although I have a feeling he became even more girly during those final moments in the lobby – Spiegel was rather taken in by his act if nothing else. Sinon now has the hostile intent of hunting him down during their Bullet of Bullets match-up, which will only occur should they both get into the finals of the preliminary event – and that’s all but guaranteed, right?
Kirito had his first real PvP fight this episode. Even though he won, his inexperience showed through pretty easily – despite their generic avatars, these BoB participants are all supposed to be GGO veterans after all. Kirito wasn’t even sure if his photon sword could properly deflect bullets in the first place. Interestingly enough, arm or leg hits didn’t do as much damage as I thought they would – I’d understand it if they were graze shots, but Kirito’s HP bar hardly went down even though several bullets connected. That means it’d be most effective to go for one critical shot -like the headshot that got rid of the Minigun guy several episodes ago- in order to take another player down, which is great for a certain blue-haired sniper. Or you could just run a sword through them, that would work too. It actually took surprisingly long for that guy to die even after being stabbed by Kirito – they both just sort of stood there while the guy was screaming his head off. That sounded pretty painful for him. It must have been a hell of a shock to suddenly see a supposed girl pull out a sword and win with it, but the monitors in the lobby means that it’s no longer as much of a surprise for Kirito’s future opponents – and as Sinon mentioned, others might start to try countering him. With a gun like the Hecate II and the profile that she has in GGO though, I don’t think Sinon even gets that sort of initial advantage.
I was initially going to forget about the whole Star Wars thing, but it’s like they’re trying to push it even further by making Death Gun sound an awful lot like Darth Vader. While I know Kirito doesn’t have that much intel on Death Gun beyond a couple of audio clips, I can’t believe he didn’t immediately associate that name with someone who was very obviously the most dangerous guy he’s met in the entire game thus far. And instead, he spent some time suspecting the (relatively) harmless Sinon – although her little smile was admittedly rather bloodthirsty. Death Gun has made the link between Kirito’s name and his sword skills – of course, the most likely person to make such a connection would be a fellow SAO survivor, which is exactly what Death Gun is. You’d think he’d go the extra mile in concealing his identity by removing that Laughing Coffin emblem, to be honest – he’s already gone to all this trouble of setting up this whole persona. I’m actually interested in seeing how they’ll handle this part of the adaptation – from what I remember, there wasn’t too much exposition on Laughing Coffin in the original series, and certainly nothing with a solid link to Death Gun. Even if there was, everyone would have forgotten it by now. Also, isn’t it interesting that they requested a player’s name, address and phone number when signing up for BoB? Essentially, they’re the real world details of someone in a gaming environment. That’s a link between the game and real life if I’ve ever seen one.
“from what I remember, there wasn’t too much exposition on Laughing Coffin in the original series, and certainly nothing with a solid link to Death Gun.”
…You really really need to get on to that re-read of Phantom Bullet so I can stop pointing out where you’re wrong. Well, let me reprhase: in the very first novel, the original Aincrad arc before side-stories and additions and such, there was very little on Laughing Coffin. However, Phantom Bullet very clearly ties Death Gun to them, and later side-stories that the author wrote fill out more information about some of their members, including the individual who eventually becomes Death Gun. Since the first season of the anime had episodes occur chronologically rather than by publication-date, anime-viewers have seen the moments in question.
I really suck at thinking straight when it’s late, and that’s always when I’m blogging 😀 Wow, maybe that’s a bit counterproductive coming to think of it.
By “original series” I meant “the first season” – it’s true the episodes occurred chronologically, but a lot of that extra info Kawahara put in about Laughing Coffin was heavily glossed over in the anime, which doesn’t help. Such as during the murder mystery that Kirito solved – he met Laughing Coffin near the end of that, but the encounter was all bare bones in the anime since all that was needed at the time was a bit on them being a PK guild. Phantom Bullet was made before Early and Late either way, so I’ll take your word for it that it manages to tie in Death Gun properly.
I’ve been marathoning the entire Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance LN as of late, so that re-read will probably have to wait xD
“I’ve been marathoning the entire Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance LN as of late, so that re-read will probably have to wait xD”
Ah. I did that last week. It’s pretty good, despite a few cliches that it never breaks out of. Of course, volume 13 stops with a “what? You’re stopping THERE? GAH! I need volume 14!” sort of ending…
“Phantom Bullet was made before Early and Late either way, so I’ll take your word for it that it manages to tie in Death Gun properly. ”
The story in question in Early and Late was deliberately written to tie back in to Phantom Bullet, so readers wouldn’t be left going “so wait, Death Gun’s secret identity is… someone we’ve never heard of?”
I’m near the end of Vol 5, during the ambush attack by Leonora. I imagine the plot escalates over time, especially as it took pretty long to get to the Blade Dance to begin with – the anime won’t make it if it’s one-cour. And by cliches, I’m sure you’re referring to the many perverted misunderstandings (or actual advances sometimes) between Kamito and anyone that’s not Claire. Which Claire then walks in upon. At least she doesn’t interrupt his alone time with Restia though, since she’s still walking on eggshells with stuff concerning her. Restia is best girl, by the way, with Est in a close second.
The anime’s not going to get to any of the good parts, really. And they’re between Kamito and anyone, Claire or otherwise. Harem member A makes some sort of advance on him (depending on which girl it is it may, in fact, be something quite perverted), then harem members B through (insert letter here) walk in on it and beat Kamito up, because despite the number of times this has happened (or the number of times they personally have done it) they never seem to figure out that he isn’t the instigator. It’s a cliche, and it bugs me. Fortunately, I managed to keep reading despite it, and I’ve enjoyed the story.
I’m not going to go choosing between Restia and Est. They’re tied for first place.
Velsaria isn’t exactly the most exciting opponent the series has, but showcasing Team Scarlet’s teamwork as an anime finale is better than stretching it to two cours and having to stop in the middle of the Blade Dance, I suppose. I tend to enjoy Fianna’s advances the most, and can’t remember any of Claire’s at all – maybe that’s because she’s the one doing the punishing all the time. I actually feel a bit sorry for all the Ren Ashbell admirers who have no idea that they’re calling their ultimate idol a lewd beast and the demon king of the night 😀 Although it’s not like “Ren Ashbell” is making a very good impression three years on, at least at the point where I’m at.
It’s reassuring to know I wasn’t the only one baffled by Kirito’s finishing stroke in BoB! Hahah all I could think was, “This is taking an abnormally long time and it must be painful…” xD
I can’t remember whether they can feel pain in GGO, but I’m sure the production team’s conversation went something like this:
“Okay guys, we’ve got a dozen seconds left of this episode to fill. Any ideas?”
“Hey, why don’t we pad it with that guy’s screams while he’s being stabbed!”
Hahahaha actually that’s a very plausible theory xD