Sword Art Online

Now that Alicinzation is on Netflix, I tried watching the first episode. I was very surprised and confused by the first half, but I think you're supposed to be. It's basically In Media Res.

The other bit I was confused by was the reference to the Augma. I vaguely recall someone here saying that it was a reference to one of the spinoff series that wasn't adapted into the anime.

Also, I heard that Alicanization was a very long arc in the novels, but I assumed that would just mean multiple seasons of the anime. But it looks like this season is 18 double length episodes. Yikes.

Edit: Turns out I was wrong. Only the first episode is double length, but there are 24 episodes. So it's effectively 25 episodes long. I have no idea why they doubled up the first episode. It even has a major break halfway through like it was meant to be two episode.

Edited by storyyeller on Oct 21st 2020 at 11:52:15 AM

Ep 5: For some reason, the subtitles kept saying "patients" instead of "patents". I wonder why. Also, I can't remember why Yui is able to appear in the real world. Anyone care to fill me in?

The VR tech from Ordinal Scale?

Kirito built a device to project her into the real world in season 2. Toward the end of the season, Yuuki used it to attend school remotely.

I thought Yuuki just used a camera mounted on Asuna's shoulder. I don't recall her ever appearing in the real world.

Anyway, on top ep6: In which the villian's secret plot is exposited. I'm kind of surprised it's all revealed this early.

Also, I didn't think "cybernated" was a word, but apparently it is a real word.

Also interesting to learn that the Taboo Index arose organically as a creation by the inhabitants of the world. I had assumed it was one of those things imposed by the VR masters to stop people from breaking the system. But ironically, they want the index to be violated.

I'm also curious if they really did a brain scan of 80,000 different babies, or if they just reused the same ones over and over.

Edited by storyyeller on Oct 24th 2020 at 12:34:50 PM

The novels explained that last bit. They just scanned 12 and copied those endlessly.

Well, the inhabitants of the Underworld engage in sexual reproduction, so the descendants are various recombinations of the original 16. Where they got the babies they cloned at the beginning, they never mention.

?

They paid parents to let them scan the kids. Duh? Tho obviously the parents weren't told "We're using the copies to eventually run war machines."

They paid parents to let them scan the kids. Duh? Tho obviously the parents weren't told "We're using the copies to eventually run war machines."

I'm not asking how they managed to scan babies at all. I was just wondering if they really tried to scan 80,000 different babies, since that seems like quite an undertaking. It turns out they didn't, which makes sense.

I'm now up to the fight with Alice. Is it me or is the Central Cathedral arc really boring and drawn out? The early Alicization arc was much better, when there was a mystery to unravel and not just people yelling at each other and turning their swords into clouds of pretty colors ad infinitum.

So, the new update of Integral Factor makes Sachi an Assisting Character, and the result is that she seems to be showing a romantic interest in the Player. That's an interesting change of pace: a video game making a girl less interested in Kirito than in canon.

New PV for Sword Art Online Progressive. Which is going to be a movie, SAO Progressive -Aria of A Starless Night-.

Director: Kawano Ayako Character Designer: Toya Kento Action Director: Kai Yasuyuki Music: Kajiura Yuki

Also has a new Key Visual

Edited by RussellStar5641 on Nov 8th 2020 at 6:58:53 AM

Progressive Light novel volume 7 looks to be releasing March 10

Volume 21 starts with Kayaba's ghost conversing with the Star King (neither is explicitly identified, but the context makes their identities obvious). They are up to something that I think may well extend into Accel World.

It occurs to me that the premise of the Unital Ring arc is bound to cause a lot of real-world chaos. The producers of all these games (especially GGO) stand to lose a tremendous amount of money from having the player accounts hijacked. Compounding this problem is the inherent asymmetry in the various games. For example, a GGO player gets to bring a firearm into a setting that is Iron Age at best. Of course, that advantage will quickly become a massive disadvantage once they exhaust their ammo. Who even knows what an Insect Site player would join the game as? With no idea who caused this, there's bound to be a great deal of conflict over rumors and conflicting agendas. If there are any core Laughing Coffin members still at large, things could get real ugly.

Reki says his inspiration for Unital Ring was the E-Survival games that have appeared in the past decade, but I'm wondering if Dr. STONE was also a major influence.

Was amused to see a certain character FINALLY appear in the main canon.

Yeah, it's interesting to see her becoming more prominent. I'm also interested in the growing connections to Accel World through the introduction of certain elements and character.

Was amused to see a certain character FINALLY appear in the main canon.

Which character?

Spoiler: Argo the Rat finally appeared in the 'main' canon.

The biggest surprise I had about her appearance is I had assumed Argo had already graduated. Asuna and Lizbeth are seniors, and I had assumed that Argo was older than them. I figured if she showed up, it would be as a Private Investigator, not a student.

Also interesting is the appearance of (apparently) Kuroyukihime's mother. Even if admission is not limited to SAO survivors, except for the Sleeping Knights, I can't see anyone who wasn't an SAO survivor choosing to go to that school unless they were Expelled from Every Other School. Given how few copies of SAO were available on launch day, I'm curious if Kayaba actually arranged for the children of prominent VR/AR researchers to get copies. It's already canon that Professor Shigemura used his connections to get Yuna and Eiji their copies, and while Asuna was an unexpected player, that's only because it was supposed to be her brother that got trapped.

Heh, things are gonna get really crazy.

You have a bit of a wait, because Volume 22 is a set of side stories.

I believe they're side stories that were released with the JP DVD & Blu-ray releases that haven't been released in English.

So, Integral Factor just adapted the Laughing Coffin raid, and the result is: no casualties on either side. Going out of your way to avoid killing serial killers seems like it'll come back to haunt them, but killing Xaxa or Johnny Black would've created a Time Paradox.

Edited by mythbuster on Feb 10th 2021 at 4:19:57 AM

Shouldn't the characters page have a new page for the Unital Ring arc?