Tenka Seiha » Thanks For Making Me Appreciate Other Action Shows, SAO

Thanks For Making Me Appreciate Other Action Shows, SAO

July 14th, 2012

Well, here’s the OP since it didn’t have one last week. Since it began with ten minutes of speeches, I got antsy and skipped ahead to them fighting against the Kobold Lord. It was pretty hilarious. "Ready, fight!" …Then CG pan, fade to white… and stills, speedlines, watching someone give orders, and a drawn out death scene for a character that has had under 7 minutes of screen time along with recap and flashing back to five minutes ago. I am being a little intentionally unfair as it does get a lot better for a minute or two after the abomination above, but the animation’s still janky and cheap. Wow, another sword flash on a black background! When Campione is handling action better and more often than you, it’s time to take stock.

Posted in Anime | 12 Comments »

12 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

Chen says:

July 14, 2012 at 10:05 am

I distinctively remember the OP being used during the credits roll.

Anyhoo, I take it it’s dropped?

Aroduc says:

July 14, 2012 at 10:18 am

Mmmhmm. 4 minutes of mediocre action does not make up for the other 40 minutes of scenery porn and rambling.

Cytl says:

July 14, 2012 at 12:07 pm

Had big expectations for the battle scenes, this was just awful. Let’s hope it’s a one time thing…

Gorilla13 says:

July 14, 2012 at 2:57 pm

So this is dropped? Anyhoe, I think this one has a much better MC than Campione. He already had experience so we don’t have to go through every ep watching him n00bing like the other guy. And since you said you like decent male leads so I thought you may prefer this over Campione….

Aroduc says:

July 14, 2012 at 4:42 pm

I ceased actually paying attention before he had done anything besides stand there listening to things and provide pointless exposition. So… about 35 minutes or so, and still not even the lack of a personality. Just a lack of a presence completely in his own show.

Anon says:

July 14, 2012 at 4:11 pm

Marty Stu better? Campione is just a bad adaptation but I suppose it does not get as insufferable as this guy.

Meh says:

July 14, 2012 at 7:19 pm

Never thought the light novels were suited to becoming an anime but they really screwed this one up far beyond my expectations…

Meh says:

July 14, 2012 at 7:39 pm

Just finished the episode, and the show is beyond atrocious. Took out an excessive amount of subtle details, most likely due to budget conservation, and simply made the entire feel dry and banal. And considering the next episode is the reindeer/Christmas one, it’s obvious the production team didn’t even think this show through in terms of what order they would release the stories.

Thank you so much for dropping this joke of an adaptation.
- Meseki says:
  
  July 15, 2012 at 10:29 am
  
  There’s nothing wrong with the order of the episodes; it’s in chronological order. Or would you rather them skip to Floor 74 after episode 1 and then come back later?
  - Meh says:
    
    July 15, 2012 at 3:52 pm
    
    Look, by going to the reindeer episode, it means that half the episode is going to be a bloody flashback filled with nothing but angsty narration by kirito. The better way to do it would have been to have… well gone in “true chronological order” and made the next episode his meeting with the “Black Cats of the Full Moon” and actually tell the story without the flashbacks. Heck, if they did that, they could possibly totally take out that weird story with “Nicholas the Apostate,” which I honestly believe was one of the less likable part of the LN’s. What they’re doing with this simply isn’t graceful and just makes the mistakes of the light novels worse.
    I was hoping they would fix this in the anime, but apparently they didn’t. Either going for true chronological order and really flesh out the side stories and events that weren’t fully explained in the LN’s or simply taking out the side stories would have worked. The former would work marvelously in my opinion if they focused all 25 episodes on only the SAO arc with side stories, ignoring the ALO stuff possibly leaving it for a 2nd season. But from the pace that they’re taking, I believe they’re going to try to finish the first 4 light novels in 25 episodes, which would only be possible to do well if they cut out the side stories of the SAO arc.
    
    And since I’m already ranting…
    
    I greatly dislike how they’re spending only one episode on each of the stories. Episode 2 for instance included that cream on the black bread scene but totally killed the magic of the initial meeting between Kirito and Asuna. One of the major selling points of the first arc is the dismal environment that these individuals are put into, and I feel the meeting between Asuna and Kirito in that dank dungeon really helped to emphasize the situation that they were in. The Asuna there was depicted as desperate and simply waiting for death, sure it might not be as attractive to the audience, but it then makes more sense why she finally falls in love with Kirito. But the Asuna in the anime just meets Kirito at a boss meeting, and honestly was just a dry character, aka your typical anime girl. They removed so many key lines that I feel would have worked rather well. The anime has taken away the details, events and descriptions that made the virtual world seem so real and un-MMO in the light novels.
    
    Also, they took out quite a few things that make Kirito seem like the strong cocky protagonist that he was in the Light Novels. I can understand the removal of Argos, the information broker, though I feel like the inclusion of the farmhouse scene would have worked much better than the bread scene in this episode. But the reason for all of this is probably that drawing ppl eating bread in a dark alley is cheaper than actually designing a farm house or another character.
    
    Meh. I say Meh. This could have been done much much better, and it’s regrettable it can no longer be redone.