Fall 2014 Anime Season (Taiyz's SAO hijack thread)

NO I DIDN'T!

It's hard to not say it when you see SAO advertised as Romance Anime in some manga sites. lol

DylDawg wrote:

It's hard to not say it when you see SAO advertised as Romance Anime in some manga sites. lol

Those manga sites know what their advertising man. SAO for best romance 2012 and 2014.
Seriously though, which sites are these lmao

Well uhh...I think SAO's romance is the most enjoyable romance in anime I've seen. I also have VERY specific criteria for that mind you, most of the mainstream probably doesn't normally watch anime with romance in it, so that might be the only show they watch where it's brought to the forefront. It also helps that Asuna isn't tsundere, when that's a requirement for 99% of anime romances (like I said before, there's always that cat and mouse chase and only a possibility of actually hooking up at the end.)


ALO has marriage at the very least. At the end of that scene they hold hands and their rings are shown, same design as in SAO.

Out of the first series I don't think it's really worth debating, Aincrad is just so fantastic, I was not joking about the whole SAO Progressive thing. GGO has potential though, and I really like the Bullet Line concept, and the fact that Kirito becomes a trap is the icing on the cake (but Suguha is mai waifu.)

bromance is where it's at

I'm also not sure whether marriage/shared storage is in ALO. In the novel, Kirito mentioned (in a monologue before converting) that he stored all his item in Agil's shop, and Asuna didn't even say anything about items in their conversation. It's just the adaptation way to explain conversion mechanics I supposed.

It just seems like an odd oversight considering that, like you said, he stores his items anyway. They made a big deal out of shared item storage on the first series.

GGO is a good arc, probably better than Fairy Dance, but it is also VERY wordy with very little action (then again that shouldn't be too surprising since the female protagonist was a sniper.) Aincrad was a great example of "show, don't tell" and gave us enough to work things out ourselves, but it had the same problem where the big mystery gets resolved in one info dump.

I also wish they had more shots of the ALO crew seeing Kirito in action, they had all those jabs about him using a sword in a shooter and working with an enemy, but they never actually got to the punchline.

GGO also has the single most blatant fanservice shot of the series. Suguha's shower scene could can be waved off because that's a pretty standard shot in anime, but Kirito glances over and the camera literally changes to a static shot of Sinon's ass in that cave.

I do like the tournament setting though, at least compared to "tournament anime" it was a pretty fresh set-up. I ended up binging on it and watched 9 episodes tonight so I'm almost caught up already. =/

The whole GGO arc focused too much on Sinon's ass seriously, but that cave episode is the most offensive and blatant. I guess they want to avoid the backlash of having too much Kirito's face shot on screen.

One thing I hate about GGO arc in anime is the lack of Kikuoka scene, his affection for gross things (e.g.; he love talking about that eskimo food where they ferment birds in seal's pelt. While eating. Out loud. In a restaurant. And he even described the texture and taste.), and his funnily corrupt way of using government funds to buy dessert. Kikuoka best character man, show him more.

Hahaha, it didn't even happen but I could totally imagine Kikuoka doing all that.

One thing I did like about the LC stuff is that Kirito was supposed to have "forgotten" all about them until meeting DG, which works well because we never actually saw the LC ambush scene until the flashback that occurs upon meeting him. That way, it was kind of like the viewer was "remembering" that event that they had forgotten as well. Kind of an interesting way of embellishing on the Aincrad arc.


Also seeing SAO Kirito overlayed on GGO Kirito made me wonder if he's ever gonna go back to the SAO avatar. I mean, he said that "that world's Kirito is no longer needed" but SAO sure seems to keep coming back to haunt him. =P

Also the resolution of the "Asada-san!" scene was definitely satisfying. I was gonna be really disappointed if Kirito didn't throw hands after all that setup "oh I'll just send the police" YEAH RIGHT IT'S GAR TIME

Is Sinon still going to be relevant in the Excalibur arc?

No less relevant than the rest of the cast, I'd reckon.

Also, some easter egg-y things I noticed. In one episode of GGO, Namco Bandai's logo is on a monitor instead of random footage from a match. Also, when they're showing the stories and legends that the Cardinal system examines, Sadako and Jason Voorhees are shown...Wouldn't want to see a quest based on that shit in a Norse MMO!

I took some decent screencaps of the Calibur opening which I'll upload tomorrow. (They're 720p mind you.)

namco bandai still going strong in 2025 prolly

tales of phantasia r: narikiri dungeon x2 for amusphere confirmed 2025?

Naruto Ultimate Never-Ending Ninja Storm

Seriously though I'd lose my shit if there were a .hack and SAO crossover.

Edit: Well, now I'm all caught up. *Twiddles thumbs*

Also, I wanted to get my second Hollow Fragment trophy (shush I have very little time during the week) on SAO's future launch date, since I got my first on the 2nd (I mentioned this earlier, the day I finished SAO1,) and I just noticed that the timestamps for my two trophies are 8 minutes apart...8 Years before SAO's release.

Taiyz wrote:

Well, now I'm all caught up. *Twiddles thumbs*

Who is best girl?

Asuna was pretty cool in Aincrad but sharply declined in awesomeness now that she's a mage. Then again, Asuna really complemented Kirito, and now that the ALO fights involve the rest of their motley crew, that could be another reason, everybody takes turns and Asuna gets very little screen time comparitively.

But that's not my answer. To reiterate...

Taiyz wrote:

GGO has potential though, and I really like the Bullet Line concept, and the fact that Kirito becomes a trap is the icing on the cake (but Suguha is mai waifu.)

Something I found interesting about the Calibur arc, sword skills have a cooldown period, and spells require MP. Hollow Fragment has an SP requirement for sword skills, but a cooldown period for battle skills. I wonder what the actual SAO rules state for battle skills (Kirito mentions he used one to regenerate his health during Silica's episode.)


Also I still feel a need to step back and reflect on the fact that I averaged 5 episodes a night across 9 days (counting Extra Edition as 3.) 4, 6 or 9 episodes per night. Started last Tuesday night and finished last night.

That's crazy for me nowadays.

Denki-gai 6: I'm pretty sure now that Kirito's VA is definitely better doing comedies. Yep. Pretty damn sure.

IKR Dylan

Taiyz wrote:

but Suguha is mai waifu

I don't know you anymore.

Also, there is auto-regen in this game, though iirc it was either a passive or a buff, I forgot >_<
But man I thought you rarely watch anime anymore considering you were more of a gamer guuuuuuy. What has SAO done to you.

WTF Aito. Way to add more WTF to the already wtf manga, anime version. HAHAHAHHAHA

Definitely better in comedy.

Falcom wrote:

Taiyz wrote:

but Suguha is mai waifu

I don't know you anymore.

Also, there is auto-regen in this game, though iirc it was either a passive or a buff, I forgot >_<
But man I thought you rarely watch anime anymore considering you were more of a gamer guuuuuuy. What has SAO done to you.

What, what's wrong with Suguha?

Kirito specifies that the regen is a battle skill in Silica's episode, I'm pretty sure, so it's either a buff or something you need to learn first.


And it's not like I've stopped watching anime, it's just that YouTube is so much easier to watch as disposable entertainment when I only have about 2-3 hours to spend on most nights. I don't have to pay attention or remember anything, just sit and absorb. I've been watching a lot of Achievement Hunter's stuff over the past couple of years (and their daily uploads usually cover that 2 hour allotment,) so anime has fallen on the backburner. I still took time to watch the first half of AoT's dub when it came out on blu-ray, I watched all of Haganai one month, and every month or so I watch some One Piece which I'm slowly making my way through.

SAO definitely stood out though because I just COULD NOT stop watching it. Hell, while I was downloading SAOII I just ended up watching the first two episodes of the first series again because I was so hyped. I don't want to admit it, but I think SAO may have beaten Natsume Yuujinchou because of that addictiveness. Also, I just got the blu-rays today so I'll probably start watching the dub soon (mind you I only have the Aincrad arc because shit's expensive, they're all LE-style sets, but that's not bad because they come with the OST which I was gonna buy separately anyway, before learning about this.)

Here are the screencaps I mentioned:
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/Taiyz/DeadFishSwordArtOnlineII-15v2720pAACmp4_snapshot_0510_20141106_040957_zps77e680b5.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/Taiyz/DeadFishSwordArtOnlineII-15v2720pAACmp4_snapshot_0511_20141106_041143_zpsbc69bfec.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/Taiyz/DeadFishSwordArtOnlineII-15v2720pAACmp4_snapshot_0512_20141106_041324_zpsced35f52.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/Taiyz/DeadFishSwordArtOnlineII-15v2720pAACmp4_snapshot_0512_20141106_041331_zpsc2467632.jpg


Edit: So...I watched the first two episodes of the dub. Early impressions are...Passable. Normally I think that dubs are equal or at least one step above the Japanese, but this one I feel is one step below.

The dub is...Cute. When Kirito enters SAO and says "I've returned...to this world!" in the dub, he says "Hello World! I'm back!" which will get a teehee or a slight smirk out of anyone who's taken a programming class. Although the dub is pretty even with the subs I watched in terms of MMO parlance, he does call the beta testers noobs during his beater speech.

The thing is, the dub has great actors. You've got Kirk Thornton, scruff incarnate as Klein, and Patrick manly-man Seitz as Agil, these are matches made in heaven. But it's like they hired these guys specifically so they could have them not be themselves (I realize this makes no sense for an acting job, but you know what I mean.) Kirk Thornton isn't doing his Kirk Thornton thing, he sounds super young and not as accented as Klein was in Japanese, if anything Diabel had more of that (also dipped into a Brooklyn accent slightly, which was weird.) Patrick Seitz also isn't doing the Seitz thing, he's playing a black man...And I don't know if Agil's actually supposed to be black. The thing is, while his accent is certainly well done, "black" is not an accent and it's obviously a white dude, kinda like when you have Americans play British characters or Australians trying to play Americans, there's some subtle incompatibility there.

Klein still sounds good, just not what I expected plus he's different from the Japanese, Agil is a total missed opportunity because classic Seitz would've been perfect. Again it's not like his performance is bad, the acting's fine, but the "accent" doesn't click.

Kirito's voice has ups and downs. The scream at the end of the first episode was perfect, but on average he misses more than he hits unfortunately, the laugh before the beater speech was not as good. Maybe he'll get into the role later on, but I swear if Starburst Stream isn't GAR I'm gonna be disappointed.

Asuna is good so far. I actually didn't look up the cast in advance and was REALLY worried that Kirito and Asuna would be Bosch and Sheh like Eureka Seven, which was a combo that just never clicked for me. I accidentally saw her name while checking if the show was on Netflix (for a friend) but she voices Yui...Which is kind of a typical role for her as well, if I remember right.


Oh and the title was me. I got to monopolize the title even though I would never win at poker.

Double Edit: Looked up the Wikia, Agil is of African-American descent but was born and presumably raised in Tokyo. He does use Engrish from time to time, but I don't think he should sound like a black American.

Taiyz wrote:

What, what's wrong with Suguha?

I have a lot of beef with Sugu, and Yui, but hey that's just me.

And where the hell are you buying your Blu-rays from?

Oh shit, screencaps from Courage? What did you mention them for?
Was a huge fan of that OP <3

Oh, I assumed you actually watched the dub first.
Bryce's Kirito is pretty hit and miss, yeah. But he still did a fine job imo.
The dub as a whole is pretty solid, it's just I am more familiar with the subs hehe ^_^

AND HEY, Bosch and Sheh are a legit combo.
> sees Trails in the Sky and maybe Tales of the Abyss

Also speaking of Agil, everyone needs to watch this

I see this is a SAO thread now. Been playing Hollow Fragment the past few days. Sinon is my favorite <3 Glad she joined the crew after the GGO arc ended.

Moontoon wrote:

I see this is a SAO thread now.

I blame Taiyz.

Moontoon wrote:

Sinon is my favorite <3

Me and you are gonna get along just fine ~

But yeah Hollow Fragment is a reaaaaaally fun game :3

EDIT: DAT THREAD NAME

Well imma head to the Winter thread now then.

Falcom wrote:

And where the hell are you buying your Blu-rays from?

Oh shit, screencaps from Courage? What did you mention them for?
Was a huge fan of that OP <3

Oh, I assumed you actually watched the dub first.
Bryce's Kirito is pretty hit and miss, yeah. But he still did a fine job imo.
The dub as a whole is pretty solid, it's just I am more familiar with the subs hehe ^_^

Anywhere that has 'em. RightStuf has the best prices. They're super expensive because Aniplex puts everything in big boxes and always includes a disc of bonus content. We're talking like 84.99 for 6-7 episodes. The OST included with the first set of each arc justifies the price a bit though.

I just took 'em because it was a neat, relatively static image of the main cast. I also dug the transition from IRL to ALO.

Nah, I had the subs downloaded for a while because the blu-rays were so goddamn expensive. After seeing the series I could justify the expenditure.

Oh yeah, RightStuf. Think I bought stuff from there like twice, but they ship pretty fast and reasonable. Been too poor to buy anime though, so I will stick to being a filthy stream or dirty downloader, whichever works. You're a big spender dood.

I stole your images btw

Also man, you gonna start Mother's Rosario tomorrow?

DylDawg wrote:

Well imma head to the Winter thread now then.

See ya back next week pleb.

I don't think I can wait until SAOII ends to watch more.

Edit: Two more things I forgot to mention regarding the dub. I dislike how Diabel says "The job I rolled is Knight!" when in Japanese he says something more like "My job is, informally, knight!" if the subtitles are to be believed (also the way he hesitates as he's saying it.) The dub kinda makes him seem goofy. "Rolled" is another gamer term of course.

Also, while I mentioned liking the whole contemporary thing, the dub is a little uncomfortably contemporary with characters saying "yo" and ", man" in serious conversations. I mean, it's pretty realistic for gamers so I give them kudos for that, but Kirito comes off as kind of a dweeb sometimes (he's also slightly impatient/smug/dismissive with Klein at the start, instead of more encouraging.)

Definitely glad I decided to check out Mother's Rosario. Again, stuff like episode 18 is why I easily fell for SAO. I mean it's basically an episode about a couple of girls doing their homework in a homey log cabin in front of a roaring fire, but the atmosphere is so great, and the setup of it being Asuna's "home" was heartwarming. (Though it was a total embodiment of the slice of life genre: high school girls have X in common and they go eat cakes after school and be moe; just in a video game fantasyland.)

I also just really like the concept of these characters being able to meet in SAO although they live apart, and still do their homework together (also dat casual wear, fantasy game snuggies.) Again, I could go for an entire series of this slice of life stuff.

The ending is also thought-provoking but I don't want any spoilers.


Getting back to the dub, I'm warming up to it. Papenbrook does a fantastic job outside of action scenes, but I still feel that his battle foley is too subdued compared to his Japanese counterpart (or maybe on the flipside, his Japanese counterpart goes a little overkill and I'm just used to that.) The end of the first episode and first boss show that he can scream just as well as the Japanese actor, but it's the mid-range stuff that is underwhelming in English. Then again it's not clear if that's him or his direction, maybe they just didn't want him being super loud during fights.

I think that the voice that Seitz is doing is a good voice, it's probably the best white-dude-playing-a-black-man I've ever heard, but I still don't feel that it was a good choice for Agil. This I'm definitely chalking up as a direction issue, Seitz is not the problem. At the same time though, considering that Agil is essentially a bartender, the trendy black man voice does make some sense, but they lay it on a little thick (especially when they first visit Agil's Shop.)

Klein is also a case where I still think you couldn't pick a better actor, and I'm just not sure you could get an English VA to match the Japanese. I still really like his voice and I think once Klein becomes more prominent I'll be satisfied, but he is notably different from the Japanese. He really shines during the second half of episode 3; it's worth noting that in the field scene earlier, he uses the term "trash mobs" (I think "mobs" was used somewhere in 1-2, maybe for the Ruin Kobold Sentinels or while mentioning exp grinding spots.)

All in all though, I do think it's a great dub and I wouldn't want any different actors, but this is the first time I've ever gotten so attached to a Japanese cast, so I think I was suffering from mainstream-fansub-fan syndrome for the first two episodes. It also helps that the rest of the dub cast is just fantastic. I really enjoyed Silica's episode in the dub, her actress sounds a lot like Christina Vee but it's someone else...The Moonlit Black Cats were also well done, but I particularly liked Moody Kirito in the second half of episode 3.

The Sword Art Offline disc extras are also fantastic and funny (sub-only) and have valuable trivia for anime watchers. The first trivia mentions how in SAO, hair can still be styled and coloured, explaining Diabel and Lisbeth (in episode 1 during the mirror scene she has her IRL hair colour.) Faces and bodies are fixed though.