Despite the music choice this AMV is actually surprisingly faithful to Song of the Sky....and yet it is COMPLETELY misleading as to what sort of tale this thoughtful and inspiring show is.

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I'm massively busy and may not be online for the rest of the week. However, I note that Steven Den Beste has made an argument  which, although, admittedly compelling, is nevertheless one I cannot allow to go unanswered.

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1 I've never gotten around to seeing the original anime.  A few times when I went looking for it, all I found were what appeared to be sequels.  Is the original version still available?

I am looking forward to this version, though I do prefer my space pirates to be a bit, younger...

Posted by: Siergen at Sun Feb 3 21:15:33 2013 (Ao4Kw)

2 Siergen...why don't you have a seat over there....

While you wait for Mr. Hansen you can watch the whole 42 episode original series on Crunchyroll.  Be advised it is as much a  horror series as it is an adventure series but it's got Kei Yuki in it and she's legal and smart and cute.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Feb 3 21:38:26 2013 (vp6an)

3 This Fan film I found linked to the second video seems to have scored some alternate footage, including some closeups of Emeraldis at the 51 second mark.  Never quite pictured her as the latex type, but it's... nice.

Posted by: Mauser at Mon Feb 4 02:01:56 2013 (cZPoz)

4 In the pink skinsuit? No, that's Kei Yuki the ships third officer.

Here she is introducing Tadashi,  (the Audience Identification Character) to the ships cook.



Note that unlike some other shows the male lead gets a skinsuit too.



Here they all are asking the important questions
      ^{The important answer is "NO!"}



Emereldas is  captain of another ship entirely.

Note that except for the last OAV series, which is (sort of) a sequel to the first series, the "sequels" are all actually re-imaginings with completely different universes and similar characters.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Feb 4 06:38:43 2013 (vp6an)

5 I've always wondered -- is Kei Yuki from Harlock related to Yuki from Starblazers/Yamato? Or are they just drawn alike?

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon Feb 4 08:33:55 2013 (cvXSV)

6 Kei Yuki and Yuki Mori  are completely different and the series are in separate universes. Both women are Matsumoto designs though.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Feb 4 08:48:20 2013 (vp6an)

7 Matsumoto is one step above Tezuka when it comes to character design.  And his long and lithe females have long attracted me to his work (although the potato people have a counterbalancing effect).

I've been curious to see his debut work, "Sexaroid", although not because of the title.... well, maybe a little.  But 1969 vintage anime isn't really a hot commodity these days.

Posted by: Mauser at Tue Feb 5 04:50:49 2013 (cZPoz)

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Bunnyroll is on Cruncydrop!

...or something....

I've only seen episode one of this inspiring little show.

 

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Recently Pete Zaitcev won the "Why is the blog infested with Lamias?" contest and as a prize got to pick a post topic and chose to ask what my favorite manga is and why I like it better than others.

I must confess that I've been exceedingly busy and haven't read much manga at all for the last 18 or so months...with one exception.  While my to-read pile has gotten quite large, I've stuck with reading Yotsuba&! all that time.

Yotsuba; the titular character of this charming book, is a precocious child who has been adopted by her father from some far away place in the developing world. To her naive eyes everything in Japan from sunflowers to doorbells is fascinating and a potential springboard to adventure...or mischief.There is no real plot, though there is a bit of continuity.  The series consists of sketch comedy and is greatly assisted by Azuma Kiyohiko's outstanding comedic timing in the comic medium as well as his amazing ability to see the world with a child-like sense of wonder. This, the expressive art, memorable secondary characters and refreshing innocence make this outstanding series a rare gem. I highly recommend it to anyone.

However, EVERYONE likes Yotsuba&! (except bad people). I don't think I have ever seen a bad review. Furthermore, since I haven't been reading other manga for over a year I can't give the comparative review Pete asked for or the book deserves.

Finally, it is obvious from his request that Pete's request for a review was not at all what he really wanted, but a fallback position.

It seems that Pete is, in reality, uninterested in such refreshing innocence and actually wanted something entirely "other" but felt it was a bridge too far. Well we here at Brickmuppet Blog aim to please, so gird you loins as we cross that bridge...The Bridge Over the River Kowai.

Good people should not look below the fold, for that way lies depravity.

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1 Thanks a lot!

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Fri Jan 4 00:28:14 2013 (RqRa5)

2 I feel better now that I know I'm not the only person who thought that manga was charming, in an off-kilter way.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Fri Jan 4 00:31:17 2013 (pWQz4)

3 It was, but Slime killed it for me.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Fri Jan 4 01:26:03 2013 (RqRa5)

4 It didn't quite kill it for me, but it kicked it in the kneecaps (along with the other bits I mentioned). I'm going to see if they regain their footing, but I'm not optimistic.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Jan 4 01:53:04 2013 (vp6an)

5 I liked the originals better, mostly because each brother was focused on his relationship with one monster girl. If I were adapting it, I think I'd have gone with a boarding-school setting, with a mixed-gender Kaiju Social Integration Club having to deal with each new monster as she arrives and creates her unique brand of trouble.

Still a familiar formula, and all the current stories would transfer over with little change, but I think it would hold up a lot longer. The problem with making it a harem is that he can't tell in-depth stories about just one girl; for instance, I can't see him successfully doing something like the two Dullahan strips from the original.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at Fri Jan 4 11:59:43 2013 (2XtN5)

6 I actually agree that the little strips were more satisfying . However, I've tended to attribute that to one of my own sick personal fantasist kinks....



 The charm of the strips and the early issues here was that they characters were IN LOVE and were working to make their relationships work despite hurdles like different backgrounds and really sharp claws. The current harem dynamic ruins that because there really ought not to be any hesitation in his choice...he might be constricted but he ought not to be conflicted, otherwise he's a heel.

Now, he has inadvertently, legally, betrothed himself to the Centaur, and she will be ruined and there will be political ramifications  if he doesn't choose not to divorce her..that adds dramatic (albeit silly) tension especially since she's a likeable loon. But beyond that the show will quickly loose the intimacy that initially made it charming.

Counter-intuitively, this current set-up could be salvaged if they'd add more...guys. Just have him do some more carpentry and turn happy hellspawn house into a Maison. Then have the strip focus on the misadventures of Monstergrrls of the month and boyfriend. This would allow a closer focus on the creaturettes,  a wider variety of "audience identification characters" and it gets back to the idea of two people trying to make things work despite considerable engineering challenges.

Pitch it as Boys Be...but with twenty/thirty somethings and tentacles.



Oh..

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Jan 4 18:14:09 2013 (vp6an)

7 TMI, Brick.  TMI.

Posted by: JT at Fri Jan 4 21:54:09 2013 (DY79H)

8 Well.... I agree, it's slipping.  Now they've added a mer-girl.  Who was obviously that from the start, in the wheelchair. 

And to amp the raciness, we got to see what happens when Slime gets dehydrated.  Suffice to say, she'll go after moisture...anywhere she can find it. It was a very hot day for the girls.

Posted by: ubu at Mon Jan 7 09:35:14 2013 (SlLGE)

9 Wait...was EVERYBODY but me following this before Pete asked for a review of it?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Jan 7 15:57:19 2013 (vp6an)

10 I merely thought Miia was the best Lamia. But this was quite a preference cascare, I have to admit.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Jan 7 19:12:40 2013 (RqRa5)

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With the series coming up on a long hiatus it's time to step back and examine the dark underbelly of Girls und Panzer.

I'm not talking about the very strong implication that fatalities in the sport are not at all unheard of.

I'm not talking about the fact that Miho was disowned due to the fact that she lost a match as a result of....not letting a teammate die.

I'm talking about the the stuffed animal gallery in Miho's apartment.

What the hell?

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When last we left our hero he was riding a bike all out... at night...in a snowstorm...trying to get to the hospital to check on his beloved.

As the episode begins, Kazuto is haunted by two visions, one of Asuna warmly greeting him,... the other of her glassy eyed corpse lying in bed, her brain fried by the log out kill switch which Sugo might have re-instated as a safeguard...

Arriving at the hospital he ditches his bike at the gate, gingerly makes his way across the icy parking lot, nearly collides with another pedestrian, almost falling over in the process, regains his balance,  bleeds profusely as he approaches the steps and....wait.....what?

^{Hemophilia perhaps?}

Oh...that lone pedestrian.

His name is Nobuyuki Sugo.
Perhaps you remember him. He's the villain who just got killed in the virtual world with the pain blockers set to zero. He hurt a LOT. He's not happy and he's not in the virtual world anymore. This is reality, and in the real world he's not actually a fairy king. He's the number two man in a major zaibatsu. He has people who will lie for him and a staff of people willing to carry out Block 10 type experiments on people minds for him. Whatever setback he may have had in a dippy VR game, there are only two things that stand between him and total victory right now. Those two things are Asuna Yuki and Kazuto and he aims to rid the world of them. Asuna,  being in a hospital room will take some finesse, but Kazuto is a nobody, a gamer, sad little out of shape teenager who hid from the world in a VR game and who now stands before Sugo armed with nothing but his own clotting blood and his shattered delusions of adequacy.

^{It's Mad Doctor Stabby!}

Sugo is armed with big ass diving knife (which is illegal BTW). Kazuto is a law abiding citizen in a weapons free zone. It SUCKS to be Kazuto. Kazuto tries "dodge" but it is ineffective. Kazuto slips on the ice and hurts himself.  He gets a nasty knife cut to his face and Sugo uses  "kicks the living crap out of Kazuto". It's super effective.
All those years of video games didn't actually prepare Kazuto for this.

^{"This boss-fight is serious business!"}

Of course Sugo is not running at 100%. His painful virtual death burst a blood vessel in his right eye and his depth perception is shot. This causes him to miss his killing blow by a wide margin. Kazuto is not completely helpless either, he HAS been practicing ken-do all this time and as Sugo lunges again he forces the fiend to loose his footing on the ice. Kazuto finally gets the knife to Sugo's throat.... there is a quick flashback to Sugo molesting Asuna in the hospital bed, in the virtual world, of the pain he inflicted on Kazuto, of the sadism Kazuto and Asuna endured and.....the knife dances across Sugo's throat...

...but only just.
Kazuto, with great effort, refrains from killing the bastard, who visibly wets himself and collapses.

Kazuto staggers into the hospital only to find it empty. The receptionists, the nursing station, security....gone. No doubt Sugo has ordered them away...Sugo was already here.
He goes to the twelfth floor and stands outside Asuna's room in terror. He then hears the voice of Y.U.I. telling him to go in...he does of course and...

^Yay!

Well that was a nice ending. We...wait what? 12 more minutes?
....
....

What follows is some perfunctory narration and a few character bits as we learn the following:

*Sugo went to jail because one of his employees ratted on him.
*The whole virtual reality online gaming industry collapsed as a result of the ensuing scandal.
*The 300 "test subjects" awoke with no memory of their ordeal.
*All those in Japan who were in school at the time they were trapped in SAO, are indeed now in a special school just for them.
*Asuna and Kazuto are still dating.
*A few friends from SAO (the cast from the first cour) gather at Sigils bar from time to time to reminisce.
*Oh...and that world seed Kazuto received from Kayaba?
its a starting program for virtual worlds. Sigil and Kazuto put it online as freeware and now the web is full of many versions of VRMMORPGs run by small groups, tiny companies and even individuals. All are cross compatible and based on the world designs of a homicidal maniac using the same interface devices proven to have a nearly perfected mind control capability. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!?

The last scene of the show is all the surviving cast gathering in Alfheim (which has been migrated to a private server ) for a momentous event. Someone has rebooted Aincard...the world of Sword Art Online and brought it into Alfheim to replace the rather empty world tree.

...and well....It looks like Kazuto and Asuna really want to LIVE THAT NIGHTMARE AGAIN. They ask "Leaf" to come along just to add a bit of squicky awkwardness to the proceedings. Then they all fly off thumbing their virtual noses at any thoughts of adjusting to life in the real world.

^{Asuna as a Fairy inviting "Leaf" on their quest, to clear all 100 levels This time fer sure!}

So...while the first half of the episode was superb, it ends up being an uneven and rather forced ending to a very uneven series.

The second cour saw Asuna largely wasted (though she quite explicitly never gave up). It must be said that it had some really compelling moments too. The self reflection of Kirito as he contemplated the vast gulf between his online persona and his actual power occurred in a couple of episodes including this one and was neat. The fact that the heroes often got by by being clever was enjoyable too. There were some REALLY cool concepts touched on in the second cour as well, but none of them were really explored well. In particular the epilogue just seems waaay too pat and appears to have overlooked a major plot point of the series.


Yes the various Zaibatsu don't control the VR worlds anymore, (Yay small developers! Stick it too the man!) but these vr worlds are more widespread than ever...and all use the same architecture as SAO.  If anything, there is more likelihood that some of these worlds are actually set up to perfect mind control tech...and all the players potential guinea pigs and slaves.

The show in many ways had a "corporate ending" with everything sort of reset and fan favorite characters re-introduced and no real development other than giving everyone the in game ability to fly. This will allow games, light novels, CDs and perhaps a sequel, but the show which wowed so many of us with it's character development largely tosses that development out the window with the ending of the finale. In the end the virtual world becomes not a reflection of the real world, but an escape from it...Now that could be a cautionary tale itself, but it is not presented as such here.

The show was at its best when it was playing against type.

The first cour (episodes 1-14) was remarkably unpredictable. It was particularly interesting as it became an adventure/romance with a hero and heroine who were smart, dynamic, awesome and yet believable...and who complemented and completed each other in an unusually exciting but perfectly healthy relationship

...and that is how I'll want to remember this show.

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1 [side note; the unclosed spoiler tag ended up taking out the entry trailer, including the comment button]

Yeah, I was afraid this was how it was going to end, based on what I read about the novels; they weren't willing to go for an original ending, and they should have. Worse, it seems the author doesn't really know what to do with the cast after getting them back together; there are two side stories that take place in Alfheim (one of which is centered on Asuna), but the rest of the novels have Our Hero going off into other virtual worlds alone. And, yes, the author has written a story in which all the girls gang up to marry Tenchi Kirito in an accelerated-time VR, although that one may no longer be canon.

In fairness to The Seed, it's established that only people wearing first-gen VR helmets are vulnerable to Sugou's mind control; in fact, the impossibility of truly harming someone through the second-gen helmets is pretty much the plot hook for the next arc. (and, no, it doesn't make sense that they'd have added exactly the right safeties to prevent abuses that hadn't been invented yet, especially with Sugou on the team, but...)

-j

Posted by: J Greely at Sun Dec 23 03:46:40 2012 (2XtN5)

2  [side note; the unclosed spoiler tag ended up taking out the entry trailer, including the comment button]

Yeah...we're intrigued by that bug and we're working on it.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Dec 23 12:08:39 2012 (vp6an)

3

While I haven't seen the anime yet, I've read translations of some of  the light novels.  I'd agree that ALO is very much a low point in the series and I almost dropped at that point  It does get better afterwards.

Two of the major side stories are pretty good.  The Gale Gun Online (GGO) one introduces Shinon, another strong female character.  Unfortunately it also raises Kirito's Marty Stu-ness to new heights.  Mother's Rosario, however, gives Kirito the "more deban" sign to Asuna's lead.  Both are setup to the Alicilization arc.

The Alicilization arc turns things around with Kirito being the one trapped in a virtual world and Asuna having to do the Real World (tm) leg work to get him back.  Though Kirito still maintains a bit too much of his Marty Stu-ness, unfortunately.

Posted by: StargazerA5 at Sun Dec 23 16:07:31 2012 (5YSpE)

4 As an MMO gamer myself, I found the first cour to particularly satisfying.  All of the player types and behaviors in SAO are seen in any popular MMO, but of course with much lesser consequences.

If I'd found myself stuck in SAO, and known that dying was fatal in real life, I'd probably try to lock myself in an inn - I die far too frequently in games to risk "leveling up" and beating the game...

Posted by: Siergen at Sun Dec 23 22:15:27 2012 (Ao4Kw)

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My, my, my....this has been a good weekend for anime.

Here's the trailer for the fourth Yamato 2199 movie will hit theaters January 13th.

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Episode 24 of Sword Art Online brings the Asuna in a Cage arc to an end of sorts....maybe.

The biggest disappointment of the episode is that Lightning Flash Asuna doesn't get to do much except put on a brave face. This is terribly unfair to the character who has really been a very well realized female lead.
The journey of Y.U.I. and Kirito to Asuna's prison was almost anticlimactic, until it wasn't.



Sugo is an exquisitely wicked villain. A petty, venal yet brilliant man who is utterly devoid of conscience and  on the cusp of controlling human minds. He is also present and has moderator privileges so they're screwed.

What follows is about 12 miutes of really disturbing sadism as he reduces or heroes strength to one, increases the gravity, engages and dials up their pain sensitivity, tortures Kirito, molests Asuna and taunts them with tales of how he will edit their minds. Kirito takes a moment from this agony to reflect upon the fact that for all his skill levels, he is a kid who plays video games and little else and has accomplished nothing in the real world. Yeah...utter defeat.

Fortunately for our heroes, Ubu Roi was right. Akihiko Kayaba is alive, or at least a copy of him exists in the mainframe. It seems that he and Sugo have been rivals for some time and he was most displeased when Sugo took over his game and re-skinned it into Alfheim online. He gives Kirito HIS password, which as he designed the master game, Sword Art Online,  trumps Sugos. Kirito "kills" Sugo, but does not do so quickly.

He then logs Asuna out, tries to log log himself out, but is informed by Kayaba  that there is a price for his help. Kayaba gived him a shiny he refers to as the world seed and tells Kirito to plant it when the time is right.

Kirito puts it in his inventory and logs out.

Kirito awakens, thanks his cousin for her help and rushes off into the snow to see Asuna.

...And so that's how it ends. Not by wits, skill, determination or courage, but by sudden divine (or in this case debased) intervention. This was a vastly less satisfying ending than that of the first cour. Nevertheless it did not suck. The second half of this show has been fairly uneven in comparison with the first, but it has still been far above average.

Note that we  HAVEN'T SEEN ASUNA AWAKE IN THE REAL WORLD YET and there are still at least 2 episodes to go.

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Wow!
It was getting sappy there for a minute, but Girls und Panzer #9 was an astonishingly entertaining bit of mayhem. The climax was one of the best paced, most pitch perfect action sequences I've seen in a while, particularly because all the Ooarai girls, but especially Goosfish and Turtle teams, were smart and used their inferior equipment to its best advantage. Nicely done.


The bit of exposition at the beginning about the Student Council's motivation makes as much sense as anything else in the show.

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According to this article, the anime industry in Japan just packed it in and quit.

After the eighth episode of Girls und Panzer aired late Monday, anime studios around Japan have collectively announced the end of the anime industry and discontinued operation. "I would like to thank the fans throughout the years for their continued support,” Shinbou Akiyuki said as he addressed a crowd of reporters at SHAFT headquarters. "But after the last episode of Girls und Panzer, we all know that there is nothing more to accomplish in anime.”

...The episode featured the team of protagonists engaging a Russian tankery school in the snow. Around midway through the episode, to utter disbelief of the television audience, the Russian team burst into a rendition of the traditional Russian war anthem "Katyusha”. Voice actresses Kanemoto Hisako (Squid Girl, Cure Peace) and Uesaka Sumire (Sanae Dekomori) performed the duet. The episode concluded with a dramatic fight scene and ended on a cliffhanger after the Oorai High School team were surrounded by the enemy...

"Try using a Zoopraxiscope!"

  Girls und Panzer‘s eighth episode is missing about a minute in its Crunchyroll version. Unless you download a fansub, you are going to miss this 1938 song, the highlight of the episode.

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There are some things that strain credulity.
I was able to look beyond the premise of SAO and the implausibility of the technology. I could look beyond he occasional writers hand-wave.

But this is too much...
See that thar nebbish, the one who goes by the handle of Recon? In real life Leaf Sugu his Kendo senpai. He pines for her but is shorter than Sugu, physically weak, socially awkward, and has a stammer. In the online world however, he's shorter than Leaf, physically weak, socially awkward and has a stammer, plus he's got a bowl cut and walks with an Egor style hunch. I just don't see him picking that avatar. I just don't.

Wait, where was I?
Oh yeah, Sword Art Online  episode 23:


When last we left Sugu, she was smelling her knees and burbling, having had something of a mental breakdown upon learning that her brother was actually her partner in the game.


Kazuto, is somewhat taken aback as well, and really doesn't know what to say. I lieu of any sage wisdom, Kazuto  informs her that he will wait for her at the south gate of Arun.

Sugu Leaf re-enters the game and is shocked to find that Recon, over the course of the last 4 episodes, (and quite off camera) has managed to escape from his imprisonment, poison his captors and track her down. As one can imagine, he's feeling pretty buff right now...so buff that he actually builds up the courage to confess his love to Leaf.

You may recall that Recon is shorter than Leaf, physically weak, socially awkward and has a stammer, plus he's got a bowl cut and walks with an Egor style hunch. Recall too that Leaf is not in any sort of mood to take this affront to her dignity gracefully, so she punches him and throws him down the stairs.

Leaf then laughs a rather worrisome laugh and announces that Recon has given her a splendid idea! She then flies off to meet Kazuto Kirito, who is, as promised, at the south gate.



...and so they fight....inconclusively, although she does demonstrate that tactics and pure essence of yandere can counter even the highest sword skill.


After the fight Kirito explains that:
A: HE DIDN'T KNOW!
B: He won't be fully returned from Sword Art Online until he rescues his beloved.

For the first time Leaf actually groks the stakes of Kirito's quest. She realizes that his is quite possibly NOT a game and a life may be at stake. She and Recon follow Kirito and Y.U.I. to the entrance to the world tree where both agree to help him (Recon because he's still carrying a torch for Leaf).


Y.U.I. has analyzed the guardians of the gate from the recent battle (last episode) and is perplexed. She thinks that given the guardian's spawn rate, the gate may actually be unclear-able. In other words Y.U.I. thinks it's possible that this entrance is not actually intended to be cleared by players.

Of course, that would be crazy as clearing this entrance and entering the tree is, ostensibly, the whole point of the game, thus, it is decided that their best bet is to try to rush to the gate before  the guardians become too numerous. the plan is to have Leaf and Recon (who have the ability to heal at range) heal Kirito as he rushes the gate.



Well....
That doesn't work.

^{The gate as seen from below near the entrance.}

^{There are Catgirl princesses  on on fire breathing dragons. This is the best show ever.}

^{"Funny...It doesn't LOOK like cake."}

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It all turns to worms.
Asuna throws away her trump card. Now this does, in fact convince Kirito and Y.U.I. that she's up there, but she's lost her one ace in the hole and Kirito and Y.U.I. are no closer than they were to getting into the World Tree. Arguably they are now rather farther from their goal that they were, because, well...


Sughu figures out who her partner is...and does not react well.

^{"Oh... God...Did you just say Asuna Yuki?"}

No indeed she does not react well at all...

^{"Burbleburbleburble....}"

Interesting in that there are really only 3 scenes in the episode proper.
*A fight sequence as Kirito rashly tries to rush the gate of the world tree...and discovers why no one has succeeded.
*A brief interregnum where Leaf saves his ass, resurrects him and then learns who Kirito is.
*An extended scene in the real world where Sughu confronts her brother cousin and proceeds to have a complete nervous breakdown.  This was actually pretty scary to watch.

 

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Kirito and Leaf arrive in Arun, the vast metropolis at the foot of the world tree. It seems that the second life aspect of the game is at least as big a draw as the the games stated quest.  Arun is the largest city in the world of Alfheim by far, and is completely neutral territory. Our two heroes decide to scope out the bustling metropolis and the route to the Entrance of the World Tree when suddenly....

...they are informed that they have to log out as server is about to go down for maintenance between 04:00 and 07:00.

^{"Good grief! Whet time did you get to bed?" "Oh..'bout 04:00" "Huh..Same here."}
 

What follows is a day in real life episode. Kirito KAZUTO (he's outside the game now) gets up, greets his sister cousin warmly and the two of them go about their day. She asks if he wants to spar and he tells her that he has a lot of things to do, including an attempt to visit to Asuna in the hospital.
Leaf Suguha (she's outside the game now) asks if she can come along. They have a discussion on the bus about Kirito's plans. He's missed two years of school and his sister has leapfrogged him and is now in high school. Kirito is trying to decide whether he should spend the next year in cram school trying to catch up or try to cobble together some continuing education plan. There is another option however, The government is refurbishing an old abandoned school  specifically for school age victims of the Sword Art Online incident. Entrance exams will be waived for this school and students will be able to matriculate with people their own age. They'll graduate 2-3 years late but be able to take college entrance exams as normal. This seems to be a good option but Kazuto is unsure. He suspects that one of the schools functions will be to do brain and psychological studies of the effects of long term exposure to virtual reality on adolescent brains. He's pretty sure he doesn't want to be a guinea pig. He's less sure he'll have a choice.

The two arrive at the Hospital. Despite being warned off earlier by Sugo, they are admitted without incident (Sugo is out of town and Asuna's dad does like the boy visiting his daughter). On the way in, Suguha notes that Asuna is both the comatose girls'  real life and online name and observes that this is rare in MMPORGs. Kazuto is surprised that she knows so much about online games. The two of them thus miss yet another chance to clear up misconceptions and Kazuto ceremonially introduces his cousin to...

"Asuna, Vice Commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath. Lightning Flash Asuna, whose speed an accuracy with Sword I was never able to match."

Suguha is polite, respectful, formal and all kinds of conflicted. She changes out Asuna's flowers as her cousin talks to Asuna. After some time the two leave. They both have "to meet someone this evening" and no doubt reflect upon how little they've seen of each other lately.


While all that was going on...
In the virtual world of Alfheim, Asuna is attempting to make good her escape. Weaponless, in a high level "dungeon" she stumbles upon a corridor that does not at all match the games aesthetic. Finding a map she discovers that it doesn't represent the game itself but rather..
...a collection of experimental labs.

This is how Sugo's team is conducting their experiments in absolute secrecy. All their lab work is done virtually in the Alfheim online world, which of course is using the SAO servers. Now the reason that Asuna is being held in Alfheim Online is clear. Sugo never removed the 300 minds from the game, he simply stopped them from leaving. Alfheim online is using the SAO servers because they are essentially running SAO 2.0. The vast VR bandwidth needed to do these fiendish mind control experiments on people...and do them in a virtual environment is simply hidden as an extra "location" in Alfleim Online. Asuna discovers a lab with virtual reconstructions of 299 brains. From the displays, it is apparent that many of them are being manipulated to experience agony, terror and despair.

^{Evil villain is evil.}

While digesting this disturbing scene Asuna notes two monsters enter the "room". 

It seems that the avatars of two of the techs carrying out these unholy experiments are slimes, for no particular reason, other than that they seem to be an exceedingly kinky couple of pervy guys. There's really no place to hide so Asuna tries to blend in with the virtual brain jars and be very still. She listens to them talk nonchalantly about how two more of the subjects are close to having their minds completely break, and that is important that they be on hand to watch the process this time. Asuna spies a virtual override panel (it's the same type of icon/sprite as the one YUI used in episode 12) she runs to it. It has a virtual swipe card in it that activates the menu and sure enough there is an emergency log out option, Asuna then activ....GHAAAAAAA!!! TENTACLES!!1!!...

^{"Oh you have got to be KIDDING me!"}

They recognize her as the sprite from the cage whose mind they're not allowed to experiment on. As having a player type sprite in the lab is completely abnormal, one of the two tentacle monsters logs out to get instructions from Sugo, but not before admonishing the other one not to molest THIS test subject.  As soon as Thing 1 is gone, Asuna breaks morale and calls Thing 2 on his unethical and wicked experiments. He shrugs it off suggesting that it's less unethical than physical experiments on animals and that's not important now, because he is "so tired of dolls" he points out that 'doing it' in VR is like drugs but legal and his tentacles roam...
...and wander...
...and coil...
...and many blue rays were pre-oprdered after this episode.

Fortunately Asuna does have one weapon..her +4 teeth of chastity and our repulsive, evil lab tech has his sensitivity cranked up to the max.

^{What do you know? Strong female leads CAN have a castrating effect on certain men.}

Asuna's freedom is short lived. Thing 1 spawns at the control point directly in front of her and informs Thing 2 that the boss is PISSED and they need to put Asuna back in the cage, change the access code and watch her till Sugo gets back from overseas. Asuna makes one final struggles against Thing ones tentacles in a heroic attempt to reach the control point but the display is on the other side of the icon and....she's back in the cage. Think 1 and Thing 2 lock the cage and ooze off. Asuna is despondent and near breakdown.

Until they are gone, at which point it is revealed that she snatched the virtual swipe card off the control point.

^{This woman now has her tormentor's swipey card. Someone is going to pay and it's not going to be her.}

Meanwhile...elsewhere in the same game Kirito and Leaf spawn in and begin exploring the city. Along the way Leaf tells Kirito that there is now a glass ceiling over the city due to the fact that the moderators "freaked" and patched the player work around that resulted in the screen cap that led Kirito here. As they cross the threshold of the cities central zone (immediately around the world tree) YUI becomes agitated and starts calling for "Mommy!" Kirito asks what is wrong and YUI says that Moms (Asuna's) player information is now detectable and...

Kirito takes off like a rocket as the episode ends...

On the debit side, the art, animation and monster designs in the "lab" segment seemed a bit below the shows normal standards. In particular, those were some truly dorky looking monsters.

^{Seriously?..What the HELL man!? What were they thinking?}

However, the other scenes were spot on. The real life sequences were, additionally, very effective in using, weather, color and lighting to convey a palpably desolate feel.

Although this episode leaves us plot-wise almost exactly where we were at the end of last episode, it did flesh out out a few things.  The real world elements are well handled and the offhand comments about his school prospects and his concerns give just a hint of unease. The episode also does a nice job ramming home the sheer abominable horror of Sugo's machinations. He and his team are exquisitely evil.  Meanwhile, Asuna continues to give lessons in playing a bum hand very well.


5 more episodes to go.

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 Episode 20 picks ep exactly where 19 left off, being pursued by monsters at exceedingly high speed.

Alas, it was not enough to warn the ambassadors, as our heroes arrive moments after the Salamander forces. Fortuitously the Salamander General Eugene is given to speeches. His team outnumbers the diplomats about 6 to one and Eugene is widely regarded as one of the most formidable fighters in the game.

Just as Eugene is about to give the order to strike, Kirito, acting on very little information, makes a dramatic entrance and crafts a clever story that gives the Salamanders pause. He claims to be an Ambassador as well, and that he just signed a mutual aid pact with the other two kingdoms represented. As his race (the Spriggans..none of whom he's actually met) already have an alliance with the Undines, this would mean the Salamanders are risking a war on four fronts. (This of course is, in actuality, utter bollocks.)

 General Eugene is suspicious of Kirito's poor equipment and lack of an escort, but to be on the safe side he decides to have a duel with Kirito to see if he is of sufficient level for this wild tale to be legit.

^{One of the stranger ultimatums I've heard}

Eugene is more than a match for Kirito, but Kirito has a trump card. He still has "dual wielding" skill from Sword Art Online. Using Leafs sword, he catches the General off guard and gains the initiative. Kirito does not yield the initiative and the General Blows up REAL good.

^{"He went all kinds of 'splody!"}

And there is much rejoicing...despite the 67 other soldiers standing by.

^{Oh..yes...The Kait-sith are catgirls}

As a gesture of goodwill, the Cait-Sith and Sylph queens resurrect the General (which prevents a major XP, Level, and Equipment loss). Eugene thanks Kirito for a good fight and as a gesture of reciprocity orders his team to retire. He leaves, still, unaware that the whole tale of a 4 power alliance was a ruse.

After some quick explanations and a bit of housecleaning involving Leaf's former guild leader,  the Leaders of Cait-Sith and the Sylphs both offer to hire Kirito, but he points out that he only cares about getting to the top of the World Tree. He guesses (correctly) that the alliance was for the two races to unite in a push to gain access to the tree, and asks them to take him along. They agree but point out that it will take some time to get the proper equipment. Kirito then drops his last ace in the hole. He still has two years of money from SAO that register with this game as loot. He donates it to the cause and the two powers divide it evenly. Now with enough filthy cheat lucre to outfit their parties with high level magic items they have nothing standing in their way. Both agree to move their top fighters to the world tree as soon as they can get everyone together.

Kirito has played his cards well, he is now part of an army of two nations assaulting the prison of his beloved.

Speaking of whom....
Asuna has been biding her time. She did get the pass-code to her cage successfully and now that the coast is clear she makes good her escape. She has no equipment, is dressed in a nightie and is on the top level of the world tree, but Asuna Yuki has 86 levels in badass and she is determined to free herself from this nightmare and reunite with her husband.

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1 Nice writeup!  But several of the pictures aren't showing up for me

Posted by: David at Sun Nov 18 15:57:35 2012 (vyRm+)

2 It looks like none of the pictures are missing; there are just a few extra bad links to the ultimatum picture.

As for Asuna, I suspect only her internal badassishness is available. Our Villain likes his women helpless and breakable, and will surely have stripped her of her stats and skills, except perhaps for cooking. Kirito's cheating is only working because Sugou has completely dismissed him as a possible threat. I had initially thought that the "glitch" in his login was because Sugou had set a trap for him, but if he knew, he'd have found ways to use it to torment Asuna (which would have backfired the moment she spotted Yui in his pocket, but...). If Sugou understood Our Heroes at all, Asuna would be chained to the bed and Kirito would be surrounded on all sides by the legions of Hell.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at Sun Nov 18 18:15:15 2012 (2XtN5)

3 I really hope that while spending that massive bag of haxxor loot to equip their teams from the good stores, someone is kind enough to get a few items for Kirito.  There is really no reason he should still be running around in low level gear.

Posted by: David at Mon Nov 19 13:37:42 2012 (Lf1Ga)

4 I've had a suspicion about that odd login glitch, and the stuff that did translate across games.  I mean, a re-skinned SAO is fine, but why should Krito have access to his old stats on a new character?  Why would "old" SAO character data be loaded into the new database at all?  And how strange is it that the glitch should drop him near the one player he could count on for support?

I detect the mostly unseen hand of the game's designer. They never found him, or his connection to the SAO servers.  So is he one of the 300 also, but still has his admin privileges?  Or has he just inserted himself into the game and is helping Kirito from behind the scenes?  Respect for the enemy that beat him?  Anger over having someone screwing with his game? Face Heel Turn?

Posted by: ubu at Wed Nov 21 13:59:25 2012 (SlLGE)

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This is what the shopping center in Oorai is called.

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^{If only we could...FLY or something.}

Our party gets bogged down with in-game politics.

No Asuna.

No Asuna at all.
OK.
Our heroes are traveling through a neutral cave when Leaf gets a cryptic message from "Recon" an acquaintance of hers in both real life and her former guild. they discover that they are being pursued by Salamanders (Fairy clan that specialized in incendiary spells). There is a battle, and, with the help of Yui, our hero uses his races illusion magic turn into a monster (specifically the first boss monster from Sword Art Online) and vanquishes the pursuers.


 Leaf stops him from killing the last party member, and after he comes to his senses decides to engage in some negotiations.


And they learn that they have run afoul of some in-game intrigues though details are sketchy. We also learn that player sprites taste like negimaki, which is a bit disturbing in context.

While in town, leaf exits the game for a moment and finds that there are 437 messages from "Recon" on her phone. His character is not dead but is paralyzed and captured so he can't play. He explains that he discovered a plot to cause mayhem by assassinating the leader of Leafs in game race. Leaf abandons their quest to try to stop this but Kirito agrees to assist her. As the episode ends, we discover that Kirito has comic effect super speed.

This episode has more questions than answers. We do find out who is stalking our heroes, and it seems that they have simply run afoul of gamer intrigues. The VERY long battle that ensued was one of the less satisfying as he seemed to pretty much pull that monster out of his butt.

It is perhaps significant that the monster is from the SAO game. It may be that Yui is pulling some moderator tricks.

Not one of the better episodes, but it's interesting nonetheless. That is, for an episode  that mostly consists of a fight, they do manage a surprising amount of pretty cool character exposition.

Hopefully next episode will have less of an Asuna deficit.

UPDATE: J.Greely over at .clue. has some succinct thoughts on this.

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