[Reaction] Sword Art Online II, Episode 5

I still think Death Gun is the worst name that this guy could have possibly come up with.

Warning: If you haven't seen all five episodes of Sword Art Online II, you may want to back off now. Spoilers ahead.

OK guys, just to make sure I haven't gone insane yet, I just want to clarify this with everybody: these first five episodes of Sword Art Online II really haven't been that bad right? Yeah, I say it through gritted teeth, knowing that these words may backfire on me spectacularly, but at this point, I almost feel like I was bullying the freakin' anime. I did nothing but make bad sarcastic remarks and whisper that it would be utter sh*t before it aired, but Sword Art Online II has been doing little wrong five weeks after its debut. I mean yes, it's not great, but its been holding my attention and has a great bit of entertainment value, and that's all you can ask for. 

    

 As we turn to specifics, I really like how they've given Sinon's character pretty much more attention than anybody else in the show. I  mean, let's be honest here, practically nobody in the first season of Sword Art Online had any kind of back-story, motivation, screen-time, and hell even likability. Even our main character Kirito seemed like he fell out of heaven and now is bestowing miracles on whoever he meets for the majority of the show, and he just ended up lacking any character traits of his own. Yeah, as I mentioned in my first reaction, they've improved Kirito's character slightly, and I stress slightly, but even that development has gone nowhere, because he's been acting like a girl for the last few episodes, for some reason. Like, is there any point to making his avatar look like a girl. At all? *sigh* Anyway, going back to Sinon, as I said, I really like her, and I actually mind myself rooting for this girl right now. Her back-story is interesting, and even a little original. I thought when we found she was deathly afraid of guns(get it?) it would just be the typical her parents were killed by a guy with a gun when she young. But the show actually didn't go down that route surprisingly, and snagged my expectations a little when we found out that she actually was the one who ended up killing the robber, which is a twist I actually don't see a lot. I found her playing GGO as a kind of therapy was a really interesting idea, and the best part is that there is still a lot to do with her character. Like, what if Kirito beats her in the BoB, how does she react to that? Heck, we still don't even know where her mother is, did she run off after Sinon killed that robber, or she separated herself from Sinon intentionally? Hopefully her character won't disappoint me. 

Speaking of complete disappointment, what the hell are they doing with Asuna? I mean, is there any reason for her to be in this season at all so far? No, there isn't, and it pisses me off. I swear, if they have her act as the cheerleader for the rest of the season, heads are going to roll. She's a decent character, don't just stick her in a side booth and have her watch the action, get her on the field, she'll win whatever game is being played. My last hope for her character at this point is that she'll just show up in GGO without telling Kirito at some point. I mean, she knows he's in GGO, but I don't think she knows the actual reason, so she might investigate, and end up learning that he's hunting down an Internet legend that is said to kill people. Hopefully she'll freak out then, and entertainment value should commence. If they don't do something similar to that though, it'll just be plain frustrating. 

So there you have it, Sword Art Online II, going strong for five episodes. Yes, it hasn't been a truly good show, but I think I prefer five episodes of Sword Art Online II to five episodes of the first season. And you know what, that says a lot. Instead of rolling my eyes after episode 5 ends in the first season because the anime has turned into CSI, I'm on the edge of my seat because of that actually kind of awesome plot twist they threw in there at the end of the episode. The twist hints at something that I've been hoping for, that the two seasons end of being more connected than the show is giving on, like maybe this is some grand master plan by Kayaba Akihiko. Hey, we don't know where the hell he is right know, after he just walked off into the ether. Until then though, hide your gold for the apocalypse, and goodbye for now guys. 

While we wait for the next episode of SAO II, why not check out my reaction to episode one here? 

Or maybe read one of my reviews or two, starting with my review on Higurashi no naku koro ni? Click here.

And hey, maybe give me a follow on Hummingbird: http://hummingbird.me/users/QReviews