Sword Art Online (TV Series) Gun World (2014) User Reviews

What I think about this season.

[arturodv1996 · 7/10 · 21 October 2015]

Note: this is a review for the whole season, so spoiler alert.

To recap the first season, I liked it. I liked the story, and the dub was well done. Though the second half's story was good, the world they were in was lame. That was my only issue with it.

Now on to season two: Arc 1: I thought this arc was pretty good overall. When the first episode aired it was nice to see the characters again and hear the voice actors too. The whole crime solving thing was good, but there were some issues. A big one was the fact that it was slow. Sure, there were a few episodes that had action, but really, some episodes had little or no action in them.And one other issue is the fact that Kirito kept saying that you can't kill in the games anymore (now, you would have to hear what he means by that at each episode) ..but he shouldn't be saying that! Because it could happen again! The new character, Sinon, can be bad A** when she has her lovely sniper rifle, but at some points in this arc, she could be a bit annoying. However, I thought Michelle Ruff did an excellent job with her voice. As for Death Gun, he was a good villain for this arc that's for sure and Ben Diskin was a good choice for the character; he's cool. And the music in SAO is always catchy. I also thought that this arc had a combination of elements from Star Wars and Terminator, due to the stages they were in and, yes, the lightsaber.

Arc 2: This arc was......meh... Based on my comment about the second half of season one, you probably know that I think the the fairy world is lame. I would have preferred for the creator to make it an elf world or something else. The thing is, there is no life threatening situation in this arc, even though the game was going to be deleted. I think they should have just destroyed that world. Another issue is when Kirito said that he couldn't hold onto Excalibur, so he let it go/dropped it. Then Sinon gets it back for him after he threw it away on purpose and for some reason he accepted it back from her .... yeah, that made no sense. The one thing I liked was the action scenes, but in general I didn't care for this arc so much.

Arc 3: Well, I don't like depressing or sad stories, but it's SAO, so of course I'll watch this. I do like the real life stuff that was going on between Asuna and her mother. I liked seeing the different characters, and the action scenes were good. But as with arc 2, because there wasn't any real sense of danger and it was sad, this arc was just ... okay.

As for the dub - excellent as ever.

Now for my overall rating for this season ... it's kinda hard. One arc was good, while the others weren't as good for me; maybe the third arc was better than the second but in general the first one was the only one that really stood out this season even though it was sllooowww. For me, this season would probably fall somewhere in the middle between bad and great, due to the the last two arcs and the fact that the danger isn't as high.

Season 3 will be about Kirito's childhood friend, military experiments, Matrix-type stuff, and the last member of the Death Gun group. Hopefully this new story will be interesting.

After a year recovering, it seems Kirito is about to be thrown into another VRMMO game.

[Amari-Sali · 8/10 · 6 July 2014]

When it comes to successful series of late, that don't seem to go way past their expiration date, like Naruto and many others, Sword Art Online is probably one of the few that didn't seek to overstay its welcome. And while the original series did come off as a more mature version of .Hack, it found its own stride and gained quite a following. Now with season 2 it seems the show is aiming to setup the life or death feel the first arc of season 1 had, and damn if it isn't intriguing.

Topic 1: Young Love – Kirito and Asuna

After all Kirito and Asuna went through together, it seems their bond is stronger than ever. They seem very much in love and before all the madness restarts in their lives, they speak of their future. Well, Kirito speaks of his anyway. It seems he wants to get into engineering to create the next evolution of virtual reality by increased focus on sensory connection so that the feel, smell, and touch of things in the virtual world are harder to distinguish from the real world. So, basically, he wants to create The Matrix. As for Asuna? Well she just wants to still be in Kirito's life and have him find a way to get to Yui. Which sounds cute and all but, considering how bad ass Asuna was in the first arc of season 1, it really is sad how she has been demoted to a simple love interest.

Topic 2: Your Country Needs You – Kirito and Kikuoka

Before Asuna and Kirito's date, Kikuoku, a very odd adult who is part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Telecommunications Bureau - Virtual Division, seeks to gain some insight from Kirito about this new virtual world named Gun Gale Online. A place where, we are told, only elite players truly thrive for it is one of the few games in which in game coins can be converted to real money! Leading some players to make up to 200,000 yen (almost $2000) a month or more. So, understandably, when it comes to any red flags like people possibly dying due to playing the game, this calls for the government's attention. And who better than Kirito to consult since not only did he save so many people in Sword Art Online, but also was able to rescues Asuna's consciousness when it was trapped within Alfheim Online.

But, based off minor coincidences, as well as some knowledge of the new Asuphere technology, Kirito writes off the idea that someone could suffer acute heart failure from playing the game. And even when Kikuoku mentions this coincidence possibly happening twice, thanks to one of the players named "Death Gun," who seems like a character from the Dark Side of Star Wars, Kirito still doesn't seem that interested. Especially since the idea of someone merely shooting him in a virtual world could kill him.

However, being that Kikuoku is desperate to get someone inside, and oddly only Kirito is available, he offers what I assume is 300,000 yen for Kiritio to help with his investigation. For just as much as it is interesting people are making money off of GGO, there is also the issue of the effects full dive technology, the name of the technology which allows people into virtual worlds, which is what really seems to be bothering Kikuoku's bosses. And while, as Kirito mentions, they would be better off contacting the administrators, there is an issue that the company managing GGO, Zaskar, has its servers in America and seems to be cloaked in secrecy. So the only way to make contact is going within the game. Said information leads Kirito to have a moment of reflection in which he thinks about the 4,000 people who died in Aincrad, within Sword Art Online, and with Kikouka mentioning "Death Gun" only hunts top players, which means Kirito should be safe, he decides to help with the investigation.

Topic 3: A New Face – Shinon

The episode ends with us watching a sniper take out this group approaching her. Not much is gone into besides her name, Shinon, and even the previews for the series didn't reveal too much about her. But there is always the possibility it could be Hirito's sister, if not someone else he knows from one of the former games he played. Either way, we are sure to learn more of this mysterious figure as time goes on and Hirito begins building his legend once more.