Sword Art Online is the newly hyped virtual reality MMORPG, and droves of children and adults alike are flocking to their NERVgear headsets to jack in to the fun on launch day. Upon entering the game, they discover a chilling "bug" - they can't log out. The creator of the game appears before the mass populous, announcing that SAO has been rigged as a life-or-death survival game. If the player dies in the game or attempts to remove their VR headset, a chip inside the device will activate, frying the player's brain. "If you die in the game, you die for real". The only way to be set free of the deadly game is to clear the 100-level tower at the center of the world of Aincrad. A player going by the handle of Kirito, a young man who amassed significant skill as a beta user, sets off alone into the world of SAO, determined to clear the game himself and set everyone free.
Well here it is, Sword Art Online, the smash hit series of 2012, and I do mean a SMASH. SAO was insanely popular in Japan and pretty decently loved stateside, too. But why? "If you die in the game, you die for real"? That's hokey, isn't it? Yes, yes it is. If you have even the slightest interest in anime, no doubt you've heard some mentions of Sword Art Online sifting through the ether. The question is, is the show actually worth your time? My answer is a resounding yes, and an equally resounding no. This review will be a bit different from the others, as I'm going to analyze the show in two parts: Season 1 and Season 2. Season 2 has such a drastic shift in quality from the previous season that it would be irresponsible of me not to analyze them separately.
Sword Art Online, as a whole, falls under a hit-or-miss category of otaku anime; namely, "wish fulfillment". Humans get to take part in an expansive virtual fantasy world and posses abilities and strength they can't attain in reality - pure wish fulfillment. Season 1 of SAO endeavors to shift the focus away from that fantasy with the penalty of death set by the game's creator. Through Kirito's journey, we see a world that should be happy-go-lucky and jubilant brought down to a tepid simmer of cautiousness and dread. But it's not a depressing world either (not all the time, anyway). Some players accept that they're not strong enough to clear the game and make honest lives for themselves in Aincrad. Other players steel themselves and join organized armies that clear boss rooms daily to help the good of the entire population. And yet others still lose all hope and commit suicide, convinced they'll never be able to escape alive. The world we see is bleak, but united - like-minded individuals are able to take solace with each other and seek a greater level of companionship even though they are only close virtually. Kirito and the player he falls in love with, Asuna, are the symbol of this union that is even more intimate than the union of the flesh, in a world where that kind of connection is impossible.
Let me back up a bit. SAO Season 1 doesn't delve QUITE as deep into these subjects as I make it sound. At its heart, it's a shounen fantasy spectacle series. What we see of the ideas above on screen only scratches the surface of their profundity, but you can tell the intent to impart them was strong and calculated. And as an added bonus, the shounen aspects of this show which get more focus are spectacular. Top-notch work by A-1 Pictures gives the characters and scenery a crisp presentation. Most of the time characters are just standing/walking heads, but the animation is rarely cheated/repeated, and when it DOES kick into high gear, it really kicks. The battle sequences (which there are sadly few of) are breathtaking. Just the way Kirito moves and puts every ounce of effort into his attacks left me at the edge of my seat every time.
Speaking of Kirito, I also want to mention his.......speaking. I don't usually hone in on voice actors, especially when it comes to Japanese seiyuu, but Kirito's, Yoshitsugu Matsuoaka, deserves to be discussed. Yoshitsugu is a relative newcomer, with mostly bit roles starting around 2010, a few prominent but forgettable roles in 2011, and finally Kirito in 2012. I hadn't heard much him before, but after Sword Art Online, I want to hear him ALL the time. Much like the character puts his all into his battles, Yoshitsugu expels every ounce of passion into Kirito, and I don't mean just in the battle scenes. There's one scene in the final episode of Season 1 in particular. I won't dare spoil the circumstances, but there is a moment where Kirito breaks down and lets out a truckload of emotion he'd been sheltering inside over a grueling ordeal. Yoshitsugu doesn't give an inch - he delivers the most vulnerable and nuanced read I've ever heard from a male seiyuu, and it shot straight to my heart. The man deserves a goddamn AWARD for that one line read alone. And it was thanks to his performance that Season 1 was so enjoyable; Kirito, and Asuna too, though not the best written characters, are so pure and likeable that you want to see them make it out of the game safely. They are, in my opinion, the best anime couple/romance of 2012.
Before I move on to Season 2, a word of warning. I was able to sidestep spoilers pretty easily up until now, but many of the points I will be making here forward are predicated on knowledge you MUST know from Season 1, i.e. spoilers. So if you no matter what no way no how DON'T want to hear spoilers, end it here and go on to another review. Now, I'm going to say that sentence again, altered a bit. So, if you watched Season 1 and are wondering how Season 2 turns out, end it here and DON'T WATCH SEASON 2. Again, spoilers incoming.
When I heard that Season 2 was coming, I got excited. Because Season 2 was FINALLY going to touch on a dynamic that I felt Season 1 was severely lacking - correspondence between the real world and the virtual world. I neglected to mention that before, but in Season 1, the real world is never once seen except in the first or last episodes. I constantly lamented the decision; the lost opportunity. But now Season 2 has it! Kirito is out of Aincrad, but Asuna has somehow become trapped in a new game and it's up to our hero to save her! But this time Kirito will be able to return to the real world if need be and have interactions with characters from the game he just played in - potential for all kinds of dynamic plots! I was excited, I was hyped, I was, I was........I was screaming at my computer screen in fits of rage.
Season 2 turns Sword Art Online into a harem.
.........there, I said it.
Who is the heroine of Season 2, you ask? Asuna? NOPE. Why, it's Kirito's real-world sister, Suguha, who's not really his sister she's his cousin but they live together like siblings and oh yeah she's in love with him.
.....yeah.
A HUGE portion of Season 2's story arc revolves around Suguha. She just happens to play ANOTHER VR-game called Alfheim Online, and that game just HAPPENS to be the game that Asuna has been trapped in, and when Kirito enters the game to save her he just HAPPENS to come across and form a partnership with Suguha's avatar, Leafa (who of course looks nothing like Suguha, and yet Kirito looks exactly like he does IRL and somehow she doesn't notice), and she just HAPPENS to fall in love with the avatar of the real world brother/cousin she just HAPPENS to already be in love with, and have I made my point abundantly clear by now? Kirito was certainly a strong presence in Season 1, but he was a mysterious loner who was often shunned for working alone and not accepting help. In Season 2, he has become some kind of Adonis Jesus. Not only is he stronger than veterans as a newbie in a game he's literally only been playing for a few days, but every single female player he meets drops any notion of prior attachment and pines to jump his bones, Leafa/Suguha included. Both seasons of SAO have a core romance sub-plot, and whereas Season 1's is well-paced and deeply touching, Season 2's is bottom of the barrel otaku spank material which is certainly touching, but not in a way you'd want to be touched. The whole season is littered with material meant to titillate the lowest common denominator anime fan, and it rides that ship all the way, fully intending to use it as fuel for staying viewership. Not even Asuna is immune to the filth. On MULTIPLE occasions, the poor girl is subjected to set-pieces that employ borderline rape imagery; slightly exaggerated in one case but completely over-the-top-serious in another. That is not what I came to love Sword Art Online for, and to critical reviewers like me who enjoyed the first season, this altercation in demographic was a massive slap in the face.
It really is a shame, because the qualities that make SAO good are still there, and still good! It should be noted, however, that Season 2 removes a key element - the threat of death. The battles in Alfheim lose that subtle, fearful edge when you know anyone who dies is just going to respawn or log out of the game unharmed. Some would say this is another factor that hurts Season 2, and to be fair it does, but for me personally, I can forgive it. I was attached enough to Kirito and Asuna that I was willing to see where the characters would go while keeping the stakes high in new ways. And even with that missing element, the battles on a technical standpoint are still a sight to behold. Yoshitsugu continues to bring his A-game as Kirito. His devotion to Asuna and his family is magnificently inspiring - you cheer for him every step of the way. All of these aspects are as strong as ever! But the focus of Season 2 was the otaku spank material, and it just completely overtakes all the good aspects.
Suguha is written to be a sappy, precious flower torn between familial and romantic love, which COULD be interesting if it weren't written with all the depth of a high school harem romcom, and a weak one at that. Asuna, though the likeability of her character remains, spends the majority of the season locked in a cage doing nothing or getting her tits out for fanboys to drool over. Arguably the BEST character of Season 1, Klein (who already had criminally few appearances in Season 1), doesn't appear until the very last episode, every other female has no personality or motive outside of lusting over Kirito, the villain is a generic lunatic suit who is only likeable in how transparently evil he is, and really, I've got nothing else. Season 2 of SAO is the pits. Don't watch it. Seeing Kirito and Asuna finally get back together is NOT worth sitting through all of the low-end spunk that is Season 2. Take my advice or leave it - just heed my warning.
You can currently find all subbed episodes of Sword Art Online streaming online courtesy of Crunchyroll. Aniplex of America has licensed the series for an English home video release, but no dates have been announced at this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment