Sword Art Online

[Winters_Sorrow]

This is mentioned in the Anime recommendations thread but there doesn't appear to be any threads discussing this anime so I thought I'd start one!

It's premise is that, at some point in the next 30 years, a "full dive" (your consciousness occupies an online avatar) virtual reality MMO world is created (the eponyomous Sword Art Online) and opened to the public. Around 10,000 players all take part in the first day, only to discover that they are unable to leave the game once they join.

The anime follows the story of "Kirito", who was originally a Beta tester of the game and familiar with it's mechanics. All the players are summoned to the main square of the central plaza and the creator of the MMO arrives, in avatar form, and explains that none of the players can log out of the game until it is completed and that, if any players die in the game, they die in real life.

The rest of the series is then concerned with the protagonist's attempts survive in this new world and tackles some of the trophes of online gaming in an MMO (guilds, NPCs, boss encounters & raiding) in a situation where your life is literally on the line and how different people react in that situation. A brief encounter with a "death guild" which preys on other players and effectively murders them is interesting but not all that fully explored.

So has anyone else seen this series, or started watching the second one?

I'm happy to use this thread to also discuss "Accel World" which is another anime series by the same director/writer which deals more with a virtual reality world overlaid on top the existing world and a group of school kids who use it. That series protagonist is a bit more annoying but that series arguably has more growth potential although it's still limited to 1 series so far.

 

[JoanDrake]

I followed it's run on Cartoon Network. I didn't like it much at first as I think the whole RPG phenomena is becoming passe but it became better as time went on. The basic idea has a lot of plot holes, (like how do these people eat and go to the bathroom?) and one whole line of what could have been an entirely different story, namely, who and what would try to rescue these imprisoned players from outside, wasn't even mentioned, let alone developed.


It did, however, hint at some interesting psychosexual phenomena that might be explored, and the idea that they might actually try to put some hentai on the Cartoon Network was promising, but not carried through. Maybe in the next series.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

I followed it's run on Cartoon Network. I didn't like it much at first as I think the whole RPG phenomena is becoming passe but it became better as time went on. The basic idea has a lot of plot holes, (like how do these people eat and go to the bathroom?) and one whole line of what could have been an entirely different story, namely, who and what would try to rescue these imprisoned players from outside, wasn't even mentioned, let alone developed.

It did, however, hint at some interesting psychosexual phenomena that might be explored, and the idea that they might actually try to put some hentai on the Cartoon Network was promising, but not carried through. Maybe in the next series.

Actually it was mentioned midway through the first series (and especially during the Alfheim segment) that after the first few people died in-game, and thus died in real life, they moved them all into hospital care and kept them on IVs while they tried to work out how to safely withdraw them - and that they killed some players by forcibly removing the Nervegear device in early efforts to do so.

But you're right to say that part of the story isn't all that well fleshed out (as it focuses on the VR world) and it seems extreme to think that in the 2 years they were stuck in there, the government never worked out what to do or throw greater resources at the problem.

I've been following the second series via sites like Crunchyroll and it's been a slow start but starting to pick up now (episode 5) however I don't think the show will ever get reach Hentai proportions and the number of complaints if CN tried showing that sort of thing to kids really doesn't bear thinking about!

 

[Chris Guillory]

I just finished the first season of Attack on Titan. And since there is no word yet on S2, I'm looking for something new. I just did a search on Netflix and this one is available, may give it a shot!

 

[Robert E. Parkin]

SOA does nothing amazing, and certainly is by no means as good as the hype behind the show's fandom would suggest. However, it does create a decent narrative at times, the action is good, the characters are likable, and so on. While it may suffer here in their with its "cookie cutter" characters and shaky story elements, it does prove to be entertaining and worth a watch. I personally feel that Episodes 1-14 (before the second ark begins in S1) are SOA at its best. Everything that has come after that has been lacking in my opinion.

Worth a look regardless. Give it a shot, and see if it is your cup of tea. I sample EVERY series that comes out every season. I follow nearly 80-90% of all of them, but there is always series I cut. All comes down to what you want out of an anime series.

 

[Compcat]

One of my favorite anime shows, no doubt. That's partially because I'm a bit obsessed with virtual reality though, so anything on the topic will capture my interest. But I thought the premise was genius, and that the show was just damn good too, but I admit I don't watch much anime so I'm probably not a great judge of that. I don't play MMORPGs at all, but Sword Art Online, and .hack//Sign which I also love, make me wish I had the time for such games.

I managed to actually watch a few episodes of SOA in virtual reality, in an online metaverse of sorts as well. Using the Oculus Rift, I set up a makeshift movie theatre in Second Life, and streamed the episodes from Hulu. It was a very surreal experience. Here's a few screenshot: 1, 2, 3

 

[Michael Colton]

I've never seen it. What the dub/sub-title availability?

 

[Compcat]

It's free on Hulu, subtitled: http://www.hulu.com/watch/407996

 

[Michael Colton]

It's free on Hulu, subtitled: http://www.hulu.com/watch/407996

Nifty, much appreciated.

 

[LittleStar]

@Compcat, that Second Life idea is brilliant! Very in keeping with theme.

I'm not greatly widely watched in anime, I'm working on it though, so I might not see as any tropes or standard stereotype characters as some people,but I just watched SAO a couple of weeks ago, on recommendation, and i thought It was brilliant! I thought the characters and their arcs were great, even the cameo characters with their own little stories. I loved the comedy nods to gaming, and the whole presentation of the anime.
The only downside I could see was that the alfhiem portion of it came too soon. I would have loved to see another 10-12 episodes of SAO, and more of the story arcs developing which had been out in place there before alfhiem...

I loved this anime, it has gone straight onto my list of faves.

 

[EJDeBrun]

I actually love SAO. I think the writer took an interesting idea and ran away with it, though I'm well aware it has a lot of issues. I like how the characters have to confront a lot of real world issues that come in tune with the VR existence. Accel World is the same thing along that thread.

I've actually started reading the translations of SAO: Progressive and at the same time trying to find time to study the original novel in Japanese. Considering the circumstances everything was written in, it's good and fun.

The anime series does a good job of cleaning the mess that the novels are in, and of course I think that there is a lot of fluff, but it's light and it's fun and it's entertaining and that's all I'm looking for in it.

New movie in the spring of 2017 with world wide release. No word yet on a 3rd TV series or a 2nd Accel World series. Though the 3rd arc of SAO has been given a manga adaptation so there might be a 3rd series.