Quote:
Originally Posted by Rovert10
Though I have to disagree with ending the season back in the SAO arc since if they were to do a season 2, we still have to deal with the ALO arc in a new season. They wouldn't just skip ALO since the anime's purpose was to follow and please novel readers.
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Well, I think there are two points of view here:
First would be that the entire story should have itself just ended with SAO, but this is a bit of a premature judgement perhaps just based on this particular arc that some people dislike. But people who liked the first arc because of the sense of tension the death game scenario caused haven't necessarily been able to follow into this second arc without that sense of tension. So these viewers can't really imagine if any future non-death-game scenario could recapture that same sense of tension (and at least this particular arc did not for them).
(Not all like the premise that an anime adaptation should serve primarily the novel readers, I should point out. Some may argue that an anime should strive to create a good story first, and should aim to be better than the source material if possible. There is obviously lots of debate on this philosophy. Personally, as a non-novel reader, I have not felt like I was really missing out when watching this anime; I do think it stands alone reasonably well, though obviously no adaptation is ever without its drawbacks.)
Second would be that the contrast between the first arc and the second arc is made more pronounced because they follow each other directly. If more time had passed, people could approach the second arc with a more fresh viewpoint. In the end it probably would have been decried by those same people as a "horrible sequel"... but that's one perspective, anyway.
In the end, I think the reason these two arcs are linked makes a lot of sense to me, as they're both really dealing with SAO at a fundamental level. A key element of the ALO is righting the leftover wrongs affected by SAO, including both the relationship with Suguha, and also the situation with Asuna. The two arcs are pretty intricately tied to each other, and closure of this arc is really final closure to the SAO arc as well.
Anyway, it's a bit hard to make a final conclusion until the last episode airs, but that's basically how I see it so far.