Once again LN readers are complaining. Really guys, this is an ANIME. Changes must be made. Do we really need 2-3 episodes for the FIRST boss. This might be a 2cour series but there's a shit-ton of material to cover so I'm congratulating A-1 and its production staff for choosing to do this one episode. It was a bit brisk yeah, but it covered everything it needed pretty well.
A side character dies, moe girl Asuna takes off her hoodie and goes badass mode and Kirito also does a badass speech of his own when someone accuses him of being a beta tester. I seriously lold and applauded when he was like "I'm a beta tester. So what? U MAD?"
Also I was amused at all the RPG terminologies. Having played Ultima Online, Everquest, World of Warcraft and a bunch of other MMOs in the past, it makes feel right at home
Badass, strong and generally non-wimpy males are pretty rare in anime these days so it's very refreshing to see someone like Kirito. This was one of the primary reasons I couldn't enjoy Accel World (let alone the MC being fat) and any character with Yuki Kaiji as VA is assumed default bad unless proven in my books. Kirito is also not "lawful good" or a "play by the books" kinda person too, which is awesome to see. I love characters who take initiative and make their own decisions.
Asuna was pretty badass too (on top of being pretty moe), and I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of further development from her in the future.
Excellent followup to the first ep.