Sword Art Online II - Episode 1 Discussion / Poll

[Kairin]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Sword Art Online II, Episode 1.

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[relentlessflame]

The episode actually airs normally tomorrow, but was/is being shown in a special pre-airing in a number of places around the world. So if you were at one of these events and saw the episode, you may post and vote in the thread, but please do not vote if you have not yet seen the episode. Vote stuffing of any kind is not allowed. (i.e. Do not just vote 10/1 before even watching the episode just because you love/hate the franchise.)

[bahamut zero]

I went to the premier screening in Berlin, it was a flawless adaption with some nice teases about future developments which only LN readers might grasp at the moment. Production budget seems to have gone up to compared to the first season. And the Opening Animation is fantastic, very well done.

Spoiler for OP camrip:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/v1HnmwiYGc8

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[AP24]

Originally Posted by bahamut zero

Production budget seems to have gone up to compared to the first season.

Normally it costs hundreds of millions of yen to produce 1 season. However 1st season BD/DVD in Japan alone net billions of yen. Most of them go to the studio so it has a lot of budget for producing the 2nd season.

[konart]

OP looks\sounds boring to be =( The second part is okay, but first part just feels out of place or something like that. Leaves much to be desired in comparison to Crossing field

[Stark700]

Lol, Kirito using a lightsaber. Well, the episode officially airs in a few more hours. Guess we'll see the opening song in HQ soon.

[Kaengel]

Can't wait to see some reactions about Kirito's design. I like it, but I wonder if everyone will be the same

[Netto Azure]

Opening was ok, but I still love Crossing Field more. LiSA is a great singer lol. Lots of good hints peppered through though.

[Queen of Corners]

The beginning of the OP feels really out of sync with the rest of the song. And those final scenes aren't that good. The song still gets stuck in your head, anyway. I don't think any opening they do now or in the future will possibly be better that Crossing Field, though.

[Stanelis]

I saw the episode yesterday at Japan Expo in Paris. The anime seems to stick very tightly to the LN (including on the technical matters, which were lacking in the first season).

So far it looks very promising. Fun fact is that they aired the first ep in an around 1000 seats room, and almost 5000 attendees showed up. Which say something about the popularity of the anime.

[l.kostas]

Originally Posted by Stanelis

The anime seems to stick very tightly to the LN (including on the technical matters, which were lacking in the first season).

This time they have 24 episodes to adapt 2 books, in the first season they had 4 books + the side stories.

[AP24]

Originally Posted by l.kostas

This time they have 24 episodes to adapt 2 books, in the first season they had 4 books + the side stories.

No, this time they have 3.5 to 4 volumes to adapt.

[bahamut zero]

We don't know how much they will adapt. I don't remember any early trailers for season 1 showing of ALO stuff, so yeah.

[konart]

Okay, here we go...

[II Maestro]

Its finally starting SAO II~!

[Newhope]

Well that sucked.

[rladls2121]

iglass presentation

[Stark700]

I haven't read LN yet so not sure what to think of this. I didn't think episode was any special though with the Asuna and Kirito moments. Well, I guess we'll find out more about Sinon later on in the series.

WELCOME TO GGO.

[HandofFate]

Episode 1 looks promising.
We actually got a lot of info. and setup than we did in the first series where they tell you nothing, and hope you can search online to find out what's going on yourself.

Whetever you hate info dumps or not, might as well get heavy on in the first episode to lay the cards on the table on what kind of story we're going to have.

Also, hype for genderbender kirito.

[Fellen]

Average episode on it's own, pretty boring, but it managed to lay the cards on the table and give us information about things to show us what it's going to be about so as a first episode it was pretty good.