Sword Art Online - Episode 3 Discussion / Poll

[Elestia]

Eh, I didn't really feel anything this episode. I didn't get to attached to any of the people from the Black Cats guilt or even when they died. The entire dying message for Kirito also fell flat in the end and didn't really have any kind of emotional impact as I watched. Introducing and killing characters in one episode hardly makes the audience interested in them and just seems like a waste of time in developing the overall story and plot.

The worst part was probably the amount of fight scenes that were skipped. Whether it was between Kirito and the event boss or Klein's group against the Dragon Knight guild, but I guess they're saving their budget.

[Kirito]

I'm guessing they wanted to focus on Kirito's interactions with Sachi more, because her death and everything they've experience together will come to play in his character growth.

[stalkingpanda]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

Aria getting shorted wasn't a real problem

RNR, however really does need 2 eps.

Ep3 is more of a recap then a real ep.

I completely agree. This just seemed like a recap, except it wasn't ... I enjoyed it nonetheless though.

[karuroso]

As a LN reader I think this ep was very well adapted, They skipped watch should have been skipped and managed to put it in 20min, very different from what They did with Aria wich I think should've been two eps.

[Polarpew]

[QUOTE=Aphrah;4266288]@Polarpew: I fail to see how only showing her humming the song means that the studio isn't putting effort into making the adaptation good.

Spoilers

Spoiler for L/N and Anime Arc Ending Comparison

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how so? it wouldve taken her the exact same time to sing it, than to hum it for 10 seconds. maybe they didnt want to use engrish

[melina_putri]

Originally Posted by Elestia

The worst part was probably the amount of fight scenes that were skipped. Whether it was between Kirito and the event boss or Klein's group against the Dragon Knight guild, but I guess they're saving their budget.

Spoiler for Comparison to the novels for this episode:

The fight scenes aren't skipped, they are also never shown in the LN itself. Only the aftermath after the battle is shown like in this episode..

[Hiroi Sekai]

Originally Posted by Polarpew

maybe they didnt want to use engrish

Hayami Saori's Engrish is absolute bliss; I'm a bit sad they didn't use it.

Spoiler for Engrish to the Rescue:

Seriously, jump to 2:36 and tell me that's not the sweetest thing ever.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Polarpew

how so? it wouldve taken her the exact same time to sing it, than to hum it for 10 seconds. maybe they didnt want to use engrish

Perhaps. But it also might've cost more to do so? That, in turn, may have lead to worse pacing or animation. It doesn't really matter in the long run, as it's a fairly minor detail. *shrug*

Originally Posted by papermario13689

Hayami Saori's Engrish is absolute bliss; I'm a bit sad they didn't use it.

Spoiler for Engrish to the Rescue:

Seriously, jump to 2:36 and tell me that's not the sweetest thing ever.

Aww, that's so adorable; it's a damn shame they didn't get her to sing the song.. Ah, well.

[Domonkazu]

I personally think Sachi's VA should be Mamiko Noto.

[karuroso]

Originally Posted by Domonkazu

I personally think Sachi's VA should be Mamiko Noto.

haha I don't know why but I thought the same

[aigomorla]

i think the VA to sachi did a good job.

[Dark Wing]

Really did it's job just fine I really don't understand why people tossing around so much negativity. So what if the anime isn't exactly like the novels if want to compare them I'll read the novel after the anime ends.

I felt for Kirito I really did afraid he would be hated because of "beaters" to the point of having to hide and then when he finally made some real friends everything comes crashing down on him once again. The tragedy hits him so hard to Kirito fix his mistake even though we all can tell it's futile at that point.

Poor kid can't get a break...

[Somnus]

So here's where I stand.

I'm a LN reader, but I've never read the Red-Nosed Reindeer side-story and went into this episode completely blind. Overall, I enjoyed it enough to give it a 8/10, which is higher than last week's 7/10.

That being said, this anime has glaring flaws. Or rather, CRUSHING a well-written side story into 1 episode has glaring flaws. I mean, the episode itself has everything it needs in it to tell an episodic story, but there's absolutely no oomph to it that it desperately needed to properly deliver that emotional blow at the end. And that comes with proper pacing.

Like last week's Diabel, I harbored no feelings (not even a twinge of one) for the loss of the Black Cats. Even with Sachi's message at the end. There was simply no time to get attached to them. At all. Also, as an anime-only viewer I'd be wondering if Cline and his crew had just committed mass murder to that other guild, or even how they managed to beat them to begin with.

So to sum it up, they've chosen to handle the side-stories in a very poor way and LN readers are going to feel their hearts break every time it happens. Hopefully they handle all the appropriate parts of the main story properly, to balance it all out (if episode 1 was any indication towards main story material).

[lansglenn]

Aaaagghhh so many time skips! *brain explodes*

Kawahara Reki should've pulled the plug on a side story or two to make room for side stories that need multiple episodes >.<

BTW, there is no freaking way they can properly convey the Aincrad story in 1 cour given how many side stories there are.

8/10 (-2 for compression of events & dialogue into 1 ep instead of 2)

[sky black swordman]

9/10

Spoiler for My own opinion and maybe spoiler:

Look IMO the Episode was great .
And Hayami Saori was the best choice for the voice of Sachi.
What people need to remember is a few thing s first is that time constraints.
There is only so much you can put in to a Episode of about 24-25 min's counting the OP and ED.
Second is the set number of Episodes.
Its not like we are getting a season of 24-26 for the first Arc alone.
If it was like this then many people would not start to complain about because there would be enough Ep's to do it in a way that was completely true to the LN.
The changes that need to be made to fit 2 Arc's in to 24- 25 Episodes.


Things like this happen because there are a not enough Ep's to fit it all in to.
Will agree that many things were changed from the LN verision.
But I am still happy and ok with it.
I will agree that the End would have been better if she had sang the song.
But even so it still gave a bit of the feeling the LN verision did.

[kyp275]

[mod edit: removed original post that was being replied to]

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

Really did it's job just fine I really don't understand why people tossing around so much negativity. So what if the anime isn't exactly like the novels if want to compare them I'll read the novel after the anime ends.

To some, that in itself is a cardinal sin

Originally Posted by Somnus

That being said, this anime has glaring flaws. Or rather, CRUSHING a well-written side story into 1 episode has glaring flaws. I mean, the episode itself has everything it needs in it to tell an episodic story, but there's absolutely no oomph to it that it desperately needed to properly deliver that emotional blow at the end. And that comes with proper pacing.

So to sum it up, they've chosen to handle the side-stories in a very poor way and LN readers are going to feel their hearts break every time it happens. Hopefully they handle all the appropriate parts of the main story properly, to balance it all out (if episode 1 was any indication towards main story material).

Can't disagree with you there, but I understand why it was done that way.

[Iron Maw]

Ep 3:

The word "Abrupt" would pretty much sum up this episode. I mean suddenly at the start he's with a bunch of strangers, he hangs with them, they die and he attempts to revive one of them who he barely spent time with to relieve his guilty conscience. All this barely within 20 mins with little in the way of build up.

I get what the animators were trying to do, but frankly too little time is spent on Black Cats to get much emotion out of me. I still barely remember who they were and it feels more like their were plot devices (or at least Saichi) to make Kirito emo rather than characters. I also found what he said to reassure her fairly out of character. Up to this point Kirito has been a pretty level-headed person who knew better then to say stuff he could not back up. So, why did he not say "I'll my best" instead of "I will"? One would think by now he know just he's strong that everyone is 100% safe. I felt like he brought this on himself.

Guess I can say I found BC's death somewhat depressing, but much of it's impact is diminished thanks lack of screentime, this really need another episode. Oh well, at least the animation remained pretty consistent with last weeks and OST is still very nice. I lol at the crazy berserked Santa Claus too, aside from that this was the weakest episode so far in terms of well... everything.

6/10, hopefully next week will be less crammed. =/

[frubam]

I teared up when Sachi left him the message as a xmas gift (T_T)! I mean, death flags were everywhere, but despite the obvious pacing issues and others saying they felt no connectivity from the MBC, the episode managed to make me feel like the their deaths meant something, especially Sachi's, which is pretty impressive for a stand-alone episode. I must be easy to please (>.>)...

[hero147]

Instead of Chronologically, I think they really should have done the short stories which aren't integral to understanding the story into OVA format released after the series had its run. Though, even though I'm not a LN reader, I think that route would resemble how SAO was written.

[Lantern]

Originally Posted by Somnus

So here's where I stand.

That being said, this anime has glaring flaws. Or rather, CRUSHING a well-written side story into 1 episode has glaring flaws. I mean, the episode itself has everything it needs in it to tell an episodic story, but there's absolutely no oomph to it that it desperately needed to properly deliver that emotional blow at the end. And that comes with proper pacing.

Like last week's Diabel, I harbored no feelings (not even a twinge of one) for the loss of the Black Cats. Even with Sachi's message at the end. There was simply no time to get attached to them. At all. Also, as an anime-only viewer I'd be wondering if Cline and his crew had just committed mass murder to that other guild, or even how they managed to beat them to begin with.

Hmm.

Finally got to watch the full episode.
The highlighted quotes pretty much sums up my concerns.
There is simply not enough time to for viewers to feel for Sachi, let alone the rest of the guild. To be honest I actually feel more impact when Cline when he was literally begging Kirito to live on than the rest of the episode, ... eh, maybe a little bit too at Sachi's "Thank you" at the end. I'll give them credit for successfully portraying the game world in a dark and serious tone.

That little bit about Cline vs the other guild kinda bothers me a little... the anime makes it as if his guild wiped out the other (when they would never go to that extreme) This is gonna fuel a lot of confusion from anime-only viewers

That being said, aside from the somewhat forced attachment and that one little detail, they did a decent job at covering the essentials. So I'll enjoy what I'm offered.