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Alright then, time to set sail with the comparisons.
Episode 3:
My initial impression from comparing the novel and animation was that the anime version felt overly rushed. That seems to be the complaint of the month for Sword Art Online, but I actually stood by the producers on episode 1 and 2.
Volume 2's Red-Nosed Reindeer chapter starts with Kirito training almost suicidally for the upcoming Christmas event. He's grinding ants. Klein catches Kirito while he's leaving from his training session. They discuss the resurrection item during this scene. Klein's intention was to revive a friend of his that had been killed. He was also concerned for Kirito's recently suicidal actions as well though.
This was reduced to one line by Argo in the anime commenting on how he's been being risky with leveling. That was just a show of Kirito's guilt for Sachi's death, so I'm not too sad about it being left out. Argo's scene wasn't really put into much detail for the novel. It just happened to come along in the conversation after Kirito's ant training session.
Kanpai! Well, Kirito did have to save the Black Cats before they could celebrate it happening. Kirito saves them from a group of goblins in the novels. He holds back while doing so to front an appearance that hides his true strength. They celebrate afterwards, but there wasn't much mention of a pub setting.
The pub was probably just a convenient place to have the Black Cats invite Kirito. Most of the introduction and explanation was the same. They wanted Sachi to convert, explanation about their rl relationships, etc. So onto Kirito buffing up the Black Cats.
Kirito strengthened them very similarly to the way he did in the anime. That little picnic scene with discussion about clearing motives happened. He also snuck out to level when he wasn't with the Black Cats, and that was the origin of Klein's wolf battle scene. Our fun anime episode 3 didn't have time to mention when the Black Cat training program started sinking though.
Sachi's panic attacks in the anime were explored with less context in the anime. The light novel has Kirito explaining that Sachi couldn't hold against the pressure of being a forward. She didn't have the guts to face tough enemies face to face so to speak. That doesn't get any easier for her with the quickly increasing level of the Black Cats though. She cracks eventually, and then she runs off to under the city drains like in the anime.
Kirito comforts her with words of protection. However, he only stayed at the side of her bed to comfort her during the nights.
"We never slept in the same bed together."
YOU DON'T BELONG in bed with Kirito, SACHI!
And now we move on to the scene of Sachi's inevitable death.
Let's go explore a dungeon! They actually didn't just rush into the chest without consulting Kirito about his warning. His desire to keep his true level of strength and knowledge secret kept him from answering that it was probably a trap. So everyone gets slaughtered.
Those deaths were honestly the part I enjoyed the most this episode. I have this strange desire to have the thief getting picked to death turned into a gif. In relation to my digression though, the deaths weren't quite as detailed in the novel. Kirito reduced it to an ordering of the deaths. The thief, the macer, and then the lancer. Sachi of course died the tragic last death.
Kirito's guilt didn't end there. Keita suicided like in the anime. Happy flying! So then Kirito goes emo. He goes into berserk training as mentioned in the beginning on ants. Skip to Nicholas.
Nicholas happened as the anime portrayed it mostly. Klein trailed Kirito, and the Divine Dragon Alliance trailed them with about 3x their party. Kirito's strangely-timed "shut up" was because he was thinking that Nick would be spouting some boss encounter dialogue before proceeding to battle. We only are told that Kirito's health dropped to red for the first time since the real game started in the Nick encounter.
Kirito gets the item and moves on. He goes into a fit because of the 10 second condition. After that, he meets up with Klein outside. The Divine Dragon Alliance backed off because Klein being the badass he is dueled a Dragon Alliance member for kill attempt rights.
Preceeding everything she said and sang in the anime, one more rationale was about to why Sachi was cracking. A friend of hers in another guild had died playing it safe.
and then after singing with words (I actually didn't mind it just being humming much)....
" To me, you'll always be like a bright star that shines and guides me from the opposite end of a dark alley."
Arigato, Sayounara. (just like the anime!)
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