[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako

Spoiler for Comparison to the novels:

It may seem that way, but if you look at the amount of material covered so far, they're on course to have the same number of episodes per book as Haruhi, Fate/Zero and Durarara.

Spoiler for Reply to comparison:

Well, this doesn't mean much from an anime-only viewer's perspective. If you think of the typical anime, the couple doesn't usually get together until the last few episodes. Obviously, the novel readers know that this isn't the sort of story where "who's he going to pick?!" or "how will they finally get together?" is really the main focus of the plot, but anime-only viewers didn't necessarily know that until now. Basically, we see now that this is going to be a story where the bulk of the story happens *after* the couple has already been formed. So if you were expecting the gradual (sometimes excruciating) build-up that's common in anime... that doesn't happen here. So in the end, it feels fast from that perspective.

(I guess the literal progression from couple -> marriage is also fast, but this didn't surprise me at all given how much it was foreshadowed in the anime. It's just the natural result for this couple. Not to mention that Kirito has just been through two near-death experiences; there's no time like the present...)