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Originally Posted by Hagoshod
What "numerous important aspects"?
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Dezo's post talked about the important things the first two episodes covered, and I touched on one of the really important ones in one of my previous posts as well.
The really important point about Dezo's post however is that
he was one of the newcomers whom the first two episodes were written to provide an introduction for. And apparently he appreciated the episodes, thought they generally did a good job of introducing important aspects of the setting (minus a few issues he didn't think were properly explained -I'll admit to cutting that part for brevity) and thought he'd have been lost without them. I'd say this indicates that the writers and director chose a good approach.
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Originally Posted by Hagoshod
Except it's not. It's only a reality that exists in the first two episodes.
Once you get to episode 3, the only characters who are ever in any grave danger from the BETA are the cardboard background extras. Yeah, there's the one episode of Yui trapped in the bunker with the techie guy that tries to recreate the Kyoto atmosphere, but that's the exception to the rule. I actually did like that episode and thought it was nice to see how she's grown as a character, but it's effectively a tiny speck of gold in a giant pile of shit.
The whole idea that the situation is constantly hopeless and anyone can die at any moment is _obliterated_ when the show's post-timeskip batch of main characters spend most of their time goofing around in VR simulations, lounging around on beaches, and showing off their dazzling flying skillz at high altitude where they're completely free of any consequences of Laser classes roaming around. When they DO rarely participate in actual battle, they all share insane levels of plot armor and there's never any illusion that any of them could actually die. Gee, that's convenient. If they had just made that creative decision an episode earlier, Yui's first group friends wouldn't have been wiped out and I could have watched a show with a cast of characters I actually care about.
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Talk about massive exaggeration. There are a lot more episodes dealing with life and death situations than there are beach episodes. And a lot of the slower episodes have their own share of drama and character/relationship development.
But yeah, I guess the series does labor under the limitation that it can't kill any main characters its ongoing source material hasn't killed off yet, same as a lot of adaptations. Given this limitation I thought the show did a decent job of creating tension. I know I certainly enjoyed watching Die Hard on Yukon base.