Sword Art Online II - Episode 14.5 Discussion / Poll (Recap)

[Kairin]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Sword Art Online II, Episode 14.5.

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[LKK]

Episode 14.5 is expected to be a recap episode. Feel free to post your comments about how the recap was done, what you felt should or shouldn't have been included, etc.

[HandofFate]

Kind of a boring recap I felt.
I get its a recap, but other shows have tried to do different spins on how to approach.

Well, didn't expect the producers of SAO to do it differently. Felt a more general recap of SAO S1 might have served better use. Maybe even focusing on Asuna a bit, with how the next arcs apparently is going to be.

This recap is kind of pointless when half the scenes just happened 2 episodes ago or so. Barely a recap, and more as just a clipshow.

[Julio C]

Is there any new footage?

[Gravitas Free Zone]

Nothing was new, though they did edit the opening and closing to have plenty of scenes that we've already seen now.

Worth the time? Mostly no. Though I'm perfectly happy listening to Miyuki Sawashiro talking.

They only had two shots of Sinon's Ass Online, which demonstrated remarkable restraint. For a clip show done from Shino's POV, including the 1800 MLG pro trickshot made sense, but the presentation of the final GGO battle with Death Gun felt more like an Obligatory Kirito Moment. The fight with Burrito ManKyouji was shoehorned in there, though, and didn't really recap the emotional aspects as much as I thought that they could have. Again, Shino POV, which was much less about the mystery angle than it would have been from Kirito's POV, but still... that should have mattered quite a bit more, and it still came out as an afterthought.

Including the shot of Sinon x Kirito WINNERS with Leafa, Lisbeth, Silica, and Klein made me LOL.

[Sixth]

...what a disappointment. I thought it was a new arc.

[FlareKnight]

Yeah, that was about as standard a recap episode as you can get. Just have to treat this as a week off from SAO 2 and look forward to next week.

[ookamigirl]

#14.5

Spoiler for plot:

Flashback to Sinon's trauma.
Interesting how her sweet friend turned into a total freak.
A recap episode.
From the very beginning to Kirito and unfolding of recent events.
Funny how everything that happened so far can be summarized in only 1 episode.
After watching it I got a feeling that I could've skipped all the 14 episodes and just watch this recap.
Still, it was good to repeat everything one more time.

[The Green One]

Well this episode was basically, GGO The Cliffnotes.


Edit: Saw the preview, Calbiur next week.

[LKK]

I was disappointed with the recap. When I saw the title Debriefing, I thought we'd at least get a few new minor transition scenes of Kirito and/or Sinon talking with Mr. Government Man. But no such luck. I did like the visual changes to the OP though.

[frodonk]

10/10 best episode ever

[c933103]

IMO, Extra Edition beat this.

And i believe some might even have an option on it that it mangify the bad and eliminate all good from previous episodes

[Netto Azure]

Was expecting a flashback to make the transition to the next arc better.

Guess they wanted to take a break and just make a full recap.

[ChampDream]

the only thing I like about the recap was the OP, the rest was boring.

[Thailog]

They should have saved the money for something else and just skipped this episode. It brought nothing new to the table.

The SAO Extra special at least had some new content thrown into the mix.

[Rageth]

Originally Posted by Thailog

They should have saved the money

They wasted no money on these episode, other than having some guy edit clips together. That's how little content we got. The only money they really wasted was paying Sawashiro to narrate everything.

[Proto]

The were probably contractually obligated to have a set number of episodes or something so we ended up with this.

[Gravitas Free Zone]

Originally Posted by Rageth

The only money they really wasted was paying Sawashiro to narrate everything.

Not wasted!!

I watched the one-off opening credits sequence again. Now, it does spoil the entire season, but does have a nice editorial flow to the action, possibly better than the actual I-can't-get-the-live-action-parody-out-of-my-head-now OP.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Proto

The were probably contractually obligated to have a set number of episodes or something so we ended up with this.

Well, that and they probably want the production break to buy them a bit of time to get ahead. A lot of fall anime have one week off for the new year's holidays, but it's less common for two-cour shows to start in the summer.

I guess we'll see how many episodes are in the two remaining arcs. The episode is basically being included for free on the BDs, so in the end it's mostly like a week off with a few tiny perks.

[Rising Dragon]

Think of it this way: at least there's that much more budget to put into the rest of the episodes, since they didn't use it hear for Extra Edition-ish transition scenes.