Sword Art Online - Anime Spoilers & Speculation (for SAO Novel Readers only)

[Hmm....]

I can see that many think he's already dead ^^"


Like I did when I first read volumn 1. I was like that guy must die for sure. That's why Kirito feel so guilty.
But when we reach lvl74 boss. What?? He's alive and dandy with no casualty in his guild. What are you so emo about Kirito-kun ??

[DurararaFTW]

I like Klein, the contrast with him if where most of Kirito flaws is laid bare, but the Black Cats need as much screentime as they can to make sure their impact on Kirito is made clear.

[Edgardes]

Was giving a look at RnR and my opinion about the ep 2 improved a bit, I still think they cut the wrong shares with Asuna, but the moments KiriAsu cut makes more sense, since it does not create a depth in their relationship, and lack of Asuna in RnR makes more sense, but to really make sense that they would have to change some in Murder Case.

[DurararaFTW]

I dread what they'll do to Murdercase.

[Nightengale]

I liked ep2.

Sure, as an adaption of 'Aria', it wasn't very good. But as an episode-onto-its-own? I thought that it ultimately managed to convey what needed to be there, and did it well.

Regarding Asuna's characterisation, it's true that a lot of nuances was lost. The way I saw it, I felt that the story was purposely ignoring those aspects of her characterisation early-on, both in consideration of the minor story friction (retcon, if you will ) regarding Kirito's impressions of Asuna. In many ways, it actually made sense to downplay the weight of their first meeting together.

Whether or not downplaying it was the right choice or not, I don't want to get into that discussion. As a romance-buff, more KiriAsu moments will make me a happy bugger and I'm biased that way. Say what you will.

As for other parts of her character, there's a degree of consistency maintainability that I felt should be taken into consideration. Asuna felt a lot less guarded as a character? That's reasonable, since they've trimmed down many of her focus scenes anyway, trying to extrapolate that aspect of her character just for the sake of it would be awkward. Likewise with the bread scene. It lost some depth compared to the light novels, but it made sense because it had become a discussion that was possible between 2 real strangers altogether already.

As for Diabel, it's kind of a lose-lose situation.

The anime painted him in a far nicer light ( still keeping part of his underlying motives ), and because his sacrifice was seen as an inspiration and a point of regret for Kirito in the episode, it was very easy for non-light novel reader to see and understand why Kirito did what he did and pulled the Dark Knight "Beater" card.

And that's the important point. The changes were clearly made both in consideration of the single-episode limit, but also to make the transformation of 'Beater' Kirito very obviously driven by an sense of altruism to protect the other Beta Testers that can be seen from a glance.

Just few seconds of him reminscing of Diabel and the split-second where he swallowed his saliva to prepare for his 'act.' Those were good imo, because of 'show, not tell.'

Keeping all of the deeper stuff, would had required a more in-depth explanation of why Kirito did what he did, and that would not be possible in one episode. Even if it was, the sequence and pacing would all be horribly messed up.

As for other parts of Aria that didn't make the cut... they hardly mattered.

[Flere821]

As for RNR... I think it might be possible to fit it in 10 minutes after all... but it'll cut off a lot of stuff, like ep2.

Spoiler for What I want to see:

-Kirito walking towards the tree, with the Christmas Boss descending as per LN chapter. Kirito roars and charges towards Nicholas. Then OP credits.

-Cut to him reminiscing about the Black Cats. First meeting them in a dungeon, explaining how he ended up joining them. He meets Sachi. Leader of Black Cats asks him to train her into a frontline fighter as opposed to spear-wielder.

-a few scenes of them fighting together gaining xp. Then Sachi runs off and we get the following scene in detail:

“…Sachi.”

Once I said that, she shook her shoulder length black hair and looked up, muttering in surprise,

“Kirito…how did you know that I was here?”

I hesitated about how to answer it, and finally said.

“Instinct.”

“…I see.”

Sachi smiled and again put her face into the knees she was hugging. I tried my best to think of words, and said something that lacked creativity,

“…Everyone’s worried about you. They even sent people to the dungeon to look for you. Hurry up and go back.”

This time, it became a long silence. After a minute or two, I wanted to say the same thing again, but this time, Sachi’s weak voice came while she lowered her head,

“Hey, Kirito, let’s run away.”

I asked instinctively,

“Run away…from where?”

“From this town, everyone at the Black Cats, monsters…from SAO.”

I wasn’t so familiar with girls—or even humans such that I could answer this immediately.

After thinking about it for a long time, I timidly asked,

“Do you…have an intention of committing suicide together?”

After a short silence, Sachi smiled.

“Fufu…yeah, that should be okay…no, sorry. I lied. If I had the courage to commit suicide, I wouldn’t have hid inside the town…don’t stand around. Sit down too.”

I didn’t know what to do, so I sat down slightly beside Sachi on the stone floor. From the semi-circle exit of the drain, I could see the town lights that were as small as the stars.

“…I’m scared of death. Because I’m scared, I practically couldn’t sleep during this time.”

Finally, Sachi muttered.

“Why did such a thing happen? Why couldn’t we leave the game? Why is it that we could die even if it is only a game? What could that Kayaba get by doing this? What’s the meaning in this…”

Actually, I could make an answer to each of the five questions. But even I knew that Sachi wasn’t looking for that sort of answer. I tried my best to think and said,

“Most likely, there’s no meaning…and nobody could benefit from it. The moment the world became like this, everyone lost the most precious thing to them.”

I endured my tears as I told a huge lie to the girl. That’s because I lied to myself to get stronger, and felt the satisfaction of this secret when I entered the Black Cats gang. In that sense, I obviously got my benefit.

At that time, I should have told everything to Sachi. If I had even a teeny-weeny bit of sincerity, I should have revealed my ugly ego out. In that case, Sachi may have some stress taken from her, and she may even feel somewhat relaxed.

However, what I could only say was a lie to steel myself more.

“…You won’t die.”

“Why do you say that?”

“…Even in our current state, the Black Cats are still a strong guild. We have achieved a safe margin too. If you stay in that guild, you can continue to live on safely. Also, you don’t really need to change into a swordsman.”

Sachi lifted her head and showed me a reliant expression. However, I couldn’t look straight into those eyes and lowered my head.

“…Really? I can live on until the end? Back to reality?”

“Ahh…you won’t die. You’ll live until the day when the game is cleared.”

Those were words that weren’t convincing and had no weight in them. Even so, Sachi leaned over to me, brought her face over to my left shoulder and cried for a while.

-Then trap in dungeon Black Cats guild dies one by one, while Kirito watches helplessly. Sachi dies last:

As Sachi’s HP disappeared completely after being surrounded by the monster mob, she reached her right hand out to me as if she wanted to say something. Those widened eyes still showed the glow that she trusted me, just like every single night, until it was all heartbreaking.

-Next scene with the guild leader jumping off, saying Kirito never should have joined them.

-Cuts to Kirito gearing up, and teleporting to the floor where the boss will come to. Klein's guild catches up to him, but fails to convince Kirito to team up. Other guild shows up, which leads to Klein telling Kirito to go ahead while his guild try and hold them off.

-Back to the scene before the OP. Cue Boss-fight. Ends with Kirito on the verge of death.

-Scene with the revive item. Kirito loses it, resulting in a skyward scream. Goes back to Klein. hands him the item while Klein begs him to not die, even if he's the last one left in SAO.

-Back in his rented room, Kirito flops down onto his desk as he's tired. Monologues about heading to the 50th floor boss room first thing in the morning, all life gone from his eyes. Sachi's crystal activates, giving him the message. As the song plays, scenes flashes by:

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose. (Meeting the Black Cats)
All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. (Kirito laughing with the Black Cats, fitting in like a part of the team)
Then one Christmas Eve(Sachi's face in tears, from when she asked if Kirito would run away with her)
Santa came to say: (Sachi's death)
"Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"
Rudolph who was always crying, started smiling that night. (final cut, Sachi with a radiant smile on her face)

-Episode ends with Sachi thanking Kirito for meeting him and spent their time together. Crystal turns off, then a camera shot of Kirito's head buried deeper into his arms and a line of tears flowing down the side. Cue ED.

Spoiler for What I expect to see:

The above, with at least 50% less Sachi and Black Cat scenes, 50% more boss fight scenes. Good for Anime-only viewers, bad for LN people who'll rage at how the emotional stuff is cut.

[Awrya]

Originally Posted by Flere821

Spoiler for What I want to see:

-Kirito walking towards the tree, with the Christmas Boss descending as per LN chapter. Kirito roars and charges towards Nicholas. Then OP credits.

-Cut to him reminiscing about the Black Cats. First meeting them in a dungeon, explaining how he ended up joining them. He meets Sachi. Leader of Black Cats asks him to train her into a frontline fighter as opposed to spear-wielder.

-a few scenes of them fighting together gaining xp. Then Sachi runs off and we get the following scene in detail:

-Then trap in dungeon Black Cats guild dies one by one, while Kirito watches helplessly. Sachi dies last:


-Next scene with the guild leader jumping off, saying Kirito never should have joined them.

-Cuts to Kirito gearing up, and teleporting to the floor where the boss will come to. Klein's guild catches up to him, but fails to convince Kirito to team up. Other guild shows up, which leads to Klein telling Kirito to go ahead while his guild try and hold them off.

-Back to the scene before the OP. Cue Boss-fight. Ends with Kirito on the verge of death.

-Scene with the revive item. Kirito loses it, resulting in a skyward scream. Goes back to Klein. hands him the item while Klein begs him to not die, even if he's the last one left in SAO.

-Back in his rented room, Kirito flops down onto his desk as he's tired. Monologues about heading to the 50th floor boss room first thing in the morning, all life gone from his eyes. Sachi's crystal activates, giving him the message. As the song plays, scenes flashes by:

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose. (Meeting the Black Cats)
All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. (Kirito laughing with the Black Cats, fitting in like a part of the team)
Then one Christmas Eve(Sachi's face in tears, from when she asked if Kirito would run away with her)
Santa came to say: (Sachi's death)
"Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"
Rudolph who was always crying, started smiling that night. (final cut, Sachi with a radiant smile on her face)

-Episode ends with Sachi thanking Kirito for meeting him and spent their time together. Crystal turns off, then a camera shot of Kirito's head buried deeper into his arms and a line of tears flowing down the side. Cue ED.

You are a genius, ever thought about applying as a script/scenario writer?
Japan needs more people with good ideas.

[sky black swordman]

Originally Posted by Awrya

You are a genius, ever thought about applying as a script/scenario writer?
Japan needs more people with good ideas.

True. And if he is right on the "What I expect to see" , if it goes like this then I will be pissed. I mean all the emotion will be gone.

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by Flere821

As for RNR... I think it might be possible to fit it in 10 minutes after all... but it'll cut off a lot of stuff, like ep2.

This is... pretty good. I like it.

I'm going to be a little pessimistic and say it doesn't necessarily make me feel that it's a good transition from ep2 to what you had described, but it definitely sounds like one of the best ways RDR could be adapted in a single episode.

As for the fight being favored over emotions... even A-1 can't have that much budget... right?

(gotta be one of those rare times I wish they had less money/time for battle sakuga )

[Ray]

A-1 need to hire Flere.

[Wild Goose]

Everybody's got no budget. It's a fact of life.

[Lantern]

Originally Posted by Nightengale

I liked ep2.

Spoiler for length:

Sure, as an adaption of 'Aria', it wasn't very good. But as an episode-onto-its-own? I thought that it ultimately managed to convey what needed to be there, and did it well.

Regarding Asuna's characterisation, it's true that a lot of nuances was lost. The way I saw it, I felt that the story was purposely ignoring those aspects of her characterisation early-on, both in consideration of the minor story friction (retcon, if you will ) regarding Kirito's impressions of Asuna. In many ways, it actually made sense to downplay the weight of their first meeting together.

Whether or not downplaying it was the right choice or not, I don't want to get into that discussion. As a romance-buff, more KiriAsu moments will make me a happy bugger and I'm biased that way. Say what you will.

As for other parts of her character, there's a degree of consistency maintainability that I felt should be taken into consideration. Asuna felt a lot less guarded as a character? That's reasonable, since they've trimmed down many of her focus scenes anyway, trying to extrapolate that aspect of her character just for the sake of it would be awkward. Likewise with the bread scene. It lost some depth compared to the light novels, but it made sense because it had become a discussion that was possible between 2 real strangers altogether already.

As for Diabel, it's kind of a lose-lose situation.

The anime painted him in a far nicer light ( still keeping part of his underlying motives ), and because his sacrifice was seen as an inspiration and a point of regret for Kirito in the episode, it was very easy for non-light novel reader to see and understand why Kirito did what he did and pulled the Dark Knight "Beater" card.

And that's the important point. The changes were clearly made both in consideration of the single-episode limit, but also to make the transformation of 'Beater' Kirito very obviously driven by an sense of altruism to protect the other Beta Testers that can be seen from a glance.

Just few seconds of him reminscing of Diabel and the split-second where he swallowed his saliva to prepare for his 'act.' Those were good imo, because of 'show, not tell.'

Keeping all of the deeper stuff, would had required a more in-depth explanation of why Kirito did what he did, and that would not be possible in one episode. Even if it was, the sequence and pacing would all be horribly messed up.

As for other parts of Aria that didn't make the cut... they hardly mattered.

This is pretty much how I feel about ep2 regarding my problem with Asuna. I'd say it's more of a pity than "no it sucks now" sort. Would have been nice, but since I just don't see how they can split the episode without the first part being "boring and dragging" for the generic audience, I'm satisfied with how the episode turned out. On a side note, I quite like how they cut the KiriAsu chat scene at the end. The way Kirito responds to Asuna's question by silently leaving the party adds quite a bit of depth in him.

Regarding Diabel, I don't mind the "white knight" change in the anime. I don't think it would make much of a difference in terms of development: Kirito is gonna take the blame for the beta-testers whether Diabel is genuine or not. In fact, I find the anime portrayal effectively cuts a lot of long explanation work and still easy to understand for first time viewers.

Originally Posted by DurararaFTW

I dread what they'll do to Murdercase.

I wonder if they will animate the Laughing Coffin incident. Sure we got a glimpse of it in the GGO arc as a flashback but wouldn't it be odd if you skip out such an important "dark and troubled past" in Kirito's character during SAO arc?

[Deltaray]

I have terrible feeling if they cram murder case in one episode, I don't mind rnr in one episode, but murder case is like twice as big, so making that in one episode uughh...

Hopefully i'm wrong, and there is these 3 weeks before that episode anyway.

[Hmm....]

After Aria, I keep my expectation about RNR low, very low, as low as I can. I tried not to predict anything so that anime studion will prove me all wrong.

After I watch preview for Episode 3, [b]ONLY ONE[b] thing I want to say is
ARGO THE RATTTTTTTT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look like the anime studio can still prove me wrong ^^"

[Ray]

Really?? Mind linking us?

[Rovert10]

Originally Posted by Hmm....

After Aria, I keep my expectation about RNR low, very low, as low as I can. I tried not to predict anything so that anime studion will prove me all wrong.

After I watch preview for Episode 3, [b]ONLY ONE[b] thing I want to say is
ARGO THE RATTTTTTTT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look like the anime studio can still prove me wrong ^^"

Where is this PV?

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by Aphrah

Really?? Mind linking us?

Originally Posted by Rovert10

Where is this PV?

Episode previews are located on the main site.
http://www.swordart-online.net/story/index03.html

[Swordstriker21]

Oooooh. So that's what she looks like... Probably a nod to the fans who kept crying foul when they didn't include her in ep. 2 LOL.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by Swordstriker21

Oooooh. So that's what she looks like... Probably a nod to the fans who kept crying foul when they didn't include her in ep. 2 LOL.

Lol, I'd imagine that they plan these episodes well in advance.

[Swordstriker21]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

Lol, I'd imagine that they plan these episodes well in advance.

Nah. I'm just messing around LOL But seriously why did they include her when she's just going to appear for a few minutes in the entire show after they retconned her role in ep. 2 Confused much LOL Ah what the heck! It's ARGO THE RAT!!! BOOOYAH!!! And I imagine non LN readers are already discussing the "bed scene" LOL