Sword Art Online - Episode 2 Discussion / Poll

[Utsuro no Hako]

They did a fair job of compressing everything into a single episode, though I wish we'd gotten more of Kirito and Asuna before the battle.

My big complaint is how badly the fight was handled -- not just in terms of animation, though they really cheaped out with the number of still shots, but that once Diabel died it seemed to become a melee with people charging in without a strategy.

Still loved the ending. Being Kirito is pain, but at least he's bad-ass in doing it.

[Netto Azure]

Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako

Still loved the ending. Being Kirito is pain, but at least he's bad-ass in doing it.

Tempted to make a Meguca reference here lol.

But yeah, I'm starting to like the color black cuz of him. xD

[Ray]

That was a pretty enjoyable watch. A good bit of content was cut, but I'm completely fine with that. It was a fairly good choice to do so, if anything.

Honestly, I thought the pacing was good; I think it'll only be rushed for those who've read the L/Ns and know how long this arc was. I'm looking forward to see what other people think of it.

The action scenes were good (all the still shots didn't help) albeit not very impressive due to the fact that a lot of them have already been shown in the PVs and CMs. Kirito and Asuna's combo attack on the boss was still awesome, though.

It was a damn shame Diabel had to die; I like charismatic characters like him.

The ending was great, though. Kirito pulled off being evil and badass at the same time quite well. Oh, and he looks great in black.

I have to say, I'm not too impressed with the ED; I love the song, but the animation was.. disappointing. I was hoping for something cute akin to the last few seconds of the OP. Ah well; there's always OP and ED 2.

Originally Posted by RainbowMagnet

Still pissed that Argo got the shaft

Well..

Spoilers

Spoiler for Novel Comparison

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[tsunade666]

Episode 2 disappoints me. Its really rushed and some got changes A LOT character wise.

Spoiler:

Like the Rat was removed and the part where Asuna goes suicidal at the first and rescued by Kirito was also removed even that DARN BATH SCENE!!!!!!!! Also they don't animate the first day of SAO too. At first episode I was happy but second episode well.... the fight looks good which is good >_> but story wise its not. Its rushed. Plus they also shafted the trade part and also the the knight guy's character was also changed. He aims originally for the LA but now he is change into a beta tester that leads the players into the first boss match. He didn't abandon the other players. He turns into a good guy with ulterior motives.

Spoiler for A cute Asuna is CUTE:

[Dann of Thursday]

Hmm, haven't seen it yet, but the comments on rushing are worrying. Perhaps it would have been best for the whole show to simply be Sword Art Online so as to get everything animated and have the characters developed fully. Then if it was successful we could have possibly seen the next story arc and further on.

But I'll see it for myself. Perhaps its these side stories that will be rushed while the main material will be largely intact.

[Shinji103]

Wow, that......was rather disappointing after last week's exceptional premier.

Spoiler for comparison to the novels:

Sure we novel readers expected things to be rushed because we suspected this arc would be limited to one episode, but actually seeing it made me realize exactly how ridiculous it is. The talk between Kirito and Asuna over bread in the town lost A TON of depth because of everything that was cut out from before it. This is one of the biggest problems with the episode, and even without having read the novels beforehand, many viewers will probably find it to be a rather shallow scene which lacked shoring up.
Plus the stills in the boss fight sucked. The cutting of other material definitely didn't help.....

And to top it off, the ED did not have any actual shred of KiriAsu in it and came off as bland and generic. Disappointment abounds on all ends.

*sigh* It wasn't a trainwreck episode, but the most I can get out of this rushing is that we'll get to the main story faster.

Originally Posted by Dann of Thursday

But I'll see it for myself. Perhaps its these side stories that will be rushed while the main material will be largely intact.

I certainly hope so.

[Dann of Thursday]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

I certainly hope so.

It's disappointing either way though as some of those stories show contributions to the characters development. Quite worried about next episode and it being rushed as well.

Odd, they seemed to be taking a bit slower pace last episode just to ramp it up to get through this story fast.

[Hmm....]

I don't know if quoting post from other forum is allowed here ? If it isn't I will remove it

But I love this comment from /a/

Anonymous 07/14/12(Sat)11:17 No.68542904>>68542805
Aria in the starless night, 1st floor

10 in episode and already 3/4 of the chapter have been wiped away

This episode sure has high casuaty rate

[Ray]

Sigh. Can we please keep /a/ comments away from ASuki? If I want to know what /a/ think or see the comments they make, I'll just go there (unlikely).

Originally Posted by Dann of Thursday

Perhaps its these side stories that will be rushed while the main material will be largely intact.

Yeah, I hope so too. They're going to have to make up for going so quickly at some point in the story; better sooner than later, though.

[lansglenn]

What does this "/a/" or "/r/" thingy mean? Some sort of newage abbreviation like "lol" or "roflmao"?

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by lansglenn

What does this "/a/" or "/r/" thingy mean? Some sort of newage abbreviation like "lol" or "roflmao"?

they're the names of sections on 4chan

[GoddyofAus]

Originally Posted by lansglenn

What does this "/a/" or "/r/" thingy mean? Some sort of newage abbreviation like "lol" or "roflmao"?

If you don't know, then it's probably best to leave it that way.

[tsunade666]

Originally Posted by lansglenn

What does this "/a/" or "/r/" thingy mean? Some sort of newage abbreviation like "lol" or "roflmao"?

it's a channel or section in 4chan

[Utsuro no Hako]

Guys, if you keep making specific comparisons between books and series mods are going to start nuking posts.

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako

Guys, if you keep making specific comparisons between books and series mods are going to start nuking posts.

*Nuclear Launch Detected*

[Xellos-_^]

it wasn't as bad i thought but it did felt rush.

Spoiler:

didn't mind the initial meeting getting change or The Rat since that part is ongoing. Now the bath scene getting cut was a shame

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

it wasn't as bad i thought but it did felt rush.

Spoiler:

didn't mind the initial meeting getting change or The Rat since that part is ongoing. Now the bath scene getting cut was a shame

There's no way to add that in without expanding the story beyond the one episode allocated.

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by kyp275

There's no way to add that in without expanding the story beyond the one episode allocated.

Which is exactly the problem; as many have already pointed out, this should have been 2 episodes and not just one.

[tsunade666]

But the problem is they did a great job at first episode so why they didn't expand this arc into at least 2 episode? they cut a lot of story development and specially the first impression of Kirito on Asuna's swordsmanship was but shafted.

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

Which is exactly the problem; as many have already pointed out, this should have been 2 episodes and not just one.

For what is a relatively minor portion of the story? where does it stop? two episodes for this, two episodes for that, next thing you know we'd need 50+ episodes just to keep people happy.