Sword Art Online - Episode 15 Discussion / Poll

[supermegasonic]

o wow, i thought sachi came back or something. she really does look a lot like her.

and it seems kirito is gonna be going into another game. this time he's Link!! (now to wait for an awesome crossover with these 2)
kinda surprising though how not everyone has gotten off of that game. there's definitely a reason for it. like kirito said, SAO isn't over.

the OP&ED were really good, i like the OP song, wanna DL it. and lol tiny yui!! thats adorable.

Originally Posted by Gearhead

This author seems to have a talent for creating a certain, specific sort of horrible jerk you love to hate, doesn't he?

i guess thats his style. he doesnt do that "bad guy but he did one nice thing so we love him" crap, though i think we also like those ppl

[Swordstriker21]

Originally Posted by shakeofinfinity

who needs asuna when u have suguha
hope kazuto changes his mind

Don't count on it though. It wouldn't make much sense after all the build up the KirixAsu pair got over the course of 14 eps.

[n120cky]

Originally Posted by Haruyasha

Not to pick at egos, since I know people are entitled to their opinion, but..

Spoiler for Seriously?:

Episode 15: A nicely balanced episode with decent animation and good pacing (seems to be a rare thing in this series), along with the nice development of two characters... This is in contrast to the disasters that were episodes 13 and 14... running through 4 chapters each, with a lot of missing details and sub-par quality.

And yet this episode is voted lower? This leads me to believe that quite a few people have either short attention spans, or a poor taste.

well for me, it's not like the anime it self bad, they do more detailed in this episode and that's good, but I don't like atmosphere of the story here.

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by Kirroha

But we are all getting civilized and we realize that nothing is black and white. Thus, no matter how fun it is to destroy evil, there is still the fact that nobody is completely evil.

Maybe nobody is "completely" evil(and there are many arguments that can be made against such claims), but there are many who are so far off to that side they may as well be completely evil

Hitler is probably the easiest example, although there are plenty of people that are in prison (or out) that would also fall into that category.

[Krono]

Originally Posted by Kirroha

So it all boils down to whether or not SAO should be watched for wish fulfillment, or as an actually good piece of work.

It's not that black and white. It's not "wish fulfillment or good piece of work, one or the other."

Simple wish fulfillment would not have something like the Black Cats guild being killed due to Kirito's mistakes "the hero screws up and gets his friends all killed" isn't exactly fulfilling wishes. Or something like this episode which pretty much included "his great power doesn't exist in the real world" as one of it's themes. Likewise a villain can be stereotypical, and still belong to a "good" work if the themes it's exploring or using don't rely on the moral ambiguity, or lack thereof of the villain.

So a work can have elements of wish fulfillment, and still be a good work, and vice versa.

[thundrakkon]

On second watch, I noticed something. The house Kazuto and Suguha live in has a landline phone. Even right now, a lot of houses are getting rid of their landline. I'm surprised 10+ years from now that people would still use them.

[Swordstriker21]

Originally Posted by thundrakkon

On second watch, I noticed something. The house Kazuto and Suguha live in has a landline phone. Even right now, a lot of houses are getting rid of their landline. I'm surprised 10+ years from now that people would still use them.

Maybe it's a digital landline phone lol Maybe it was a fib on the animators part. Or maybe the Kirigaya family actually likes their phones oldschool. We may never know...

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by thundrakkon

On second watch, I noticed something. The house Kazuto and Suguha live in has a landline phone. Even right now, a lot of houses are getting rid of their landline. I'm surprised 10+ years from now that people would still use them.

Why get rid of them? They're included in the price of the internet, here.

[Kirroha]

Originally Posted by Krono

It's not that black and white. It's not "wish fulfillment or good piece of work, one or the other."

Simple wish fulfillment would not have something like the Black Cats guild being killed due to Kirito's mistakes "the hero screws up and gets his friends all killed" isn't exactly fulfilling wishes. Or something like this episode which pretty much included "his great power doesn't exist in the real world" as one of it's themes. Likewise a villain can be stereotypical, and still belong to a "good" work if the themes it's exploring or using don't rely on the moral ambiguity, or lack thereof of the villain.

So a work can have elements of wish fulfillment, and still be a good work, and vice versa.

Ah, I see. That makes sense. The Sachi parts really made me baww like a child.

Maybe nobody is "completely" evil(and there are many arguments that can be made against such claims), but there are many who are so far off to that side they may as well be completely evil

Hitler is probably the easiest example, although there are plenty of people that are in prison (or out) that would also fall into that category.

I didn't say SAO will be bad just because the villain isn't sympathetic. But it certainly is a plus. XD I don't think you can use a counter to measure someone's "evilness" (That sounds creepily like Psycho-Pass, doesn't it?) or it'll again be a very simplistic way of looking at life. Hitler was a nutcase, but he became a nutcase because of his descending insanity and drunkenness over power and many other things we don't know about. It doesn't excuse his actions, but it explains it. Kayaba, too, made up SAO because he wanted to find his own dream castle. It sounds like a nutty explanation but you can actually see how a childhood obsession could twist him so much when he grew, with his genius. Exploring concepts like that makes a story very interesting to me imo. But I don't mind if ALO doesn't do that.

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by Krono

It's not that black and white. It's not "wish fulfillment or good piece of work, one or the other."

Simple wish fulfillment would not have something like the Black Cats guild being killed due to Kirito's mistakes "the hero screws up and gets his friends all killed" isn't exactly fulfilling wishes. Or something like this episode which pretty much included "his great power doesn't exist in the real world" as one of it's themes. Likewise a villain can be stereotypical, and still belong to a "good" work if the themes it's exploring or using don't rely on the moral ambiguity, or lack thereof of the villain.

So a work can have elements of wish fulfillment, and still be a good work, and vice versa.

I think a better question to ask is whether to watch SAO and be critical about it or watch it as pure entertainment and try not think too much into it. And as you say, there are "middle grounds", but I don't think you should watch SAO in the mood as if you're watching/reading something like Kino's Journey or Noein or even Death Note. Personally, I'm now enjoying this show as shounen action shows and try not to think too much into it and be pleasantly surprised when there are some depth to the show, instead of expecting depth all the way and coming out feeling shallow.

[Haru-kun]

Originally Posted by Haruyasha

Not to pick at egos, since I know people are entitled to their opinion, but..

Spoiler for Seriously?:

Episode 15: A nicely balanced episode with decent animation and good pacing (seems to be a rare thing in this series), along with the nice development of two characters... This is in contrast to the disasters that were episodes 13 and 14... running through 4 chapters each, with a lot of missing details and sub-par quality.

And yet this episode is voted lower? This leads me to believe that quite a few people have either short attention spans, or a poor taste.

It's just my opinon but I think many people take SAO as a shounen anime with lots of fighting so when a episode with not many fights airs, they are not satisfied so approval vote goes down.

Personally, I find this episode quite nice because for once, the pacing was just right, not much rushing nor missing details.

[Domonkazu]

I didn't even realize that Suguha's seiyuu is Ayana.

I wanna see Lisbeth again, does she really has pink hair irl? XD

[Ashlotte]

Originally Posted by Swordstriker21

Hey lets give it the benefit of the doubt. I've seen more cutesy fantasy settings in other games. At least the avatars aren't chibi or anything. I mean except for the wings and ears they look pretty standard.

I guess.

My trepidation probably stems from the fact that anything cutsey with bright colors I immediately associate with half-assed pay2win shovel ware MMOs that advertise all over the net like a plague...Guess I'll just wait and see what they do with the setting.

[Haak]

It was a decent episode since it was good to have a change of pace but I really dislike how they had to suddenly drop in such terribly over-villainous moustache twirling character like Sugou. I hope he doesn't stay an antagonist for too long.

[richardtengcy]

Suguha VA is Ayana?!
At first i dun recall who she is until i check her profile that she is K-On! Azunyan VA.

Couldn`t relate it but the voice is moe especially when she woke up. XD

[MrTerrorist]

A new arc, new characters and new game.

The show didn't waste time to show how evil Sugou is. Manipulative bastard who's planning to take over the company and doesn't give a damm that the Asuna doesn't like him and mocks Kirito? Check.

And we're finally introduced to Suguha, Kirito's cousin/sister voiced by Ayana "Catgirl" Taketatsu(Now SaintessHeart will leave Asuna alone since he loves any girl voiced by Ayana).

Can't wait for Kirito goes to the new game next week.

[Chaos2Frozen]

^
In this case, shouldn't it be Ayana "Imouto" Taketatsu This would be her third major imouto character I believe.

[Kamui04]

Originally Posted by thundrakkon

On second watch, I noticed something. The house Kazuto and Suguha live in has a landline phone. Even right now, a lot of houses are getting rid of their landline. I'm surprised 10+ years from now that people would still use them.

You could get rid of your landline, unless your internet comes in through a line, be it wire or fiber optic. My fiber optic plan includes phone service anyways, and some other packages also include TV.

[Dengar]

Besides, was mobile communication that big a thing at the time of writing?

[novalysis]

It's rather obvious that Sugou is your run of the mill sociopath. What is actually believable is that such people can rise to a certain position of power. It's not unheard of, though certainly, Asuna's father seems to be a poorer judge of man.