I'm glad that they did a full and conclusive epilogue (yeah, I know, it's kinda ironic that I say that since it's heading for a second season).
Awwwn, he almost killed Sugou, even if it would have been a bit too brutal, I would have wanted him to slit is throat :(
Maybe that's just my morbid curiosity :P
I found it disconcerting that Asuna looked exactly as normal as before. I expected her to be like Kirito when he woke, skin and bones. Still, was a nice kiss :3
What I liked about this episode is that we know what happened to each character after SAO. Silicia, Liz, Asuna and Kirito are back to a special school for the survivor. Klein is still the same old single man, Agil still own a bar, that other guy married that other girl. Everything ended happily :D
I laughed that Kirito asked for whiskey but he's a minor. What was he expecting? xD
Now, I think it's important to come back on the whole serie since it was really hyped and controversial, since the anime community was really divided on it. I think that what can describe the serie the best is ''inconsistent, but entertaining''.
The pros of the serie :
- Strong lead character. Kirito and Asuna were good written character. It's rare to see a woman that can rivalize with the main character, so I think it was a strong point. Suguha was also a great character with a taboo relationship. While we could say it was unnecessary, I think it have had some depth to the plot.
- Great cast of seiyu. The three seiyu of the main character were really great. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka was really good in the emotionnal moment, for exemple when he was crying while they were dissapearing in the episode 14. His groan weren't annoying too, which is often the case in anime. Haruka Tomatsu was also really good, she was able to pass to a strong tsundere to a sensible young teenager. The emotion was also well expressed. I think that the seiyu that really was the most powerful was Ayana Taketatsu who was really good as Suguha. She really putted a lot of depth in Suguha character and really made it a better and more interresting character. When she confronted her brother at the end of the episode 22, it was really touching and I almost wanted to hug the screen :P
- Great and fast action. I think that the animation and fighting was really one of the strongest point of the anime. They were able to show interresting and various fighting without putting gore or confusion on the screen. It was clear and detailed. Yeah, if you go frame by frame, you could see some were they have weird face or there isn't much detail, when in motion, it doesn't make a difference.
- Good twist and the confidence of killing character. I think that I'm not the only one that didn't see the Heatcliff twist coming. Totally caught me by surprise. There was other good twist like the ''fake'' murder arc that I found clever, the way he manipulated Silicia, the unexpected death of Sachi, the explaination of the hidden sword of Kirito. It was a bit less effective twist was Yui identity. It was a bit of a deus ex machina and we could see it coming since she had too much difference with the other player, but it was still greatly pulled out.
- A good soundtrack in overall. The OP and the ED were good (in term of song). The soundtrack for the fighting was fun and the song for the sad scene were also good in term of climax.
Now for the cons :
- Inconsistent. I think that's the major default of the serie. It was really inconsistent and badly paced. For exemple, we have two episode for a intern murder case (the episode 5 and 6) and then one episode later, we have a cheesy unnecessary romance. I think there lack a link between the two. It was also often the case, like right after Sachi die, you could think that we could have an episode were he try to redeem himself or his lost with his thought, but we go with an episode about a girl that try to ressucite her dragon and who make him think of his sister. It was a bit random.
- The various confusing timeskip. Timeskip can be good and interresting in anime, but it is when we have an impactful event before the timeskip. If it's just done randomly, then it's just really confusing. Like when he left Asuna in the episode 2, where she looked like an introvert and shy, and then, due to timeskip, he's working with her three episodes later and she have become a tsundere who his annoyed by his presence and is a leader of the main guild. But what happened between that? We only saw Kirito flirting with two other girls, was he close to Asuna? Was he working with her? There are a lot of detail and plot story left behind that we will never know what happened.
- The second arc. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate the fairy arc nor didn't think it was bad. I just think it lacked of potential. And it really showed in the plot. Asuna being held hostage was kinda in contradiction with her character. She isn't really the princess type character, so why make her look so weak? She was never resisting and was always just waiting for Kirito. Kirito also seemed to lack of motivation. Where was his passion? We saw it in the latest episode, but he was more concerned with his sister than his girlfriend who his promised to a psycho perverted guy. Also, the vilain of that arc was really weak, he lacked completely of charisma and intention. His only goal was to sequester Asuna and make her the saddest possible, it's hard to believe that such a stupid guy could control freely and at the unbeknownst of everyone. After all happened, the government and autority didn't think to regulate and try to get out those 300 peoples trap in the game?
- The vilains. I have said all I had to say about Sugou, since he was a poorly written character. Now, it's a bit more complicated about Kabaya because he was on papper a good character, but his execution was weak. His goal was really unclear and stupid. Why did he sacrificed 30000 peoples on an online game? Only because he was bored? That's such a silly reason. He had the charisma, unfortunately, he didn't had that depth that a antagonist must have to be good. |