"Hey, we introduce a loli in the episode! That means we can have tentacle monsters too, right?"
After last week's episode and the immediate introduction of a new character in this one, I did not have high expectations. Thankfully, this episode turned out pretty decent, finally addressing some details in the world and characters while not using character death as a crutch for drama. This is also the first episode I can call "happy," which was sorely needed after three episodes of doom and gloom. I'm not sure if this episode is also an adaptation of a side story, but at least now we know that SAO can pace itself properly when it feels like it.
But while this episode was a huge improvement over the last, I can still see some problems that might trip it up. The main issue, I think, is time and how it affects character, mostly Kirito in this case. The time stamps just aren't working for me. At beginning of the episode, we see that it's February of the next year, so Kirito has had roughly two months to get over his loss from the last episode. In that time, apparently he's gained about thirty levels, has joined "the front lines," and has decided that he's going to root out the people who've gone all the way over to the dark side (so to speak) by himself. That's a lot to accomplish in two months, especially when you consider that February is the shortest month of the year. For context, it's been a month since this show started airing. I'm not saying that it's impossible, but it does stretch my sense of disbelief.
Kirito also seems to have undergone some personality changes offscreen, since the guy has shed his "I'm a loner, woe is me" shell and has become much more open about himself. There is an argument to be made that he wasn't completely honest to Silica in this episode, but I don't think his only goal was to find some bait. He tells her about his family, which is the first bit of backstory we've gotten for Kirito. What he said goes along with what little we saw of the real world in the first episode, so he wasn't lying. That says a lot more than him completely divulging his plan to Silica. Kirito is finally figuring out how to interact with people, as well as what's important to him. He's at a high enough level that he can do whatever the heck he wants (I would call wish fulfillment on this, except this is how most games based on levels actually do work) so why not spend some time throwing murderers in jail? I just wish we could've seen a bit more of what led up to that transformation. (And I do call wish fulfillment on the fact that every female player within a certain radius seems to fall for him.)
Putting Kirito aside, the introduction of the orange and red players was the most interesting part of the episode for me, since it directly addressed the problem of roleplaying that I've talked about over the last few weeks. What these players do is hardly unprecedented in gaming, but when put in the context of the show's premise, it becomes far more sinister. The only argument presented for it in this episode was "we don't know if they actually die," but is that a risk these people are willing to take? They would kill someone in the real world just to get an in-game item? I'd like to see these idiots and murderers get more of the stigma in the game than the "beaters," because we haven't seen any evidence that beta players murder people. Orange and red markers are a great idea and a much better use for the premise than last week's episode, but I still wish we could see more people get their priorities straight. It's been over a year in the game now. You'd think it would've sunk in that this isn't the place to mess around.
Thankfully Silica doesn't seem to suffer from this problem, but I'm pretty indifferent on her character. All of her actions seemed pretty stereotypical for her character, but they didn't grate on me either. The quest to save her pet did make her more likable for a little while, but other than fanservice and an easy plot device, I'm not really sure why she was here. Maybe if she ends up being a recurring character and gets more development for her personality I'll like her more, but for right now she's just a passable one-episode partner. When is Asuna coming back?
Overall, I'm hoping that SAO will start to show an overall focus soon, since the episodic format just seems to be causing problems at this point. Right now we have the vague goal of "beat the game," which is fine, but I feel like this show needs more focused mini-goals in service to that end which would hopefully eliminate the pacing problem. I thought that the floor bosses would serve that point, but we haven't seen them in two episodes nor have they really been mentioned, so I guess not. Maybe this guild that harbors murderers will give us an interesting plotline for a while? I'm still enjoying SAO, but I'm expecting a dropoff in storytelling quality at any point thanks to last week. It's going to take something pretty amazing to get my trust back up again. This episode is a step in the right direction, but it still has a ways to go.
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment