SAO Anime Discussion Thread

[Skeptic]

Every time I read Excalibur I get an urge to throttle something. The spelling is ExcalibEr

Huh?
It's spelled Excalibur everywhere else. Throttle Kawahara... but wait until after he's done publishing SAO and Accel World.

edit: hmm. It's only spelled out in Japanese in the raws, so don't strangle Kawahara either.

[Pryun]

The original myth has it as Excalibur. Kawahara's version has Excaliber, for reasons that were already mentioned somewhere. Since we are referring to Kawahara's work, we should be using the latter.

[Tigerbiten]

I was wondering if the animators are going to tweak the story line a bit and have the first trip down to Jotunheim at the start of season 2.
As long as there's no plot holes, I don't see why that would not work.

Season 2 then becomes ...
Arc 1:- Jotunheim+Calibur
Arc 2:- Phantom Bullet.
Arc 3:- Mother's Rosario.

[Eternal Dreamer]

Not likely, since the Phantom Bullet arc occurs before the Caliber arc. (Sinon was present during their quest to get Excaliber, after all, and was integral to the events there, so it wouldn't make sense to appear before the story in GGO.)

I'd say there are basically three possibilities here:
1. They completely skip the Jotunheim and Caliber stories. (In which case SAO fans in both Japan and other countries are going to pissed all around. )
2. They do Jotunheim+Caliber in two or three OVA episodes.
3. In season 2 (if there is one) after the Phantom Bullet arc, they do a flashback episode to Kirito and Leafa's adventure in Jotunheim and then do the Caliber story in the following episode.

Personally, I'm betting on number 3, since I don't think the Phantom Bullet and Mother Rosario arcs have enough material for a two-cour season by themselves, and stretching out the material for them would just make me pissed that they didn't so for the first season as well. But, in any case, first we need to wait for the official confirmation of another season anyway...

[Skeptic]

I've seen completely unsubstantiated rumors that an extension into another season has already been approved and just not formally announced yet, but these are completely unsubstantiated rumors, so I mostly pretend that I never heard them, rather than getting my hopes up for an immediate continuation.

The books are still selling well and the anime DVD/BDs are selling well, so we'll definitely get Phantom Bullet sooner or later. Ignoring rumors, I would normally guess that would be summer in 2013, or fall 2013 if they had trouble scheduling their time/money/manpower.

Theoretically, they could cut the entire side quest down to a three-minute flashback of the end of the quest, and insert it right near the start of Kirito's Moment Of Awesome in Mother's Rosario. Those of us who wanted the entire thing would RAGE, but it'd be enough info for anime-only viewers to understand that scene.

[KiraSkellington]

OMG EternalDreamer!!!! I CAN NOT Believe they Cut out TONKII Soooo MUCH RAGEEE Legit. =[ I legit paused the episode soon as they arrived at Arun and was like.. Duh heck.. I know we missed something here .. GAWR It felt so like.. unusual that they were just there I don't know why they skipped it But I really hope they do recap it =[

[mythu]

WOW I learned so much from "The Grand Quest", regarding very strong feelings, about special conduct and so on. Wonderfully well done!
Way to go Suguha! That's the way to do it!

Spoiler! :

If Kirito was to avoid all fairy kinghts and their attacks from the start he would have gotten at least 3 seconds to try the entrance to the King and figure out he needs a special access key, and maybe another try was possible on the second attempt yet I think there could be more than 5 seconds needed to held into Yui, unlock the door and access it.
Leafa did a better job saving him considering she has less flying speed, less reaction speed, less agility, less evasion capabilities
Way to go Sugu, confessing directily you falled in love after trying so many times to convey that blockhead your feelings

[gn_x00]

Spoiler! :

If Kirito was to avoid all fairy kinghts and their attacks from the start he would have gotten at least 3 seconds to try the entrance to the King and figure out he needs a special access key, and maybe another try was possible on the second attempt yet I think there could be more than 5 seconds needed to held into Yui, unlock the door and access it.

Spoiler! :

or maybe they will spawn 3 seconds faster... the game is cheating after all

[Lery]

OMG EternalDreamer!!!! I CAN NOT Believe they Cut out TONKII Soooo MUCH RAGEEE Legit. =[ I legit paused the episode soon as they arrived at Arun and was like.. Duh heck.. I know we missed something here .. GAWR It felt so like.. unusual that they were just there I don't know why they skipped it But I really hope they do recap it =[

I feeled a little like that too
But I guess it's because of the timeline... Didn't they say they were going to release only 25 episodes for the first season ? So they have to cut some scenes

Spoiler! :

Poor elephant ^^'

[Skeptic]

Spoiler! :

If Kirito was to avoid all fairy kinghts and their attacks from the start he would have gotten at least 3 seconds to try the entrance to the King and figure out he needs a special access key, and maybe another try was possible on the second attempt yet I think there could be more than 5 seconds needed to held into Yui, unlock the door and access it.

Spoiler! :

Now you see what I meant before The knights will attack up close with as many as they can without getting in each others way. But if they're further away and have a clear shot at you, magic arrows, magic arrows everywhere. I'm sure one of the earlier groups tried rushing through too, and discovered that the hard way.

Even worse: we know the animation studio takes dramatic license with time slowdowns to show Kirito's adrenaline-rush super-fast-reaction-speed point of view. Like back in the Colosseum fight, or vs The Gleam Eyes. When the action is being shown from close up, that's Kirito's point of view, and he looks like he's either moving normally or in slow motion. But when the screen zooms out, that's the point of view of the bystanders... and he's a barely visible blur of slashy stabby death. That's probably also ruining our ability to judge distances in the anime; we've known he moves fast since like episode 4, but most of the action scenes have been scaled back to match his perception speed.

Asuna is actually very close to his speed, by the way. It hasn't been shown very much because Kirito's the main viewpoint character.

[Lery]

Indeed, Asuna the Flash is sometime too fast to allow him (Kirito) to follow her movement, if I recalled the SAO part correctly...
She's got even more agility/dexterity than him.

But in this second arc, Asuna is more passive.

[Pryun]

How can you possibly be active trapped in a bird cage? she's active enough, sneaking out to steal gm cards and what not.

[Lery]

Yeah, that's logical. It's clearly the choice of the author to put her on the side, this is what I meant

[KiraSkellington]

Wow, when I read the LN's I didn't really care for Sugu but watching the anime made me like her as a character more and now I actually Feel bad for her with everything that happened =[ I dislike Haremish things I prefer it when each girl/guy ends up happy! Excitied to see the ending coming up soon though I will keeping my hopes up for a Second season with Sinon <3 Wooooo

Kirito is a beast btw lol I love that smile he gets while fighting! and all the flash backs of Asuna brought a Tear to my Eye Legit I liked the SAO Arc and won't lie when I say I miss how much more Lovey they are in that then later on but hopefully with the newest LN coming out I will get to more KiritoxAsuna ^ ^

[KiraSkellington]

Wow, when I read the LN's I didn't really care for Sugu but watching the anime made me like her as a character more and now I actually Feel bad for her with everything that happened =[ I dislike Haremish things I prefer it when each girl/guy ends up happy! Excitied to see the ending coming up soon though I will keeping my hopes up for a Second season with Sinon <3 Wooooo

Kirito is a beast btw lol I love that smile he gets while fighting! and all the flash backs of Asuna brought a Tear to my Eye Legit I liked the SAO Arc and won't lie when I say I miss how much more Lovey they are in that then later on but hopefully with the newest LN coming out I will get to more KiritoxAsuna ^ ^