Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. How do we keep getting back here? SAO, like it or hate it, this is a series that definitely has a fanbase. When you have a series with such interesting worlds to explore it’s only natural to have a few spinoff stories. Enter SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online. Yep, with first-person shooters still being a big hit with gamers it was no surprise that there be a spinoff focusing on GGO. What was a surprise, however, was the person who wrote this spinoff, Keiichi Sigsawa. Yes, that Keiichi Sigsawa, the same guy who wrote Kino’s Journey the exact opposite of SAO in everyway. As strange as this was this is probably the only guy who could do the GGO story correctly. He’s actually one of the few Japanese citizens whose held and fired an actual gun and even considers himself to be a gun-maniac. Keiichi started writing the novel in 2014 after getting the okay from Reki. While not a major hit it still received praise and was considered a best-seller. In 2018, Studio 3Hz produced an anime based off the novel. Everyone was pretty excited. 3Hz was on a roll after Princess Principal and some were tired of A-1 Pictures. So how did this do? Let’s lock and load to find out. This is SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Ryuusei” by Eir Aoi. I like this song. There’s a lot of emotion, the build-up is good, and the lyrics definitely match up with theme of the anime. It’s definitely something I could imagine being used as soundtrack to a movie on war.
For the ending we have “To see the future” by Karen Kohiruimaki. It’s a good song. Very relaxing and soothing. Nothing much to say here.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts out in GGO-atrix ( https://youtu.be/WFNEgdwjEhs) where the tournament Squad Jam is about to begin, a team tournament composed of 23 teams with up to 6 players each. We focus on a girl named LLENN (who’s wearing pink. Not the best color to wear when going into a gunfight) voiced by Tomori Kusunoki (Annette from Spy Classroom) and her partner a sniper named M voiced by Kazuyuki Okitsu. They start off in the forest and make their way to an urban area where LLENN comes under rapid fire from machine gun users who just fire at her randomly (1 in a million bullets has to hit her) but by focusing on her they miss the players coming at them from behind and get defeated quite easily due to the players coordinated attacks and positioning (scene here: https://youtu.be/lK65LZWZ2TE?si=mgCNcrdajlMuzlCr). M figures out these players are actually real-life soldiers (testing out real-life strategies in a game. Not a bad idea) which means they have a huge advantage in this game and they continue to go and dominate the competition. As teams fight in the city (scene here: https://youtu.be/2WJQOX7U3iA?si=6WyYP4CeHCwgPeJw) LLENN and M use this chance to sneak into the city and camp out in a residential area where the real-life soldiers come after them. 2 of them stay behind to keep an eye out for other players while the other 4 head out into the field (good strategy). Their scanners show them that LLENN is in the area out in the open but they don’t see her (how do you miss the girl in pink, she should be standing out like a sore thumb or a Star Trek fan at a Star Wars convention) until she finally pops out of a suitcase and begins unloading on them with her mini-machine gun. Thanks to her speed and small figure, she’s hard to hit and keep track of so she easily takes out the 4 soldiers and the other 2 resign from the match (scene here: https://youtu.be/2XhWb1FbSqE?si=JLUwBfJ7RB2o-65z). We end the episode by seeing that the whole match is a video from the last Squad Jam being watched by a couple of girls and we also see that in real life LLENN is a mature woman.
Episode 2 serves as a backstory into LLENN. Her story starts two years after the SAO incident where we see she was a university girl who came to Tokyo from Hokkaido (man, I bet the change in weather was a shock for you). Also, she’s a very tall girl in real life, something she’s very sensitive about (why, I have no idea, she’s still cute in my opinion). She led a boring school life where she joined no clubs, didn’t have many friends because of how sensitive she was about her height, and her parents wouldn’t allow her to work (what the hell, you’re an adult now, do whatever you want). When she came back home for the holiday she became interested in VR games and finally decided to join the VR sensation (how I envy her). The first game she tried was ALO but stopped when she saw that she was a tall woman in the game just like in real life. She tried multiple games until she finally came across GGO where she was a tiny cute girl (her dream come true). After going through the tutorial (scene here: https://youtu.be/TVWvolD_IL4?si=lAU5eJb2Mo2iepQT), LLENN took to the wasteland where she gained a reputation as a PKer and became known as the Pink Demon. Because of her small and nimble figure (along with dual wielding machineguns) nobody could take her out and she always caught everyone by surprise (both with her guns and cuteness). Eventually, she met and befriended another female player named Pito voiced by Yoko Hikasa (Rias from Highschool DxD) who showed LLENN her trademark gun and the two vowed to face other one day where if LLENN won she and Pito would meet offline (scenes here: https://youtu.be/6-3RvABSgSc?si=O95n3h4CCnn7fWJo, https://youtu.be/0-R4FAaKW0s?si=tuBPGzRHSFeaXGdX, and https://youtu.be/PpeKHNwp1eU?si=faz7xfaMD4hO9StV).
Nothing much really happens in episode 3. Pito convinces LLENN to participate in the first Squad Jam since she herself can’t participate because she’s going to a friend’s wedding (selfish friend). At first LLENN is on the fence about it as she’s trying to get tickets to go see her favorite singer Elsa in concert but once she and her friend can’t score tickets she decides to participate in the tournament with a guy named M a sniper who is a close friend of Pito in the game and in real life (scene here: https://youtu.be/mo90Ps79ilQ?si=Zpex6Knb_bmHUMFI). He gets a feel for her skills, talks strategy with her, and even gives her a knife to use in battle (scenes here: https://youtu.be/GDki4BnJV84?si=D-gi_vyEfTTKt4c6 and https://youtu.be/JDETszr5i3c?si=vbNTd0VvkYGb0peh). The day of the tournament arrives and the two are all set to win.
In episode 4 Squad Jam is down to just 3 teams and the team of LLENN and M are in the middle of taking on a team by a lake where they’re at a disadvantage (she’s fast as a rabbit. Let’s see if she can jump like one). M gets his turn to shine in this fight as he takes out the other team with his sniper rifle without using the gun line assist to hit his targets. This results in the gun line not showing making other players totally unaware that they’re being targeted (scene here: https://youtu.be/XMS7ZEq0h3Y?si=lopr5KzBTgiOMdNa, missed opportunity for an airshot). So how did M pull this off you ask? Simple, he’s used guns in real life. Because he has experience with real guns, he doesn’t need to use the gun line to hit his target. With that team eliminated it’s now down to two teams with the second team catching LLENN and M off guard and shooting them both. They manage to survive the gunshots and escape on a hovercraft to the wasteland which is where they’ll make their stand but M decides to go rogue and pulls a gun out on LLENN (scenes here: https://youtu.be/1BqTlRy4LLk?si=VwVD7m5x9NBlUgJY and https://youtu.be/wDr-MTGWI2U?si=NDWuMcxvfMKgr2_K, the fuck man?). LLENN manages to dodge the gunshots and points her gun at M wanting to know what the hell is going on and M begins to break down crying, begging her for mercy (wow, all his coolness gone like that)?
Episodes 5-8
At the start of episode 5 we find out that the reason M turned on LLENN is because of Pito who he says is crazy and said that she would kill him if he didn’t last for over an hour or lost in a pathetic way. He figured that if he took out LLENN and resigned from the game, that would be enough for Pito to spare his life (and resigning isn’t a pathetic way to die how?). LLENN lets M live and decides to go it alone relying on her speed and skills for the final bout. She heads out alone where we see the other team is an all-female group (talk about a female revolution. I’m starting to think I should have signed Isis, Seras, and Yume up for this tournament (Isis): They wouldn’t last an hour). She takes out one of them and then gets shot at with heavy machine guns taking some damage (scene here: https://youtu.be/U3k5LiIfYgU?si=muu7YBqbXv2w30TU). She hides behind a boulder for protection and uses a grenade to cover her escape. Eventually M joins the fight and manages to take out two of them from afar. LLENN takes out another one but gets pinned down and shot at in the chest where she survives thanks to the terminal scan which is an immortal object. LLENN manages to get back up and uses her P90 (which has been talking to her throughout the episode. She finally snapped. Scene here: https://youtu.be/ZeTVAdgiOoc?si=EFk3dnpdzUrl6IE7) to protect herself which results in the gun being destroyed. Infuriated, LLENN rushes her opponent with a knife and manages to bring her down with a slash to the neck (damn, this is awesome). That just leaves the other team’s sniper and M sacrifices himself to give his team the victory as he and the sniper shoot at each other with M taking her down and surviving her shoot (scenes here: https://youtu.be/o0QHXvc1cnQ?si=BcBb1yOUfJGFDbZI and https://youtu.be/o0QHXvc1cnQ?si=BcBb1yOUfJGFDbZI). So LLENN and M are declared the winners of the first Squad Jam. After the credits, we see LLENN in real life where we see she got a haircut (she looks good) and gets approached by 6 high school girls who are short (not small enough to be classified as lolis) who walk past her everyday and tell her how pretty she is and how they wish they were a little taller. They talk for a bit, shake hands, and it gets revealed that those 6 school girls are the girls who LLENN faced in Squad Jam who vow to win next time (that’s great).
Episode 6 starts off with LLENN buying a new P-chan (hopefully this one won’t talk on us. Seriously, that was freaky). We then go to the real world where LLENN is watching the recording of Squad Jam with those 6 high school girls whose names are Saki, Moe, Kana, Risa, Shiori, and Milana (she’s half Russian) who make up their school’s rhythmic gymnastic club (scene here: https://youtu.be/A3PS4vOkJMM?si=lG1duHxr2DV0yKtM). In the past, they didn’t get along with each other so their coach told them to work on teamwork and they chose to play GGO to forget about their real world differences and work together to achieve a goal (and nothing says teamwork like trying to survive in the wasteland together. Scene here: https://youtu.be/eZX1R0h5DbI?si=9OFpYiyYMdgX5qT4). As the episode goes on we find out there’s going to be another Squad Jam (already?) and the rhythmic girls want LLENN to participate in it so they can beat her this time. LLENN really doesn’t feel the need to participate in the tournament but one day she gets approached by M in real life (Isis: Yay, he’s hot) who wants her to participate and kill Pito so that it’ll stop her from committing suicide in real life (scene here: https://youtu.be/iCph6920lPc?si=6xB5Qa6yGNa4_t4J, come again?). It turns out Pito is obsessed with death. We find out that she was actually a beta tester for SAO and became obsessed with the game, but due to real world problems, she missed the chance to play on day one and was spared the tragedy and trauma that was the SAO Incident (from a normal person’s perspective). Pito regretted not being part of the SAO Incident and got even crazier when she found out the game had PKers as she would have liked the idea of joining them or killing them in the name of justice (scene here: https://youtu.be/l8ldnXa1T6M?si=DRWEiYGQbTSfNn1L, okay this girl is crazy). Now Pito is entering Squad Jam 2 (the re-jamming) where she says that if she gets killed she’ll kill herself in real life and M will die too because he’s in love with her and can’t spare to live in a world without her (dude, don’t stick your dick in crazy. It never ends well). That’s why M wants LLENN to participate in Squad Jam 2 (squad vengeance~). He wants her to defeat Pito because the two made a promise that if LLENN beat her in GGO they would meet up in real life (at this point I highly doubt LLENN wants to meet her crazy-ass). LLENN agrees to participate in Squad Jam 2 (we’re gonna need more bullets) to save Pito and M (she’s actually taking all of this really well) and starts forming her team where she calls up her real-life friend Miyu for help and she says yes (Miyu goes berserk in GGO).
In episode 7 Miyu enters GGO where she’s a blonde loli (I do like that her hair clip is a brass knuckle knife. That little detail adds a lot of personality to her character) and receives considerable funds from M (who has earned the nickname sugar daddy. Given what I know about him it might be true. No spoilers now but let’s just say he has a pretty good job) to get her nice equipment. Since she has good stats and strength, she decides to go with something heavy and she finds what she’s looking for in form of twin grenade launchers. New on the market and said to be the strongest launchers in the game (scene here: https://youtu.be/k-3i92kMRm4?si=LqOUyz_V-LsPEuJy). After this nothing really much happens in the episode. LLENN and Miyu practice on their teamwork (scene here: https://youtu.be/h1YbzEkaoc8?si=h1oMDnCrVfpvNbDn) and the episode ends with the day of Squad Jam 2 (bullet day) arriving. We see a few of the teams such as Pito’s team consisting of her, M, and 4 masked players. There’s another team where the leader used to be in a party with Pito but stopped partying with her after seeing how crazy and dangerous she is (scene here: https://youtu.be/STIcpGxkXls?si=qOSCT_Y_6ZyP6lCu).
Episode 8 is all action as Squad Jam 2 (garbage daaaaaaay~) begins. LLENN’s team and Pito’s team gets put on the opposite ends of the map from each other (the admins know what’s up. They know that these two teams are the favorites. Best to let them fight in the end and drive up the views) so LLENN has no choice but to fight her way over to Pito. There first fight doesn’t go well for Miyu as she falls into a booby trap and loses her legs (man, talk about realistic gameplay). She’s still alive but LLENN now has take on the squad herself where she takes them out easily. In their next fight they arrive at a train station where Miyu redeems herself (and her legs grew back. So much for realistic gameplay) by taking the squad down herself. LLENN goes to a rooftop while telling Miyu where to fire her grenade launcher on them (not only does this catch the enemy by surprise but Miyu stays hidden so the enemy has no idea where the attack is coming from and is panicking on what to do next. Good plan). As for Pito’s team, they mostly just camp out in the mountains for the episode until we see that 7 squads have agreed to a ceasefire in order to take out Pito’s team and they’re closing in on her and others.
Episodes 9-12
Episode 9 starts off with establishing that despite being a crazy bitch, Pito has the skills to back up her attitude and personality. She takes out over 20 people from the 7 squads attacking them all by herself using her bare hands and their own weapons against them (Baron: Ohh~ Pito. You made me cum). She even takes out the leaders of each squad using a long-range sniper rifle similar to Sinon’s gun (scene here: https://youtu.be/BUF_jAUqxyc?si=qoRwCrRYIb9Y3KDS, you know looking back, I’m surprise Sinon, Kirito, and the others didn’t join this competition. I’m mean I’m happy as we get to focus on a much more interesting character but still, you’d think they be a little interested in this tournament). While Pito gets off killing guys, LLENN and Miyu also have some fun in the dome where it’s a savannah inside and three squads have teamed up to take them down. Miyu fires pink smoke grenades throughout the area which allows LLENN to sneak up on everyone and take them out (use your knife. Save ammo). While LLENN takes out the players, Miyu comes across a molester and pistol whips him to death (well that’s definitely the funniest death in the tournament so far. Scene here: https://youtu.be/WajQwRg6aaE?si=IGeUP1shoZAdcsKR). LLENN uses up a lot of magazines to take out the other players but comes across another player who uses the same magazines as her and who gives them up in exchange for LLENN pecking her on the cheek (yeah, it’s a perverted girl. (Corbin): What’s her ID#?). The three soon come under attack by another squad who came up from behind because they talked for too long.
In episode 10 LLENN gets saved by the rhythmic girls who hear LLENN’s story about Pito (https://youtu.be/clgfRkyGqrc) and agree to help her take out Pito with a pincer attack. Rhythmic girls will attack from the front taking on M while LLENN and Miyu sneak up from behind to attack. They set their plan in motion where the rhythmic girls have a secret to use against M’s shield, an anti-tank rifle. One of them sacrifices themselves to become an immortal object while the another player uses her as a shield it to destroy M’s shield as well as take out a member of his team (scene here: https://youtu.be/g-58P71Jf8M?si=hRLUS-E0jcNUyKGn). With M putting all his focus into defending his position, Pito is defenseless and LLENN gets ready to attack her but another team beats her to it. This other player is another female player whose team tried to form an alliance with Pito only to fail and get shot in the back even though they agreed to a ceasefire (scene here: https://youtu.be/X2Ngm-0f1YM?si=gTaVEavzJmllFEQ5, that’s low you crazy bitch). Rightfully pissed, the girl sought revenge and got it by sniping Pito from afar (right in the eye) before getting shot by LLENN. Pito somehow barely survived (and no doubt got off on it) and goes hysterical on us before finally passing out (scene here: https://youtu.be/ZXSJWdSPhrM?si=Nbe1397IwZz_dYyx). M’s team retreats into the cabin where another team shows up and raids the place. The members of M’s team go down one by one until only M and Pito are left and cornered in the cabin where Pito gets back up and kills them all with guns and a lightsaber (scene here: https://youtu.be/F4PQ3nDfXv0?si=Uvx4Gq2PZGCSg3qc, I see Kirito’s influence is at work here).
Episode 11 is pretty action-packed. After watching Pito take down 6 players all by herself LLENN starts to gets scared and hesitates to act. This results in the rhythmic girls and Miyu doing a suicide attack and leaving LLENN behind. M takes out the rhythmic girls (man their rivalry just continues to intrigue me) while Pito plays with Miyu. She doesn’t kill her right away but instead shoots off her legs and hands. After seeing all of her friends and allies run headfirst into battle, LLENN just says screw it and charges to kill Pito and her gun begins to talk again (oh boy, she’s gone crazy yet again). Once Pito sees LLENN she ignores Miyu and chases after her in a hummer. LLENN manages to lure Pito and M to a river but the water’s too shallow. Pito manages to shoot LLENN and hesitates to go in for the kill (scene here: https://youtu.be/6cGZhaw1MIw?si=9QG6xv6bMlL8AmbF) which gives Miyu plenty of time to arrive and save LLENN where we get a hummer chase (give them credit, they look like they’re having fun). Both hummers eventually run low of fuel (just like real hummers they’re poor when it comes to gas mileage) so they decide to try and ram each other where LLENN and Pito get thrown from their respective hummers (does nobody wear seatbelts in this game?) and wind up fighting each other. LLENN once again uses her gun as a shield to protect herself from Pito’s dual pistols (man this girl carries more weapons than Snake from MGS. She’s got rifles, shotguns, lightsaber, grenades, dual pistols, and SMGs. She came to kill and win) and manages to knock them away as well as deliver a boot to Pito’s face (scene here: https://youtu.be/Bk9vUCD_6Ho?si=Hb7zHgHwAlTEyfUg).
In the final episode LLENN and Pito go at it with LLENN trying to use her knife to take her out and Pito even tries to use LLENN’s own gun to kill her (too bad the gun has a mind of its own and misfires which temporarily blinds Pito). Pito eventually catches LLENN while M catches Miyu and Pito calls for a gun which she uses to shoot M because she figured out that he was a traitor. Miyu uses this distraction to save LLENN by cutting her arms and LLENN just goes for broke and kills Pito by ripping at her throat with her teeth (damn! For a game about guns this is probably the most insane death in the game. Scene here: https://youtu.be/xqi1dKxXOAs?si=E4w0F7b301ET4qfg&t=387). After LLENN kills Pito, she and Miyu get taken out by the last team T-S who camped out and took advantage of the situation (Isis: I’m surprised they didn’t join in sooner. (Nitsuj): When you see a loli kill someone by ripping out their throat, you wouldn’t be moving either) and declared the winners of Squad Jam 2 (electric boogaloo). After this things wrap up in a pretty good way. LLENN and Miyu get picked up by M who takes them to meet Pito in real life. Along the way, we find out how M met Pito. In the past, M was overweight and led a dull life with little confidence until one day he saw Pito in the streets and instantly fell in love with her. He soon began following her until she finally spoke to him and invited him back to her place where she proceeded to beat the hell out of him (a little bit excessive but I can see why she did that). It turns out Pito knew M was borderline stalking her so she decided to take action the only way she knew how (glad to see she’s always insane). After taking pictures of him in a humiliating state and threatening to go to the police, M became her manservant. On the outside, this was a messed up relationship but for M it was a dream come true (well we now know what the M stands for). They arrive at a concert where LLENN’s favorite singer Elsa is performing. After a song number from Elsa, LLENN finally gets to meet Pito who is. . .Elsa (wow, LLENN’s idol is a pyscopath). They talk for a bit and Pito kisses her as she really likes her (and M has no choice but to sit there and take it. Hell, a part of me thinks he’s getting off. The masochist bastard).
Final Thoughts
So, I’m not sure if this is a controversial take, but this is my favorite story from SAO. Don’t get me wrong, it has a few minor issues, but overall this story was engaging, exciting, intense, and ended on a good note with surprises and twists that are shocking and make sense. LLENN’s a fun character who is just looking to have fun playing a game she enjoys and making friends. Pito is the exact opposite of her. She’s a psychopath, is fully aware of it, and is okay with it. Her character is interesting. Instead of being happy that she missed the SAO Incident she’s infuriated and makes you wonder what would have happened if she was in the game with Kirito and the others. Would she have been an ally or an enemy more dangerous than the floor bosses and PKers combined? We’ll never get an answer to this but it is fun to imagine. The other characters are good as well. I like how the gymnastics team is just a bunch of school girls who develop a rivalry with LLENN and respect her. M and Miyu were fun and their partnership with LLENN was good. Each one gave us something different. With M, LLENN was more of the follower. With Miyu, LLENN was the leader showing how much she’s grown as a player. While M’s strategies were more calculated, LLENN’s teamwork with Miyu is more balanced as both characters rely on close combat.
The animation is similar to the animation from the main SAO series, so give the studio credit for being able to copy another studio’s style. The music was also good. The lean into rock was the right choice. But the real selling point of this series is the gun fights. These fights were great. Each one felt different, unique, and fun to watch. I really don’t know which one was my favorite, I enjoyed all of them. Between LLENN’s fast-paced fighting style and Pito’s psychotic one army take downs I’m sure you’ll find a favorite fight.
Final Score
The final score for SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online is a 7.5/10. Definitely one of the best stories from SAO and I look forward to seeing the highly anticipated second season. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.