Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well guys August is almost here and like always I like to do an arc to bring the summer to an end and give those going back to school one last summer memory. Last year it was the demon lord arc and the year before that it was the Ikkitousen arc (still an awful anime). This year, it’s the virtual reality arc. Virtual reality is becoming a major focus in the gaming industry these days what with Sony and Microsoft both tossing in their hats into the genre. Now virtual reality is nothing new it’s been teased for years in movies, books, comics, music, and of course anime. Like I said before the idea of being able to enter and interact with a virtual world sounds not only cool but amazing and anime has shown as the good and bad of this idea with their two most well VR animes SAO and Log Horizon and throughout the month of August well be taking a look at the second seasons of these two animes. Let’s start with SAO. Done once again by A-1 Pictures and making its much anticipated return in the summer of 2014 SAO II picks up the story a few months after the first season ending. We get to see all of our favorite characters returning along with a few new characters. Let’s get the VR arc started by taking a look at SAO II.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening for the first half of SAO II is “IGNITE” by Eri Aoi. It’s a good song. It feels you with a rush of adrenaline. The song feels like it’s talking about the past of our characters and how it’s still haunting them but at the same time it’s telling them to keep pushing forward and never give up. This is appropriate considering that the first half of the anime is dealing with the past and our characters trying to move on from it. The ending is “Startear” by Luna Haruna. It’s a beautiful and uplifting song. It’s always nice to hear Luna’s soft voice. This song is clearly focusing on the female lead for the first half of the anime and it does a good job on taking us into her mind and expressing her desire to get stronger.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts off on a good note by introducing us to Gun Gale Online (GGO for short. First swords, than magic, and now guns. Next you’ll be telling me pirates, ninjas, or Arabian thieves are the next VMMORPG) the first online game to feature pro players. What do I mean by pro players, I mean players who are actually paid to play these games (lucky bastards) and to make the game even more interesting you can exchange game points for actual money in the real world (where is this game? I’ll sign up right away and play till my body collapses on me). When one of the top players is being interviewed by an MMORPG forum a mysterious player (donning the infamous Black Mask mask) in a bar watching the interview calling himself Death Gun fires a bullet at the screen and kills the top player not only in the game but in real life as well (scene here: //youtu.be/4HEnQB50158, why does this shit keep happening in virtual reality games?). We then go back to the real world (ahh! Too real and normal, I need the virtual world) where we focus on Kirito and Asuna going on a date in the park around a famous landmark (well this is nice, glad to see those two are still together. I was sure the cousin would have tried to kill Asuna by now or Kirito would have done something stupid). We find out that about a year has passed since the events of SAO (good times) and ALO (meh times) and the two are closed to graduation. Kirito says he plans on becoming a creator, making the virtual worlds feel like real life such as when you hold hands with someone in the game it’ll feel as if you’re holding hands with them in real life (that will revolutionize the world as we know it). Asuna on the other hand just wants to get married to Kirito (she doesn’t say the M-word but it’s obvious that’s what she’s thinking. Smart girl, don’t scare him away). At the end of their date we go back in time 4 hours earlier where Kirito has been called to meet with Kikuoka in a fancy restaurant (look Kikuoka I’m sure Kirito is flattered but he’s with Asuna therefore I think you two should just be friends). Kikuoka tells Kirito about Death Gun along with the two deaths he’s caused so far and he thinks Kirito’s crazy enough to go in after him (well if you want to catch a virtual killer why not send the best virtual player after him). After being promised a huge payment for undertaking the task as well as getting backed up by Kikuoka in the game Kirito agrees to do it (money money yeah yeah).
There’s not that much too say about episode 2. The whole episode is pretty much a showcase for the newest character to the show Sinon a female player (scene here: //youtu.be/T4nQO04sCwQ, oh I like her already) from GGO who is said to be the best sniper in the game (I have an AI girl here who begs to differ. (Isis): 100 shots 100 snipes. Beat that). She’s voiced by the ever popular and VA of a hundred unique characters Miyuki Sawashiro (Saeko from H.O.T.D). In the episode Sinon and her team are out player-hunting (again you think with the whole SAO thing a few years ago they would stop encouraging player killing) where the group they attack has hired a bodyguard who is The Terminator in disguised and has a mini Gatling gun (Isis: Woah, that sounds hot. Put that gun on my Christmas list). During this time we get a good look at how combat is done in this game. For those of you who play a lot of first-person or third-person shooters it’s pretty much like Call of Duty or Battlefield if you got rid of all of their problems, gave the players complete control of the characters, made everything badass, and just made the game fun and enjoyable (in other words, they got rid of EA and Activision and put the game in the hands of people who knew what they were doing and actually cared about the game they were making). During this fight Sinon quickly proves herself to be a badass character sniping one of the players right off the bat, and even taking down the Terminator bodyguard single-handedly with one leg while jumping out of a building (scene here: //youtu.be/PHmEKIzIuCs, well I’m in love). Even when the leader of her squad starts to panic and says they should logout and quit, Sinon tells him to grow a set and that she’ll take care of the Terminator herself (Jesus lady. I’ve only known you for like one episode and already you’re quickly becoming my favorite character in the series. Kirito better do something epic in the next episode or I’m gonna drop him just like I dropped Jason for Tommy in Power Rangers). After defeating the Terminator (hasta la vista. . .bitch) she logs out saying she wants to get stronger (for what reason I have no idea).
We get more character exposition in episode 3 by learning a little more about Sinon. We find out that when she was a child she actually killed a bank robber by herself and she actually did it in a cool way. She bit his hand, grabbed his gun, and in a struggle for it accidently pulled the trigger and shot him (man even back then this girl was cool). While the first shot didn’t kill him she shot him a second and third time with the third shot being a headshot (ftw) and finally killing the guy (scene here: //youtu.be/qf95ps8mFtc). Because of this Sinon became traumatized by the experience so traumatized that whenever she sees or holds a gun in real life she has a panic attack and begins to vomit (okay so nobody checked on her? The mother didn’t talk to her or get her psychological therapy as a child? While it’s cool that she saved everyone it doesn’t change the fact that she’s still a child and killed someone. Talk to her, tell her thank you, tell her that what she did saved a lot of lives. Don’t be like the mother and stare at her like some monster). Even when someone holds out their hand like a pistol she has a panic attack (man, killing that guy messed her up good). So if you’re like me at this point you’re probably wondering why the hell does she play a game that’s completely all about guns (seriously, the game is like gun hentai)? Well it’s because her good friend Kyoji who’s studying to be a doctor recommended the game to her as therapeutic treatment (having someone who has a fear of guns play a game about guns to get over their fears? This actually sounds legit) and once she logged into the game she discovers that she’s fine holding and seeing the guns not being afraid of them whatsoever (and once again video games make a person’s life better). Because of this, Sinon gets it in her head that if she can become strong in the game she’ll become strong in the real world and conquer her fears of guns once and for all (that’s a very odd way of thinking but given what’s happened to her it makes sense that she would think this way). Her plan is to enter the Ballet of Bullets a huge tournament where anyone can enter to see who the best player in the game is and win proving that she’s the strongest. For the remainder of the episode we see things have been arranged for Kirito to log into GGO. He goes to the hospital where we meet Aki a horny nurse who helped Kirito in physical therapy when he got out of SAO (oh I’m sure it was physical alright and non-consent) and we see that things have been setup for Kirito to log into the GGO-atrix (//youtu.be/qjBRNqwDPrU). We end the episode by seeing that Sinon is on Death Gun’s people I gotta kill list and she’s next.
In episode 4 Kirito enters the game where he finds out he’s been turn into a cute trap character (scene here: //youtu.be/IWntGxnBZ70, holy crap I need a camera so I can sell these pictures to Asuna). The good news in all of this is his stats from ALO are transferred over to GGO so he’s still OP and badass (and so a new legacy shall be born). As he’s walking through the smog-filled cyberpunk city (man this place is depressing. Can’t we get some jazz music playing in the background or something?) getting hit on by all the guys (the trap is strong with this one) he runs into Sinon where he convinces her that he’s a girl (Kirito no! Don’t go to the other side! What am I gonna tell Asuna and Yui?) and they quickly become friends. Sinon takes him to a gunshop where we see he doesn’t have enough money to buy a decent weapon so he participates in a gambling game called untouchable where the goal of the game is to reach the talking puppet cowboy (who speaks perfect English) before he shoots you (it’s a lot harder than it sounds). So far no one has been able to do it but if you do it you win the pot which is over 300,000 credits (man over 300,000 people tried this game and failed. Alright make way for the badass character to make you all look like amateurs). Kirito takes on this challenge and reaches the cowboy winning the pot (scene here: //youtu.be/iVkQbrJD8vk, and that my friends was just a taste of Kiritown’d). With enough money Kirito and Sinon go back gun shopping where we learn a little more about the guns in this game. We have two types of guns (actually we have multiple types of guns. Handguns, shotguns, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, bazookas, the list goes on. But I’m not from Texas so I’ll just leave it at that) energy and physical. Energy is the magic in this world that has good accuracy and light to carry while physical is more on the heavy side and does more damage (hey Isis, out of curiosity which type would you choose? (Isis): Energy as the main weapon and physical as secondary weapon. Light, accurate, and easier to move around with). Kirito decides to go with an energy sword aka lightsaber as his main weapon (we have swords in this game? And it’s a lightsaber instead of a gunblade? What the hell? Actually in all fairness that lightsaber is cool it even does the humming sound of the original lightsaber. Plus it’s purple, and purple is only reserved for the BAMFs. Scene here: //youtu.be/4wNMqznQHFE). He then buys a physical handgun as his secondary weapon and does a quick shooting practice where in this game accuracy is determined by how calm you are (basically like real life. The calmer you are the better you’ll be at something). After shopping the two decide to go to the government office to register for BoB and they have to hurry because they only have 10 minutes to sign up for it so Kirito grabs Sinon and hops on a dune buggy where they hit the highway (watch out for that 3 o’clock traffic) and head to the government office.
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5 Kirito and Sinon make it in time to register for BoB and both are put in Block F. They go to get change where Kirito finally introduces himself (Kirito. Badass Kirito) and tells Sinon that he’s a guy and she just stripped right in front of him (smack him. Scene here: //youtu.be/IQ4sgzFuW-c, nice ass Sinon). After that she’s upset about the lie (you never asked if he was a guy you just assumed he was a girl so you’re just as guilty lady) but still helps him out a little and vows to defeat him in the tournament (10 get away with peeping tickets say Kirito wins. (Shizuku): Oh, you are so on). The rules are quite simple, it’s a one-on-one match where both players are placed in a random field at a random time of day (the field they fight on could be in the morning, afternoon, or nighttime) and the winner is the person who brings their opponent’s life bar to zero (your basic tournament/children card game rules). Win 5 matches and you’re in the finals (Isis: Sounds fun). Kirito’s first match begins where at first he struggles a bit but after calming down and analyzing the situation he’s able to empty his mind (and use the force) to deflect the bullets of his opponent and get within striking range to pierce his opponent’s chest and win the match (scene here: //youtu.be/sRt_ORCnxlU, so good to see some action). After the match Kirito is transported back to the waiting room where Death Gun is waiting for him (uh guys there’s a killer in the room. Either run or tackle the bastard I know I can’t be the only one seeing him). The episode ends with a big shocker because we find out that Death Gun is not only a survivor of SAO but he was a member of Laughing Coffin (damn it, these guys again. Didn’t you satisfy your thirst for death in SAO?).
At the start of episode 6 we see that Kirito plays it off that he doesn’t know what Death Gun is talking about and he believes him (for now) but Death Gun warns him that he’s gonna kill him no matter what (could be today, could be tomorrow, or it could be when you’re making sweet love to Asuna). After that he takes his leave and Kirito begins to freak out because we see a flashback where during SAO he and a band of other players led a charge into Laughing Coffin’s hideout to fight them and Kirito wound up killing 2 players which really traumatized him a bit (and I really don’t blame him for being traumatized that shit would scare anybody). To make this situation even more real we actually see Kirito’s face and the fear in his eyes. Hell, even when Sinon comes to check on him he doesn’t say a single word he just holds her hand, he is that traumatized and scared. But the hand holding gets cut short when Kirito is transported to his next match where he enters what I like to call the Focus, it’s when you go into a state of mind where your only thinking about one thing and trying to accomplish it. This happens quite often in video games where you’re fighting a boss that you keep losing to a number of times so chances are you’ve probably slipped into this mode at least once in your life. During this time your senses are heighten and your mind becomes clear. With Kirito in Focus mode he easily makes it to the final round where he takes on Sinon, where in a move of badassery he steps out into the opening still in Focus mode and has Sinon so freaked out by this move and confidence that she can’t even hit him (holy shit Kirito’s Focus mode is so high that Sinon can sense it). She literally misses 6 shots. Kirito tones it down a little bit and decides he wants to settle it duel-style where they’ll start 10 meters away from each other and ready their main weapons to hit each other (or in Kirito’s case he’ll just run up and stab her winning the match). They start at 10 meters, Kirito tosses up a bullet to signal their start, Sinon takes a shot at Kirito where he slices the bullet in half (in hindsight she should have saw this coming), and uses his charm to make Sinon retire from the match (Kirito don’t forget you have a very dangerous girlfriend) thus winning the match and moving on to the main tournament along with Sinon who also won 5 matches so this match can just be considered fanservice (scene here: //youtu.be/4ahlcH6GZAc).
Episode 7 takes us out of GGO and back into the real world where we unfortunately get a filler episode. We see that Kirito is still haunted by the 3 people he killed in SAO (dude, they were killers who were trying to kill you and someone you hold dear. You may be a badass but you’re no Batman). He talks to the hot nurse about his problems and thanks to her Kirito is able to move pass his problem and carry on. Back on Sinon’s side of the story she’s still pissed about losing to Kirito and vows to win in the tournament against him. Kyoji confesses his feelings to Sinon (he wants to play doctor and patient with her if you know what I mean, //youtu.be/rv9qs5WVHS8?t=31s) but she says he’ll have to wait for her until she becomes stronger (translation: she likes Kirito and wants to just be friends).
It’s tournament time in episode 8 as BoB begins and everyone is placing bets on who they think will win (scene here: //youtu.be/cAyaNDHBa7M, will you stop doing that). We really don’t see much other than some good gun fights that put CoD and Battlefield to shame. In the main tournament 30 players are placed on a large field which is 10 km diameters (that’s pretty big) at random 1,000 meters away from each other. Last one standing wins the whole thing. Now, I have to admit these guys do it big they got polls, bets, live streams so other VRMMORPGs games can watch the tournament, and they open it up with a big firework display that lights up the whole city (man these guys know how to host a tournament. I hope MMORPG creators are watching this show because you need to be doing what these guys are doing). In the field Kirito follows a player called Pale Rider who he believes is Death Gun in disguise. He meets up with Sinon and sees Pale Rider fight another player where he’s shows off his acrobatic skills and grace on the field (like water). Pale Rider defeats the player but gets shot in the arm by a sniper rifle which paralyzes him (ha! The bastard can dance all over the field but a good sniper got him right in the ass). The sniper is Death Gun who approaches Pale Rider and is about to kill him to end the episode (take the shot Sinon. Shoot this Black Mask wannabe motherfucker).
Episodes 9-12
Sinon takes the shot in episode 9 but Death Gun dodges it (shoot him again) and escapes. Kirito tells Sinon all about Death Gun and how he’s killed two people in real life (now three people) and that he has to be stopped. Sinon decides to team up with Kirito to take down Death Gun but before they do that they have to take down some poor bastard who tries to kill Kirito in the game (scene here: //youtu.be/AuxMmkD6zuM). Since Death Gun isn’t using his real name the two believe that he’s fighting under the name Gunner X who is camping out somewhere in the abandoned city. They find where Gunner X is hiding in the city and Kirito goes to face him with Sinon watching his back from a distance. But as soon as Kirito leaves Sinon gets hit by a paralyzing dart and Death Gun appears before her ready to kill her (scene here: //youtu.be/u0Jm6JKThuw, don’t you dare kill Sinon she is way to valuable of a character to die here). While watching the tournament Klein recognizes the voice of Death Gun and tells the others that he was a high ranking member of Laughing Coffin. Asuna logs out to go meet with Kirito’s employer in the hopes of getting information and she sends Yui to find information about GGO.
Picking up where episode 9 left off, episode 10 opens up with Death Gun about to bust a cap in Sinon’s fine ass (which the animators seem to enjoy focusing on) but Kirito comes in to save her using a borrowed gun and a smoke grenade. He grabs Sinon and rides a dune buggy to escape but Death Gun is right behind them riding a mechanical horse (which is faster than the dune buggy. Suck it logic). Kirito tells Sinon to take a shot at the horse but she’s too scared to shoot because the gun Death Gun uses to kill people is the same gun she used to kill that thief when she was younger (small world). Afraid to shoot and with Death Gun gaining on them (talk about death knocking at your doorstep) Kirito turns around and helps Sinon take a shot at a tank which explodes and takes out the horse but Death Gun escapes (scene here: //youtu.be/ODb1EYpR37o). The two leave the city and go into the dessert where they decide to hide and rest in a cave where emotions build up, Sinon says she hates Kirito but rests her head on his lap (if you feel anything poking you don’t worry about it), and they finally tell each other that they killed someone in the past (Kirito’s got her beat than he’s killed 3 people). Kirito also tells her that he’s an SAO survivor and that Death Gun is a member of Laughing Coffin who Kirito wants to settle the score with once and for all.
In the opening moments of episode 11 Sinon ask Kirito how he moved on from those horrible memories of killing people to become so strong (denial, playing video games, and sleeping with Asuna). No, I’m kidding, he tells her he hasn’t overcome that fear and will remain with him for the rest of his life but he says it’s necessary as his atonement for taking the life of another human being. As the two are camping out in the cave with Sinon still resting in Kirito’s lap and Kirito noticing Sinon’s fine ass (scene here: //youtu.be/NCrCj09psTM, seriously, it’s like the animators are obsessed with this girl’s ass. It’s nice I admit but it doesn’t need focused on all that much. We should probably change the title to Sweet Ass Online) they figure out that there are really two Death Guns. The first one is the one playing the game and shooting people while the second is another human in the real world who somehow broke into the apartment of players and injects them with some medicine that causes their heart rate to go up that they die thus giving everyone the illusion that Death Gun has the power to kill people in the game (that sneaky son of a bitch). They time it up with each other perfectly so that it looks like Death Gun is actually killing people in the real world. After figuring all of this out Kirito quickly realizes that the second Death Gun is in Sinon’s apartment as they speak and is waiting to kill her (//youtu.be/6nSKkwzwdW4?t=3s). Sinon starts to panic (as well she should be there’s a killer staring right at your body waiting to kill you. I be shitting my pants having a panic attack). Kirito manages to calm her down and they work out a plan where Kirito will be the bait and draw out Death Gun while Sinon gets at a safe distance and shoots him from afar (uh we tried this plan two episodes ago and it failed what makes you think it’s gonna work this time?). While that’s going Asuna the others meet with Kikuoka inside ALO where he tells them what’s going on and Asuna logs out rushing to the hospital to go look over Kirito’s body thinking he might be in danger (in danger of being raped by the nurse).
In episode 12 the two finally meet. Kirito and Death Gun finally face off against each other in the dessert where it seems that Death Gun has the advantage as he has this special estoc sword with the strongest metal in the game and seems to be pushing Kirito back in the fight (come on Kirito. So this Black Mask looking motherfucker how it’s done). As for Sinon’s awesomeness in this anime, she takes out a high class player called Dark Wind with a shot to the heart (heart shot ftw) and helps out at the beginning of Kirito’s fight against Death Gun by taking out his sniper rifle allowing Kirito to get within CQC distance of him.
Episodes 13-14
The fight continues in episode 13 with Kirito finally remembering Death Gun’s real name, Red-eye Zaza (yeah I agree Death Gun sounds cooler). The two keep fighting in the dessert with Death Gun on the attack tearing up Kirito but Sinon gives Kirito the opening he needs to pull out his handgun (oh yeah that’s right he has a hand gun as a secondary weapon. What the hell took you so long to pull it out?). As Death Gun dons his invisible cloak to hide from Sinon’s shot Kirito uses his hand gun to shoot Death Gun in the shoulder, disabling the invisible cloak, and cutting that bastard in two like Darth Maul from Star Wars (let’s just pray he doesn’t come back half machine. He would look ridiculous. Scene here: //youtu.be/h5ICnGEWfOk). With Death Gun defeated BoB comes down to Kirito and Sinon (swordsman vs sniper) where Sinon gives Kirito her personal information (oh she wants to celebrate your victory in private) and he tells her his real name. She then takes out a grenade, throws it in Kirito’s arm, hugs him and they both die thus making them both the winner (scene here: //youtu.be/FEzGU5pA7ao). Sinon logs out of GGO and investigates her apartment to make sure Death Gun’s associate isn’t there. After seeing that her place is safe Kyoji drops by to congratulate her on her victory and confesses once again that he loves her only this time he does it in a very uncomfortable creepy way (look kid if the embarrass confession didn’t work than it’s guaranteed the uncomfortable creepy confession won’t work either). It gets revealed that he’s not only Death Gun’s partner in the real world but actually Death Gun’s younger brother who has been obsessed with Sinon ever since he found out she killed someone in the real world (it turns him on apparently) and sees life as a dull place filled with stupid people that annoy him (you and Adachi from Persona 4 should get together I think you two would get along). The only thing he really cared about was GGO and Sinon and decides that if Sinon won’t be with him in the real world that’ll be together in the afterlife (oh no you don’t we’re not letting this character go yet). Sinon finds the strength to fight back and knocks Kyoji off her. She tries to escape but Kyoji drags her back and is about to rape her (I’mma rape ya bitch) but she gets saved by Kirito who gives the creepy pervert a knee to the face and starts beating him up to end the episode.
Episode 14 picks up where episode 13 left off. Kirito gives the bastard a knee to the face and proceeds to lay the smackdown on his candy ass until Kyoji turns the tables and injects Kirito with the syringe only to get knocked out by Sinon using her stereo (okay that’s like a Smash Bros. move right there). Sinon checks on the condition of Kirito whose okay apparently. The injection got stopped by an electrode that was still stuck on Kirito (well that was convenient). She then goes to check on the condition of the unconscious Kyoji (if he’s still breathing hit him again) whose still alive (hit him again). After this everything seems to be resolved Kyoji and his brother are arrested however their third accomplice escaped and is on the run. Sinon is able to stand up to her bullies as well as her fear of guns and thanks to Kirito, Liz, and Asuna (who Kirito failed to tell Sinon that she’s his girlfriend) she meets one of the workers who was there at the bank the day the robber came in. She thanks Sinon for what she did saying that she not only saved her life but also the life of her daughter who she was pregnant with at the time (where were you 10 years ago? Seriously this is something she should have been told a long time ago). With this Sinon is finally able put her past to rest and begin living her life once again.
And that was the first half of SAO II. Let’s stop here for today pick up the second half next week in August where VR arc can officially begin. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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