Released By: Manga Entertainment
Rating: 12
Running Time: 250 Mins
Audio: English & Japanese: DD 2.0
Release Date: 27/1/2014
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
After Kirito got a new improved sword, he spots an opportunity he can't miss - a ragout rabbit gambling around the forest. Keeping the animal in his infantry, he shows it to Asuna who he finds out is a top class chef. The result is she cooks it for him and she gets half - or else! This is a nice comic interlude before the manga turns much darker later.
It's now two years that Kirito has been fighting his way through the game and gaining in power. He knows Akihiko Kaiba is out there somewhere watching his every move, but no one can tell when he will strike next. In the first episode Asuna's bodyguard Kura points out Kirito is a "shady character but it's him who shows he has a less than honourable nature. He acts sneaky, and points out others flaws without noticing his own first.
While Kirito and Asuna get along well, Kura seems to be always in the background watching and plotting, and this is what establishes him as a less than likeable character. He thinks he is above Asuna, though she is higher in ranking and oversteps the mark often. As a result their ragout rabbit meal is short lived when Kura challenges Kirito to a duel to prove he is truly above him. As Kirito has proved he has great skills, the Knights of the Blood Oath offer him a challenge too, to duel Heathcliff, one of their players, and if he loses he has to join them. This sounds like an innocent duel where the Knights of the Blood Oath want him and Asuna to join them, but there's a darker plot in this that could cause trouble for the two of them they hadn't thought of.
In the first two discs, Kirito and Asuna battle through foes knowing that if they stay alive in the game and go through the big level bosses, they might stay alive in real life. They have had a hard time but they are now the best two players in the game, and judging by the last episode in this second disc's title, "The End of the World," that it's the end of the series. I hate to surprise anyone, but it isn't as there is a twist so dark it stopped me from thinking it could ever be a cute anime about a bunch of gamers who get stuck in the game.
Bonus Material: Episodes 9-11 Web Clips, Episodes 13-14 Web Clips Text less Opening and Text less Closing Animations.
Verdict: Sword Art Online is well worth investing your time in, from plots, humour, and a dangerous twist - it's an anime that deserves your time.
No comments:
Post a Comment