Sword Art Online’s fifth episode has received the usual pre-airing preview clip – and finally, it seems that a character aside from the protagonist will be making a repeat appearance, the long lost heroine.
Available on the official site, this PV seems to show the next episode as one with a jump into a new tier of plot. The facet of the heroine showing her face is alone enough to aide one in realizing that indeed, this will be a more serious episode as it’s less likely to simply be an expendable side-story if it’s needing to resurrect characters – yet in either case, other elements also aide in indicating the tenser mood not to be taken lightly, such as the dark room, intense debating, and facial close-ups.
One will also notice the PV show several hints towards the inclusion of the typical romance elements – the heroine growing closer to the protagonist, occasionally setting aside her tsundere expression of anger to simply accept her fate as the generic female lead who will mate with the relevant male.
In addition to all those more predictable necessities, the PV also has several outright peculiarities which ignite interest – such as the knight pinned to a castle wall, and of course, our protagonist’s interactions with the recurring male character he met during the same episode as the heroine.
No matter, regardless of what the PV shows, it merely gives an idea of who to expect to see within at best – the episode itself will, as always, likely prove quite a captivating and emotional affair.
Aug 1, 2012 @ 10:01 CDT
Saw the PV. Finally! They’re finally including extra material not in the LN (actually, it was only mentioned in passing). At last they’re trying to bridge the gaps between episodes. The narrative has been getting kinda lost in these past few episodes cuz of all the side stories. What I mean by that is you can’t see the connection between episode 2 and episode 3, as well as the connection between episode 3 and episode 4. At least now they’re trying to connect episode 4 with episode 5 (when Kirito talked about going back to the front lines in episode 4, we now get to see some of that judging from the PV).
Aug 2, 2012 @ 12:25 CDT
Er… just fyi, this IS a side story from Vol.8 of the LN. So… yea.
And this really isn’t any “bridging of gaps” because as far as the anime has concerned, each new episode’s event happens chronologically after the previous. That being said though this side story tells of some extremely important plot elements so it’s not as filler-ish as episode 4.
Aug 2, 2012 @ 23:15 CDT
Anon pwned Anon.
Aug 1, 2012 @ 16:18 CDT
Wish she stay lost so Kirito could get naughty with Silica but that’s what doujins are for.
Aug 1, 2012 @ 16:45 CDT
She has to stick with her bird instead.
Aug 2, 2012 @ 3:00 CDT
Wow Asuna sure looks cold….i guess it must be part of her character development. I hope to see a strong Asuna not your stereotypical anime girl who’s swooning over the main lead and stuff. Perhaps she doesn’t recognise Kirito…who knows…will just have to wait and see
Aug 2, 2012 @ 23:14 CDT
“I hope to see a strong Asuna not your stereotypical anime girl who’s swooning over the main lead and stuff.”
Fat chance.
Aug 2, 2012 @ 4:07 CDT
Judging by the impaled guy, seems more PK’ing is occuring…or monsters.
Looking forward to ep. 5 :)