Sword Art Online’s sixth episode has received the ritual pre-release preview clip – and it appears, as anyone could have foreseen, the chapter is simply a continuation of the lackluster murder mystery introduced prior.
Available below, the PV is merely a promise of disappointment. The clip provides a sampling of the series’ sixth episode – which will either make it the half-way, or perhaps quarter mark of the anime depending on how many rounds total this series will have, and absolutely nothing of value has occurred as of yet beyond the very first episode in which all the basics of Sword Art Online were established.
The main plot is not benefiting from worthless side-stories as this – and that’s particularly as there seemingly is no main plot as of yet, assuming there ever is to be one at all. As result, the episodes hardly captivate – and there isn’t anything inspiring one to be eager for the subsequent installment. Indeed, Sword Art Online is essentially the second coming of Accel World – only with an entirely undeveloped protagonist instead of a whiny pig one.
Now despite the waste of six full episodes, the series may still be able to prove somewhat interesting if it ever shifts its focus to something called “rising action”, a narrative element of the ever-rare “plot” – although even then, those six episodes are not coming back.
For whomever may actually still be engaged by this series, the episode debuts a few days from now – as usual.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 9:24 CDT
You sound like you’d already given up on this series, 7.
I admit it has been boring me lately, but not to the point that the mere act of listening to the dialogues is torturous, as with the case of Accel World.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 9:30 CDT
I’m neutral – I don’t care if it succeeds or fails. Either way however, six episodes is a significant span – and even if the series improves, it would still be marked down for that on an overall scale.
The current showing is not impressive – and there is nothing to indicate the remainder will be. Not to say it won’t manage, although it certainly doesn’t look promising.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 9:56 CDT
Aye, it’s pretty shitty so far – no argument there. Much like 95% of summer anime this year.
But it hasn’t sunk to the embarrassing depths of Accel World yet, because it panders less to the niche audience, and the premise holds unrealized potential.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 14:28 CDT
Accel World aside, I just hope it doesn’t go Guilty Crown.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 15:11 CDT
Well so far the whole cast haven’t made me hate them, the dialogues haven’t hurt my ears, the protagonist hasn’t whined every moment on-screen and the lead heroine has been shown to possess a variety of emotions. And this series is an adaption from a famed LN so there should at least be some good plot. So however boring SAO has been up til now I don’t think I would have to worry about this series becoming as bad as Guilty Crown anytime soon.
Accel World, however, is a different story. AW following GC is a wreck upon a wreck. Total trainwreck, that is.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 10:07 CDT
If the rumors are true that the author is working with the studio on the project, I gotta ask whose bright idea it was to broadcast this series in chronological order. Because, including Accel World, that’s more or less 2 missteps for this author and I’m starting to think that he might be getting more praise for his work than he deserves. I’m helpfully titling it the George Lucas Effect. He created the intial work, which was brilliant albeit derivative. He then tries to recreate his success and also contribute into other works, and they’ve all come out kind of sucky. The George Lucas Effect.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 13:08 CDT
Actually the George Lucas Effect is more about a brilliant visionary who sucks as a director — the only reason the first two films (Star Wars & Empire Strikes Back) were brilliant is because Lucas had a producer who told him no on certain excesses. The producer left before Return of the Jedi and Lucas lost all sense of proportion.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 15:50 CDT
lol very true. We don’t know how much creative control Reki has over SAO, but i’m just guessing here that since it follows his original work pretty faithfully, i’m guessing he has quite a bit of pull in terms of direction.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 18:01 CDT
Sometimes in anime you just want them to proceed with the plot and snuffle out the fanservice but recently they’ve started including it in many anime…which is kinda annoying…if you see some of the masterpieces..there was little to some mild fanservice only because that kinda gets on your nerve and makes you think as to why include it in a complex and deep plot…we already have enough ecchi to please ourselves. What i’m referring to here are the annoying camera angles in the previous episode. Now coming to the storytelling.. i understand they are trying to follow a chronological order but it would be better to get on with the main plot and include the side stories in between…that way there would be room for character development and side stories can act as a tie-in explaining the various features of SAO and stuff.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 18:58 CDT
probably it’s just me getting more and more stupid over time, but…
1) why is everyone comparing SAO to guilty crown?
2) “I just hope it doesn’t go Guilty Crown”…what does this mean? what the hell happend in GC, being to horrible that it may happen in SAO too? will kirito lose his mind after his lover (asuna) dies? will his right arm be cut off by his ex-friend/rival (klein)?
I just dont understand all this hate on GC….
(none of the above will happen)….
btw…I read the LN, and I personally like the way they did the anime (apart from the animation/drawing style), but that’s just probably me…
all I can say is that they are going too fast, they are putting too much things into 1 single episode…they cut half of aria in the starless night……so to someone who hasnt read the LN it will be like : why he’s doing that? why this happened?….
and….it’s logical to go in chronological order, because the real plot will last max 4-5 episodes and ofc they cant just jump back in time….
but still, after all, this is probably just me….
……rejoice, the second season will just be plot and no side stories….
Aug 8, 2012 @ 19:03 CDT
If the real plot is 4-5 episodes, they shouldn’t have made the anime any longer than that to begin with – it should have been an OVA series.
If you want to know whats wrong with Guilty Crown, go read Guilty Crown reviews.
On another note, you forgot to say anything about how the side-stories are irrelevant to any main story and fail to be entertaining in themselves since they don’t develop upon anything.
Aug 8, 2012 @ 19:51 CDT
Anyone asking “what’s wrong with Guilty Crown” is either a troll or a super-troll in disguise. :)
Aug 8, 2012 @ 19:52 CDT
I should have that pinned above the comments section of every article.
Aug 9, 2012 @ 12:15 CDT
Also, No one who hasn’t read the LN and seen Aria are asking “why he’s doing that? why this happened?” It was perfectly fine. Even Seven thought it was perfectly fine. You’re just whining that Aria was cut in half. An LN whiner
Aug 9, 2012 @ 12:22 CDT
The worst type of whiner.
Aug 9, 2012 @ 18:15 CDT
why kirito approached asuna?
why was asuna isolatin herself from others, but then approached kirito?
they barely talked to each other, no character development, but still later they talk like old friends… answer these first, becuase the answer is in the other half of aria that they cut…
“You’re just whining that Aria was cut in half” : I dont see anything bad about it, I like SAO, so I hoped they didnt cut aria, simple, if you like somethin you will hope for the adaption to be amazing too, I think everyone is like this about a show they like
about guilty crown, I watched it and it was fine, they screwed in the secon part, but it was still fine, I mean, after watching it I was like : “ok, so now?”
I dont see anything bad about it, it was just an average show over hyped, so I dont understand all this hate….
aaaand, no one told me the connection between SAO and GC, that’s why I still dont understand this : quote : “I just hope it doesn’t go Guilty Crown”…
(I dont check the comments every hour so my post are always extra long – apologies :D)
Aug 9, 2012 @ 18:35 CDT
the editing time expired when I was editing so this is what I wanted to add :
yeah I almost forgot…. what’s the problem with the episodes so far? because it’s side stories and the “real plot” is short and has yet to come?
I would agree if these were a beach-swimsuit/bikini-pool episode, where absolutely nothing important happens, but these are one episode plot to introduce characters :
episode 1: introduces kirito and klein
episode 2: introduces asuna
episode 3: shows why kirito doesnt want to joing a guild (it’s difficult to understand from the anime but he doesnt want the responsability for other people’s life)
episode 4: introduces silica
episode 5-6: character development (kirito – asuna),better understanding of the SAO system and introduces the red guild (they cut the KoB leader)
why people have problems with this and are fine with stuff like K-ON…….quote from myself : “probably it’s just me getting more and more stupid over time, but…”
Aug 9, 2012 @ 18:38 CDT
““probably it’s just me getting more and more stupid over time, but…”
It probably is if you think it takes six episodes to achieve this little. Not to mention, there’s a variety of other problems which already go mentioned:
http://seventhstyle.com/2012/08/04/sword-art-online-well-at-least-it-has-moe/
Aug 9, 2012 @ 18:37 CDT
“why kirito approached asuna?
why was asuna isolatin herself from others, but then approached kirito?
they barely talked to each other, no character development, but still later they talk like old friends… answer these first, becuase the answer is in the other half of aria that they cut…”
That has nothing to do with the irrelevant side-stories which you’re ignoring. You’re the only one talking about “Aria” here.
“about guilty crown, I watched it and it was fine, they screwed in the secon part, but it was still fine, I mean, after watching it I was like : “ok, so now?”
I dont see anything bad about it, it was just an average show over hyped, so I dont understand all this hate….
aaaand, no one told me the connection between SAO and GC, that’s why I still dont understand this : quote : “I just hope it doesn’t go Guilty Crown”…”
I already told you if you want to know what’s wrong with Guilty Crown, go read Guilty Crown reviews.
Aug 10, 2012 @ 7:11 CDT
if the side-stories are irrelevant,then they should cut them out, which will leave only the main plot. The main plot is made from the first volume, while se side-stories are from the volume 2.
if you leave only the plot it will be like :
first episode they are on the floor 70+, no mention about the levels and stats, so you dont actually know how stong are the characters, they are just the strongest, kirito will show his skill on the 2-3 episode…..a survivor of a supposedly dead red guild appears….wtf? a red guild? they are suppesed to be dead? how? when?……no answers, you just now that it happened…
if they cut these side-stories, the events of the real plot will happen, without a why, and the explanation would be briefly given later……these are the typical situation where a event is forced and the reason of the event is just an excuse for it to happen……do you know fate zero? remember the first episode? 40 min of pure explanation, settings and back-stories? the situation must adapt to the rules, not the opposite…this is the same,a lot of back-story, but a lot longer….oh yeah, the holes in the plot, the jump : floor 1 -> floor 50+ is because there is no material about what happened in the middle…but anyway, these episodes would be irrelevant if they were about the characters going for a swim and a lot of swimsuit fan-service, and these type of epsode have in common that they give no new informations or references, they can be put anywhere in the timeline of the story….so far these episodes of SAO are one episode plot, one plot episodes, I have no idea of how to say this in english, but it’s a mini-story that starts with a episodes, and reaches a conclusion within the same episode, a side-story, and every time so far something new was introduced, character, guilds, orange guilds, duels system, area effect…so when the real plot starts, try to watch it pretending that you never watched these side-stories episodes, and see how much you can understand….side-stories : no plot, just a better explanation of the setting
Aug 10, 2012 @ 7:18 CDT
How would they start on floor 70+ in the first episode? Given that an episode of a television series is approximately 20 minutes minus the OP and ED?
“this is the same,a lot of back-story, but a lot longer….”
Fate/Zero introduced a wealth of information about a whole package of characters within its 40 minute first episode – Sword Art Online has had five episodes so far, and the most we know is the protagonist’s name, and that he has an imouto.
“so when the real plot starts, try to watch it pretending that you never watched these side-stories episodes, and see how much you can understand”
If the real plot ultimately depends on these poorly presented side-stories, that means it’s a terribly put together anime to begin with.
Aug 10, 2012 @ 15:07 CDT
I suppose you never read the novel, but if you compare the first volume to the later volumes,objectively speaking you can see that the first one is written really bad (at leat in my opinion).
he jumps from an event to another one, putting in the middle only a “later…” or “few day later…”, as I said just a list of events. despite all, for some reason, I really liked that, sam for all the people that read it.
the biggest problem is that the first volume is everything, literally. the SAO arc ‘plot’ is only on the first volume, the second volume are the side-stories that we are seeing now, volume 3-4 is ALO (anime season 2, only plot), etc.
so the plot of the SAO arc is only on the first volume, the first chapter has kirito soloing a dungeon on floor 70+, and…….I’m trying my best to not spoil, but it’s getting difficult. so yeah, if they were to animate only the plot : first episode is the floor 70+.
so probably that’s why I think that the anime is still good, because I read the novel and I know it, for people that never read the novel, usually most of the people, they are presenting everything you should know to understand the story, in a side-story format, because in the novel it was like this too (volume 1-plot, a lot of things happened, volume 2-side stories, character development). the imouto wasnt even mentioned in the first volume(I think),and in the anime she will appear only in the second season, and this is because in the SAO arc of the novel, the first volume, no information about the real life of kirito was given, nothing, only at the end his real name was given, that’s becuase, if you havent noticed, while everyone treat SAO as a death game like it is, kirito think of it as a new reality, a second life, so there was no need to give information about his real life, because his “real life” is inside SAO, so every information that exist is only game based.
Aug 10, 2012 @ 18:22 CDT
In case you haven’t noticed, five episodes have transpired and nothing of value was learned.
“kirito think of it as a new reality, a second life, so there was no need to give information about his real life, because his “real life” is inside SAO, so every information that exist is only game based”
Too bad that was introduced in episode one, and they’re not giving any more information.
From the way you explain it, it sounds like this series doesn’t even deserve an animation.
Aug 11, 2012 @ 6:51 CDT
“In case you haven’t noticed, five episodes have transpired and nothing of value was learned.”
Oh well, I think I said enough so far, I have nothing else to say because it would be a repetition of the earlier posts, so read them again :D
“Too bad that was introduced in episode one, and they’re not giving any more information.”
as I said, there wont be any information about reality until the second season, so for now nothing, no name, no age, no address, no family, no occupation, etc. it like asking about a pg in a MMORPG, you can only know his character name, his class and maybe his equip and stats, and ofc these arent of value for an anime character. if you want to know the person behind the pg you have to log out and meet him IRL, but as in SAO it’s not possible…..
“From the way you explain it, it sounds like this series doesn’t even deserve an animation.”
as I said (again), objectively speaking the first volume has a bad writing style, but still many people like it and it got popular, so the good points exceeds the bads. but I’m talking about the first volume, because the laters are much better (still IMO), and this is true for every light novel or manga, if you compare the first to the last, the last would always be better…
as you are someone who has only watched the anime, I can understand your points, but as I like the SAO series, I feel like I have to defend it :)
so now I can only advise you to go and read the novel, just google it, hoping that you will like it ^^
Aug 11, 2012 @ 8:27 CDT
So basically, you were debating for no valid reason – and you knew the anime is horrible from the beginning.
Aug 11, 2012 @ 9:20 CDT
ok now, first, for no reason, then what were you debating for? simple, saying that the anime is horrible, what I was debating for? saying that the anime isnt horrible, if I was debating for no reason then you were doing the same
and second, read my post, where did I EVER said that the anime is horrible? I was trying to be honest and objective, saying what is good, and what is bad, trying to look it from your prospective too. I never said that SAO is a master piece and perfect, I’m saying that it has it’s good point and bad, but you keep on saying the same thing in every reply post. I tried to be rational, but you ALWAYS says that there was nothing going on in the episodes, I gave you an answer, a reason, a why, and in the next post you are saying again the same thing again….
“I can understand your points” means that I can understand that you cant appreciate the anime as you never read the original…
there will be never a perfect anime, there will be ALWAYS good points and bad points, and keeping watching the anime despite all, being able to recognize the good stuff and the bads, is called appreciate
looks like I was wrong, I was beeing too optimistic, a hater is a hater after all, you cant hope to reason with it
Aug 11, 2012 @ 9:26 CDT
So you’re saying no one will appreciate this anime unless they read the light novel?
You said you understand that the problems of the anime, in which case, the anime is no good – no one should have to read a novel to understand an anime. I’m saying the same thing in every reply because you don’t seem to comprehend it no matter how much it is said.
On another note, other details were already pointed out to you, and you likely didn’t read them cause the article was too long and scary for you – not to mention, you were too busy calling yourself stupid.
“It probably is if you think it takes six episodes to achieve this little. Not to mention, there’s a variety of other problems which already go mentioned:
http://seventhstyle.com/2012/08/04/sword-art-online-well-at-least-it-has-moe/“
Aug 11, 2012 @ 9:59 CDT
did my post got deleted? oh well, I post it again :P
“the article was too long and scary for you”
“scary for you”
“scary”
facepalm, double facepalm, and yare yare
… but still I lolled 3 times reading that, so lol lol lol
“not to mention, you were too busy calling yourself stupid.”
it’s called :”I dont want to be arrogant, I’m trying to be modest, so say that I’m wrong in the first place, and then let the other reply to you, dont say thing that can enrage the other party”
“So you’re saying no one will appreciate this anime unless they read the light novel?”
my reply :
“there will be never a perfect anime, there will be ALWAYS good points and bad points, and keeping watching the anime despite all, being able to recognize the good stuff and the bads, is called appreciate”
Aug 11, 2012 @ 10:07 CDT
“I lolled 3 times reading that, so lol lol lol”
And you still didn’t read the article.
“”I dont want to be arrogant, I’m trying to be modest,”
By calling yourself stupid every comment?
Also, since you don’t seem to remember what you say yourself, I’ll quote you for you:
“I can understand that you cant appreciate the anime as you never read the original…”
I’ll also put this here, even though you likely won’t read it:
http://seventhstyle.com/commenting-etiquette/
Aug 9, 2012 @ 1:55 CDT
SAO holds a ton of appeal to fans of the novel since they just want to see the novel animated hahaha. I can see Seven’s point on the current lack of an overall big picture. So far the side stories feel like stand alones. Of course, this isn’t an issue if you are entertained by these stand alone side stories. Some people are, and some aren’t.
Aug 11, 2012 @ 9:40 CDT
Sword Art Online? ohh, it’s the new .hack//sign iThink…