Review for Sword Art Online II, Part 3

Introduction

Ouch! Go on any anime forum these days, and you can find a lot of vitriol directed at Aniplex. From pricing to release formats, to unreleased licenses and to clawing back popular titles and locking them away, it seems Aniplex can do no right. Given that the Aniplex logo appears on most of my favourite titles in some form or another, that makes it doubly sad. For a few years now, the standard release format for anime has been reasonably priced, half-season or full season collections. Aniplex on the other hand have taken a step backwards to the single volume release, although given the extra features and physical bonuses they offer their US customers, the niche within a niche that they appeal to, the hardcore, flush with money collector isn’t hard done by. But they expect the companies they sublicense to, to follow the same release formats, even without the extra goodies. That’s been the case with Sword Art Online, which Manga Entertainment released in four volumes for Season 1, and Anime Limited are doing the same for Season 2. If they’d followed the Aniplex model precisely, UK fans might be feeling especially aggrieved at Part 3 this month, as the US release had just three episodes to it, given that Aniplex released the show by the arc. It apparently took some nifty negotiating, but All the Anime have managed to alter the episode distribution for the final two volumes to five episodes apiece. We get the whole of the Calibur arc, and the first two episodes of the Mother’s Rosario arc on this disc.


It’s been a year since the events of the first season, and Kirito and Asuna are building a relationship in the real world as well as the online world. Kirito’s also working towards an education and a career in virtual reality that will allow the three of them, Asuna, Kirito, and the AI from the games, Yui to be together. It all seems to be going so well. The dangerous Nerve Gear Interface technology that so threatened them in Aincrad, has been superseded by the more benign Amusphere technology, and virtual worlds and games continue to proliferate.


Calibur

It’s just another normal day for Kirito and his sister, until she reveals the news that the Excalibur item has been discovered in ALfheim Online, and it’s been made the prize for a new quest. Kirito had a tantalising glimpse of the magical sword during a previous adventure, but acquiring it was another thing altogether. Now that there’s a free-for-all to attain the sword, Kirito fancies his chances, and he puts together a party of adventurers comprised of his closest online friends. But there’s something very strange about this quest, something that threatens the very existence of ALO.

15. The Queen of the Lake
16. The King of the Giants
17. Excalibur


Mother’s Rosario

Kirito and Asuna have achieved their dream. An update to the New Aincrad expansion to ALfheim Online has opened up Level 22 again, and that means that they’ve managed to reacquire their idyllic log cabin, and can once again while away their hours, with Yui completing their virtual family. It’s the perfect place to celebrate the new year, and for Asuna to get away from her family life, which is threatening to sour again. Then Asuna hears of a new player on Aincrad named Zekken, a master swordsman who is challenging all comers to a duel, with an Original Sword Skill for anyone that can defeat him. No one has defeated him as yet, not even Kirito. But there’s more to this challenge than meets the eye.

18. Forest House
19. Zekken

Picture

Sword Art Online gets a 1.78:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p. All the Anime’s release of Season II matches the first in terms of picture quality, with a transfer that is clear, sharp, with strong colours, and smooth, flawless animation, although I did feel that this 3rd part was a little softer in comparison to the first two discs. There’s also minimal banding that I could see, even on the scene fades where it’s most likely to occur. Once again, the beauty of Sword Art Online comes in its animation, its world design. The characters are consistent with the first season, and the real world sequences are agreeable enough. We return to the aesthetic familiarity of ALfheim Online (with a hint of Aincrad) for the two arcs on this disc, so there’s little in the way of freshness and originality in the world design. But it’s still animated to the usual standards.

The images in this review have been kindly supplied by All the Anime.

Sound

You have the choice between DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo English and Japanese, with optional translated subtitles and a signs only track. Watching an action packed show like Sword Art Online makes you wish that Japan would produce more 5.1 Surround tracks for their television shows, but surround sound isn’t a priority in a country where living space is at a premium. The stereo is good enough to bring across the show’s music, and offers the action enough space to give some degree of immersion. The dialogue is clear throughout, the subtitles timed accurately and free of error, and as usual I was happy enough to listen to the original language track. I gave the English dub a try and found it to be a solid effort though. One thing I noted was a determination that people’s mouths shouldn’t be obscured when they are speaking, so subtitles will switch to the top of the screen on several occasions during playback.

Extras

I got a silver DVD disc, and a white labelled Blu-ray check disc, so I can’t speak for packaging, artboxes, or booklets, and I can’t even comment on label art.

The Blu-ray disc presents its goodies with an animated menu. On this disc however, there is no pop-up menu to navigate or change options during playback. You’ll have to either escape to the main menu, or use the player remote to change audio and subtitles.


On the disc you’ll find Special Animation “Sword Art Offline II” – Part 6 (15:18), and Part 7 (13:50), presented this time at 1080p resolution. These are the bonus animations, Flash style, which have chibi versions of the characters offering news reports and chat show segments about the episodes just past and they are a nice bit of fun.

The Original Web previews lasts 2:32 and are presented in 1080p, as are the textless credits.

The DVD disc in the collection presents the episodes again on a dual-layer disc, with DD 2.0 English and Japanese, subtitles and signs, with a 1.78:1 anamorphic NTSC progressive transfer. The extras on this disc are merely the textless credits.

Conclusion

It’s so much easier now to review anime, as it’s more often than not released as complete series, or at least half season boxsets. With thirteen episodes of a show at hand to review, you’ll get a good enough picture of a long running series to comment, or you can just write about a series in its entirety. It wasn’t always this way. We used to get shows in single volumes, with as few as three episodes to a release. When it comes to a 24 episode run, three episodes aren’t representative, and reviewing such a disc means really taking it out of context with the rest of the series, just commenting on those episodes alone. It wasn’t unusual for shows to have a run of stinkers, mid-season slumps, or filler. Wolf’s Rain had a run of four recap episodes in a row. Imagine reviewing that single volume. With Aniplex dictating the single volume release format for its shows, we run into that old problem again.

I have to review Sword Art Online Season 2 Part 3 really as a stand-alone disc, especially as the Gun Gale Arc is over, and we get a new story here in its entirety, and the start of yet another new story, all in the space of just five episodes. Part 3 isn’t a stinker by any definition of the word, but it’s not really that good.


Three out of the five episodes are taken up with the Calibur arc, where we finally get to see Kirito and his friends play a game, with no real world consequences, no lives at stake, and no doom awaiting them should they fail. It’s a mission in an online RPG, and the friends get together to have some fun playing the ALfheim level, trying to attain the new Excalibur special item. As the story unfolds, we get some indication that there might be some higher stakes involved when we’re reminded that ALfheim was itself based on the original Aincrad code, and that code had issues. But really this is just meant to be fun. The problem is that the story is too short at just three episodes, it begins to feel like filler, and there are not enough of the character interactions to make it worthwhile. It really would have been nice to spend some time with Kirito, Klein, Asuna, Sinon, Yui and the rest, just having fun, hanging out, a sort of online RPG slice of life anime. Instead, the Calibur arc is just as taken with its narrative as the rest of the series, which means that the characters lose out in the mix.


Then we get the first two episodes of the final Mother’s Rosario arc, which gave me chilling reminders of that heinous ALfheim Online story from Season 1. It was the character assassination of Asuna that so annoyed me, powerful swordswoman in the Aincrad arc, turned into powerless victim, as her father betrothed her comatose body to a psychopathic serial killer rapist. It turns out that her family have learned nothing from this misadventure, as her mother has decided to move Asuna to another school, away from Kirito, and marry her off to another rich heir, and she doesn’t get a say in the matter. Which is why she’s escaping to ALfheim and duelling Zekken. It looks to be the start of another interesting adventure for the group, as the duel is for more than just a special sword skill, and no doubt it will get more traction in the final five episodes in Part 4, but the way that the story commences leaves the same sour taste in the mouth that I got from Season 1’s second arc.


Of course, I’m probably taking the whole thing out of context, and part 4 will prove me wrong. That’s the problem with reviewing single volumes. But the fact of the matter is that I can only review this single volume at this time, hence the lacklustre grade.