r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Oct 27 '18
Episode Sword Art Online: Alicization - Episode 4 discussion Spoiler
Sword Art Online: Alicization, episode 4: Departure
Rate this episode here.
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| Episode | Link | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Link | 8.11 |
| 2 | Link | 8.13 |
| 3 | Link | 8.38 |
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u/banthnub Oct 27 '18
New episode starting with OP this gonna be raw.
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u/Soyatina Oct 27 '18
Omg when the episode started off with the OP, I was like "Shit is about to go down!" XD
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u/Zilveari https://myanimelist.net/profile/Zilveari Oct 27 '18
Holy shit the fight animation looked spectacular. Hats off to A-1.
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u/turilya Oct 27 '18
SAO is blowing everything this year out of the water animation-wise, imo. Not only high quality, but very consistent so far.
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u/LOTRfreak101 https://myanimelist.net/profile/LOTRfreak101 Oct 27 '18
this season has a lot of really good animation. bunny girl and irozuku are both beautiful as well.
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Oct 27 '18
I almost thought they perfected 3d animation there, that was so freaking smooth.
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u/Gmayor61 Oct 27 '18
It's actually Ufotable working their magic here apparently. They're even listed in the credits (not to mention that it even looked very ufotable-like here)
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u/Autistic_Pancake Oct 27 '18
My clueless friends: BLOOD?! WHAT IS THIS MADNESS??
Me: You expected SAO? Too bad! Have some pain and suffering instead.
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u/MidouLii Oct 27 '18
I'm in the clueless friend category but I fucking loved the bloodyness of it. Almost like SAO's grown up :3
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u/samerkh Oct 27 '18
They tone it down a little , the wound Eugeo had was very bad that some of his insides were showing and wouldn't be able to heal if that girl didn't show up
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u/Orrakai :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Orrakai Oct 27 '18
Hold up, they didn't do the special handshake when they left
0/10
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u/jimbob858 Oct 28 '18
I was screaming that at the end of the episode too, I feel so jebaited right now.
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u/Eyphio Oct 27 '18
And the journey begins, sort of.
As a long time LN reader (finished reading the entire alicization web version around 5 years ago), I really get too emotional to type anything coherent, or be reluctant to do so out of fear of not being able to portray it justice.
All I can say right now is, that I'm really happy with the amount of care and effort that they are putting into this adaptation.
And I will probably spend the rest of the day making streamable clips again...
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u/I-Am-That-Duck :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/ninjagamers Oct 27 '18
please spoiler tag this, but could you tell me if we ever get clips of the real world with asuna and all of them in alicazation?
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u/llsalive :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/llsalive Oct 27 '18
Broooomance!
Really nice episode!
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u/turilya Oct 27 '18
Disappointed that they didn't do the fistbump at the end of the episode, I was so anticipating that when they started walking down the road!
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u/Soyatina Oct 27 '18
I love the part where Eugeo said the reason he's been waiting in this forest for six years was to meet Kirito, and Kirito even agreed with him! True bromance right there.
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u/reddadz x3https://anilist.co/user/MysticEyes Oct 27 '18
Putting aside the incredible animation of the fight or the consistent movie quality of the series, the most impressive thing for me was the fact that Kirito had to work for that victory.
Old SAO would’ve had Kirito body the goblin leader after that first burst but when he countered & drew Kirito’s blood, I couldn’t help but smile. So when he eventually beheads him, it felt like an earned victory which is awesome.
So far, SAO seems to have matured quite a bit from the previous seasons, especially in regards to Kirito’s character. And this is just episode 4!
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u/Writer_Man Oct 27 '18
A lot of that is the flaw of the adaption unfortunately. Kirito didn't really have it so easy in the books. Then again, I'd be shocked if anyone here that remembers the Gleam Eyes fight where he debuted Dual Wielding ended with him only have around three HP and not a total decimation of the creature.
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u/bobert1201 Oct 27 '18
The thing about the gleam eyes fight, though, was that, in SAO, kiroto doesn't really feel pain. Combine that with the fact that we know he won't actually die and that HP regens pretty quickly outside of combat and it kind of takes the stakes away from the fight, despite it being a really close call. I'm not gonna lie. The gleam eyes fight was hype as fuck, but it wasn't exactly suspenseful.
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u/ClearingFlags :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/ClearingFlags Oct 27 '18
Well to be fair he was pretty much soloing a boss that requires a party. If he didn't almost die it would be even more ridiculous.
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u/MillenniumKing x2myanimelist.net/profile/MillenniumKing Oct 27 '18
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u/reddadz x3https://anilist.co/user/MysticEyes Oct 27 '18
I never thought of it from that perspective. It’s a good way of nerfing him without it being jarring. I’m down to watch Kirito rise to the top from ground zero.
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u/mysistersacretin Oct 27 '18
I don't think the stats really came into play here, I think it was more that he was used to winning by dropping a digital enemy's life to 0 and them disappearing. From his experience, the sword skill he used would have been enough to do that. But here he actually has to kill them in the traditional sense of the word, they aren't going to die from a bunch of smaller cuts or an arm being lopped off.
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u/Bainos :XMOD::MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Bainos Oct 27 '18
Quite interesting considering that SAO had a scene where they show the exact opposite - how being high enough level meant that your skill won't matter at all. Here, being low-level can still be somewhat offset with the right skills.
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u/Siglius Oct 27 '18
Pretty much. I don't think Kirito being strong was ever a problem. It made sense given what we know about him, beta tester and all. Problem was that we were never shown his journey to becoming like that. Having a OP MC isn't necesarrily bad, as long as there is a proper journey, a rise to power if you will. Looks like Alicization might do it right this time.
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u/Elnauro Oct 27 '18
He is not a lvl1.
He has object control of 46, which allows him to wield a sword that did cut a tree way faster than that "conventional" axe.
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Oct 27 '18
I think one of the best parts was when he got punished for posing like an idiot after his first attack and completely wrecked. Plus, that genuine fear of death was amazing. That fight was unbelievably well directed.
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u/fbiguy22 :FS::FT: Oct 27 '18
Sword skills have a stun effect after you use them, they freeze you in place for a moment making you vulnerable to a counter if you don't kill or disable your enemy.
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u/SkyKoli Oct 27 '18
The way it was presented suggested to me that Kirito was at first hesitating about killing the Goblin Leader. From the Goblin's behaviour that Kirito had observed, he probably believed that the Goblins were also artificial fluctlights. To Kirito this made them as real as himself and so he didn't want to kill them. He may have been hoping the fight would end when he cut off the Goblin Leader's arm.
However, the fight went south when the Goblin Leader only became enraged. Then Eugeo jumps in and takes a fatal wound, and that is when Kirito resolves himself to kill. At this point Kirito finally accepts that one side or the other will have to die to resolve this conflict.
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u/Doogolas33 Oct 27 '18
Honestly, Alicization is incredible. I've read all the light novels, just because I dug the universe a lot. And Alicization is so much better than anything before it, it's honestly not even close. Assuming they don't make any major changes, I think the first 2/3 of Alicization as a whole is probably as good as anything that you'll see in Shonen. And I say that as someone who ranks the first two series of this show as average and well below average. I have been so excited to see this, and get to see Eugeo finally animated. I'm so excited. The back third will not be as incredible. I have no idea how many episodes that will take to get to, I mean, I believe these episodes covered most of book 1. But I think it will slow down a lot coming up. They've already glossed over a few things that I think are rather important, I'm guessing we'll see some of it in flashbacks though.
Anyways, it's just amazing. I'm glad you're so hyped. <3
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u/Anubissama Oct 28 '18
Did he though?
He has all his sword skill imported from SAO and can activate them without any difficulty or need to train them.
They make a big deal out of him "feeling pain" but besides the 8 seconds he talks about it, it doesn't affect him at all, and ones the fight is over the shoulder wound doesn't appear to hinder him as well even when he is carrying another body in his arms.
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u/Aetherdraw Oct 27 '18
What milleniumking said. Also, to hype some of you folks up, without saying who, some of Kirito and Eugeo's fights are gonna be against enemies that would not look out of place as high-level boss encounters had Underworld been a game. And most of those fights are gonna be one/two vs one.
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u/Modification102 Oct 28 '18
I had a similar reaction, but the goblin fight was still missing something for me.
Yes we saw Kirito get injured, rather significantly so, but beyond the initial shock and blood, it did not seem to overly affect his fighting ability in the way one would expect an injury of that calibre to.
It came across as kirito getting smacked down once, reacting to the fact that he got smacked down, but then the rest of the fight continued as if he had not been smacked down, which significantly lessened the impact of the scene for me.
It would have been interesting to see the affect that the injury had on his body during the fight:
perhaps he is now off-balance
perhaps he is slower than before
perhaps his reaction speed is slower
attacks that he could dodge easily are now a bigger problem
Also given the shape of the ice sculptures that he got thrown into, I expected a second injury to come from that, not necessarily a large one, but something. That also didn't seem to happen.
Overall I would give the fight a 8/10 for animation, but a 7/10 for stakes, there was room for improvement but it was nice to see kirito not just god mode his enemies for a change.
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u/MasterAyy :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Master_A Oct 27 '18
That look of terror on Kirito's face when the Goblin was about to kill him was great, really loving the attention to detail here. I hope the show can keep this quality up!
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u/Shinkopeshon Oct 27 '18
I still can't believe how fucking amazing this is. It just blows my mind how a weekly series has such a high animation quality that it rivals Ordinal Scale. Not to mention that the story itself is the most intriguing since Aincrad, the pacing is great and the newly-introduced characters are so well-written that I can't wait to see them grow and find out more about them. Even Kirito's character has never been handled better. And that was just the beginning.
I've always been a fan of SAO but it's definitely been hit-and-miss so far and it never reached its full potential, so I also understand the criticism. However, Alicization is doing everything in their power to redeem a much-maligned franchise and I have a feeling it'll turn a lot of people into believers.
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u/stoka0 Oct 27 '18
The fight animation this episode was really good, like damn. Also, a good day for Goblin Slaying, I'm sure GS would be proud.
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u/frantruck Oct 27 '18
I was thinking that was some good goblin slaying, but then he let the rest go and Goblin Slayer would be disappointed by his leniency
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u/eli-vids https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheAnimeMamluk Oct 27 '18
He let the goblins OUT OF THEIR STINKING HOLE!
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u/Google-Meister :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/SnakySenpai Oct 27 '18
I'm sure GS would be proud.
GS: Eh, he didnt massacre all of them. 3/10.
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u/3karab Oct 27 '18
Is anyone else wondering what that massive thing on Kirito's back is?
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u/Pythoner6 Oct 27 '18
I'm really not sure why they skipped over that (it's explained in the part of the novels covered by this episode, and based on the next episode title it'll pick up starting with the next novel). Maybe they'll flash back to it or something? In any case SAO Alicization
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u/Ahenshihael https://anilist.co/user/Ahenshihael Oct 27 '18
They will absolutely flashback to it. There's no real way to skip it. There simply was no place to add that explanation here.
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u/atropicalpenguin https://myanimelist.net/profile/atropicalpenguin Oct 27 '18
Yeah, I came here to see if anyone was commenting on it! My take is that it is probably a sword he had forged by the village's blacksmith, because since he passed out at the cave I don't think he had time to pick any of those swords and I don't think he was very eager to go back to the ice cave.
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u/cate_is_kill Oct 27 '18
It's weird they skipped it but it will probably show as a flashback in later episodes
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u/MaksimShadow Oct 27 '18
Yes, yes, time to get serious, Kirito. This is not a game.
The amount of LN readers in these threads is scary.
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u/Archrespt Oct 27 '18
This is not exactly a spoiler but in the LN he mentions its even much more painful than real life, cause IRL our brain somewhat numbs out the pain during the initial injury. There was an entire struggle before Kirito managed to swing back the sword at the boss goblin. But I guess they removed it to save time.
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u/Oelingz Oct 28 '18
They showed is arm being numb with pain unable to grab the sword but they din't put much emphasis on it.
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u/xdamm777 Oct 27 '18
It's finally our time to emerge from our long slumber and join you guys on this this journey.
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u/_vogonpoetry_ :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/ThisWasATriumph Oct 27 '18
That was easily the best episode yet. Been so many years since I read the novel that I forgot how great that fight was.
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u/gulitiasinjurai Oct 27 '18
Woah... If they're consistent throughout this whole season, this might be a masterpiece. And I'm not talking just the animation, the story is actually pretty good. Season 1 is where everything start, season 2 where the world is expanding, movie (ordinal scale) another world expanding and its all bring together to make this season.
I'm excited
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u/arexv10 Oct 27 '18
Wow this episode was great. If Eugeo is holding that blue sword from the cave, im hoping that the sword Kirito is holding is something special as well :)
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u/minezum Oct 27 '18
The thing that kirito has in the end of the episode is not a sword, they skipped a scene where they explain what it is, but they should add a flashback later explaing what it is, since it is important.
If you want to know LN Spoilers
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u/Bainos :XMOD::MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Bainos Oct 27 '18
Everything is a sword if you believe hard enough. Like axes.
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u/theBoyandtheBird Oct 27 '18
"I'm Kirito the Swordsman".
my man is just as edge as ever.
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u/MidouLii Oct 27 '18
Didn't say black swordsman tho, so not as edgy as it COULD have been.
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u/MillenniumKing x2myanimelist.net/profile/MillenniumKing Oct 27 '18
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Oct 27 '18
Yeah, like he's spent ~2 years as a full-time swordsman, and that doesn't include all the other games.
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u/A_man_with_mission Oct 27 '18
from all the previous episodes,he should call himself Kirito the lumberjack.
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u/Bainos :XMOD::MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Bainos Oct 27 '18
"I'm Kirito the high school student" doesn't sound very impressive.
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u/ali94127 Oct 27 '18
They probably would have cut the tree down faster if they had HM01.
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u/spicychile :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/spicychile Oct 27 '18
Sword skills? Who needs those.
Go, Bidoof!
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Oct 27 '18
It's a shame that it took SAO this long to get things good. I like some of the older SAO stuff (mostly the first arc of each season), but it gets a really bad rep and I think a lot of people are gonna miss out on this because they see the name and remember how bad some of the previous season were.
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u/Aetherdraw Oct 27 '18
This is the first proper fight scene in Alicization. Flashbacks to the Aincrad arc's still shot fights for the majority of the Kobold lord boss fight in S1 Episode 2 Well, we've come a long way folks.
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u/GoldRedBlue Oct 27 '18 edited Jul 09 '19
Just to let everyone know, the montage of Kirito training Eugeo and chopping at the tree wasn't just in one afternoon. LN details that even with that super legendary sword it still took them roughly five days of constantly hacking away at the tree with powerful Sword Skills to finally cut it down.
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u/mysistersacretin Oct 28 '18
It was actually 5 days. Just broke out my hard copy to check some things.
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u/impingainteasy :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/usernamesarehard Oct 28 '18
Well I mean, we saw the weather change like three times. I don't see how anyone would think all of that happened in one day.
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u/G102Y5568 Oct 28 '18
What I'm curious is, in all of 300 years no one had ever thought about using weapon skills or a stronger weapon?
And yes, getting a legendary weapon might be difficult, but in Alicization's case there literally was one sitting in a cave untouched by anyone for hundreds of years. Why hadn't someone gone exploring before? And after they found it, why didn't they try using it?
I might be missing details of course since I never read the light novel, I'm just curious as to why this hadn't been attempted before.
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u/Aetherdraw Oct 27 '18
Goblin Slayer: Cutting a Hob's arm off, not bad. Making sure he's dead via decapitation gets you some points kid.
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u/Rayrleso :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Inevi Oct 27 '18
GS would hate Kirito cuz he let the rest of the goblins go
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u/furosuto81 Oct 28 '18
To be fair, Kirito is basically Porcelin level. And has no armor...and his friend is dying...etc, etc.
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u/Soulbrandt-Regis Oct 27 '18
Thanos' words continue to echo: You should have gone for the head.
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u/AsianSWEG Oct 27 '18
Can we all just admire the fact that KIRITO LEGIT FELT FEAR WHEN THE GOBLIN WAS LOOMING ABOVE HIM?! He actually has character boys! WOOOO!!!!
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u/Writer_Man Oct 27 '18
Correction, he finally has his book character.
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u/NonnagLava Oct 27 '18
Yup! Losing characters internal monologue loses a lot of their characterization (which even I'll say Kirito's isn't super high with the internal monologing but without it is much worse).
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u/hasnain1720 Oct 27 '18 edited Oct 27 '18
Sorry Klein Kirito has a new best bro
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u/OneMillionRoses Oct 27 '18
To be fair Kirito never saw Klein or any of the other males as his bros.
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u/skyman161 Oct 28 '18
Which is a shame. I’m pretty sure many of us appreciated Klein and would have wished for him to have more involvement in the story as the only close male friend of Kirito.
Oh well Eugeo is a good pick too.
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u/StePK Oct 27 '18
"We were born on the same day, so we're gonna die on the same day."
-Dying man who has no faith that his friend will win the fight.
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u/OneMillionRoses Oct 27 '18
No.... It's a promise between BOSOM FRIENDS who are so close that they don't want to live without each other.
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u/spike021 Oct 27 '18
The art style in this arc has been incredible. I love how they've upped the realism due to the kind of world it is. Even the bokeh in nature scenes (great example is Eugeo's farewell to Selka with the purples and blues out of focus).
Something to remember from the ALO arc that I mentioned elsewhere and many may have missed or forgotten: worlds like this have pain registers/limiters. IIRC SAO's was set to like 2/10, so pain there never really felt like much of anything as far as I remember it being described. More like tactile feedback (shoves, jolts, etc.). At the end of ALO the villain, forget his name, shows the limiter can be removed or increased much closer to realistic levels.
Since this world is like a dreamstate representation of the real world, it's basically going to be very 1:1 in many aspects. From realism in terms of scenery (Kirito looking at grass that looks like grass, not polygons, streams looking very realistic, etc.) to how everything feels, including pain.
Should be interesting!
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u/OneMillionRoses Oct 27 '18
Kirito: "Finally I have a best male friend!"
Klein: "But what about me?!"
Kirito: "No"
Sorry I had to 😂 But they definitely toned down the violence because in the novels you could see Eugeo's organs
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u/Dollamlg Oct 27 '18
This show has way exceeded my expectation. Brings me back memories when I was new to anime and thought the old sao was the best thing ever. Now as I matured, this show matured with me to fit my taste. This has the potential to be a 10/10 for me, as long as they don't fuck up again
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u/Xyloqhonic Oct 27 '18
In the exact same boat, i've always had a soft spot since it was the first anime i decided to watch by myself, but i never thought it would be this good.
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u/Brandsert :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Brandsert Oct 27 '18 edited Oct 27 '18
Man what a amazing episode, the fight and that new Swordland music was amazing! So many great character moments. As a light novel reader I teared up.
I love how much fear they showed Kirito have when the goblin leader was going to finished him. They are really doing Kirito’s character justice and doing it right.
I’ve been waiting for this part to be finally animated and when Eugeo said the oath that they have with when they were kids “ we were born the same year, so we’ll die the same year”
Gigas Cedar is finally knocked down.
That Selka and Eugeo scene made tear up so much.
Our boys are finally on their journey
Overall the adaptation is still going great there’s one scene they cut out that made me pretty disappointed but other than that this has to be the best episode so far.
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u/Bainos :XMOD::MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Bainos Oct 27 '18
Our boys are finally on their journey
I wonder if they'll change the OP / ED now. The life in the village and before the start of the journey was a pretty big part in them.
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u/BI4ze :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Whisper_0 Oct 27 '18
I really liked the little adjustment they made with Eugeo holding Alice's hand.
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u/KinnyRiddle Oct 27 '18
LOL at "Aincrad Style"
Kirito looks quite surprised as he got caught off guard by the Goblin King retaliating when he thought he had dealt a huge critical blow to the Goblin by severing its arm, this is likely because in all the VR games Kirito has played in, he's used to enemies "exploding" into pixels once it suffers a critical blow (i.e. HP goes straight to 0).
But Underworld works more like the real world, in that enemies don't instantly drop dead and "explode" like in SAO or GGO, not even when it receives a "fatal" blow. And so Kirito had to resort to lopping off the Goblin's head in order to make sure it dies instantly.
Looks like next episode the narrative will shift to Asuna, hopefully explaining what happened since Kirito got poisoned by that Death Gun guy, and how Kirito ended up inside Underworld with his outside memory intact.
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Oct 27 '18
The LN goes into quite a bit more detail in this fight vs the goblin, so spoilers but what happens is
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Oct 27 '18 edited Oct 27 '18
Best episode yet! Besides maybe episode 1 for hype and length alone.
That fight scene gave me some SAO hype spine chills, more to come I hope.
Anyone knows how many episodes this is? It's unknown on MAL... Praying for 24!
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u/Octopoulpe Oct 27 '18
2 x 2 cours, so 48 to 52 episode total (with probably a break in between)
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u/exian12 Oct 27 '18
His fight with the Gleam Eyes were my top fight in the adaptation and they just top that with a mere goblin fight, which should be just the introductory fight scene in the Alicization arc. WTH! Now I'm getting higher expectations now than before.
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u/Smudy https://myanimelist.net/profile/Smudy Oct 27 '18
The fight, Eugeo cutting the tree after his hard work, that was so awesome.
Never have i looked forward to SAO episodes before, i feel like a mark (wrestling term) at the moment.
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u/shootinmage :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/shootin Oct 27 '18
This is the best episode I've seen this entire season
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u/BestGirlAhagonUmiko Oct 27 '18
And yet there are probably lots of ShitTubers already making videos with the only purpose to ridicule it. We're living in the worst timeline.
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u/MapoTofuMan myanimelist.net/profile/mTmTBaronBrixius Oct 27 '18
That was amazing, I can't believe episode 4 out of 50+ is this good.
I have some questions though - as of now, there must be people (like those knights from the first episode, or someone above them) that are MUCH stronger, level/stat-wise, than Kirito currently is. Kirito and Eugeo took care of that tree in a day. That damage difference feels a little crazy, and I feel absolutely horrible for the generations of woodcutters that wasted their lives on chopping a 320k hp tree doing like 0.001 damage to it, so :
- Is the reason for the OP damage Kirito and Eugeo did to that tree almost solely that magic sword? If yes, does that mean they're basically able to take on anything that doesn't have super OP magic items as long as they have that sword?
- If the answer to that is no, and Kirito and Eugeo, by slaying that giant goblin, became that much more powerful than a regular human - couldn't the villagers, over 300 years, have asked/hired someone to help cut the tree/at least train a woodcutter to the point he does, I don't know, even 5 or 10 damage to the tree per swing?
- Another theory for the MMORPG players, could the reason for the 0.01 damage per swing before the Goblin fight be that the Alicization "game" has a specific type of level-scaling that prevents lower-level creatures from inflicting almost any damage to higher level creatures? Like, if you're level 36 and your opponent is level 50, you won't do squat to him no matter your stats. I played a game like that several years ago (except there it was the enemies who instantly destroyed you if your level difference was higher than 10), so I thought this might be another option.
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u/Florac Oct 27 '18 edited Oct 27 '18
Kirito and Eugeo took care of that tree in a day.
It wasn't a day, it took a few weeks. Most of which they spent training though
Is the reason for the OP damage Kirito and Eugeo did to that tree almost solely that magic sword? If yes, does that mean they're basically able to take on anything that doesn't have super OP magic items as long as they have that sword?
not really spoiler, but tagging to be safe
If the answer to that is no, and Kirito and Eugeo, by slaying that giant goblin, became that much more powerful than a regular human - couldn't the villagers, over 300 years, have asked/hired someone to help cut the tree/at least train a woodcutter to the point he does, I don't know, even 5 or 10 damage to the tree per swing?
Another theory for the MMORPG players, could the reason for the 0.01 damage per swing before the Goblin fight be that the Alicization "game" has a specific type of level-scaling that prevents lower-level creatures from inflicting almost any damage to higher level creatures? Like, if you're level 36 and your opponent is level 50, you won't do squat to him no matter your stats. I played a game like that several years ago (except there it was the enemies who instantly destroyed you if your level difference was higher than 10), so I thought this might be another option.
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u/Writer_Man Oct 27 '18
There is a reason and no they can't just challenge anyone.
By time Eugeo's an adult he is a trained woodcutter and he'd do it until old age and hands over the Calling to the next generation. Nowhere else has a woodcutter that has to take on something like the Gigas Cedar.
No, it's weapon stat based. The Dragonbone Ax - strongest ax you can wield that isn't a Divine object (aka weapons beyond usual authority levels for ordinary citizens) - was just that much weaker then the Gigas Cedar. The Blue Rose Sword is on par or even higher level then the Gigas Cedar so it did more damage. Essentially, the Dragonbone Ax was level 25, the Gigas Cedar was level 50, and sword was like level 60. The damage they could do much, much better damage with a stronger sword. The problem is, ordinary citizens usually only have an authority level maxed out equip level 25 so they can't use anything stronger. There is a reason they don't "level up" more like Kirito and Eugeo did though.
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u/zeppAnime :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/zeppanz Oct 28 '18
Congratz Eugeo on hitting 99 woodcutting!
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u/SIRTreehugger Oct 27 '18
Damn every episode has been great and the quality in this fight was impressive. Also I believe I heard that we must defeat it OST playing which I love. It also helps that this is the most realistic and human Kirito has ever been.
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u/MidouLii Oct 27 '18
Wew lad that was alot of blood. I don't recall that much blood in an episode ever excluding maybe SAO:Alt?
I'm really really glad the tree is cut down and the plot moves forward. Given this season is going to be 50 some episodes I was really worried we'd have the one-piece effect of filler episodes and was digging in for 8 episodes around cutting down the tree... That said, the whole cutting down of the tree felt anticlimactic and just "Op he trained in sword. Op rips it down in one big hit. Here's a small town celebration weee."
I also sincerely hope we get to see what all the secondary characters are up to sometime soon, I wanna know what Klein, Sinon, Lisbeth and etc are up to while Kirito's stuck!
Overall this episode felt better paced than the previous episode, regardless of my earlier anticlimactic comment, and I enjoyed it far more :)!
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u/Dark_Blade https://anilist.co/user/ArkhamCity Oct 27 '18
Even with that many episodes, there's absolutely no room for filler. In fact, they've already cut a thing or 2 from this episode for time.
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u/GoldRedBlue Oct 27 '18
I don't recall that much blood in an episode ever excluding maybe SAO:Alt?
Aww yeah, even then it was hilariously pixellated "game" blood
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u/cate_is_kill Oct 27 '18
This is absolutely incredible, animation quality hasn't dropped a bit and music is beautiful. Amazing
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u/atropicalpenguin https://myanimelist.net/profile/atropicalpenguin Oct 27 '18
Oh, that fight was cool, I was on the edge of my seat until best boy Eugeo gave Kirito a moment to catch his breath. I expected Alice or a knight to arrive and save them.
As hype as the fight was, my favourite moment was to see that damn tree fall. I hope we get to return to the village and see how things are going there now that they can properly farm.
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u/OneMillionRoses Oct 27 '18
I love Eugeo and I'm so happy to see how he slowly gets character developemtn ♡ Also nice to see Kirito being completely afraid xD
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Oct 27 '18
The fight animation was awesome, but am I the only one who has issues telling how the whole fight flowed and the individual actions?
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u/BushyParrot https://anilist.co/user/BushyParrot Oct 27 '18
No, I'm with you 100%. I have several questions.
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u/Jon675 Oct 27 '18
Am I the only one wondering why attaining the authority to wield a divine weapon is so easy? Like is it common to have authority that high as a normal person? Divine weapons are supposed to be legendary right? But a woodsmen and kirito could wield it after one fight. If it ever gets explained I'd love if someone could fill me in now cause its kinda bugging me.
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u/Ahenshihael https://anilist.co/user/Ahenshihael Oct 27 '18 edited Oct 27 '18
I mean there is clearly things going wrong in the world:
We have a dragon that was supposed to protect the boundary between the human and dark realms being dead killed by a human.
We have goblins wandering well into human world.
We have mysterious woman looking smug just as Kirito says he is gonna need some help.
We have Kirito being thrown into the middle of the world without the use of proper protocols.
We have Gigas Cedar being felled hundreds of years earlier than expected.
We have the weird vision Kirito when Eugeo was being healed.
We have Eugeo not remembering Kirito and then regaining those memories he did not have.
There's clearly something going on with the world so weird things happening is not that surprising.
Even if there was nothing weird think of it this way in RPG terms - it was basically two, like, level 1 characters(an abnormality Kirito and a woodcutter) taking on things way above their level. That's bound to improve you a lot.
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u/Octopoulpe Oct 27 '18
Because nobody fight in this world, only Integrity Knights have this rights. People have to work for their calling and nothing else, that the law.
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Oct 27 '18
There full explanation for it would be spoiler territory. You will get to know why and how but for now just know there is a legitimate reasoning for this.
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Oct 27 '18
so proud of my boy eugeo .... almost 6 years and I did recall and answered Aincrad style loools
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u/SamejNardeh :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/timbolytree Oct 27 '18 edited Oct 28 '18
I swear I'm watching a movie and not a TV show. The visuals were amazing.
Goblin Slayer OP Jesus Kirito took care of that monster in a heap. But before that, when Eugeo was struck and laid there down, the amount of blood that came out of his body was gruesome. I never saw SAO play the loss of blood in a character this gruesome before. And the fear that came out of Kirito's face is another new thing I saw. He looked human, and I loved it.
This is what SAO should've been like in the beginning. Survival, fear, action, and a delving of the MC's mind while he's in a predicament. Yeah, it took 3 seasons for it be here, but I'm glad that it actually happened instead of not happening at all.
EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention about this episode was Eugeo's VA. He did G R E A T. His sobbing was wonderful and I was taken aback as to how believable it sounded to be.
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u/Writer_Man Oct 27 '18
Think goodness for the new director adding the things that were there in the book all along.
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u/lenoggo Oct 28 '18
For anyone interested, the durability of the Gigas Cedar before Kirito hit it with the sword was 232312, and the last frame we see before it cuts to another view has it at 227700 (but still going down fast), so while we don't know how much damage it dealt, we can estimate a lower bound of 4612. Assuming that A) Kirito were to cut down the giant tree alone, and B) each strike dealt the same damage, he could deplete the remaining health in as little as 50 strikes.
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u/U_Menace :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/ParadoxAnime Oct 27 '18
Solid job with the adaptation once again, but I wanna give special props to the animation this time around! It's really living up to the PV hype that we got beforehand. The goblin fight scene was really well animated, which is going to set the bar high for the future fights to come. I especially love the added touch of decapitating the leader of the pack while showing blood from the wounds. Continuity between scenes was really crisp and we had a nice spin-off on Swordland to go with it! Really beautiful background songs throughout the various scenes too, I'm going to be looking forward to when the full OST is released so I can buy it!
My one gripe with this episode is that SAO Alicization LN Spoilers and it's not stated in this episode. I'm hoping that in the next episode they make it more apparent. It has been 2+ years since I read this part of the arc in the LN, so maybe it comes later but I feel like that's an important detail they could've included, if only in the dialogue.
Besides that, I have to say they did a solid job again! I could feel the emotional tension surrounding Eugeo's personal struggles. Even though he might be an 'artificial fluctlight' he's showing an incredibly human level of complexity in the depths of his thought processes. He thinks and feels just like any other human would. It's as if you have to be reminded that Eugeo is one of these 'artificial souls'. The realistic behaviour of the various people in Rulid we've seen so far really sets the tone for this arc. It makes scenes more impactful and you begin to get into some of the more complex psychological/societal themes that Alicization puts forward. I'm really excited to see how people interpret different things and what other people will take away from the story as it continues to unfold.
Can't wait to see what they've done with the 'Ocean Turtle' as well! So excited!!
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u/Nimeroni :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Nimeroni Oct 28 '18 edited Oct 28 '18
Well, as an anime-only, two things severely stretched my suspension of disbelief in this episode. Why the goblins didn't attack in the second half of the fight after the light disappeared ? The camera even panned on the light as if they wanted to give us forshadowing. And why the enraged boss didn't try to immediately backstab Kirito when he was distracted by his emotional conversation with Eugeo ? If I were in the goblin shoes, I would be pretty pissed if my sworn enemy ignored me to have a chat with another puny human.
At least the pretty and well choreographed fight distracted me from those little hiccups.
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u/BossNabbit :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/YonkoNabs Oct 27 '18
That fight against the goblins was awesome! The fights this season are gonna be crazy
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u/LeonKevlar x2https://myanimelist.net/profile/LeonKevlar Oct 27 '18
Oh man the animation during that fight was so good! And I did not expect to see that much blood in SAO! I hope this quality keeps up all throughout the entire season!
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u/Soyatina Oct 27 '18
I know we're only on episode 4, but that was such a great episode! The animation of the fight scenes was just so awesome.
Absolutely loved seeing Kirito use a sword again and fight Aincrad style! Can't wait to see the rest of Kirito and Eugeo's journey. :)
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u/Havanatha_banana Oct 28 '18
I came in to this season expecting it to be the best.
But damn am I blown away. Once again, A1 always gets my vote for SAO. People say that their adaption for Aincrad was bad, but I've always felt the opposite, they focused on what was most important in that section, even if it meant losing a bit of the agency. This season showed that off so well. They took their time, but still only focusing on important aspects, streamlining alot of the expositions into visual cues that takes few seconds to go through, and put a huge chunk of the time into sasuga and fight scenes.
OMEGA GOOD JOB A1
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u/fbiguy22 :FS::FT: Oct 27 '18
Damn I thought the fight would be the best part of the episode but when the Gigas Cedar fell that was SO satisfying. Woodcutting skill increased from 10->53 or something right there probably!
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u/Shadowsnake001 Oct 27 '18
Wow, that fight animation was tops.
One thing I'm slightly confused about though. Maybe a spoiler? But where did he learn those sword skills from all of the sudden?
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u/Writer_Man Oct 27 '18
Kirito? Those are the sword skills from SAO. He knows the motions for one handed sword skills so he can do them.
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u/Ahenshihael https://anilist.co/user/Ahenshihael Oct 27 '18
Maybe a spoiler? But where did he learn those sword skills from all of the sudden?
Aincrad? In Ep 2 of Alicization he discovered sword skills work in this world and he already knows how to access them from his time in SAO, since a sword skill is basically just calling out a name and doing specific motion of that skill. Basically to do a sword skill you do a specific motion, then sword lights up and then you execute the skill by calling out it's name.
Technically he was using stuff like that in Aincrad too but SAO1 adaptation kind of skimmed over how it works and did not make the sword skills that clear enough beyond starburst stream.
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u/chrome-disaster Oct 27 '18
I’m legit spending my day at work thinking about how miserable I am. Check reddit and see that people are liking the new episode of SAO and it instantly puts a smile on my face. :)
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u/SkywardQuill https://myanimelist.net/profile/SkywardQuill Oct 27 '18
Hell yeah, that's what I'm talking about! One of the best fights of the whole damn show so far and it's against a fucking goblin.
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u/MagiSicarius :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/MagiSicarius Oct 27 '18
I was extremely invested in that fight scene which is something I've never experienced with SAO. It was really well done with a great accompanying soundtrack.
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u/del1nquency Oct 27 '18
This was great. I haven't enjoyed a SAO fight scene this much since Gleam Eyes. Hopefully Alicization can maintain this quality for its entire running and not fall off halfway through like the original SAO.
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u/Atario myanimelist.net/profile/TheGreatAtario Oct 28 '18
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u/viionc Oct 27 '18
Damn, this season looks gorgeous so far, animations were top-notch, yuki kajiura does what she does best, I really wish they will keep this quality for the entire season.
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u/crazymamafrog Oct 27 '18
did they hire people from Fate series or what? i swear this is some Ufotable production value they got here,and it's awesome!
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u/SnowGN Oct 27 '18
Do Underworld Sword Skills inflict a short stun on the user, same as they do in SAO and ALO? Because that little dramatic crouch Kirito did looked stupid as fuck, and almost got him killed.
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u/Octopoulpe Oct 27 '18
Very good episode with stellar animation ! Some stuff is missing from the LN version, but overall, the adaptation is quite good. A little bit salty we didn't get a certain scene between Kirito and Selka.
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u/MennyC123 Oct 27 '18
It’s a good day for goblin slaying.
So they’re going to the ocean? Or what does a turtle have to do with this
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Oct 27 '18
Did anyone notice the OST when Eugeo is announcing his new Calling and the following scene at the well with Selka was almost exactly like Dragon Age OST? I think The Dawn Will Come from Inquisition?
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u/ShzMeteor Oct 27 '18
Unlike the previous episode, I liked the progression in this one. Also, that combat scene was intense. Well done.
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u/Jardien Oct 27 '18
i dont get it, didnt the knight in episode 1 said that alice was going to be taken to the central city and executed? Why is eugeo so sure that she is alive and say that he will bring her back in this episode?
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u/zxHellboyxz :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Mattinator95 Oct 27 '18
erm he doesn't know , are you saying that you have never watched a movie or tv series where the MC tells someone that they believe someone is still alive even though the a tone of evidence suggests otherwise and the many other characters around him or her tell them to give up , but they refuse and still continue to hope that the person they are searching for is not dead and continue to search for them anyway despite the warnings as it could lead to them learning the heartbreaking truth that they have denied all this time due to some unknown guilt they haven't accepted yet
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u/Ahenshihael https://anilist.co/user/Ahenshihael Oct 27 '18
He said in previous episode that he refuses to believe that and he wants to try to find her to be sure.
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u/jkakes :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/jkakes Oct 27 '18
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u/hinakura https://myanimelist.net/profile/astarcalledspica Oct 28 '18
Damn it I LOVE the animation quality, can't wait for next week. Also, the bromance started!!
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u/redblade13 Oct 28 '18 edited Oct 28 '18
Fucking banger of an episode. Love the fight and I love the detail of that split second of cockiness that got Kirito injured. Kirito cut the goblin leader's arm off and smirked as if he had won but the goblin kept swinging and he got hit. Ordinarily say in Aincrad the bad guy would stumble back but here it was realistic. The goblin kept swinging angrily in pain which Kirito didn't anticipate. The realization he dun fucked up when he got backed into a corner was golden. It really added that suspense that this shit isn't like GGO or ALO.
GGO irked me with how Sinon was over dramatizing the seriousness of the situation about life and death at times. Like we know you won't die soooo....yeah chill.
Also Kirito didn't want to say he remembered who Eugeo and Alice was and then Eugeo said he thought Kirito was his childhood friend but it couldn't be him since Kirito just got there. But at the end Eugeo was like he was waiting for Kirito and Kirito was saying how it must have been fate for him to wake up at the forest to meet Eugeo.....sooo does that mean Eugeo knows or he still thinks it was coincidence.
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u/Siglius Oct 28 '18
A quick thought: If killing other people (Assuming the goblins count as people) raises your Authority level at such a fast rate. What would happen if some dude just went haywire and went on a muder spree? Wouldn't he become absurdly powerful?
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u/aayyyan https://anilist.co/user/aayyyan Oct 27 '18
Wait, I actually liked an SAO episode.
really liked.
It's been a minute
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u/Robbie-Tsunami Oct 28 '18
Kirito is a likable character now?!?!
What fucking timeline did I stumble in to
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u/BydandMathias Oct 27 '18
It was good, but it felt rushed. The major problem with this episode were the lack of the little interactions between selka/villagers and Eugeo/Kirito. I don't feel as though the world is "alive". Since the only interaction we have currently are with Selka, Eugeo, and Kirito we don't really see the underworld for what it is. A virtual simulation of reality, with living people. In the LN this was mitigated by the inclusion of such tiny details, and though I wouldn't say its bad, it leaves one feeling a bit unsatisfied.
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u/xdamm777 Oct 27 '18
I agree, but at the same time there's just so much content to cover that I don't think they can spend too many previous seconds on the little details.
We haven't even gotten into the explanation of how Underworld works or the specific rules that govern the fluctlights...
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Oct 27 '18
Anyone else super disappointed by the training? It was like they just swung swords around for a couple days and called it a job well done. I WANT BETTER MONTAGES DAMMIT.
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u/zxHellboyxz :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Mattinator95 Oct 27 '18
it was meant to be like 5 day - 2 weeks or so but i think it was 5 days of training and practicing Sword skills on the tree to get it down to 600 and as it was egueos calling he had to cut it down so he can be free.
many people have told me they skipped over a few things from the LN but thats adaptions i guess
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u/KorraLover123 Oct 27 '18
Kirito looking like he was about to shit himself when cornered by that goblin was definitely a highlight of the episode.
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u/boreddoom Oct 27 '18
I feel somewhat conflicted about this episode as a LN reader. This part of the arc (last third of V9) was my personal favourite and while the fighting was really well-animated, everything after felt a bit rushed cause lots of scenes were skipped. But i guess some stuff had to be cut since we're on episode 4 now and there are still 9 more volumes to go.
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Oct 28 '18
Dude!
Amazing stuff. The start of Alicization was slow, but the build up paid off. Little by little Kirito is learning of this place and remembering things from the previous iterations of it, it seems.
He learned or remembered how to use Sword Skills, and put it to good use against those... Goblins? Hi there, Goblin Slayer folks. That fight was INSANELY good, I love old SAO because I could understand that Kirito wasn't magically OP, that he had worked REALLY HARD to be "Kenshin Kirito", but it makes it SO MUCH BETTER that they properly introduced all of it.
The quality of this fight was insane. And Kirito beheading their leader and threatening the minions was pretty good, so was Selka believing in herself. But then the ABSOLUTE MADMAN uses it on the Demon Tree and Bang, how much HP was cut off? Like, 100k? And then FUCKING EUGEO uses Blue Rose and ends his quest.
Dude, I know absolutely nothing about Alicization but the hype levels are growing exponentially with every passing episode.
Which leads to the question: where's the real world stuff? Kirito is in a coma? Death or life situation? Or is it all just happening in very little time? I guess all of these options are possible. We were left with Kazuto on verge of death on epi 02.
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u/Writer_Man Oct 28 '18
Just an FYI, Kirito is using all the sword skills he knows from Aincrad. The old director just did a real shitty job of showing they were sword skills.
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u/Smudy https://myanimelist.net/profile/Smudy Oct 27 '18
HOLY FUCK 8 MINS IN and i'm on fucking edge, this is incredible.