10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 9

Sword Art Online II - Episode 9

Death Gun kills his first victim of the tournament. SAO survivors watching from ALO recognize Laughing Coffin. Sinon is Death Gun's next victim, or is she?

Heh.

That was a neat surprise when Pale Rider got up after being shot by Death Gun. Like the last gasp of monster in those scary movies.

Death Gun shows himself to be a higher-up in the old Laughing Coffin guild. Klein recognizing the catchphrase "It's Show Time!" was an excellent way of revealing that. It also brought to mind that there are other SAO survivors going through what Kirito is still struggling with.

Yes, Yui, that's exactly how Papa fights.

Lots of jabs and then a right hook, left uppercut, right cross combo. Uh, what? The other girls had it right. They wanted to see Kirito swing a sword in a gun game.

Kirito sure is touchy-feely with fighting partners.

Watch out, Sinon. You're starting to go "doki doki kyuun."

Geh.

Speaking of doki doki:

We haven't seen Sinon in, ah, sniper position in quite a while. She also got her first close-up look at what Kirito's sword play looks like. This isn't some finesse skill.

The agility stat is used to aim the sword, but Kirito's main stat is strength, which is how he's slicing through bullets. The agility stat is also used for dodging, but Kirito is only using that to get to the next bullet.

Hmm.

I knew Gunner X wasn't the guy. Only Japanese kids would think the X would look like the sign of the cross instead of a + sign. It's obviously a Racer X reference from Speed Racer. Sheesh, kids. Heads are like boxes of rockses.

Interesting that the gun, which was the same model Shino used against the armed robber, only takes a quarter or so of a player's life. This means death in the game is not the mechanism for killing a player in real life. I had speculated that the aiming reticule tied to a slow heart rate is related to how Death Gun kills, which I also think is how Sinon might survive being shot by Death Gun. Her panic attack from seeing the same gun she used to kill someone happening at the same time Death Gun triggers his protocol is the likely resolution, if she was indeed shot.

I wonder if this stealth cape Death Gun has is a cheat. For a character supposedly new to the game, he seems to have many very expensive items. The stealth cape might be an in-game item, but why would it be invisible to the positioning satellite? I'm leaning towards a hack here. Same with how he has the silenced sniper rifle.

Here's my rampant speculation for how the cliffhanger turns out: Sinon is shot, the heart attack starts to happen, and she logs out. Kirito, thinking she died, rages with his raging sword like Death Gun wanted. Shino, because of her rapid heart rate from the panic attack, thwarts the death hack, and she reappears in-game at a later time, surprising Death Gun and Kirito. Now, let's see how close I get next episode.