10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 10

Sword Art Online II - Episode 10

Kirito thwarts Death Gun's kill shot on Sinon. Motortrike beats horse in a death race. Kirito and Sinon share their traumatic experiences.

Meh.

Did you know that there's only one phoneme in the Japanese language that ends in a consonant? That glottal "n" sound that you find in -san, -chan, sumimasen, etc. So, if I want to say yak-yak-yak in English, the equivalent in Japanese, yes they have one, is gya-gya-gya. Say them both really fast and keep stringing them along, and they sound almost the same. Why do I bring this up? Because the the whole scene in the cave was gya-gya-gya...

I understand this scene is an important one for the characters, because they're each only learning about the other's traumatic experiences in that moment. But for the viewer, oh my god, can you please stop it already? Especially Kirito's flashback. We've seen it from his perspective, Asuna's perspective, and even Klein's outsider perspective. Maybe if they hadn't devoted more than an episode and a half to each of these scenes before now, I would be interested in how Kirito and Sinon express these memories to each other. But with the existing narrative arc: gya-gya-gya-gya-gya-gya-gya-gya.

Heh.

My prediction for Sinon getting shot was way off. I knew Kirito had no way of reaching Sterben before he pulled the trigger with the weapons he has. I didn't count on him just killing Musketeer X and snagging the dropped sniper rifle. Sheesh. How could I forget his BAMFitude?  Instead of gya-gya-gya, we could have seen Musketeer X get taken down.

Musketeer X, rest in peace. You died for the gya-gya-gya.

Sinon has officially flipped her harem switch. Already asking Kirito to "take responsibility" and then using him as lap pillow? Boy, is she going to be pitching a fit when she finds out about his girlfriend. Her face will probably look like Kirigaya's little sister's when she found out 1) that cool dude was her older brother/cousin and 2) he was in the game to save his true love.

Well, until then, we can all enjoy Sinon Ass Online.

Hmm.

Sinon confirmed that Sterben is using an ingame stealth camouflage item, so no hacks involved there, except for the IRL killing.

One important thing Shino realized is that playing a game with guns is not helping her traumatic stress with real guns. Getting strong in this game accomplishes nothing, and she saw that when faced with a gun that can cause real death.

One good part about the gya-gya-gya scene was Kirito's revelation that he was an SAO survivor. It appears that players of ALO and GGO, whose architecture is based on SAO, know, respect, or fear the reputation of that game. That's a good thing, because a virtual game killing thousands of people is a serious thing to consider for current players of virtual games. One would think the American company in charge of GGO would be actively pursuing any sniff of a rumor of their game causing real death. At least the Japanese government is taking those rumors seriously since they had to care for those trapped in the game, and are still caring for many of the survivors.

If Shino realizes being strong in a game doesn't translate to getting past her PTSD in real life, what will be her next goal? Stopping Death Gun in the game is obviously the next step, but what about real healing? And then there's her feelings for this stranger she's only known for less than a day. That will cause some stress of its own in real life too.