10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 19

Sword Art Online II - Episode 19



Asuna tries to balance her online life with her family obligations. Zekken the duelist is a girl named Yuuki who asks Asuna for help.

Hmm.

We see that Asuna's mom is quite the social striver. Being caught in the SAO trap for two years only means that Asuna needs to work extra hard to get back on schedule for an arranged marriage and going to college. We've got a clearer idea of why Asuna seemed happy in SAO and wasn't quite that motivated to escape.

The mother is trying to act like those two years didn't happen, only talks about Asuna's friends, the ones she hadn't seen in real life for two years, and talks about the SAO kids as the "ones who killed each other for two years." As if Asuna wasn't one of those kids.

The school the kids are going to now is one set up by the Virtual Division to help reintegrate the SAO survivors into society. Asuna's mom thinks they're put there just to watch over them like they're in juvenile hall, and doesn't want her privileged child to be there anymore.

We're meant to contrast all this socially accepted definition of family with the online one Asuna and Kirito built and the one we'll meet as we follow the new character Yuuki. Kirito noticed that she's "living her whole life in this world," a sense he got from how she handled the game mechanics. Yuuki's "family" needs help and all the dueling was to find someone strong enough to make her use her ultimate sword skill. Since Kirito didn't have that feeling of "online" desperation, and he doesn't really like getting serious against a girl, it comes down to Asuna to see what Yuuki's situation is.

Heh.

Zekken's a girl!?



There went Asuna's meticulous conception of the purple bearded beast.

Kirito is such a chauvinist. "No, I didn't lose because I was fighting a girl... well, maybe half the reason I lost..." Let's be charitable and call it chivalry.

Hah. The most memorable thing to Kirito about his first meeting with Asuna was the stew she made. That's a guy for you.

Kirito's harem may have accepted Asuna as the favored one, but that doesn't mean they have to like seeing them flaunt it.

I liked that satisfied look Kirito got when he saw Asuna start bringing the pain. Proud of her and proud that he knew she could do that kind of stuff before anyone else saw it in ALO.

The new opening is way more spoilerific than last week, which still had some of the Excalibur scenes. This time around, it's all Yuuki and her Sleeping Knights. We'll find out next time what kind of trouble they're in.