10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 21

Sword Art Online II - Episode 21



The Sleeping Knights and Asuna successfully defeat the Floor Boss after fending off another raid party. The celebration is bittersweet as the small guild faces an upcoming separation.

Heh.

Plot-wise, not much happened. The Sleeping Knights defeat the 20 players standing in their way, as Kirito, Yui, and Klein hold off the other 30. The Floor Boss gets done in quick because Asuna deduced its weak point, and then the seven hold a party and look at their names on the Memorial.

Not a lot of plot, but a lot of action. Kirito got to act cool and BAMFy again. Asuna showed off her high DMG attack. Yui struck a hero pose. And even Klein showed up to cause some chaos in the back of the raid party.

Compare Hero Poses.



"We got this, mama." I could totally hear that coming from Yui. It sounds all tough until you get to the "mama" part.

Papa shows how it's done.



Show your broad (kinda) back to the woman you love, flash a Vee sign, and disappear in a wall of fire. Pay attention, Yui.

As for the cool action sequences, Yuuki was definitely having fun dancing around like a boxer between slash and tackle moves. However, Asuna showed her how you earn an unofficial nickname with an enemy-target move that causes area-of-effect damage.



Berserk Healer, yup. It was all over when she stashed her wand and equipped her sword.

Still, no one can match Kirito, just slashing magic projectiles with his sword and he also causes a demoralize debuff when he drags out Excalibur to dual wield.



Blacky-sensei, indeed. Kirito even called out that he learned those moves from hacking bullets in GGO. Good thing Sinon wasn't there to blow an unimpressed raspberry.

Hmm.

The celebration party at Asuna's house hit a nerve with Yuuki, adding another clue to the real-life problems facing the members of the Sleeping Knights. It was as if spending time in a personal house reminded Yuuki too much of another situation.

Asuna asking to join their guild until they need to disband exposed another emotional issue. I get the sense that the players are trying to limit any new connections or friendships, because the upcoming separation that they know about is already too hard.

Yuuki calling Asuna a term of endearment was the exclamation point on all this separation anxiety. I figure that Yuuki had promised herself not to form any new friendships before her disconnect, but spending time with Asuna had already crossed that line.

Seeing these issues with the Sleeping Knights is meant to remind us of Asuna's conflict with her mother, whom she needs to convince that the people she knows online aren't some imaginary people who can just be unplugged. The mother wants to make sure the unplugging is a reality by moving Asuna to a different school, instead of also being able to see her online friends in real life.

That idea of unplugging a friend forever gives me a dark feeling for what we'll discover is going on with Yuuki and the rest of the Sleeping Knights. Their online goals have been met, so I expect that we won't have any more cool action sequences. I'm getting ready for some tragic revelations.