Sword Art Online - Alicization - War of Underworld - Episode 14 - 10 Second Anime

Asuna’s friends enter Underworld to fight off the American beta players. Bercouli engages Miller in a desperate fight to rescue Alice.

Episode 14 – “End to Eternity”

Hmm.

Sword Art Online finally showed their hand on how Kirito is going to regain his senses. Higa, the main programmer, noticed that Kirito showed brain activity, fluctight activity, the two times Asuna and Sinon came near him. We’ve seen him make these responses since the time of Alice taking care of him, but somehow those movements weren’t the same as what Higa recorded. Is this a detail that’s going to go missing as Higa and Rinko create a backup of Kirito’s fluctlight from other versions of himself stored in his friends’ memories? Might they need to get back Alice’s memories and bring Eugeo back to life for the full effect? SAO has done this before with its story. The big info dump will happen exactly as the characters standing around talking proclaim it, and most of the details we saw earlier were only emotional decorations. The important thing is that we know how Kirito Jesus rises again!

The other thing to pay attention to in this week’s SAO episode is the animation style of Bercouli’s final fight against Vecta. This whole Alicization Arc has used faint lines and shaded textures for the characters. It’s visually interesting, but along the lines of looking at a moving painting. The ultimate clash between the First Integrity Knight and the Dark Territory’s Mad God Emperor used thick lines to mimic old-fashioned hand-drawn cels to capture the clashing movement between Underworld’s ultimate fighters. Wow! That was visceral and effective. Bercouli got the ending he deserved while poor Fanatio got that very Japanese almost-everything bittersweet ending. At least those two have a happily ever after in the opening credits.

Heh.

Yeah! The gang’s all here. More than the gang! The strongest guilds from ALO are all here. Yui is the best digital daughter ever and a way better AI than anybody else in Underworld. Alice is a dead fish compared to Yui.

What does Renly make of a little dragon sitting on a cute girl’s head? It’s been so long, but we need to remember that Asuna used to be second-in-command of hundreds of soldiers in the original SAO game. She knows how to lead troops from the battle front. She also knows how to make sure characters don’t die because of that experience. She needs to make sure these converted ALO characters can come back. It’s a reunion of characters we haven’t seen since before the GGO arc. The Sleeping Knights still look okay. “This game is a really suck!” Yes, it is, dead Engrish speaking American from last episode, yes, it is.

Okay. Here we are in the boring, talking part. Higa and Rinko figured out how to reinstall Kirito’s soul. Patch it up from other people’s backups, er, memories of Kirito. Kirito Jesus shall rise on the third day! Uh, I mean when the third person’s memories combine with two others. They’re girls, of course.

Eh? The whole point of showing those two robots walking around in the first part was for Higa’s mission? That’s lame even by SAO standards. Unless Yui jumps in one and starts causing real havoc. I’m not holding my breath on that speculation. Bah, I’m calling it. Somebody is going to jump into the second robot as its “balancer.” And everything is going to happen just like Higa said. RIP Yanai. I hope you like your last meal of eating a bullet for Higa.

Here we go. Back to the Bercouli and Miller’s epic battle. Hoh. Look at those lines. This is action style animation for SAO. Bercouli has a plan involving his time cutter, I’m sure. Yup. Will Miller figure it out in time? Yeah, baby! Flying dragons aren’t mounts in Underworld. They’re partners! The dragon gave Bercouli his opening and he showed his broken OP attack is better than Vecta’s broken OP attack. Actual time traveler against seeming time traveler. Bercouli had the advantage because he could go backwards in time while Vecta could only appear to freeze time with his will-sapping technique. Unfair! vs. Unfair!, but the most Unfair! won.

Aw. Alice wakes up to Bercouli dead. Her adoptive father did his job. Eh, did these fluctlights always have ghosts like this? Nice. Here’s a throwback to the conversation Higa had with Rinko about versions of selves in others’ memories. Bercouli remembers Quinella in a better light. Ah. The SAO episode title refers to Bercouli’s immortality. Without the Administrator, the Integrity Knights need to deal with their actual memories and worry about dying. I’m still hoping Quinella made it out through the STL and will complicate the siege at the Ocean Turtle. She might be the “balancer” for that newer robot. Good on Bercouli for getting busy with Fanatio during that army buildup. Too bad he won’t be a father to their baby. This is a dumb scene, because there is no reason for Fanatio to be praying here other than to give the audience some feels. Whatever. She’s pretty.


Yup. Miller lost. But he can get back in like Vassago did with a converted account. GGO mercenary has entered the arena. GGO was all about those Death Coffin guys still running around, so Miller employing one as they're both using their GGO accounts is a nice callback to that part of SAO's story.