10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 24 [END]

Sword Art Online II - Episode 24 [END]

Yuuki succumbs to her disease. Her many online and real life friends mourn her passing. Series Finale.

Heh.

Oh, man. Bring on the feels.

So many cars on the feels train, ain't nobody got room for opening credits.

When the medical staff left the door to the clean room open, that was the sign it was all over for Yuuki.

Yuuki, you and your big fluffy sentimental heart. Naming your most powerful sword skill Mother's Rosario and giving it to Asuna just about broke my heart.

The sword skill having 11 strikes is significant because each of the 5 decades of the rosary represents 1 Our Father prayer said on the big bead, then 10 Hail Mary prayers ending with the Gloria. 11 beads, 11 prayers, 11 strikes. Seeing her mother's form overlap with Asuna as she died cemented all those connections. Yuuki, rest in peace.

Zekken was still the strongest swordsman in ALO, but only in timed duels!

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 23

Sword Art Online II - Episode 23



Yuuki has a chance to share a regular day of school with Asuna. Asuna's mother agrees to let her stay in her current school after seeing her other "home".

Heh.

I think it's not a coincidence that Asuna's sub character looks like a younger version of her mom.

 

Hey Asuna, you just can't imply your mom needs to lose some weight. That's rude.

 

Aw. That was a touching moment in hugging Yuuki through a little camera on Asuna's shoulder.

 

Asuna's mom is a bit of a silver fox. Kirito should be so lucky if Asuna fills those, ah, boots the same way when she gets older.

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 22

Sword Art Online II - Episode 22



Asuna finds Yuuki in real life and discovers her circumstances are very sad indeed.

Heh.

I thought Yuuki's circumstances were going to be medical, but I guess my imagination was too small to conceive all the sadness piled onto this little girl. Her whole family contracting drug-resistant HIV through a transfusion, Yuuki steadily loses them all to AIDS. She's now confined to a clean room using medical full dive gear to alleviate the pain.

In fact, all the Sleeping Knights are terminal care patients using this medical full dive gear. But, as Yuuki's doctor explains to Asuna, the gear is only palliative. It doesn't cure their terminal conditions, so they chose one big thing to do in ALO before the next two of their group finally succumbed. That is sad. And it's no wonder the kids are reluctant to make new friends if they're only going to say goodbye permanently in a few months.

Yui getting eyes and ears through Kirito's software is the plot device to let Yuuki go to school with other kids again.

Nice use of the rising sun to light Asuna's face as she's about to give Yuuki a small ray of hope. Cliché, but still well done.

If Kirito is a good coder, that Yui app for Mama's phone shouldn't be too far away now.

This story's almost over and we still don't know what "Mother's Rosario" means. We should get on that pretty soon.

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.

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 20

Sword Art Online II - Episode 20



The Sleeping Knights tell Asuna of their plan to kill a Floor Boss by themselves. Kirito makes sure no other guilds mess with their plans.

Heh.

There was a bunch of sitting around talking, some arguing, some pointing at names on a marble slab, some pointing swords at other players, and then finally the story started up again when Kirito appeared.

I actually did a fist pump when Kirito sprinted ahead of that guild, planted his sword, in the ground, and did his best Gandalf impression: "None shall pass!" Yui's face shows she real serious too. Come at me, bro!

It may have been a while since the last time Asuna felt that rush of love, admiration, and relief with Kirito coming to save the day, but even if it was over a trivial thing like killing a monster first, she got that feeling again. "Oooh, you made my boyfriend mad!"

Hah, that guild wanted a Floor Boss fight, but it's too bad for them that Kirito is that Floor Boss. No little cheaters skulking around to find out his attack patterns, either.

It was fun to see how many times Kirito's name was on that slab naming the parties that killed the Floor Bosses first. It was also a bit enraging to see how many times that guild had poached the Floor Boss kills from the Sleeping Knights.

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!?

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 18

Sword Art Online II - Episode 18



Asuna is happy to reclaim her digital family's house in the New Aincrad levels. A new character has high level swords skills and is even stronger than Kirito.

Meh.

What's the point of describing this Zekken sword fighter in genderless pronouns, using a big, bearded guy in the characters' recounting, but still put some cute, short girl in the opening and closing credits that we've never seen before? Some people actually pay attention to the anime they watch...

Heh.

I didn't know Yui could turn back into her regular SAO form. I got a little emotional when Asuna, Kirito, and Yui stepped through the door of their old home. That was a neat bit of storytelling right there, especially after Asuna's and Kirito's conversation with Agil about how he met his wife in a videogame.

The girls made a pretty good point about Kirito never really fighting for real unless the stakes were outside of a normal game's parameters. In SAO, he was fighting for his life, but nowadays, ALO is just a regular game. Except for that part on New Year's Eve where the whole game could have imploded...

Isn't it always the way? After some MMO's update, some new guy comes around and just starts pwning everyone.

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 17

Sword Art Online II - Episode 17



The New Year's Eve adventure ends with a successful quest, some bonus items, love points, and a nice feast shared with friends.

Eh!?

Freya was a guy!?!!! Oh man, when Freya said the stolen item was a golden hammer, I knew Thor was going to show up, but I didn't think he was going to pop out of Freya! I guess Loki helped Thor out with that transformation spell. Also, either Kirito is way unbalanced with STR, or the Mjollnir hammer deemed him worthy to pick him up. Poor Klein, spending charm points on a drag queen...

Heh.

I'm on board with a quest taking only 3 episodes when it's supposed to be buddies killing a couple of hours on New Year's Eve before their get-together.

Watch out Sinon. No fair racing ahead of everyone else on harem points. At least Kirito knew the tough position he was in with his girlfriend watching and all.

Bonus points to Leafa in making the connection to use a lightning skill to find the hammer. Freya is the mother of Thor, so it wasn't too much of a leap to think the item responded to lightning.

With Urd being the quest giver, it was only a matter of time before Belldandy and Skuld showed up. Klein is such a sizeist: picking the smallest Hill Giant to throw some game at. He got Skuld's digits, though.

Hey, maybe a bow that has a 200 meter range is useful after all. A magic projectile wouldn't have been able to use an archer's lariat skill.

You know, Leafa used to be better at sword skills than Kirito in this game.

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 16

Sword Art Online II - Episode 16



Magic weapon skills prove useful. An obvious quest trap turns into an advantage. The Big Boss is Big.

Heh.

Every bit of conversation is turning into foreshadowing. First, an update gave elemental damage to weapon skills, which proved useful against an enemy with high physical resistance, except for the cooldown associated with it. Leave it to Game Breaker Kirito to dual wield de facto style by transferring dominant weapon skills to his other hand and break his cooldown.

The other bit of foreshadowing was Klein lamenting his lack of finding his destined love, so far. Well, busty blonde Freya might be the answer to that problem. If Yui can be treated as an autonomous person by Kirito and Asuna, why not another AI NPC? Besides, the seeming trap she presented, a usual either-or choice in these kinds of quests, provided a good max life boost to the players.

We've seen the other players in action in SAO, and some of them in ALO, but I haven't seen Sinon as an elfin sniper.

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 15

Sword Art Online II - Episode 15



A new Act brings us back to Alfheim as Kirito asks his friends to help him gain Excalibur. The quest is not as it seems, as others also seek the holy sword.

Heh.

This starts out as a simple gaming quest among friends over a holiday, but there's already some anomalies. A quest can have a binary moral path, but choosing one or the other does not end up changing the game world as if there were a major patch applied. That ties in with what Yui noticed about the NPC Quest Giver using an AI language module instead of reading from a script. Something is up with this quest.

Kirito always has swords on his brain, and in his eyes.

Don't you dare call Tonkii weird looking!

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 14

Sword Art Online II - Episode 14



The end of the GGO Act. Shino takes her first steps as a strong person in real life and lets go of Sinon as her crutch.

Heh.

Kirito kinda sucks at melee class IRL.

Good for Shino and Kirito in helping each other knock out crazy Kyouji-kun.

At first I thought it was a bit meh to have Kirito saved from paralytic death because of one of his monitor stickers, but after some reflection, I let it go. The weapons IRL with Kyouji-kun as the son of a doctor was this hypo-spray, so what better way to throw in plot armor than another tool of the hospital? It also gave the viewer the reminiscent feeling of how close death always stalked those trapped in SAO, and with Laughing Coffin elements driving the circumstances, it was okay to have a life and death struggle.

Having another Laughing Coffin member on the loose, according to the Virtual Division agent, keeps the SAO survivors mindful that all sorts of things, good and bad, escaped when Kirito rescued them all.

Being bullied by an airsoft gun is lame, but then Shino did have psychological trauma to exploit. Not anymore, though.

This little girl stole the show.

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 13

Sword Art Online II - Episode 13



Kirito defeats Death Gun with Sinon's help at a critical time, but Shino needs Kirigaya's help to fight off Death Gun's real world accomplice.

Hmm.

When I first saw how the aiming assist red line worked in GGO, I figured that at some point Kirito would use it to maneuver his opponent into a spot where he was aiming his sword. The circumstances of this fight with Death Gun, and Sinon, a sniper without a scope, added in that great feeling of teamwork. That was well done. And forcing Kirito to use his gun, but in the context of dual-wielding, was icing on the cake for fans of the first season.

One detail that caught my ear was how Shinkawa explained that he was the one playing Sterben for the other gaming murders, but it was his brother the SAO survivor who used the avatar for the tournament. In a way, this maneuvered the plot for a more satisfying battle with Kirito, because only another sword user with as much experience as Kirito would have lasted that long against him. This was actual sword fighting.

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 12

Sword Art Online II - Episode 12



Gya-Gya Online continues just a little bit more before the actions starts. Sinon destroys Death Gun's rifle, but that still leaves him with a sword to fight Kirito.

Heh.

That Kirito is pretty smart. He also considered the probability that Death Gun has accomplices, and they might even be inside the game, not just camping near people's homes to kill them for real.

Even with all that gya-gya, this game has only been going on about an hour and 45 minutes?

Hey, with Dark Wind taken out, that means only Sinon is available to win the money now, right?

Thanks to the nurse, the Japanese audience knows a little more German to trot out.

Good for Asuna in recognizing another agility based sword. Death by a thousand pricks would fit the style of killing someone with a syringe.

Hey, that guy is using a sword too!

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 11

Sword Art Online II - Episode 11

GGO, or Gya-Gya-Online continues. Kirito thinks Death Gun has an accomplice. Asuna wants answers. Kirito and Sinon form a plan to defeat Death Gun.

Heh.

If you thought all the gya-gya-gya was over last week, you were wrong.

You know, I come up with all sorts of interesting crime solving while inspecting female butt cleavage too. What can I say? It's soothing...

With all that yakking about how a bullet in the game can't kill you and with nothing going on, I was about to ...

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.

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.

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 8

Sword Art Online II - Episode 8



The Bullet of Bullets tournament starts, and Kirito has 3 suspects to confirm Death Gun's identity. Sinon and he witness Death Gun stun a player before taking the kill shot.

Heh.

Of the 3 Death Gun suspects, Sterben (German for "to die") and Pale Rider (Death, one of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, rides a pale horse) are good names, but Gunner XXX, ah, no.

I don't know why Kirito was so shocked at drinks popping out of a table, but it looks like something he can't get used to.

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 7

Sword Art Online II - Episode 7



The day after Kirito's first GGO game, the players take stock. Shino has IRL issues, while the ALO girls notice Kirito's absence.

Heh.

This is the hug-it-out episode.

Also, girls talk to each other. Gah, don't main characters know this?

Spiegel in real life doesn't like how mad Shino is with Kirito. It means she's thinking about some other guy, instead of the perma-friend-zoned beta male.

Shino pushed Kyouji away with much more authority than Sinon pushed Kirito away. The harem grows.

Kyouji also noticed Shino making a gun with her hand without freaking out. This sparks more jealousy since it seems it was because of this other dude that she's bringing the strength of Sinon back to the real world for Shino.

Sugu still knows how to tease her older brother. He needs to stop trying to look cool and strong in front of her already. She saw what he was like when he first popped out of SAO, as did his rehab nurse.

The counseling session with the nurse was good stuff. Kirito's feelings of committing evil by killing people still haven't been reconciled with his knowing that he did those things in self-defense and survival. He also tried to forget those things since his escape, which wasn't all that long ago, but now that he is mostly healed and is starting to have a normal life, it's not surprising to see these psychological traumas start to spring up. Very old-fashioned story-telling.

Hey, people still play videogames for fun!

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 6

Sword Art Online II - Episode 6



Kirito suffers his own PTSD over the people he killed in SAO. Sinon and he face off in the final qualifying round, with Kirito being the ultimate victor.

Heh.

Isn't this a bit of ret-con to add in two more deaths at Kirito's hands in Sword Art Online? We knew he had to kill one guy in self-defense, but this seems a bit forced to stick in a post traumatic stress flashback of a big mission to take on the Laughing Coffin guild. It's okay, but not great, in terms of story-telling, since the SAO and ALO arcs dealt with survival, then rescue, with the focus on reintegration and rehabilitation on Kirigaya's part. He hasn't had time to think about those life and death issues since then, but then again, he hasn't dealt with them either, which make him a kindred spirit in whom Shino recognizes someone else dealing with PTSD.

Good. Kirito stresses that being able to kill in a game is skill, not strength. It won't help you get over whatever demons you carry with you.

We saw two Laughing Coffin guys run away in that flashback. Maybe one of them is Death Gun.

Only other SAO survivors would recognize the name and sword of Kirito (hero of the rebellion, ahem), so is Death Gun's deal killing other SAO survivors he comes across? The Virtual Division should have been able to find a connection, right? Haven't all the deaths so far been of pro players? Perhaps Death Gun's warning to Kirito is that he knows how good a player he is, and eventually he'll be targeted because of his skill.

Sinon knows how to improvise a win.

10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online II - Episode 5

Sword Art Online II - Episode 5



Sinon finds out Kirito is a boy. Kirito enters his first match and learns how to use his sword. Death Gun quickly introduces himself to the new player.

Heh.

It's already too late for you, Sinon. You are well on your way to joining Kirito's 2nd Tier harem. Step 1 was for him to get you mad at him through no fault of his own. Step 2 was to tease you so frustratingly that you can't stop thinking about him. Step 3 and 4 will be some mix of saving your life or doing some sentimental thing for you, mixed with some more frustrating teasing, and Step 5 will be sitting around ALO with the other girls, quietly jealous of Asuna. In only half an hour, you're almost half-way through the Kirito Harem collection process.

I have to say, the comedy after Kirito outed himself as male had me grinning like an idiot. Sinon being mad, but more mad at the circumstances and her own carelessness, with Kirito following her around like a little puppy who was accidentally kicked.