Sword Art Online II "Cold-Hearted Sniper" Review

"1500 meters? That's like tossing a wad of paper into a waste bucket."

FULL EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD

You know, you never really see the origin story behind how someone gets a particular gun. You always just hear about it, or just hear how awesome the gun is (think Dirty Harry). Interesting move on the creators, then. I suppose.


You also never really see an episode of SAO where the focus is off Kirito. In fact, only one comes to mind, but even then, it did turn out to sort of be equally about Kirito and Asuna. But, this episode features solely Sinon, the sniper we met at the end of last episode, for all but like two minutes of the episode. And you know what? It's pretty darn great for it.

This is a great episode, and not just because we get to focus on Sinon, but because we are introduced and reintroduced to many things that make this series so great. We're introduced to a new way of doing things in GGO as well as reintroduced to animated backdrops to die for. It's these things that bring strength to the episode, focusing on such elements to make it all the better. It really feels like we've entered a new world, rather than a replica like the previous arc.

Sinon is clearly the standout character for the episode, making a strong case for why she should be the female lead much like Asuna and Leafa before her. From what we see--this episode being a good indicator of what Sinon is like--Sinon is smart, she is cunning, and she's the best at what she does. She's the undisputed best sniper in GGO, but this episode also shows off her courage on the battlefield as well as her steady heart. She isn't one to waver in the game and isn't one to give up for it.

She is also very similar to Kirito, though Kirito isn't mentioned. She seems to be something of a wandering solo player that everybody knows of. She doesn't let her skills get in the way of finishing the job and seems to try and stay away from the group as much as possible outside of the battlefield. The only difference is Kirito was a little more outspoken than she was, but Sinon does have a moment where she speaks passionately here and there.

But let's talk about what's probably one of the better parts of the GGO arc: the opening. It's a new one, and it's a doozy. I'm not sure if music-wise it's my favorite, for "Courage" and "Crossing Field" are pretty darn awesome, but it's my favorite visually. There are a lot of small things that require a person to watch it over again to pick up on. It doesn't necessarily tell a story, but it does set up themes that we will see across the arc as it progresses.

Let's take one of the first shots, for example, where Kazuto and Asuna are simply having tea when, walking down the street with Kazuto's back to them, are the two forms of Kirito we've seen as well as a third one that we've yet to come across. Then we have the human player for Sinon sitting at a park-bench while a little girl and Sinon look at her, the regular human looking rather serious, perhaps depressed. There's even a slight hint at who Death Gun might be if you think about it. Then, we get see Kirito in his new female form (yeah...we've yet to see that but whatever) as he fights some dudes and there's a sweet visual of Death Gun seemingly controlling both Sinon and Kirito. The most action-y part of the opening is Kirito fighting Death Gun in a very fast manner as well as Sinon and Death Gun having a gun fight, all culminating in Sinon and Kirito walking toward each other to face off.

So, yeah, if you haven't gathered anything from that, it seems like we're being set up for our very first rivalry between Kirito and the female lead, which is great! Like I said, Sinon and Kirito are very serious characters, so it's exciting to see how this little battle is going to turn out.

The opening isn't the most fitting for the arcs musically, but visually, it is very much indeed.

The episode opens months before the present day where Sinon takes down a monster, looking calm and making it actually seem easy. After defeating it, she gets the weapon she will use throughout the series, a Hecate sniper rifle. It's basically just a way of cementing the fact that Sinon is awesome.

Cuz, you know, she is.

We jump ahead to right before Sinon takes down one of the group members from last week, and it's here we see one of the thing I like about this arc so much, as well as something I retrospectively wish we saw more of in SAO. We get to see Sinon working with a small squadron trying to figure out who is what role in an approaching squadron, as well as the best method of taking them down. Even though you don't know a thing about any of these characters, you'll find yourself pretty interested in how this works. It has the charm of being a new game and you're also trying to figure out a strategy alongside the characters.

We also get to see that beautiful backdrop animation that makes a desolate wasteland seem beautiful. Dang. Talk about impressive, man!

The attack begins and Sinon takes down her target, but misses a cloaked one after her squadron moves out. They begin the frontal assault but are taken down as the mysterious cloaked person is revealed to have a Minigun, and is so bulky that apparently two shots to the shoulder don't faze him. Nice.

Sinon tries to get around the Minigun wielder, taking down another opposing squadron member, but finds it too difficult. Sinon's leader reveals him to be aptly named Behemoth and is serving as the bodyguard for the squadron.

Sinon's squadron makes an all-out assault in which all of them fall except for Sinon, but also manage to take down the opposing squadron...except for Behemoth. Sinon manages to get away, and displays great skill at dodging Behemoth's shots and bounding up a building, as well as jumping off of said building--minus a leg that was shot off--and putting a bullet between the eyes of Behemoth with a sniper rifle in the air.

Yeah. Sinon is quite awesome, like I said.

This episode contains much of the action that I was anticipating from last episode, and manages to pull it off very well. Since many people were a little skeptical about the show coming off a decent run in the ALO arc, the creators had to come out swinging, and boy did they. They managed to put on display not only the abilities of our new main character, but also laid the groundwork for some intricacies of the game to be explained later when Kirito should arrive all confused and what not.

For the record, then: our villain killed a man and our heroin singlehandedly took down half of a squadron while also caught relatively off-guard.

This season is gonna be awesome.

We cut away for a moment to see Sinon wake up in a small room, where she looks pretty much the same except for black hair and black eyes (like, you know, Kirito), and she mutters to herself that she needs to get stronger.

Then, we jump on over to ALO, where Silica finds herself in a similar situation fighting a similar plant from Episode 4 of Season 1. Ah, fun times with the throwbacks, huh?

We get to see Silica and Lizbeth's new ALO forms, which are basically the same as their SAO avatars but with wings and slightly more armor. Along with Leafa, the three of them comment on how much Asuna and Kirito are around each other, and so, why not go over to them? Kirito has changed his avatar as well, making it almost exactly the same as his SAO avatar. Smooth.

Thus, the episode ends with Kirito thinking about Death Gun as he looks upon Aincrad in the sky and tells Asuna that he has to talk to her about something.

Sweet, this season is off to a great start! There are tons and tons of exciting developments unfolding before us as well as brand new characters to be pumped for.

Tomorrow, we'll take a closer look into the dark past that Sinon seems to be hiding under that avatar. See you then!