"SAO isn't over. Not by a long shot."
FULL EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD
In the show's first real filler episode we get a glimpse into what life has been like for Kazuto since he defeated Heathcliff and saved over 6,000 lives in SAO. There's no real action--outside of a small duel with wooden swords--and some dramatic tension, so most of it is just catching us up on what's been happening since it all ended.
We also get a brand new opening and closing song to match the new arc, the Fairy Dance Arc, that the show is undertaking, but, I would advise against watching the opening for just this episode. It reveals a lot about what happens in the episode, such as what the status of Asuna is as well as who/ what the new arc is going to be about. When I saw it for the first time, it was pretty underwhelming to see where Asuna was and then to get the simple explanation in the episode of why it is, when the last episode left us wondering if Kazuto would ever find Asuna.
But still, the opening is good. I still prefer "Crossing Field" over it, and just like the previous opening, YouTube artist Amanda Lee did a better version, in my opinion, in English which you can listen to here and even did a fantastic job with the closing song, Overfly, which you can listen to here as well. "Innocence" is far more happy whereas with "Crossing Field" you kind of felt like this was going to be about the action and adventure and things are at stake.
This isn't necessarily a bad episode, but it's just not as good as the previous one and because the last episode was so darn awesome you can't fault it. It needed to be a slow episode to catch us up on the events of two months as well as introduce us to two, pivotal characters for the arc.
The episode opens and plays to your emotions, though, clever punks. It starts off with Kirito and Asuna at their little house on Floor 22 in SAO, but suddenly, everything around Kirito begins to disintegrate and turn to red because evil things, grr. He wakes up and we find out it was all just a dream, then finds that he is crying because he misses Asuna and the life they used to have.
We then get our first real meeting of Kazuto's little sister/ cousin, Suguha, who is practicing her sword technique out in the back. I should also mention that part of the water is frozen and yet she is out there without shoes, what the heck girl. You crazy. As she practices, she recalls the day that Kazuto first full-dived into SAO as well as when she saw him in his comatose state while he was in the game. He meets up with her and challenges her to a duel, saying that two straight months in rehab should help him defeat her, and he's had extra practice.
I really love the scene where the two duel, simply because it makes sense. Kazuto notes how light the sword is but Sugu tells him it's actually the heaviest they have. Well, duh Kazuto is going to say that. His brain has been dealing with an extremely heavy blade for two years and he hasn't held a weapon since then. The way the NerveGear operated on him makes pretty much any weapon he wields feel lighter to him. Just because in the game doesn't mean it's real, because his mind had to adjust to the weight of the sword to be able to fight.
This is also clear in the way he fights. Sugu notes that his stance is not nearly practical, but it's the one he used in the game, the one he's most comfortable with. He moves similarly to the way he did in SAO (just, with physical limitations) and finds that he really isn't as strong as he was. There's even a funny moment, after he gets beaten and says Sugu would have destroyed Heathcliff with her abilities, where he tries to put the sword away by sheathing it behind his back, like in the game. It's all about instinct. An even funnier moment comes when he's walking away and noting that he would have won the fight if he could have just used his Sword Skills.
Ah, Kazuto/ Kirito. You funny guy.
He decides to go to the hospital and it's here (if you skipped the opening) that we find Kazuto found Asuna pretty much immediately after clearing the game after spilling all the information he had about SAO to a man in Internal Affairs (who we will see again--Season 2!). She's still asleep and nobody knows why. Some are assuming that Kaiyaba is the one behind it, keeping players locked in some other, unknown server as his way of continuing the game. From the way it's presented, it sounds like Kazuto doubts it, and I doubt it too. He freely admitted to both Kirito and Asuna that he was wrong and that the game has been beaten, the players are all free to go. He may not be the world's greatest technologist, but he is a man of his word. Beat him and the game is cleared. Done. And look what happened.
So while Kazuto does find Asuna, she's still in her comatose state. She looks exactly the same, though, as she does in game, and she too looks to be pretty worn from being in the game for two years. Makes sense. Though there is some inconsistency later in a scene with Kazuto but we'll get to that.
While there, we meet Asuna's father and another man, Suguo, played by Todd Haberkorn in the English Dub. Now, as a side-note, I must say that every time I hear Haberkorn's voice, I instantly think of Natsu Dragneel from Fairy Tail. So, thus, any character he portrays becomes a variant of Natsu's character. In part because I don't want to remember their complicated names, and in part because his voice hardly ever changes from the roles I've recognized him in (he's still a great voice actor). And because Suguo and Sugu are so close in names, I'll change it up. For instance, in Chaos;Head, Takumi is "Pervert Natsu," in The Legend of Korra, Bataar Jr. is "Scientist Natsu," so in SAO I'll just call him "Evil Businessman Natsu" to keep it simple.
So, Evil Businessman Natsu gets left alone in the room with Kazuto and reveals to him that he has plays with the Yuki family to marry Asuna, despite neither of them being of age. Though, strangely, Evil Businessman Natsu looks like's probably in college while we know Asuna is only about seventeen. So, yeah, that's kind of weird. But not as weird as this show gets, trust me.
I don't really like the character of Evil Businessman Natsu simply because he's a creep for the sake of being a creep. He has little reason to be screwing with Kirito and the only reason I can see him wanting to marry Asuna is to get into the Yuki wealth, but he seems pretty well off on his own. He admits to being a leading part in the new big full-dive company. So, why does he have to be like this? This arc would be fine, actually if he wasn't even around. It would be fine enough if Kazuto were going on a search to find and rescue Asuna's mind or something like that without having a villain to just be there. He does become extremely sickening later on, though.
Heart and soul broken, Kazuto goes back home and begins crying while Suguha comes to his aid and comforts him, flashing back to the moment when her and her mother were talking about how they adopted Kazuto, not the other way around, and talk about how Kazuto has always been into computers--even building one when he was six.
It's here that we get our first implication that Suguha might be in love with Kazuto. I'll let that sit for now until it's elaborated on a little more. Just, keep it in mind.
Kazuto wakes up the next morning, feeling much better thanks to Suguha reassuring him to just hang in there and love will prevail. Or something like that. He gets an e-mail from Agil that shows a picture of Asuna trapped in a bird cage in a new game, ending the episode.
Ooooooooooooooooh man.
Asuna's trapped! We gotta rescue her. Quick, to the NerveGear!
Like I said before, this episode is alright, but mostly serves as a catch-up one and one to introduce us to some of the new plot points and characters we'll have to put up with this arc. I say put-up with because they're actually a lot more annoying than they are helpful at times.
Also there's a ton more fan-service this arc, yay.
But yeah, a whole adventure has just begun for our hero Kazuto! What awaits him? Well, tomorrow we begin our new adventure by diving into the game "Alfheim Online!" See you then.
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