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[KO Traveling Hobo]

Latest episode is godly.

(Major LN spoilers)

Spoiler

Why does Heathcliff have to be who he is!? Everything about him is just so awesome

. I really wish I hadn't spoiled that for myself, since I think the revelation would have hit me like a ton of bricks.

 

[BGBW]

I've come up with the correct titles for each episode:

1. If You Die Online You Die In Real Life
2. If You Try Online You Try In Real Life
3. If You Cry Online You Cry In Real Life
4. If You Ally Online You Ally In Real Life
5. If You Spy Online You Spy In Real Life
6. If You Lie Online You Lie In Real Life
7. If You Comply Online You Comply In Real Life
8. If You Fry Online You Fry In Real Life
9. If You Sly Online You Sly In Real Life
10. If You Ai Online You Ai In Real Life
11. If You Tie Online You Tie In Real Life
12. If You Good Bye Online You Good Bye In Real Life
13. If You Fly Online You Fly In Real Life

 

[dragonlife]

Wow, this sounds awesome. I'm glad it's on crunchyroll. I know what I'll be watching soon.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

I've come up with the correct titles for each episode:

1. If You Die Online You Die In Real Life
2. If You Try Online You Try In Real Life
3. If You Cry Online You Cry In Real Life
4. If You Ally Online You Ally In Real Life
5. If You Spy Online You Spy In Real Life
6. If You Lie Online You Lie In Real Life
7. If You Comply Online You Comply In Real Life
8. If You Fry Online You Fry In Real Life
9. If You Sly Online You Sly In Real Life
10. If You Ai Online You Ai In Real Life
11. If You Tie Online You Tie In Real Life
12. If You Good Bye Online You Good Bye In Real Life
13. If You Fly Online You Fly In Real Life

Sword Mart Online was your best, I must say.

 

[BGBW]

Sword Mart Online was your best, I must say.

Guess somewhere along the line I twisted it into "you die in real life".

Unfortunately they haven't really had a shopping based episode for "If you buy online". I guess seven is the closest, but he doesn't

Spoiler

pay

for the sword in the end.

 

[tamaster92]

Just finished Episode 13

Spoiler

dat cliffhanger :/

I liked Asuna's speech - it really got to me and I teared up a little.

But ya great episode, very intense and I can't wait for next week

 

[iRAWRasaurus]

I hope a figma of Asuna comes out mah waifus <3

 

[Moral Panic]

I don't know when "If you leave me I'll kill myself" stopped being creepy and started being romantic.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

I don't know when "If you leave me I'll kill myself" stopped being creepy and started being romantic.

If he died, she'd kill herself. Romeo and Juliet confirmed for nightmare fuel.

 

[BassForever]

I was under the impression that this was the big/awesome thing in anime right now, but reading though the OT and reading some impressions from other places makes it seem like everyone thinks this show turns into garbage fast, what exactly happened? I really enjoyed .hack series a lot and was kind of interested on premise alone.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

I was under the impression that this was the big/awesome thing in anime right now, but reading though the OT and reading some impressions from other places makes it seem like everyone thinks this show turns into garbage fast, what exactly happened? I really enjoyed .hack series a lot and was kind of interested on premise alone.

It mostly comes down to whether you're willing to buy into it or not. It's not the type of show that can drag you kicking and screaming into enjoying it.

 

[Pooya]

I was under the impression that this was the big/awesome thing in anime right now, but reading though the OT and reading some impressions from other places makes it seem like everyone thinks this show turns into garbage fast, what exactly happened? I really enjoyed .hack series a lot and was kind of interested on premise alone.

When it focuses on game mechanics it's pretty interesting for a gamer like me, there's been very few fights after 13 episodes though, if you're looking for some good action it rarely delivers. It's mostly about human interactions within the virtual world and while that could have been really interesting too, it's written so badly that is just mostly unintentionally hilarious. The show really only delivers lolz

 

[Firemind]

Greatest love story ever told.

 

[Kincaido]

<3

 

[Defuser]

Dresden you magnificent bastard. Watching Asuna is like watching paint dry.

Can't wait for Fairy dance for the tears.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I was under the impression that this was the big/awesome thing in anime right now, but reading though the OT and reading some impressions from other places makes it seem like everyone thinks this show turns into garbage fast, what exactly happened? I really enjoyed .hack series a lot and was kind of interested on premise alone.

well actually on places not gaf this anime is already charting on top 50 anime of all time charts, and the episodes 1, 2, 9, 10 were if I remember the better episodes that I enjoyed.

 

[yn-neko hates a cat]

I was under the impression that this was the big/awesome thing in anime right now, but reading though the OT and reading some impressions from other places makes it seem like everyone thinks this show turns into garbage fast, what exactly happened? I really enjoyed .hack series a lot and was kind of interested on premise alone.

Sword Art Online is experiencing the Call of Duty effect where something becomes so popular that hipsters can't be hip to it anymore. That said, not everyone will like everything but it takes a special someone to not be able to understand the merits of something even though it's not for them.

 

[duckroll]

Sword Art Online is experiencing the Call of Duty effect where something becomes so popular that hipsters can't be hip to it anymore. That said, not everyone will like everything but it takes a special someone to not be able to understand the merits of something even though it's not for them.

I don't think SAO was ever a hipster anime... just saying.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Sword Art Online is experiencing the Call of Duty effect where something becomes so popular that hipsters can't be hip to it anymore. That said, not everyone will like everything but it takes a special someone to not be able to understand the merits of something even though it's not for them.

People were trashing SAO straight out the gate, bruh. I think some of the criticism it gets is just autofellatio, but it's definitely not a "hipster" thing.

 

[yn-neko hates a cat]

I don't think SAO was ever a hipster anime... just saying.

People were trashing SAO straight out the gate, bruh. I think some of the criticism it gets is just autofellatio, but it's definitely not a "hipster" thing.

I'm willing to admit I may be out of touch and jumping to conclusions with wild assumptions because I'm mostly speaking about how I reacted to the show when I first heard about it. I didn't pick it up until a month and a half in because it "looked generic as hell" based on the preview posters I saw of the series. Guy with a chick and a weapon... PASS. I was too busy being interested in more high-brow stuff like Hyouka and Kokoro Connect

Spoiler

(LOL which I was hoping was a continuation of Kokoro Library when I first saw the name)

to care about SAO. I was so wrong...

Edit:
To clarify, I like to think I'm the farthest thing from a hipster when it comes to anime (good show is good!) but I felt like I was showing hipster tendencies with my reaction to SAO. I posted in another thread how I gave K-On a similar treatment for the longest time only to find how much I loved it after calling myself on the SAO thing. In short, I was probably projecting in my initial post on this subject.

 

[OceanBlue]

I'm willing to admit I may be out of touch and jumping to conclusions with wild assumptions because I'm mostly speaking about how I reacted to the show when I first heard about it. I didn't pick it up until a month and a half in because it "looked generic as hell" based on the preview posters I saw of the series. Guy with a chick and a weapon... PASS. I was too busy being interested in more high-brow stuff like Hyouka and Kokoro Connect

Spoiler

(LOL which I was hoping was a continuation of Kokoro Library when I first saw the name)

to care about SAO. I was so wrong...

Edit:
To clarify, I like to think I'm the farthest thing from a hipster when it comes to anime (good show is good!) but I felt like I was showing hipster tendencies with my reaction to SAO. I posted in another thread how I gave K-On a similar treatment for the longest time only to find how much I loved it after calling myself on the SAO thing. In short, I was probably projecting in my initial post on this subject.

I wouldn't be surprised if it were people being hipsters for some, but I personally think it's better to trust that people will think through their opinions as much as you would, if not more. This especially applies to AnimeGAF.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

When it focuses on game mechanics it's pretty interesting for a gamer like me, there's been very few fights after 13 episodes though, if you're looking for some good action it rarely delivers. It's mostly about human interactions within the virtual world and while that could have been really interesting too, it's written so badly that is just mostly unintentionally hilarious. The show really only delivers lolz

Pretty much, even most of the fights fail to deliver. It either just shows the heroes swinging their weapons around without showing the enemy or it uses still frames.

 

[duckroll]

Pretty much, even most of the fights fail to deliver. It either just shows the heroes swinging their weapons around without showing the enemy or it uses still frames.

Considering general latency issues... that sounds like a MMO!

 

[ChiTownBuffalo]

I have actually been watching this and enjoying it.

I would like resolution soon however. And then focus the rest of the series on how people are coping afterwards in the real world.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I have actually been watching this and enjoying it.

I would like resolution soon however. And then focus the rest of the series on how people are coping afterwards in the real world.

I wonder how the normal family would react to learning of such an event with their family members, or worst how the families for people who were the ones to bring in the money for their households are doing, like the one in the most recent who was the head of the network security for the game, and etc.

 

[kayos90]

well actually on places not gaf this anime is already charting on top 50 anime of all time charts, and the episodes 1, 2, 9, 10 were if I remember the better episodes that I enjoyed.

I think people expected the same kind of stuff in episode 2 to carry out but it didn't. Instead we got Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

 

[Zaptruder]

VR is so fucking awesome. So why do people writing about VR in sci-fi insist on the trope of having VR KILL THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYONE?!

Goddammit. You unoriginal hacks. Just use it as a substrate for cool futuristic interactions, not the thing that causes people to become comatose sacks of shit.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

VR is so fucking awesome. So why do people writing about VR in sci-fi insist on the trope of having VR KILL THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYONE?!

Goddammit. You unoriginal hacks. Just use it as a substrate for cool futuristic interactions, not the thing that causes people to become comatose sacks of shit.

Then you should check out Accel World, much better interface and use of VR and the VR causes minimal harm on the player.

 

[R_thanatos]

Heathcliff+Kirito+Asuna fighting togeather Im sure they can take down anything.

Well they are the most powerfull players of the game

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

VR is so fucking awesome. So why do people writing about VR in sci-fi insist on the trope of having VR KILL THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYONE?!

Goddammit. You unoriginal hacks. Just use it as a substrate for cool futuristic interactions, not the thing that causes people to become comatose sacks of shit.

Well, the VR world isn't actively trying to kill them. Not everyone is out there fighting monsters and putting their lives on the line -- a lot of them spend their days in the safety of the hub towns, either waiting for someone to clear the game and save them or resigning to their new world.

 

[OceanBlue]

VR is so fucking awesome. So why do people writing about VR in sci-fi insist on the trope of having VR KILL THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYONE?!

Goddammit. You unoriginal hacks. Just use it as a substrate for cool futuristic interactions, not the thing that causes people to become comatose sacks of shit.

Well, there needs to be a sense of danger, right? I mean, SOMETHING needs to kill them. :<

 

[Zaptruder]

Then you should check out Accel World, much better interface and use of VR and the VR causes minimal harm on the player.

Yeah, I should get back to Accel world some time.

But really, the whole psycho-somatic effects of VR is so silly when the tech that'll allow it to happen already exists in piece meal parts - and is actually better for us than our current computing technology!

(i.e. VR optics focus at infinity - eyes are more relaxed when using it than using monitors + with kinect style motion controls, means you're actually moving and active, instead of inactive, slouching in chair or couch).

 

[Zaptruder]

Well, there needs to be a sense of danger, right? I mean, SOMETHING needs to kill them. :<

It's so cheap and hacky. It's 20-goddamn-12. Not every bit of fiction that deals with VR needs to have VR as some kind of insiduous mind melding doomsday tech

On the flipside, I get it - VR is intriguing technology to depict. But it's difficult to justify creating a setting around it if it's not central to the conflict.

Until of course VR does exist in a commercial manner - and then we'll start to see a bunch of social/tech issues created by its advent that are as intriguing in its own right, albeit without as overexaggerated a sense of danger that these hacky writers seem to come up with.

At that point, if it's not prescient, then it'll seem laughably out of touch/short sighted.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Have you seen Dennou Coil, Zaptruder? I think it might scratch your itch quite well.

 

[duckroll]

Have you seen Dennou Coil, Zaptruder? I think it might scratch your itch quite well.

That's not VR though. It's augmented reality. Like Robotics;Notes.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

That's not VR though. It's augmented reality. Like Robotics;Notes.

Woops.

 

[Zaptruder]

Have you seen Dennou Coil, Zaptruder? I think it might scratch your itch quite well.

But Dennou Coil has the exact same problem too - i.e. the brain interface will fuck you up under some special circumstances.

 

[Zaptruder]

I got it! The solution to keeping much of the show's premise without the hackneyed "VR will melt you brain" trope.

The core idea of the show's initial setup is simply to make a VR world that 'replaces' the existing world for its users.

They're compelled to stay inside the game with the punishment of death. Thus it sets up a scenario that allows for game like mechanics in social differentiation and stratification. It creates the sense that when people get powerful; that there's a ridiculous degree of stratification between weak and strong - like in your typical JRPG, or shonen anime.

Which in turn has underlying themes about hardwork and efficacy (the harder you grind and work, the better you become).


Instead of having a punishment of death - just use the idea of 'reality TV', 'gaming as professional sports', and server unique rules - to create a similar setup.

i.e. entrants must stay inside the game at all times (except for small eating/hygiene breaks).

Hardcore death rules. No external communication. Winner gets a big ass prize. That way you can also have competent players (as people sign up knowing what to expect) rather than dumb ignorant fearful ones. Of course the problem with competent characters is you need competent writers to pull them off well.

And if you really really wanted the death trope in there, you could get some real world/VR world interaction going on where the are some crazy people are going around murdering the players to get an upper hand advantage in the game (or crazed fans killing off players to give their favourites the upperhand) - and there's a whole subplot about cyber security that could be spun from that too - how did they get hold of the user details, etc.

That said, I'm pretty sure this is similar to the premise of 'Ready Player One' - which has a world wide VR game quest to find 3 keys for a prize of controlling stake in the company that made the world wide VR game. I'll have to read that book some time.


Hell, the idea is so good that I think in the future this could actually be the premise to a (Virtual) 'Reality TV' show.

Could do it for some big MMO launch, with a tweaked rule set. Then players can buy into the whole MMO game that they're watching on TV, and even try out 'hardcore' rules on a seasonal server (i.e. you can only have 1 avatar on this server per season. Die and you're out).

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

How would the game mechanics work and what kind of setting would the game have? How would you differentiate the players without making the game seem unbalanced or resorting to asspulls?

But Dennou Coil has the exact same problem too - i.e. the brain interface will fuck you up under some special circumstances.

Derp. My bad. I haven't actually seen it. I was just going off of things I'd heard about it.

 

[Zaptruder]

How would the game mechanics work and what kind of setting would the game have? How would you differentiate the players without making the game seem unbalanced or resorting to asspulls?

What the hell is an asspull?

And of course defining (and even balancing) those (theoretical) mechanics in detail is part of the fun for both the writers and viewers. Setting up the game's internal logic and abiding by them (and breaking them for drama).


That said, after having watched a few more episodes while reading minimally about it in this thread (I read the OP and skimmed some posts), it seems pretty fun so far. After I set aside the hackneyed trope I've been spearing for the last few posts, it's really pretty watchable.

Probably the best show of its type (i.e. VR gameworld anime) to date... not that it's competition is that big... there's Hack and Accel World.

 

[Haly]

The author later on went to write Accel World.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

What the hell is an asspull?

And of course defining (and even balancing) those (theoretical) mechanics in detail is part of the fun for both the writers and viewers. Setting up the game's internal logic and abiding by them (and breaking them for drama).

I'm just having trouble imagining how the game would actually work.

Glad to hear you're starting to enjoy it!

 

[chickdigger802]

So.... readers of the books...

Can we expect grand things, or disappointing things?

 

[Branduil]

So.... readers of the books...

Can we expect grand things, or disappointing things?

You can expect waifus, waifus, and more waifus.

Not that I've read the books, I've just noticed the only thing that people who have read them ever talk about.

 

[kayos90]

So.... readers of the books...

Can we expect grand things, or disappointing things?

In what? Next episode? Glorious sakuga.

 

[Zaptruder]

I don't know when "If you leave me I'll kill myself" stopped being creepy and started being romantic.

The way it was said in the context it was, didn't seem so creepy - but rather a pretty pragmatic line for cutting through addle headed noble sacrifice nonsense.

"No, you can't go! I couldn't bear the thought of you dying my precious porcelain princess!"

"wtf. Look, if you go and die, I wouldn't be able to bear the thought I sat here and did nothing. I'd die myself!"

"oh. well, that makes sense. Ok, let's roll"


Reading through this thread is confusing. I can't tell if everyone is been sarcastic and trolling or genuine in their enthusiasm for this show.

It's like some have recognized - a surprisingly good show given the relatively cliched stuff it uses for designs, relationships and what not. Of course it could be a lot better in many different ways - but for a modern anime targeted at the modern otaku crowd, it's suprisingly good.

I really like the hell out of the core-premise even though I continue to insist that a setup like the one I detailed above could've done something similar while maintaining a better veneer of realism (not that this was going for that) and thus ability to relate real world social themes into the fiction.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Reading through this thread is confusing. I can't tell if everyone is been sarcastic and trolling or genuine in their enthusiasm for this show.

From what I've seen on GAF, there's a mix of people watching it. Some watch it because they think it's fun, some think it's amazing, some think it's so-bad-it's-good, some enjoy nitpicking the show, and some think it's pure garbage but watch it anyway. Some people aren't actually watching, but comment anyway since they've read the novels or have grown to loathe it because of all the chatter about it in the anime thread.

I have a love-hate relationship with it. When it's good it's great, but when it's bad I rage so hard.

 

[R_thanatos]

So.... readers of the books...

Can we expect grand things, or disappointing things?

For next episode , expect some twists and hopefully a nice animated fight.

From what I've seen on GAF, there's a mix of people watching it. Some watch it because they think it's fun, some think it's amazing, some think it's so-bad-it's-good, some enjoy nitpicking the show, and some think it's pure garbage but watch it anyway. Some people aren't actually watching, but comment anyway since they've read the novels or have grown to loathe it because of all the chatter about it in the anime thread.

I have a love-hate relationship with it. When it's good it's great, but when it's bad I rage so hard.

I just want to again point out that i enjoy SOA a lot ( and i've read the novels before )

 

[Narag]

Sword Art Online 14

lol

 

[Pooya]

yeah, dropped. that was too much and I don't have any interest anymore and

Spoiler

new direction

is awful awful. Doesn't help that there are other really good shows to watch now in this season.