Clad in desert pink and the size of a mere child, the infamous "Pink Devil" mercilessly hunts down other players in the firearm-centered world of the virtual reality game Gun Gale Online. But in real life, this feared player killer is not quite who anyone would expect.
A shy university student in Tokyo, Karen Kohiruimaki stands in stark contrast to her in-game avatar—in fact, she happens to stand above everyone else too, much to her dismay. Towering above all the people around her, Karen's insecurities over her height reach the point where she turns to the virtual world for an escape. Starting game after game in hopes of manifesting as a cute, short character, she finally obtains her ideal self in the world of Gun Gale Online. Overjoyed by her new persona, she pours her time into the game as LLENN, garnering her reputation as the legendary player killer.
However, when one of LLENN's targets gets the best of her, she ends up meeting Pitohui, a skilled yet eccentric woman. Quickly becoming friends with Karen, Pitohui insists that LLENN participates in Squad Jam, a battle royale that pits teams against one another, fighting until only one remains. Thrust into the heated competition, LLENN must fight with all her wit and will if she hopes to shoot her way to the top.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Stark700
6 years ago when Sword Art Online first aired, that piece of work caused controversy that still generates discussion to this very day. Then Summer 2014 came and we got the sequel known as Sword Art Online II. While being an improvement of the original series, it didn’t really amplify itself as a big improvement. Four years later, here we are again. Except this time, it’s not an actual continuation of the main series. Instead, we got this spinoff known as Sword Art Online: Alternative Online. To be clear, you don’t need to watch any of the previous series in the franchise. In fact, it doesn’teven matter if it’s the first time you found out this show exists. SAO: Alternative Online is the title as it suggests, an alternative story that takes place based on the SAO franchise. The original light novel is written by Keiichi Sigsawa rather than Reki Kawhara although he does provide supervision for the series. It takes place in a shared universe in the virtual world known as Gun Gale Online. The story deals with a university student named Karen Kohiruimaki who decided to join GGO under the alias “LLENN”.
Now I’ll be frank. I’m actually a bit of a fan of the Sword Art Online video games. I’ve played Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization and more recently, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet. The games actually contains a fair amount of enticing gameplay. After clocking a decent amount of hours in Fatal Bullet, I came to realize that Alternative Gun Gale Online isn’t so much different than the game itself. My impression of the first few episodes felt like the anime dropped me inside a video game. We have the main character LLEEN as she enters the Gun Gale Online world. She’s rather petite with a short height. In the real world, Karen is actually tall and has a height complex. As such, she takes on her chibi form in the virtual world to build her own self-esteem. There’s quite a bit difference in their personalities between her real life and virtual character that they almost seem like two different people. However, the anime spends a majority of the time on her in-game avatar.
The show set some red flags at first because of this premise. First of all, how are we supposed to take a character like LLEEN seriously when she looks like a kid dressed in pink and a rabbit-looking hat? The first few episodes chronicles her life in the GGO world as we learn about her role. It also drops a fair amount of exposition about the mechanics of the game she participates in. Similar ro the SAO II, this series mainly involves firearms. This is also similar in comparison to the Fatal Bullet game as we see a variety of weaponry. LLEEN’s choice of weapon is a pink P90 submachine-gun she nicknamed “P-chan”. It matches her style because of her speed and agility. In the meantime, the episode also introduces both allies and rivals as LLEEN spends more time in the GGO world. These include characters such a Pitohui, M, and Fuzarioh. Along the way, it’s easy to see LLEEN’s confidence develop as a player compared to her real life persona.
Unfortunately, I can’t really say the main cast of the series are memorable characters. LLENN is probably the only character that’s worth investing time into despite being having a childish personality. This is a bit contrast to Pito, who seems to have some psychological issues especially when she’s on the battlefield. M is a character that may feel like a comic relief after you realize his real personality. Finally, Fuka is LLEEN’s partner and best friend with a big obsession with VR games. While there’s definitely character chemistry between the main cast members, there’s not much development at all involving them. It’s a shame since the show could have really took the opportunity to make them into larger than life characters. Instead, they are just participants in the game for their roles. In real life, their characters are too average to be marketable and doesn’t really sell their personalities in any appealing way. All other characters in the series are easily forgettable and in fact a disgrace to the game itself, especially the perverted men. I think at one point, LLENN even asked “Do only lechers play this game?”
By this point, you may be asking yourself if this show is worth watching. Honestly, it’s not a hard question to answer but be prepared for a typical sci-fi/shounen story. The series feels like it’s mainly aimed for gamers and fans of the franchise. If you’re not a fan of this type of genre, then you may not get the best experience from this. Even after I played the games, I felt like show could of done more to develop the plot. Every episode that takes place in the GGO world feels the same with the battle royale-esque vibe and exposition. I do admit that the battles themselves can be quite exciting at times but once you’ve seen a lot of it, the hype dies quickly. The cheesy words used in dialogues borders to creep factor at times while the comedy remains generally lighthearted throughout the show. On the other hand, the real life portrayal of characters in later episodes steps it up to the plate. Some segments are genuinely heartwarming to watch and a few are rather important to establish character roles. It blurs the line between fiction and reality like the way it should be.
This is 3Hz’s first attempt at adapting a light novel series. Previously, they worked on original projects and a manga adaptation back in 2016. To me, they did a fair job although not an overly impressive one. I should say that praise should be given for the battle choreography as it feels like how a video game is portrayed. It has a similar style of the Fatal Bullet game including the death scenes. Camera angles, body movements, and character expressions are also well decorated to bring out memorable moments. Even the comedic factors sells well with the clever timings. There’s also a variety of weapons that are accurately portrayed from the light novel and games such as the P90, M107A1 (anti-material rifle), KTR-09 (Assault Rifle), photon energy sword, and among others. It does fell flat in the monster gallery though as the show focuses much more on conflict between the players. Unfortunately, I have to admit the overall world setting really doesn’t set the bar high for a virtual game. Every battleground environment looks the same that after you’ve seen it once, it feels like you’ve seen it all. The barren landscapes may looks suitable for the show but it’s extremely tedious and lacks creativity. There’s not even any diverse maps this season.
On the contrary, I will say the anime’s soundtrack lived up expectations and perhaps gone a bit beyond. The battle OST creates an exciting mood as we see players fight for their lives. Character voices may sound a bit generic but I confess that they work wonderfully for their personalities. The theme songs brings back the familiar mood of the previous SAO series if you’re a fan of those. In essence, it really works.
Sword Art Online: Alternative Online felt more like playing a video game than a watching an anime. After finishing this series, it felt like the creator wanted us to experience what’s like being part of the GGO world. As I mentioned before, this anime seems to adhere to fans of the franchise and video game players. The sensation of battle royale games has been a phenomenon in the most recent years. It took the world by storm and may remain that way for awhile. For a show like this though, there’s still room for improvement.
Zaber_san
Video games have been part of our everday life. Either from anime and to our real world, this type of entertainment have grown massive for years and it is still growing until now. Back in Summer 2012, the whole anime community was stunned as the first season of Sword Art Online came. With its mixed reviews saying it was either the worst or the best series, the whole community is divided until now even a season 2 came, along with the movie Ordinal Scale. Looking back to the past recent season which was Spring 2018, we were given a ton of new shows and sequels. Alongcame a spin-off that will judge anime fans, who have watched Sword Art Online. That is the spin-off 'Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online', which I am going to review on now.
The setting of the story is alternative to Sword Art Online 2, where we are first introduced to a virtual shooter game named GGO (Gun Gale Online). Alternative, meaning the characters will be different as well and the story, giving us a relief from the main problem of the original series, which are the characters.
The plot revolves around Karen Kohiruimaki (Llenn), who has a problem about her tall height. Her complexity have been her problems. From being jealous to cute, little girls and always knocking her head into a high platform, this has become a nuisance on her real life basis. But this complexity of hers is a good character quality. We, audience, have given a bit of a background of her issue which leads us speculating possible outcomes of her overcoming it and we audience are anticipating that. Unlike, the main character from the original Sword Art Online series, which is Kirito, we really don't know his past or characteristics in real life. We just know that he is a beta tester, concluding that he is good with the game SAO and with this we can speculate the outcomes that our main protagonist can get out of the game.
Here on SAO Alternative, we have a clumsy main character, who found her dream into the game of Gun Gale Online, which is to be a cute little girl (a loli). Though it sounds ridiculous, it was by chance that she got the avatar she wanted all along. We have seen her going through other games and still having that enormous height of hers. We've seen her struggle because of it making her log-out automatically. She was lucky she got the character she wanted. Another thing I want to point out to the main character of Alternative is that inspiration from the character is there. And that is her favorite singer 'Elsa Kanzaki'. This gives us another information that this MC is not really strong or confident in life (due to her complexity), that is except if she has any inspiration, which is the music of her favorite singer. This applies on real life as well. Each and every one of us have inspiration either to someone, dream or things that can support our works.
Then comes her game mechanics. On the first few episodes, I can already tell that she is easy to spot on or killed if she is not taking 'M's advices or go with him. The fact that she is so clueless to the game let us see what she can do. Is she going to be like the main character of SAO, who is so overpowered? Or is she going to be just a nuisance to the team? The answer is right through the middle. Although we see her with her sonic-like abilities, we have to agree that without strategizing, if she goes on to a team fight, she will just get shot to death.
That is why 'M' as the character supporting her in the few episodes have an impact to the situation of "overpowered characters" on anime. Unlike other characters from other series that have over the top powers, Llenn... is just a "The Flash" of GGO. A pro team can single handedly deflect her speed advantage and strategizing it to lure her and get the kill. Without M's guidance or knowledge on the first Squad Jam, Llenn would have been butchered by those "kids". Then we have 'Pitohui', the one who give Llenn more guidance to the game and her first friend. Pitohui's role on the story as a villain is quite good as for some reason her antagonistic traits comes part only at the final episodes. Her avatar does look like an assassin or a mercenary, which is have antagonistic traits, but on their first meetings, the two were friends. Though this friendship is tested by upcoming revelations throughout the episodes. Gun Gale Online's Squad Jam showed the viewers other characters but most notable supporting ones are the SHINC, which comprises of tall and strong women on the first squad jam. Earlier I talked about Llenn being useless or can easily be killed if she is not strategizing against a pro team. The SHINC made an accurate example of it on the final battle on the first Squad Jam. Then after their defeat, revelations of their real life self stunned Karen and actually made her more confident about her complexity which backsup to the 'character development' that a protagonist should have.
Along with her development and confidence on herselve in real life, we are shown by her strategic development in game on the second Squad Jam. This tells that experience is far more superior than power and along with Shinohara, Miyu (Fukaziroh), the second Squad Jam highlighted the 'Pink Devil' development. It is as if on the second Squad Jam, comparing it to the first one, Fukaziroh was like Llenn (the clueless one in the first squad jam) and Llenn was M (the one who knows what to do). This characters are very notable and unique which gives the anime itself on my opinion a better version of the original series. With its opening having the same singer from the season 2's GGO arc, to the pleasant and heart-warming ending of the anime, this show is really spot-on. Not to mention the art of this anime being simple but watcheable. Who doesn't like a pink loli going up against players and beating the heck out of them? And I am not even done yet. Like in the past, Sword Art Online was a massive, hit not only to the anime community but around the world, as its timing of its genre was very on point. With the launch of Virtual Reality and it being popular to the masses, Sword Art Online was like an intake to the VR world. Giving us questions like what are the possibilities of this technology be?..
Alternative does the same thing but not Virtual Reality but 'Battle Royale' games in a whole. For the past months, this type of games have been popular even if you only have PC, PS4, or XBOX, this type of game hits the masses. From H1Z1, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds then to Fortnite, this games have been trending for months on ever single websites on the internet. Even anime fans plays this type of games and coincidentally, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online came out April 2018 this year which was a month where Battle Royale games like Fortnite and Player Unknown's Battlegrounds are on the top list of online games. This anime deliver the 'Battle Royale' genre into the screen perfectly from tactics, weapons, equipments, team fights, and a whole lot more. Of course there are still some differences of the Squad Jam on GGO being different to the 'Battle Royale' games on our generation for example, the scan and it being virtual reality. Although, I could say it is very close to it and that is why Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is a very entertaining show. With its great protagonist and antagonist which have character developments and backgrounds along with the other characters supporting each other from the action scenes to inspiration, Sword Art Online Alternative is a great show to give a try on if you dislike the original series' intake of characters and plot.
Story: 7/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Character: 9/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
TakaCode
Sword Art Online or SAO for short is the most polarising anime series of all time. It is the definition a series that you will either love or hate. Like with many people on net I have a very low option of Sword Art Online because it was a terrible series. While I don’t completely despise the series anymore mainly because I have seen anime that are in my opinion worse than Sword Art Online it is still a series that I really dislike with a passion When I first heard about this series being announced a couple moths back after I watched the painfully subpar SwordArt Online movie I was really excited to check it out. The main reason why I really excited for this is because that they are completely removing three of the nasty SAO elements that made the franchise such a piece of shit.
The first nasty element of SAO which the spinoff removed was the Gary Sue preaching idiot Kirito who is by far one of the worst anime protagonists to ever exist from this medium.
The second nasty element of SAO which the spinoff removed is that it was going to be done by A1 Picture aka the EA of Anime. There’s honestly not much to say on this part because if you have seen any almost anime from A1 Pictures you would know incompetent the studio and the staff are.
The final nasty element of SAO which the spinoff removed is that it was going to be written by one of the worst writers ever Rei Kawahara which was honestly the best part about that anncoument because the spinoff is actually going be done a more talented writer Keiichi Sigawa who also did the Kino’s franchise.
With all of these nasty elements of SAO killed off in the spinoff I thought the spinoff could how a different and more appealing light to a series where many other such as myself hate. Now watching all 12 episodes of this spinoff as well the hilarious recap episode I have to say this
This show is a terrible SAO spinoff however on its own Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online is a pretty good anime its own right that barely functions as typical SAO product. Now with that all said hello everyone this is Shawn aka KurataLordStage and welcome to my review of Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online and with that out of the way let’s begin.
Story.
The story follows a Tokyo university student named Karen Kohiruimaki, who's insecure about her height and an introvert. One day, she decides to join GGO on the advice of a friend in order to improve her self-esteem, using the name LLENN. Along the way, she makes friends as she plays the game with other GGO players and fight against hostile players aka PKers and monsters.
Not gonna a lie I thought the story was pretty good for the most part.
Right out the gate this anime makes a great first impression by introducing our main character Karen or LLENN who is trying to adapt to her new surroundings in the Gun Gale Online where instead of being this overpowered Mary Sue she actually takes her time to understand the game as trying to find escapism from the real world thanks to her height complex.
The one thing that really loved about this anime is how it was able to present all of it’s game machermise to the audience to a point where anyone can understand the game machemes as well what it has to offer to the player.
Unlike the original SAO series were all the games that were featured in that series were fundamentally broken thanks to poor world-building and poorly explained game mechanics Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online actually takes it’s time to build its world in the game of Gun Gale Online where it actually propley explains the games mechanics from battle locations, weapon types, weapon attachments, battle tactics, etc. This alone really makes the world of Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online feel alive. It’s not just worldbuiding though. The dialogue too is great as it prefects captures the tone of the battle royal setting where character are seen actually communicating with other and working together instead of being edgy solo players in a battle royal game.
Also the way the characters in the show interact while playing the battle royal game is great as they all feel like actually gamers who would like to work together to accomplish they goal from talking about stragicly, saving teammates from death, actually honouring squad mates deaths with respect etc. These are the type of stuff that I want to see more in a anime that has a MMORPG/ Battle Royal Setting.
Another thing that I liked about SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online it how self-aware it is. VR Gaming being overall better it still has that issue where the game uses RNG to create an avatar that’s she want by failing with hilarious results thanks to her height.
As much I want to continue praising the show with its solid writing and theme exploration I have now address some of the show issues. While the problems in Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online not series breaking issue still had a couple of issues that I couldn’t ignore at all.
Issue 1. Plot armour. I will admit the plot armour is not as a big problem here when compare to the original Sword Art Online series by Reki Kawahara there were some plot armour moments in the show that kinda upset me. For example in episode 5 after Eva shooting down P chan she literally gets angry and fight backs hand to hand combat Kirito style killing Eva in the progress. I understand that the show want’s to showcase the aggressive hand to hand combat in the series but this was just a cheap and lazy to do it.
Issue 2. Weapon damage constantly. Like with Issue 1 it wasn’t really a big problem however they was a certain battle that bother me and that is one of Fukaziroh Grenade Launcher bullet’s did not explode the target’s face on impact. Grenade Launcher bullet’s don’t work like this. Unless she has some special type of grenade launcher that would not explode on impact where the show never tells us that she has bullets like that her shooting out the bland grenade launcher was an asspull and never explained.
While issues 1 and 2 were minor problems that the issue 3 one really made me upset quite a bit of how the show even kept one of it’s SAO elements from the Aincrad arc and that is if you die in the game you die in real life bullshit.
The moment when M said that in episode 5 the show kinda lost me because as a person who dislikes main original series of SAO I went into to this series expecting a fun battle royal spinoff that doesn’t feature any of the shitty SAO elements. Luckly that shitty SAO element only affects one to two characters and while everyone is safe from dying in real life by a video game. Speaking of episode 5 the whole episode was out of context and contrived. This was defiantly a low point from this spinoff but least it’s not as bad as any arc in the original SAO series.
Overall I thought the story was pretty above average. It may have some issues but I don’t think they were series breaking like in the original series.
7/10
Characters.
When it comes to the characters of Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online I thought they were pretty good. They may not be well written but they were all fun, interesting and entertaining characters that I liked.
Karen is a pretty solid protagonist overall. Unlike Kirito her reasoning to escape into video games is more justice as she doesn’t like her own height in the real world so to counteract this she goes to GGO and upon surprise the game let’s her be that cute small girl that she’s always wanted to be. This doesn’t stop there she also discovers that she is genuinely enjoys being in that game and because of that GGO becomes her escapism from the real world. This is how you write a character who wants’ escapism in the real world through video games. Also unlike Kirito she actually a interesting character who develops quite a bit in the show by meeting new friends, and rivals that are in GGO.
The rest of characters were pretty solid overall and while they are not excually well written characters because come on this is SAO after all but least the other characters in this show are fun, entertaining and at time interesting compare to any character in the original series.
8/10
Visuals.
Visually Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online is pretty good overall. Yes it may have it’s art failures every now and then but least this show for the most remained consistent.
The characters designs are good for what they are as they look like avatars that you will see in a MMORPG games that features heavy use of guns. The background scenery for both in the game and real world is very polish and well detailed.
The animation is on the other hand is well animated and unlike the original SAO series there was no instance of messy animation.
Sound.
The may come off as unpopular opinion here but really like the soundtrack in SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online more than the original series mainly because apart from swordland, confront battle and some others tracks the soundtrack for original series were not that memorable but that just me.
The soundtrack for Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online is great that is filed with techno, Sci-Fi and gaming tracks that blends well with the overall setting and scenes of the show.
The opening theme Ryuusei by Aoi Eir is a fantastic and catchy opening theme that was a joy to watch.
The ending theme To see the future by the Seiyuu of Karen Tomori Kusunoki is a great ending theme despite being different in tone.
The voice acting in this show is top notice as you expect as every Seiyuu in the show did a great job with the roles that they were given.
Hopefully this show will get an English Dub sometime in the future.
10/10
Final Thoughts.
I was honestly shocked of how good Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online. Yes it had quite a bit of issues alone the way but they were not constant problems that plagued the original anime to the bottom. The story while having some issues was still fun and entertaining. The characters ranged from good, entertaining to decent, the visuals were great and the soundtrack was awesome. As a person who doesn’t like Sword Art Online this was a good and fun experience that showcased a bit of light from this rabbit hole of a series that people like to make fun off.
If you haven’t seen anything Sword Art Online releated or if you hate the Reki Kawahara side of SAO then I recommend Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online. It may not be one of the better animes of the year but it was still a fairly good show that I liked for the most part.
Final Score 7.5/10
KANLen09
In 2012, we are introduced to the world of Sword Art Online, where it features the most hated over-the-top OP character Kirito, the main MC along with his shenanigans of fantasy-drama with the cast of SAO, and his foundation brings him over to 2014 where we have SAO Season 2: the world of Gun Gale Online (or GGO), with an entirely new cast (but not without the original cast (since it’s a cross-over)) that manages to do well but garner less attention from the original series, but in all essence, Kirito stood still: He saw, he came, and he conquered…ALL, with much hate from theanime consensus.
This year, we have an entirely different GGO, not written by the original creator Reki Kawahara (thank goodness!), but by the author of Kino’s Journey, Keiichi Sigsawa. Knowing the gun-crazy novelist, as mentioned from Pitohui: “Well, he’s a gun freak and a not-so-novelist but afterword writer (that takes serious pride in his work but doesn’t take himself seriously and just wanna have fun). This is what you get when they are combined.” And much to my amazement, SAO Alternative is a damn good and impressive series of not just its light novel adaptation, but the anime series here provided so much fun and realism that’s NOT what the original SAO had with OP characters, the MMORPG or game-fantasy setting and fanservice, just plain old good shooting and characters to boot AND finally THE SAO series that is worthy to be discussing about here.
This story follows the main best girl (IMO) Karen “LLENN” Kohirumaki, not the typical kind of girl that you see on the streets, because she is insanely tall (183cm or 6 ft’) and has problems coinciding with society that are the status quo. Relinquished, but not out, she sets on the task of finding the best VR game that suits her wellbeing of being shorter and chibi-fied, and none other than GGO (with her AmuSphere) is she able to take advantage of her small sized avatar of her dreams! And it is there that she finds the friendly, yet sadistic Pitohui, just the typical friend looking out for each other at first…until her invitation (and pressure) to LLENN to enter in “Squad Jam” (which is SAO Season 2’s Bullet of Bullets (BoB) team battle royale variation) faces both a challenge and a fight to the death as Pitohui’s obsession with the original SAO features made her lose consciousness (or rather, becoming the 2nd Kirito) and her fight in SJ2 proves that.
So, with the storytelling and how director Masayuki Sakoi (one of the best from Studio 3Hz) decided to pace Sigsawa’s adaptation, it is apparent that for those who entered this with no know-how of SAO Season 2: GGO will be lost (but not by much), and the pacing of the series which is fast, but progressively it slows down to give the plot more context and its true intentions here and there. Overall, it is a well-thought-out story which gives more exposition and its characters life out of the ordinary. And…not to mention that recap episode where Sigsawa himself has lavished out his own parody (as he is famous for that) in Episode 5.5 where he ‘sponsors’ SJ inserts through his self-acclaimed “afterword” (or after-credit rolls) through silly voices and sounds into the battle footage, oh what a bliss!
The characters here tell the exact same story from how they are made from the ground-up, and as a result, they flow much better than the SAO counterparts it came from:
LLENN, as a character, much from her chibi avatar cuteness that cannot be mistaken as a kindred spirit in battle, she is a character that goes all-out in doing what she does best: Shooting, make and gather friends, more shooting, and a blood-bath between her and Pitohui rounds up what her activities lie in. Be warned as her real and VR life are two separate entities: the tall yet humble self vs. the crazy, all-pink character mascot that she has garnered popularity amongst Squad Jam players as one with the most potential. Engaging with LLENN felt like a journey of sorts (see the similarity?), from her alliance with Goushi Aousgi (better known as M in GGO) in the first Squad Jam to friendship with Miyu and fighting together in SJ2 against Pitohui and M and their mercenaries. Overall, LLENN is a character that can best be resembled as another Sinon, but not to that extent where it gets all technical, and with her P90 (often calls it P-chan), she can go anywhere. Overall, LLENN’s character writing may not be brilliant, but it’s fun to see her insane adventures and risks to be the best of the best.
Pitohui, the character that is out of form and looks hideous, first appears like the stereotypical challenger out from the ashes, but immediately her scarred or tattooed face immediately gives away the vibe that she is not the typical challenger like the many out there in SJ. Suffice to say, it’s her addiction through the SAO back then that made her this way: the aggressive, careful and meticulous yet murderous intent that shaped her the way in GGO, even though the 2nd round of Squad Jam where she mercilessly slaughters enemies the EXACT way how Kirito did in GGO with the light saber. But thankfully, this is one of the few traces of the original series and doesn’t go to an extent to replicate what happened, so crisis averted. Overall, Pitohui is a character you wouldn’t want to mess with, because she gets her work cut out and done on the spot.
M, the armour/guards-man, he is the typical buff character…until his deal with Pito shows up his desperate face, just as many out there (but not as stressful as the original series where you die in the game, it’s game over in real life). But I can tell one thing, he’s as robust as a rock with his tank-like shield which repels shots to the maximum and I have to say that M makes light work of how a support character and a team member should be. The man with guts to analyze the best of the situation, I approve!
The characters don’t quite have much to boot and/or say, given their exposure that doesn’t give much information from the start, but as the series subsequently progresses, it gives the characters much substance and their identity uncovered and recognized.
In the art and animation department, it is absolute proof that Studio 3Hz could take any adaptation, fill in with their own unique quirks and still make the series look as realistic as it is. Unfortunately, as much as the original series (SAO S2: GGO) has been shown, the art style may lack in some areas which A-1 Pictures have done well capturing the essence of GGO in its entirety. But what it makes up for with sacrificing art quality is with animation, and it helps that 3Hz is hands down one of the best when it comes to animation quality, and throughout the immense action, it doesn’t sweat a beat, and fuses with the art style quite well, making a decent art style still look appealing to the eye.
The musical department, is quite frankly, the high point of the series. Eir Aoi has done it again, with the 1st OP of SAO: GGO “Ignite” in 2014, and in comes the alternate version with “Ryuusei” as the OP, and honestly, is lit and on fire, and immensely watchable, so much that I never escape the OP just to hear the goddess come back to reign in her high-pitched voice that truly is just satisfying to listen to. And let’s not forget LLENN’s VA, famous seiyuu Tomori Kusunori with her ED “To see the future”, and just like the OP, is a good ED to end the series’ episodes, and overall, this OST is a soundtrack that’s worth having, and is my No.1 favourite this season.
Overall, SAO Alternative: GGO is a series that if you’re coming in from SAO and reeling in from the saltiness of the series (which I don’t blame you), it’s hard to get adjusted of this gem of a show, albeit done by an author of jokes and a different production team, but promise me, forget the travesty you know that is SAO and stride into the Alternate: GGO that is everything except what Reki Kawahara had envisioned, with absolutely no expectations, and see how much this show will amaze you from the get-go. If you haven’t watched SAO, GOOD, go watch this one, because you don’t need to know GGO to enjoy this series.
As for myself, this is my AOTS alongside Golden Kamuy, and this has been proven by an ex-SAO fan who thinks that this was none other than exceptional, more so than the originals. A great job and well done, Studio 3Hz and the production team for providing an SAO that mirrors Sigsawa’s ideals instead of Kawahara’s, and is fun and enjoyable from start to finish.
Its-Maki-kun
For years, Sword Art Online franchise told us a story about being inside a VRMMO game (or ARMMO in Ordinal Scale case) and while the setting or the world building is very good enough, they never have given us any good story or protagonist characterization (I'm looking at you, Kirito). Suddenly an adaptation of a light novel spin-off based on Sword Art Online franchise came to us and exceeded its original story it based on. Using the game setting of Sword Art Online : Phantom Bullet arc, the VRMMO game called Gun Gale Online, I will tell you why this spin-off is far more betterthan its original story.
The most important thing is of course, characterization. They used one important theme around building LLENN as a character and that is insecurity. It is very shown that LLENN or Karen have an insecurity about her height that is far taller than anyone else. She thought that being tall was not cute at all. Hence, she hoped that if she entered the world of VR, she could become shorter and cuter. She hopped from one game to another just to get a perfect avatar for her to fulfill her insecurity. Pitohui on the other side used game to suppress her suicidal tendency and sadistic nature just for LLENN to enter the fray and snap her out of it. For me, I have the same way of thinking as LLENN. Game is somewhere that you should have fun because sometimes reality is harsh and you just want to run from them for a while.
While the original story itself has already made a good game mechanics, this spin-off really used them well and even added more things that really interesting. First, how the stats really pay off at the battles. LLENN have more AGI than most people it made her very insanely fast while Fukaziroh have more STR than most people it affected her ability to wield more weapons than anyone and of course, her power to do melee. Second, how they used the bullet line as a signaling system. Until now, bullet line just shown as a prediction line to avoid the bullets. To actually used them as an effective way of communication, it never crossed my mind until this adaptation came. They used it as a marking for party members to move stealthy or separately. And lastly, the immortal object. I think it is very smart to use dead bodies as shield as it was an immortal object that cannot be penetrated. It was a perk that is very interesting to be part of our strategy in a game about guns and bullets.
The music is certainly good. The songs that being sung by the voice of Kanzaki Elza have this vibe of Aimer in her voice making the songs feel deeper and better in my opinion. Of course, you should never miss the opening song. After a long time of hiatus, Eir Aoi came back and sang the opening for this anime. For me, it is fitting since she was the one who sang the first opening of SAO II and it was a great reunion for the fans of both SAO and Eir Aoi in general.
Overall, this anime has exceeded all of my expectations and rise above its original source, Sword Art Online. With how the anime ended, I do really wish to see this anime being continued into second season if the source material or the light novel still have more story to go. It is a huge kudos for the writer of both the source material and anime.
NoizyFrog
This show is a spin-off in Sword Art Online franchise and features a completely new cast in next “death game lite” scenario. Do these major changes mean improvement over the original? No. SAO:GGO tanks story and characters as spectacular as its predecessor, minus those action sequences, that made SAO at least serviceable. RATING: 3 – bad. STORY: We did not forget the obligatory café info dump & rape scene. I do not research upcoming shows, or the names behind a project, often I don’t even read the synopsis; the only entries I may recognize are the title and the studio. After several weeks I learned, that apparentlysome big shot was working on the script, thus GGO is already a much better anime. Nope, I do not see any improvements. You don’t believe me? Let’s play SAO-Bingo.
I am asking for an overpowered main character, do we have one overpowered protagonist somewhere? Bingo! LLENN is abnormally fast and small compared to everyone else. Plot armor, is plot armor a thing? Bingo! LLENN’s first tournament or Pito’s headshot are nothing but plot armor. Next is an obligatory rape scene, can we see some questionable content? Bingo! Molesting dead virtual bodies is a critical hit for me. Finally, I offer café scene containing info dump! Bingo! But wait, it is not just a scene, it is an entire EPISODE. BINGO!
Not only does the show wander aimlessly until the obligatory café info dump episode, it also manages to tell nothing of importance afterwards. This anime is just a slow tournament arc void of any narrative and filled with underdeveloped caricatures. Not to mention that GGO as a game is made even more boring and dumb.
CHARACTERS: Kirito is a better main character.
Initially, our main character, Karen, was looking for means of escapism, because she has a complex concerning her height. This trait is the only integral point in her characterization and together with the whole escapism theme quickly loses any relevance after first episodes. Motivations are nonexistent. I already mentioned plot armor, so moving on to the antagonist, Pito.
She is a good player and nuts. That was fast.
The support cast is just as amazing: we have a group of middle school girls, who want to improve their teamwork in a virtual game by fighting against militant squads doing their training in GGO. Makes sense to me. Moreover, there are friend B and friend M. All the other side characters are morons, as players and as human beings.
ART & ANIMATION: Pink loli in a brown desert.
At least the original SAO had some above average visuals and several well-made action scenes, thus could be discarded as popcorn entertainment. SAO:GGO fails to deliver even this much.
Some characters models cater to moe fans, others look like failed experiments; there is no cohesive art style shared among anything. Backgrounds consist of unimpressive desert, forest or grey urban areas. Animation is present, interesting or engaging action is not.
SOUNS: Average.
Background music as well as OP or ED are average, not even one track stands out in any way, good or bad. Original voice act is anime 101.
Honestly, pretty much every anime is better than SAO:GGO, even the original SAO stands above this mess. Just go watch something else. If you value it higher than the original, because some big names were working on it, take off your bias glasses and look again.
kyzrs
Honestly this anime is insanely enjoyable. This review is spoiler free by the way. After finishing this show I went to write a review immediately because of how much I loved the ending and how it wrapped up. First the ending. This is the most complete, wrapped up, and satisfying endings I have seen in a while. I felt so complete after watching it. The characters ALL grew and developed and it fit so perfectly that I wouldn't have ended it another way. In the trend of seasonal, 12 episode anime; this is definitely one of the most complete anime I have seen. The story progressed very well,from the beginning to end the motivations were clear. LLENN/Karen wanted to play a video game to kind of escape here height anxiety. Probably one of the most realistic motives I have seen for a VRMMORPG series I have read or watched. A lot of people, but not all who go online and make online friend do it because of issues/insecurities in real life as LLENN does in this story. This alone really gives the watchers a lot of reason to relate to LLENN as a character even if you aren't an internet person, people go places or do things to escape the hard parts of reality.
The characters are all very enjoyable LLENN is fun to watch, while some people see her as annoying, I can only disagree. M is very funny to watch especially as it gets closer to the end and seeing LLENN's reaction to some of the stuff he says. The gel of characters really adds natural sort of unforced comedy that I think is hard to come by these days.
Overall without spoiling I don't really have much to else say but, this show is VERY enjoyable and worth the watch, the real rating of the show is probably closer to an 8 but because i enjoyed every second i gave it a 9.
The bad in this show is just a lot of the logical stuff though, all the characters beside the main ones of course have a lot of trouble aiming because they aren't main characters. LLENN is extremely broken and can run faster then anyone, problems with the game mechanics etc. These issues are able to be over looked easily by me due to my personal investment with the characters and story, I don't really see the game mechanics and game logic flaws as a problem because i don't see it as a focus, but I can see how some other people might find this awfully annoying and are unable to get over it.
This show is worth your time and thank you for reading my first review.
Shingster
Please note this review is intended to be read by those that have finished watching SAO AGGO and while care has been taken to minimise story related spoilers there may still be spoilers within character analysis. You have been warned. The Rise of Llenn a university student’s journey to gain confidence and overcome a personal complex by fighting and facing down fierce opponents as a cute and speedy girl on the bullet-ridden battlefields of GGO Online. Based off a popular light novel of the same name Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online is a spin off of the popular Sword Art Online mediafranchise that took the world with storm back in 2009 with the release of its first novel and again in 2012 with the release of the first of its hit anime. Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online often shortened to SAO AGGO gives us the opportunity to see what will happen if a university student wanting to gain the confidence that her real-world self-lacked were to discover the world of VRMMORPG’s and decide to use this to gain the confidence that she needed in the real by facing countless dangerous foes and finally live the dream of having an avatar that she wanted for so long a cute and petite avatar that contrasts with her one and greatest complex that has bothered her all her life. The first episode of the series did a great job at reintroducing me to the war-torn and bullet-ridden world of GGO and introduced quite the intriguing main character and I'm glad that I decided to stay and watch the series right to the very end.
The overall story follows the life Karen Kohiruimaki a university student that has recently moved to Tokyo from Hokkaido. As a result of her abnormally tall height, Karen has struggled with having to face weird glances and questions all of her life that resulted in the creation of a complex that has affected her life greatly. A chance encounter with an ad promoting the newly resurgent game genre of VRMMORPG’s created within Karen an idea to make use of this game genre to create an avatar that she can be proud off and use this to overcome the complex that has been bothering her all her life and bring to her via her interaction with her avatar the one thing that she needs the most. After many failed attempts and after finally reaching the last game that she had chosen Karen finally gets what she had dreamed off and desired the most an avatar that was not abnormally tall but rather cute and petite.
While fighting across the war-torn and bullet-ridden world of GGO Karen as her new avatar Llenn would fight many powerful and dangerous foes that will not only raise her fame as a GGO player but also give her real-world self the confidence that she needs to overcome the complex that so bothers her in the real. As she fights in the many battlefields that GGO offers Karen would encounter many different players that both help and hinder her in her quest to become stronger in both worlds. These include the calm and rational veteran sniper M, the energetic and unpredictable Pitohui and the confident and overly energetic Fukaziroh. But as Llenn and the others fight and match their opponents in battles of wits and firepower Llenn realises that even as they fight and kill each other in a hail of bullets each battle is also a chance to create and promote understanding between players that can create friendship both in and out of the game and even stop someone from committing a grave mistake in their life if need be.
Karen
Karen Kohiruimaki voiced by new seiyuu Tomori Kusunoki is one of the main characters of the series and is the main protagonist of the series. A university student that recently moved to Tokyo from her hometown of Obihiro in Hokkaido Karen is a positive if shy person by nature that while intelligent and fast thinking is someone that prefers to be modest and not stand out. As a result of her shy nature at the beginning of the series, Karen was noted to be someone that got nervous quite easily and as a result, had few opportunities to make friends that she can count on. However, despite her quiet and shy nature, it can be seen that Karen is a kind and caring person by nature and is not someone that will bear grudges against other people even if they had faced each other on the battlefields of GGO. At the beginning of the series Karen was noted to have an unusual complex regarding her unusual height something that had bothered her since she was a teenager and as a result of this had to endure many unfortunate experiences as a result. As a result, Karen viewed this aspect of her with something approaching disdain and did not see herself as cute as some people say but rather uncute. As a result of this disdain for her height, Karen’s greatest wish was to somehow become something that was the opposite of her real-world self-something that was both short and cute. A chance encounter with an ad for the VRMMORPG game genre though soon gave her the opportunity that she needed.
As a result of finding the world of GGO and being granted her wish of having an avatar that was short and cute Karen while happy that she had managed to find the one thing that she wanted for so long was also introduced to the world of GGO a world of varied battlefields that were filled with intense battles between players armed to the teeth with automatic firearms. In the beginning, Karen who chose the character name of Llenn was a calm person that tried her hardest to get used to a game genre that she had never been in before. While often getting scared at times especially when faced with situations that don’t go her way she can often get surprisingly brave and tenacious especially when she has a strong motivation to succeed which is best shown in her SJ battles and her battles with the members of SHINC. As a result of this determination and her persistent attempts to improve her skills and fight against more and more tougher foes Llenn soon built up a solid reputation within the GGO community as an ultra-fast attacker that was quick as the wind and able to down you in a matter of seconds with her preferred weapon the powerful SMG the P90 and given the apt nickname of the Pink Devil for her small size, her records and her creative usage of small unit tactics. However, despite her impressive record and fame that she has gained Llenn displays none of the arrogance that many a player with her achievements have developed and instead remains humble and willing to learn from others that have been playing the game longer than she has showing her humble nature. As the series goes on and as Karen through her avatar Llenn fights through countless battles in GGO she gradually becomes braver and more confident of herself and begins to slowly overcome the complex that had so bothered her in the real world. While becoming more confident and determined Karen also become clear-minded and sure of her choices and actions and willing to fight even her mentor and best friend if it meant that she can save her from the obsession that has taken control of their life. This is a far cry of how Karen was at the beginning of the series and showed just how much fighting as Llenn on the battlefields of GGO have changed her.
The character of Karen I felt was one that was both well designed and developed and showed that with determination and courage and perhaps a bit of luck by fighting to overcome your real-world deficiencies in a VR world one can maybe not just become a better person in the real but also find and make many great friends that you meet along the way. I felt that her seiyuu Tomori Kusunoki really did an excellent job in portraying the character of Karen.
Goushi/ M
M voiced by veteran voice actor Kazuyuki Okitsu of Aoki Hagane no Arupejio fame is one of the main characters of the series and is one of Llenn’s allies within the series. A calm, quiet and experienced player that Llenn meets early in the series M unlike Llenn is not an attacker but rather is a veteran sniper. A patient, cautious and methodical person by nature M while a man of few words can be quite blunt when he does speak offering both critical critiques while at the same time useful advice and tactics when pressed into combat situations. While a man of few words M is shown to be someone that respects results and while M and Llenn did not have the most friendly of first encounters, as a result of fighting together on the fields of battle both were able to get a good feel on each of their personalities and as a result form a strong friendship with each other as well as develop trust in each other. While a capable sniper and somewhat renowned as the ultimate sniper due to his special accessory M is also a capable strategist able to analyse situations and enemy movements and come up with counter tactics quite easily which is helped greatly by his keen sense of hearing that allows him to accurately determine the types of weapons that are being used and the distance they are at. Despite his calm and composed nature, it can be seen that M is someone that has an immense fear of his friend Pitohui and when put in this state it can be seen that M loses much of his trademarked calmness and instead becomes a visual coward and panics quite easily. However, despite his fear of Pitohui it can be seen that M is very loyal to Pitohui and will respect her decisions even if said decision is suicidal and unwise due to the feelings that he has for her. The character of M I felt was an interesting character and served well as both a mentor figure to Llenn and a counter to Pitohui’s sudden outbursts of irrationality.
Pitohui
Pitohui voiced by veteran seiyuu singer Yoko Hikasa of K-On and Campione fame is one of the main characters of the series and is both Llenn’s ally and the main antagonist of the series. A veteran GGO player that Llenn meets during the early part of her career in GGO Pitohui who Llenn often shortens to Pito is a friendly, honest and kind person that matches well with her energetic nature. As can be expected from a veteran player Pito has access to a considerable armoury with many rare guns and equipment within her inventory that will make many a player of GGO sign in envy. As a result, it is perhaps unsurprising that Pitohui displays a degree of overconfidence in her attitude and sure that she can deal with any threat that comes her way. While overconfident Pitohui is also shown to be someone that’s perceptive to a degree and able to deduce easily when its time to get serious and when its time to relax which is a skill that’s important for any gamer of VRMMORPG’s. While an eccentric person by nature Pitohui is shown to be someone that honour's the promises that she has made and will do exactly what she had promised to do no matter how unreasonable that action is.
As the series goes on and Pitohui’s character is expanded upon it can be seen that behind Pitohui’s overconfident nature is a dark truth that serves as her main motivation for being a player of GGO. While most players of GGO including Llenn play in GGO to fulfil their fantasies, train with the battles ingame to improve their skills in the real or in Llenn’s case to gain the confidence that she needed to overcome her real-world complexes it can be seen that Pitohui is somewhat different. From the beginning of the series, it can be seen that while Pitohui fights with all the skill that can be expected of a veteran player rather than fight in battles that she can win easily at she instead chooses battles that are not just challenging but also put her life as a player on the line. In the event that this battle does not prove to be entertaining enough for her, it can be seen that Pitohui can get unusually aggressive and lapse into an uncontrollable rage that is difficult to stop even by her allies. With this it can be seen that rather than seeing GGO as merely a game as most players would instead she sees it as a place where she can gamble with her life and experience the thrill of needing to fight to your utmost to preserve it showing not just a dangerous motivation but also an obsession that makes Pitohui not just a danger to herself and her allies but also to her many opponents as well.
As a character I felt that Pitohui was a well designed and developed character that while acting as a friendly and well-meaning mentor figure at first soon evolved to become a character that was the total opposite of Llenn not just in terms of personality but also in motivation as well and ensuring that the two would face each other on the field as enemies rather than as allies. While her normal self was a powerful fighter it can be said that her ultimate devil’s self is when Pitohui truly shines as it is in this state when she casts off her reason and embraces her desire to fight to the death can she truly be called the devil and the state when she feels the most alive. This side of her character I felt was one that really gave me the chills as it showed just how powerful she really can be when she releases her trademarked calmness and reason and embraces her dark side and helped ensure that she becomes an effective villain for the series. I felt that her seiyuu Yoko Hikasa really did an excellent job at portraying the character of Pitohui.
Miyu
Miyu Shinohara voiced by veteran seiyuu Chinatsu Akasaki of Plastic Memories and Fate/Apocrypha fame is one of the main characters of the series and is one of Llenn’s allies and friends within the series. An old friend of Karen that’s from her hometown Miyu, unlike Karen, is a confident, positive and intelligent person by nature that’s also energetic both in real life and in the VR world. Unlike Karen’s quiet and cautious nature Miyu is playful and excitable and can easily get side-tracked thinking of herself even if these thoughts are mere delusions. This excitable personality and its tendency to cause Miyu to lose rational thought are best shown during her first foray into GGO with Karen where she selected as a main weapon one that was both expensive and difficult to use for beginners. From this, it can be seen that Miyu is someone that acts in the moment and is not one that will consider the consequences of her actions beforehand contrasting well with her partner Karen. Despite her tendency to act on the moment, Miyu is also someone that can be quite creative with her tactics being able to work out how to best use her new weapons in a short amount of time while also coming up with innovative tactics that allowed her to support Llenn better on the field. Despite her playful nature Miyu is someone that can offer some surprisingly deep insight to Llenn at times with her ability to come up with motivational quotes whether custom or historical one’s being especially impressive.
The character of Miyu who adapts the name of Fukaziroh and subsequently shortened to Fuka I felt was an excellent character that was both well designed and developed with her positive and energetic personality and real-world chemistry combining well to not just create a strong team up between Fuka and Llenn but also helped bring a hilarity to the story via her actions. I felt that her seiyuu Chinatsu Akasaki really did an excellent job at portraying the character of Miyu.
AMV
Animation wise I felt that the series did a great job of showcasing the various types of terrain and settings that could exist within a large scale VRMMORPG that is geared towards massive firefights between players armed with automatic weaponry. The character designs for the series main and support cast I felt were also well designed and reflected well upon each character’s assigned personality and struggles. The character design for Llenn in particular I felt was pretty good as the battle outfit that she wore while usable also made great use of camouflage which complemented Llenn’s small size and making her not just hard to see but also hard to prepare for when fighting her something that Llenn took great advantage off. The colour pink while acting as camouflage for Llenn also had the effect of increasing Llenn’s charm and matched well with her core struggle to be cute to overcome her real-world complex. The character designs for the supporting cast I felt was also pretty good with the members of SHINC, in particular, being pretty interesting considering their real-world appearances and occupations. In terms of combat animations and battles which are of paramount importance for action animes such as this I felt that the battles that were featured in the series were strong ones that were both well designed and thought out particularly in terms of tactics and strategies with notable battles being Llenn’s suitcase surprise in the first SJ, the amazons advance against M during the second SJ, Llenn’s ambush of SHINC and the final battle between Llenn and Fuka and Pitohui and M in the second SJ.
In terms of music I felt that the series opening and ending themes which was Ryusei that was sung by veteran singer Eir Aoi in her first song since her return from hiatus and To See The Future which was sung by Llenn’s seiyuu Tomori Kusunoki were both strong songs that complemented the series well with the first creating a sense of anticipation and battle and the second being more peaceful and calming to reflect the sense of finishing a battle successfully. The series OST I felt was also pretty good and complemented well with the many types of emotions that the cast experience as they were confronted with new situations when fighting on the field. In terms of voice acting, I felt that the main voice cast of the series did an excellent job at portraying their assigned characters. In particular, I felt that Tomori Kusunoki, Yoko Hikasa, Kazuyuki Okitsu and Chinatsu Akasaki who portrayed the characters of Llenn, Pitohui, M, and Miyu respectively deserve special praise as I felt that they did an excellent job at portraying their assigned characters.
Overall conclusion
In overall Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online was a series that I really enjoyed with its main strong points being its unique premise, strong story, excellent characters, well designed and executed battles and excellent voice acting and not to mention a very strong villain.
The overall premise of the series I felt was one of the series main strong points and because it made use of a personal struggle and complex that was unique to the human side of the main character I thought it was pretty unique. As human beings, I would say that its normal for us to have struggles in life whether its struggles in one’s professional careers or struggles in one’s personal lives for example with friendships or a personality aspect that’s unique to them. Depending on the types of struggles that we have the effects that it can have on one’s life can vary considerably and impact us differently. In the case of Karen, the struggle that she has been battling with has been one that she has been battling with since she was a teenager and one that can be said to be serious enough to actually cause her to develop a complex for it. When one thinks of a way to overcome a complex hopping into a VRMMORPG and hoping to create an avatar that’s your desired height and appearance will probably not be the first answer that most people would give you and indeed most people would suggest you get therapy of some kind. This unique method while strange is one that I felt was pretty interesting as not only did it allow Karen to enter a brand-new world where she hasn’t been to before but also do so in an avatar that was the very dream one that she had worked so hard to find thus fulfilling one of Karen's true desires. While finding the cute avatar of Llenn is one-half of the struggles that Karen has been dealing with the other half of the struggle and premise is without a doubt of how to actually overcome that complex. In this I felt that the way that the series handled this by allowing Karen to fight against increasingly powerful enemies that exist within the game was a smart move as not only did it allow Karen to develop as a character by both learning, confronting and winning against opponents more experienced than she is but also allow both Karen to grow in confidence and Llenn to grow in fame and rep as well.
While growing in both confidence and fame Karen’s rise as a player of GGO also allowed her to meet and befriend many unique characters that affected her not just in game but also out of it as well and enabled her to not just overcome the complex that she has been bothered with for so long but also enable her to break out of the other flaw that she had which was her shyness and quiet nature and for the first time enable her to make many new friends that have subjects that they both share and enjoy.
The overall story of the series I felt was also one of the series strong points and made great use of the premise. MMORPG’s by their nature are games that are played with a lot of other players whether you fight against them in PVP or fight together in PVE you are always playing the game with other people. As a result of this, the forging of friendships is just as important within the game as it is in society. Becoming friends with someone means that they are someone that you can trust and rely on for advice whether it's on game-related matters or real life-related matters and more importantly they are someone that you can tell your deepest secrets and fears too without worrying about whether it will get leaked or not. The most important aspect of a friendship though that is used as one of the main themes of this series is the actions that you take to stop someone that’s dear to you and how far you would go to stop someone from committing a grave mistake that will impact not just their game avatars but also their real-world selves as well. In this, I felt that the series made great use of the belief that true friends that care for each other deeply would do all they can to save people that are dear to them from committing grave mistakes by doing whatever is necessary to stop them even by facing them on the battlefield as opponents.
Overall Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online was an anime that I really enjoyed watching as a result of its unique premise, strong story, characters, well designed battles and its emphasis on friendship both ingame and outside the game and as a result even as spin-off to the main series SAO AGGO I felt is a solid new addition to the franchise. As a final score, I can say for confidence that the series easily deserves a score of 10/10.
SoraSenpai
Story: The story takes place a few years after the release of Sword Art Online. It centers around our main heroine Karen Kohiruimaki. She enters the world of Gun Gale online to get away from the issue she has being a very tall woman. She tries many different games but each one gives her a tall default character. That is until she enters Gun Gale online and becomes the Pink Devil LLENN. I actually liked the idea of why Karen wanted to play games. Because honestly thats what we do. When we are sick of dealing with situations we don't want to deal with we turnto Anime, Video games or whatever else to distract us from our problems.
She then meets a fun amount of people including Pito, M, the Amazons. With this the Gun Gale story builds into something stronger.
Art: The art and animation were fantastic in my opinion. Taking out blood and replacing it with red pixels was a great. you could still sense it when someone was getting shot or cut.
The main thing I liked about the animation was the First Person Point of view they went to at certain times. For instance LLENN is running in episode one but they have it so that you, the viewer, is seeing what she sees. I though that was pretty awesome.
Sound: The Voice acting was great and i thought the BGM and music throughout the anime was really well done as well. A lot of intense parts were paired with some great music.
Characters: Aww man Pito and LLENN were all you really needed in this anime. I was constantly struggling deciding who my favorite is between the two of them. (After the last episode it ended up being LLENN/Karen) The supporting cast was really fun too. M was hilarious at times and Miyu was pretty funny. I wish she was in the anime more in the beginning.
Enjoyment: I am surprised how much I enjoyed this anime. I thought it was not going ot be anything special but it turned out to be really great.
Overall: I honestly found this better then the original Sword Art Online. Now I did like Gun Gale better but only slightly. I just felt like this anime had everything that Sword Art didn't. An overall better cast of characters, better story, no romantic drama garbage, and a good ending.
It's nothing like Sword Art and is basically a stand alone show. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun shootem up type of anime.
RebelPanda
I find Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online incredibly fascinating. Unlike most virtual reality stories, GGO actually explores video games in thoughtful ways beyond just a flashy action spectacle. And yes, it has the spectacle as well. GGO is far different, and better than the rest of the Sword Art Online franchise; for starters, you don’t even need to watch the originals to watch this spinoff. There are no related characters, no Kirito. The only similarity they share is the world they take place in. The original SAO is mentioned a few times and surprisingly the new series writer frequently criticizes the old one. GGOfocuses on the in-depth details of its game world and the friendships between the cast, rather than the melodrama and cheesy romance of the original.
Taking place in 2026, GGO follows Karen a college student with a height complex, namely, she’s way taller than she’d like to be. Walking into signs, gawked at by passersby, low self-confidence, and constantly comparing herself to the group of cute short girls she sees every day. When she discovers VR games like SAO, she’s hesitant because the controversy over people being trapped in the game is still discussed on the news. But she is willing to try them if it means she’d get the chance to be shorter. The character creator system being randomized is the only outright bad game design decision in GGO, but that’s just how the original series wrote it. This minor issue can be excused because it eventually leads Karen to Gun Gale Online, a gritty first-person shooter where she’s able to be her ideal short height. The lead character has a pretty good motivation to play the game makes the show all the more compelling, it’s perhaps a simple reason but much more than we were ever given for Kirito.
Simplistic characterization is all GGO really needs because its main focus is on the intense firefights. The first episode serves to thoroughly explain the mechanics of the game so that the rest of the series can play with the established rules. For what is essentially an exposition episode, the information is presented by showing rather than just telling in the Battle Royale style game mode called Squad Jam. While the visuals are simply above average, the action is surprisingly engaging with the strategizing and tactics explained through banter between the protagonist, plucky pink camouflaged Karen, but with the in-game name LLENN and her partner M. Their group’s dynamic is clear from the start, LLENN is the one who has to run into the fight as a decoy and draw away the attention of enemies while M takes a vantage point to snipe them while they’re distracted. Their personalities perfectly fitted to their roles in the fight; LLENN is anxious with plenty of funny reaction faces, sporadically running into the battlefield. While M is patient and unwavering, coldly issuing orders with the goal of winning regardless of the danger it puts his partner in.
Played out like a game of chess, careful planning and positioning are invaluable. Seeing the strategies LLENN and others use to lead them to success is incredibly satisfying; they're not professionals so there's always a chance they will run into mistakes now and then, and their flaws are part of each character. For LLENN and M, we're given enough details to know their relationship is based on needing one another to execute their strategy, the bait and switch, but beyond that, they’re two incompatible pieces. Through seeing them fight and their banter we learn the mechanics of the game; an intermittent scan reveals every challenger’s location, the red lasers indicating bullet trajectory, dead players can be used as human shields, health and bullet count are detailed and are at consistent values throughout the show.
The writer’s knowledge of the inner workings of a complex video game is what makes GGO so believable. Look no further than the tense action scenes, despite being acknowledged as just a game they still have stakes. The original SAO had poorly explained rules to its game, so instead, it chose to contrive tension by trapping the players in the game world and punishing anyone who died in-game with death in reality. But there is no such lazy writing here. In the original SAO, no one of importance ever died because they’d be gone for good, but in GGO there is no such plot armor. They’re in a fight to the death after all so it's inevitable most characters will die or be gravely wounded.
GGO is tense to watch in the same way watching a professional streamer is, you’re rooting for them not just because they're an enjoyable host but because you want to see them overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds they face.
The action spectacle itself is well done too, it’s clear that Studio 3Hz was having a lot of fun making this. There’s no shortage of slow-mo climactic moments in firefights with bullets flying past players like The Matrix. A few thrilling vehicle fights happen as well. There’s even a lightsaber later on in the series used to devastating effect unlike anything else seen in the show. Considering combat is the main focus of the series, it’s great that GGO is always able to keep it refreshing. Guns are rendered with excellent detail, CGI is frequently used quite well to allow the camera to move freely and to ensure action scenes are fast-paced and flow well. Character animation is fluid when it counts with close-ups and slow-motion used to raise the tension in close encounters.
Plenty of long shots of the battlefield are shown so you can keep track of the proximity of players and can follow the action as well as the protagonist does. What creates the most thrills is the visceral audiovisual feedback of the gunshots. Environments that are shot are visibly blasted, with loud shots suited to the wide variety of gun types used, and the effects on players who are shot. Violence is styled to the video game with red pixels that spurt out from wounds like blood. One might think a video game would limit the possibilities of violence, but GGO has its fair share of decapitations and limbs being lopped off in combat. Battles gradually escalate in intensity throughout the show, the game mechanics established from the start remain consistent and they're experimented with to exciting effect. Eir Aoi’s opening song “Ryusei” is well suited to the battle-oriented series along with a striking showcase of the cast. The soundtrack is equally stellar. Whether it be the hard rock or the frantic techno pieces, all of the background music serves to electrify action scenes.
Aside from the action, there is enough intrigue in GGO’s characters writing for it to provide a thoughtful discussion on video games. With the writer of Kino’s Journey, Keiichi Sigsawa, there’s depth to the characters in spite of the series’ focus on gunplay. Escapism is a theme intrinsic to any video game story, thankfully Sigsawa understands this and weaves it into every character. Karen enters the game to become a shorter, more ideal version of herself, her skill in-game grants her confidence in real life to overcome her complex. The first friend she meets, Pitohui plays the game to escape the stress and relieve her anger, a portrayal leaning more on the negative end of escapism which leads her to become the antagonist of the second half. The show tries to sell her as a crazed SAO fanatic, but at first, it doesn’t seem believable enough because we merely hear about her insanity from M. Once we see the brutal ways she kills her foes in her Squad Jam against LLENN, it becomes much easier to believe she’s out of touch with reality.
Pitohui’s rather serious subject matter unexpectedly fits with the show’s more wryly comedic tone because of her outlandish personality and character design. From the cross tattoos on her face to scare off creeps online, to the absurd levels of frivolity she treats her enemies in combat, she’s one of the most entertaining rivals of the season. In the latter half of the show when Karen’s friend Fuka joins her for the Squad Jam, much of the in-depth tactics are thrown out the window by her lack of care for the game which brings about the campiest and wild action sequences the show provides. Perhaps they’re not as intelligently planned out, but they make up for it with entertainment value and homages to classic action movies and moment to moment humor in the midst of chaos. All of their seiyuu do a great job of selling their overdone personalities in the game world while toning it down to a believable level in reality.
Shown in a more positive light is the gymnastics team, fans of LLENN, that play Squad Jams to communicate better with one another. In between the Squad Jams, the show revisits the real world to catch up with the cast and mainly to discuss the next game and future Squad Jams. These scenes are a good reprieve from Gun Gale’s battlefields. Serving to even out the pacing and introduce characters. The gymnastics team is just a bunch of kids who walk by Karen in real life and wish to be as tall as her (a sort of role reversal) and after fighting one another in the first Squad Jam they enter the second as allies. They’re admittedly a bit one-note, but I wouldn't call them cliched or stereotypical. They all have an attribute in their game avatar and how they behave in-game which is reflected in their real-world counterpart.
By the end of the series, there’s a noticeable change in all of the characters that is directly connected to the ways the game affected them. The ending provided a satisfying final stance on the bigger themes of positive versus negative escapism, as well as a completion to LLENN's arc that's as monumental and satisfying as the show had foreshadowed it to be. The final episode is one of the funniest, most shockingly great endings of the season that rewards you for following along with the minor story details and provides the best tongue-in-cheek comedy of the series.
Sword Art Online Alternative is the most entertaining entry in the franchise, it doesn’t take itself too seriously while also providing enough depth to be compelling. What it lacks in narrative high points it more than makes up for with a well-written game world that remains consistent with its logic throughout the show. Upon first glance, the cast seems paper-thin, but with time it becomes clear how much care went into interweaving their arcs with interesting video game-related themes.
CanAKATheIndigo
SAO Alternative GGO: A fun series that served as the opening act SAO Alternative GGO had only one function: to warm up the public for the arrival of the main dish of the franchise, Alicization, which is coming in October. And the series fulfilled. The novel written by Keiichi Sigsawa (known for novels like Allison and its sequels "Lillia and Treize" and "Meg and Seron", which resulted in the anime Allison & Lillia) and supervised by Reki Kawahara (creator of SAO) was never ambitious nor did it seek to overshadow the original story Therefore, it was foreseeable that after the announcement of the start of Alicization for nextOctober, the GGO anime will be released before; this in order to prepare the stage. Doing it later or during would not have made sense because all the attention would be focused on the work of Kawahara and this spinoff would have passed without pain or glory.
Let's not forget that the 3Hz studio, with just 5 years of foundation, is still a novel studio that seeks to position itself within a highly competitive industry; for that reason, seeking to adapt something from one of the most successful franchises in the medium, and then try to compete with their Magnum Opus would have been totally absurd.
From there, I'm not even going to enter the debate on whether this spinoff is better or worse than the original work. It is true that the arches of the novel adapted in the first two seasons of the anime (Aincrad, Fairy Dance, Phantom Bullet, Early and Late and Mother's Rosario) have many flaws (for something Kawahara himself is rewriting all that in the SAO Progressive saga ); however, when we enter the world of Underworld, within the arc of Alicization, everything changes and the rest of the frames, spinoff included, are reduced to mere companions.
When I have to talk about Alicization I will elaborate on this point, but for now let's go back to what brought us here today. SAO Alternative GGO was a series told in good form, with an easy to follow plot, loaded with good action and combat sequences that were handled in a great way. By the way, from here Spoilers come.
In fact, if it had stayed there it would have been a series of round action. Unfortunately, Sigsawa wanted to put the element "someone's life in the game is in danger" and that's where the plot (and therefore the series) showed the seams.
Since then, there were many attempts to sell us that Pitohui was in danger of death; however, the more they explained it, the more absurd it was. So much so, that it went against the much-needed "suspension of disbelief", which ends up taking the spectator out of the plot.
Not to mention that trying to make us believe that the only way to help this maniac was defeating her in the game was even more bizarre. And the police? Even in the Aincrad incident, the government got involved almost from the start; which also did in the case of Death Gun, so there is no reason to believe that they would turn a blind eye on this occasion.
Even accepting that Goushi really is a good for nothing, that he is, Karen from the beginning proved to be a competent woman, so her attitude did not make sense. It would have been more reasonable for everything to be taken for a game and to simply go with the flow. However, seeing her try to defeat Pitohui with the conviction that she was saving her life; and worse, with the fear that the maniac could die was simply surreal.
Therefore, every time this was mentioned, all the magic and atmosphere of the series was lost. It was as if all of a sudden they turned on the light while they told you a horror story. Fortunately, in the end that did not have all the relevance that was tried to give and the focus was always more towards the side of the action and the combats; Otherwise, the series would have ended very badly.
In fact, it seemed to me a good point that the whole matter of Llenn and Pitohui's encounter in the real world was handled with humor, because it marked a change of tone that was unexpected and appropriate in equal parts. Above all, considering that the series did a terrible job hiding the true identity of Pitohui.
In addition, the fact that the letter that Karen sent to Elsa was used as a main part of the outcome served very well so that point would not remain as a loose end.
Regarding the technical section, 3Hz studio did a competent job in character design, direction and animation. Of the three, I highlight the last because the combat sequences were very well worked; and let's not forget that they are the heart of an action anime.
Regarding the soundtrack, I'll say that Kajiura-sensei's absence is quite noticeable, but Starving Trancer made a great effort to show us themes that accompanied what happened on screen without clashing. Of course, within this section I have to highlight the opening "Ryuusei", played by Eir Aoi, which came as a glove to this anime. It was a nice touch to choose Eir as a gesture to connect with the main series.
In short, a very moving series, with excellent combat sequences and a simple, but well-armored plot, which fully fulfilled its role of heating engines for the arrival of the crown jewel, Alicization. It is true, that its attempt to sell us that Pitohui was in danger of death and could only be saved by beating her in the game was a joke; But at the end of the day, SAO Alternative GGO was not a dramatic series, but an action anime, so do not give it too many laps.
SUMMARY
A series of well-armed action that only got messed up when it wanted to get into the drama.
XDRage
First things first, if you disliked original SAO you can safely test this series for yourself, it's nothing like it. Just to be clear here I did enjoy the original SAO immensly (almost all of it) even though it had quite a number glaring faults. What makes or breaks animes and mangas for me these days are mostly characters and their interactions, then cpmes the story and then the rest, and SAO:GGO unfortunately seems to have it all the wrong way round. The GOOD things first: - Sound design is on point, there is not a single moment in this anime where sound would take me awayfrom the action or I would be disappointed with it, on the other hand, when it shines you do notice it (songs made for this anime are really good)
- The Art doesn't feel out of place, it's not soaring among the stars like masterpieces from Makoto Shinkai, but the animation is mostly smooth, texture quality is pleasantly high, nothing to really be picky about, very well done.
And now the BAD things:
- The Characters! My god... Someone truly misunderstood interesting for "having a mental problem". Most of the characters should see a psychologist for some guidance and two of the characters (second female main and her "lover") should actually seek out professional psychiatric help. The interactions between them feel extremely artificial, basically you can feel that things happen between them to drive the story forward and not the other way around. And since I already mentioned the story
- The Story is simply boring, at least for me, it seemed like a nice idea at first but by the end I didn't really care for it at all. For me it's not utilizing the setting at all. Why are they playing GGO and not some other game? Why even play games to go about your problems at all? It sure is explained in the anime, but it feels flimsy. Also it lacks a general direction. In the original SAO it was always clearly defined: First clear the game, then save Asuna (because Kawahara has some bondage fetish), then uncover the truth behind the Death Gun and finally the mini-stories. There is no such goal in here at first, then we get a sort of goal, but again, it feels flimsy and artificial (and looks like a job for a psychiatrist and the emergency services, not a 19-y.o. with a complex about her height).
Now finally the golden standard of the whole SAO series: Game Design is absolutely horrible! If it felt a bit more real, if it felt a little bit more tangible, maybe, just maybe I would have enjoyed the story more. But all it did was take me out of the experience. Unlike in the original SAO where I had some characters I cared for here there was nothing stopping me from pointing out the stupidity of the game simply because I wasn't engaged enough in the struggles and problems of the characters. I'll try to mostly list them because there's just too many issues to go into details (some of them are shared with the original SAO since not much has changed in GGO):
- The way the guns are obtained in the game is very unfriendly and unfair to new users
- PVP is does not have weapon balance at all, pretty shit for a pvp-focused game
- Prediction lines, the rules when they appear or not are extremely inconsistent
- If you could shoot without them, every player would simply train to shoot without them
- Teams in the team-battle-royale can wildly vary in size - makes the game extremely unbalanced for professional gaming
- Rules for getting damaged are extremely inconsistent
- You can heal yourself from a headshot!
- Weapon damage doesn't seem to matter when the story asks for it
- Weapon range is inconsistent
- Making bodies bulletproof after death
- Giving a player a bulletproof object to carry!
- If there is no killzone that's getting smaller and smaller, there's nothing stopping you from gettin an 8-player sniper party, bringing a mix of normal and anti-tank rifles and some powerful shields, gettin on a vantage point and waiting there for days...
- Explosives range and damage is horribly inconsistent
- Dual-wielding grenade launchers (both extremely stupid and inefficient)
- No way to replenish ammo other than to beg the enemy for it
- Massive fields with nothing in it! This game is basically shouting "Get a sniper rifle and annihilate everyone"
- There is no upside to having a big player model apart from being able to carry very heavy shit, no matter how big you are a team of lolis would be able to dance around for for days on end and make you look silly
Also this tournament is supposed to have the best of the best teams possible from thousands of players. Why then everyone in here is retarded? People walking around without cover in the middle of the street/field, having no spacing between them whatsoever (I guess it's only because the story needs them to be killed quickly with a single grenade). Found an opposing team? Shower them with bullets instead of regrouping and flanking them. Found a guy in a cave behind a waterfall? Shower him with bullets instead of throwing a grenade in. See a target behind a heavy shield you have no means of destroying? Charge him for no reason (remember to shower him with bullets) instead of retreating and going around his back, forcing him to switch positions.
As you can probably tell I kinda enjoy my FPS games, and GGO is one of the shittiest FPS games ever conceived. It made watching the show incredibly difficult for me. Was the original SAO any better? GGO part was a bit less bullshit, but SAO and ALO were also fucked in the head as RPGs so no, it wasn't. The difference was that I cared for the characters there and here I couldn't bring myself to do that.
TL;DR: You can give it a go, if you'll end up liking the characters the rest should be decent enough for you to have a fun time.
JiangHaoyi1979
Repost 3rd Time in a row Has some spoilers in it. WTF were Studio 3Hz thinking when they come up with shit like this? the story plot was basically this was a drker version of Net Juu where prople were finding an escape from reality and enter to a a level of excitement away from the mediocre in the virtual world. So pretty much, the plot is cliche and pretty much lack any excitement since the characters were safe behind their console. anyway the fact is this anime's story plot was as boring as Isekai wa Smartphone. The art was no concern of mine, sinceI don't give any shit in it and seeing the main character wore pink as oppose to black, grey or green was just soooooooooo pathetic. Sound, geeezzzz, no comment on that, but it was kinda odd that Seiyuu Hikasa Yoko's voice were cast differently , were in the game she's Pitohui while in the real world she is Riza's manager. So overall. this is one way of desecrating the SAO franchise, so my verdict:
Story-Mediocre 5: Since the plot itself was just too cliche as any anime that has a cyber punk genre in it.
Art-Pathetic 1: And that's for LLEN's combat outfit.
Sound-fair 6: I need not say why cu'z I just don't give a fuck.
Character- Pathetic 1: We have a university girl who has some form of inferiority complex about his height and her friends were a bunch of middle school girls and another gamer whom she partnered up for the Squad Jam 2 to beat a player who has some suicidal tendency, a guy who is a lolicon/ masochist/ loser who should die in the real world, an antagonist in the game world whom for some reason is either stupid for not realizing how lucky she was for not getting into the 1st SAO or nuts who should be seeing a shrink either way she the main pathetic character here.
Enjoyment - Poor 3: This is one anime where it's ok to skim some episode since the main characters were gonna be safe anyways and they're just as pathetic both in the game and in the real world.
Overall-Poor 3: This was just another knock-off of the ff: Net-Juu no Susume, Isekai wa Smartphone, Netoge no Yome and Gamers.....so realistically Studio 3Hz just desecrated the SAO franchise, and just watching this makes me wanna go to Japan and do what Sanzo of Sayuki does to Goku when he is pissed to the, studio exe and the original creator of this cliche thing.
Andrewthelord
GGO Alternative is basically SAO with all the things that made SAO great without all the things that, in the long run, ruined SAO so bad. We have the possibility to explore the gaming experience, a realistic future gaming experience. Stakes are really high, but without the plot-holes we found in SAO. No harems, no imoutos, no fanservice, no forced romances (even if I think KiritoxAsuna is one of the most solid anime couples). Only a good game. Characters are really really good, the protagonist but even the "normal" gamers. And the "antagonist" is really a good and solid character, with real motivations and I think real motifsto act like she acts.
Another nice thing is some "adult content", some grown-up jokes that remind us that the main characters are not high schoolers but college students.
Hlecktro
Much like SAO, the big shame is that the setting the show is set in COULD have been super interesting. Instead, we just get pure Mary-Sue wankery that turns the entire world of GGO into a lazily written dumpster fire. I can't tell if the show is trying to be serious or silly. On one hand it's all "Ohhh suicide, and teenage edge" and on the other we have a sentient P90... sorry make that TWO sentient P90s that -BLOCK BULLETS- when story convenient. God, the antagonist is like an edgy rp character written by a 14 year old. The way she's presented its like she hassome serious real life psychological issues... Oh... what's that show... Nevermind, let's all just laugh it off like it's the end of a Scooby Doo episode. Ho Ho Ho let's all be friends now.
CrawlerOther
tl;dr Don't watch it. Edgy, cringe yuri story about self-acceptance and how hard it is to be a yuri with background plot b about how hard it is to be rich and have brother-complex, both told 50/50 in slice-of-life and virtual reality shooter game. Personally, I found the story being highly unattractive. I suppose as majority of viewers I were lured into viewing this abhorrent series by armament and military art posters and name recognition behind Sword Art Online. Were story to be told with no virtual reality aspect, but as a regular slice-of-life, young adult coming to terms school-life story it would havebeen enjoyable. But as series have been produced as of now, dissonance between lighthearted story and at times serious animation in virtual reality leaves behind terrible aftertaste.
Conclusion: below average. Either go over the to and add extreme comedy, akin to Arakawa under the bridge, the hidden dungeon that only i can enter. Or choose a style and stick to it. Can't imagine such confusing mess being highly profitable.
AnimeSpaceBR2
- Finally my review of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, starting with the story that in general is very average and exaggerated in some parts and is also a very generic story and with nothing that stands out, unfortunately; but still has some interesting and epic moments in a way, in short, I classify the story as Ok. - On the technical side, without doubt is the strongest point of the series, both the visual and the animation are very good, however I would like to highlight the soundtrack that is simply epic and striking for an anime of the genre; now on thedirection, varies a lot, while there are epic and interesting moments, there are also exaggerated moments in the series, in other words, the direction as a whole is medium.
- Now about the characters that unfortunately is the weakest point of the series, the characters, although they are few, are not exploited as they should be, and some are very poorly developed, but without doubt the biggest problem of the cast is that the direction exaggerates a lot in relation to some characters of the series; finally, the cast until it is good, pity that had a bad direction.
- Conclusion, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online has several problems, both script and direction, but still has some good points as a good technical part and an excellent soundtrack, as a whole is a good anime for those who are looking for something just to pass the time, with nothing too deep; Overall I would definitely recommend Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, a good action anime !! 💙😉🌟 !!
- My favorite song by Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online 💜 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1RMnM782u8
- My page about animes on facebook 💖 : https://www.facebook.com/pg/AnimeSpaceBR.050/posts/?ref=page_internal
💜😉💖 !!
Eleiryn
While I found the other SAO anime series and movie to be relatively fun albeit flawed romps through a fairly basic setting with some cool ideas, Alternative distancing itself from its family so strongly by dropping ALL connecting characters and most connecting events was an interesting move. Does it pay off? Well... let's see. The story, such as it is, is tripe - without going heavy into spoilers, they tried to recycle the OMG IT'S A DEATH GAME OOOOO vibe from every other SAO so far, and like most of them, it falls flat - and unlike even Ordinal Scale or GGO the paper thin explanationfor it here is so utterly trite and idiotic that it breaks all suspension of disbelief. The tournament structure is equally meaningless; you CAN tell a decent story within the structure of a tournament sure, the original GGO did that alright, but Alternative fails to pull it off due to its characterization.
Ah yes... the characters. Do not look into this dark abyss if you have even a passing interest in character depth. Even Jesus-Kun himself, the almighty Kirito, at least has hobbies and interests and strengths and flaws, while the main girl Karen has... a height complex. And I guess she likes music. That's it. She doesn't really grow or get much more interesting from there. At least her bunny loli version has a few good moments.
The deuteragonist/antagonist Pito is gratingly obnoxious from start to finish, loud and frustrating and uninteresting, though a few scenes paint her as slightly more intriguing and show the intriguing depth she COULD have had, if not written by monkeys on typewriters - sorry, the monkeys don't deserve that insult. And these are supposed to be the lead friggin' characters? There sure as hell isn't any charisma or intrigue to be found there, they don't even feel like they have a damn bond!
Side characters, ironically, fare slightly better but still fall hard. M starts off interesting and becomes a one-dimensional joke from there for the most part; similar to Pito he has a few good scenes but otherwise is a boring caricature. The high school loli squad's entire depth is "lol we look scarier ingame" but at least they're amusing to watch bicker. Every unnamed character and most of the foes are obviously NPCs; looking identical, all standing next to each other to die instantly, so on and so forth.
The ONE character who actually has some depth is the self-aware grenade loli, who happily abuses her small stature and femininity ingame to mess with people, who has obvious flaws but also a spark of actual charisma, and as a result actually feels like a real person. Unfortunately she never does that awesome grenade rain from the opening theme and mostly just gets stuck acting as support for Jesus Bunny-Chan.
Oh and a bunch of NPCs are randomly super perverted and really horny for lolis in completely unnecessary and creepy scenes that never go anywhere, add any real depth or heft to the anime, and just feel like random pandering - though I can't tell if they were trying to pander to lolicons or people who hate them or just thought it'd be funny to have a grown ass man try to rape a little girl in a fucking televised tournament fight.
Ah yes, the fights. We all know Kirito was overpowered, but at least the series made a token effort to justify it; the special skill from Heathcliff to end SAO in a hero vs villain battle, ported maxed stats, years of death game experience, great reflexes, crippling autism. Were they valid excuses? That's kinda in the eye of the beholder. But at least they made an effort to explain why he could do what he did, and to me that made it more tolerable. Not the first time a MC in anime has been overpowered after all.
The Loli Rabbit of Caerbannog? Not so much. She has blatantly superhuman speed and reflexes for no apparent reason, pulling off vastly superhuman feats such that even other Agility builds have no way to react to them, and worst of all her feats vary by scene - sometimes she can casually dodge bullets, other times she's just running at normal speeds, neither is ever explained and we are never given a clear view of what her limits are. Every fight she's in is either a casual clusterfuck of her casually ripping apart trained soldiers and pro gamers, or... her randomly struggling with nobodies who aren't even set up to be scary. More often than not she wins by deus ex machina that makes Kirito's dumbass 'breaking the rules of the MMO' at the end of the first series look fair and balanced.
In the end, none of the fights have much meaning or heft to them, which is a pity because there actually are some cool shots and strategies scattered throughout the anime - just drowned in a tide of mediocre Mary Sue bullshit that puts Kirito and even that imp girl's garbage to shame.
Now, I've been pretty harsh so far, and I don't regret it - the anime overall is heavily mediocre. But it does have some redeeming qualities and I would be remiss in not at least mentioning them.
The art style is solid, as long as you don't ever look at any of the minor characters. Major characters generally look alright, if not memorable, and the viscerality of the fighting occasionally pleasantly surprised me; most kills are pretty generic but higher powered weaponry occasionally rips avatars in half or blows off heads and makes the fight more visually exciting.
The music was... honestly I just finished watching it an hour ago and I can't remember ANY of it, it was all that underwhelming. I didn't hear any that was outright bad, but it was all utterly forgettable.
Overall I don't regret sticking through the anime, but don't see myself ever watching it again - it's SIGNIFICANTLY worse than 'normal' SAO in almost every regard. The first GGO is a far superior anime overall if you want shooty gun stuff; Sinon is a much more interesting deuteragonist, the story is still forced at times but at least is kinda believable, and there's more meaning to the fights.
HexenTraume
Like Lolis? Like guns? DO YOU LIKE SEEING A PINK LOLI MASSACRE PEOPLE WITH A MACHINE GUN AFFECTIONATELY NAMED P-CHAN? Then boy do I have an anime for you. On a serious note, you can't judge this one by its cover. The premise sucks unless you're really into lolis with guns. Yet there's something satisfying seeing a tiny pink thing make a fool out of larger more serious adults. Of note, this anime is primarily a comedy, borderlining parody of the original. The action scenes are well-executed,creative, and witty. And like I said, it's enjoyable watching LLENN outmaneuvering the other players. In terms of themes,forget the melodramatic die irl if you die from SAO. This is about the friendship between two women who shared nothing in common except for their love of gaming. If you've ever had a friend you used to game with online, and had a blast together, this is about that. The anime does a decent job of exploring online personas vs irl self. There's little room for character development, but it's short enough that development isn't really needed.
This isn't an anime to be taken seriously. It's lighthearted fun and as long as you keep that in mind, it's a really enjoyable anime.
Also, if you hated SAO, don't let that turn you away because I thought SAO was meh too and I really enjoyed this one. I wouldn't say it's one of the greats, but definitely recommend watching.
7/10
