RJ Writing Ink

Hey everyone, Jay here with a special announcement. As you know, I’ve been busy lately with my posts on Amphibia and Sword Art Online. Now that at they’re done for a while, though, I have no other shows that I want to do use for my R/R (Review/Recaps) posts. I only have manga posts to write about for a while. So, I decided to use this next week for something special I wanted to do for a couple of weeks. It’s going to be a little weird, a little wild, and filled with star.

In the week leading up to the series finale of Star vs. The Forces of Evil, I got into reading fan fiction for the show. It was my way of coping with the sudden and interest I had in the show. I still think it was me subconsciously transferring the excitement I had for the final season of Game of Thrones to a show that I thought wouldn’t disappoint me as much. Look me in the eye after the penultimate episode and tell me that you didn’t feel like GoT was dead to you!

I’m glad that I did, though, because it turns out there’s a lot of excellent fan writings for the show out there. Some of them, I think, rival professionally written books and TV shows. As I read more and more, I knew I couldn’t stay quiet about it. That’s where I got this idea: Star vs. The Forces of Evil, A Week of Fans.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll be posting a different fanwork based on Star vs. The Forces of Evil and why I think you should read it. Rather than spoil anything, I’ll keep the plot to a minimum and focus on why this may be a good thing to read in your spare time. I’ll even include links to the stories in the description.

I hope you guys enjoy my new passion project! Come by tomorrow to see my first pick, Starfall!

To see my review of the season one finale of Amphibia, click here.

Sword Art Online: Alicization Part 1 Review

Well, people, after 24 episodes, we have reached the end of disc one of SAO. Sword Art Online: Alicization has finished its first half on Toonami. Rest assured, I plan on only doing my reviews of the new episodes when they come out subbed. I don’t want to wait who knows how long for Aniplex to dub the lines. I like Bryce Papenbrook and Cherami Leigh, but I can’t remain forever.

I came into this season having high hopes that this would be what would recapture the spark that launched SAO to international fame/infamy. After all, it’s the most extended story that Reki Kawahara wrote for SAO, covering almost ten light novels altogether. Then it turned into a dungeon crawl halfway through. With part one over, I want to review Sword Art Online: Alicization.

Cons

I could make this longer, but for fairness sake, I think I want to focus on three of the big gripes I had with this season: wasting Eugeo, techno-babble, and exposition, and worst of all, the music. Let’s start with the least obvious choice.

I’ve enjoyed the soundtrack to Sword Art Online. I have at least half a dozen songs used on the show or SAO: Ordinal Scale on my phone. I count “Swordland” among my all-time favorite battle songs. So what problem did I have with the music this season? They kept using “Swordland” for several fight sequences.

I noticed it as early as the goblin fight: they were using a remix of “Swordland” in the battles. At first, I loved it, was happy to hear it some more. Then, I noticed that they started using it over and over, for almost every big fight. I felt that it devalued the song and made it less special. For some reason, that became a pet peeve.

Too Much Talking

My next gripe is techno-babble and exposition. Thanks to knowing about this beforehand, I understood the concepts behind. RATH somehow copied human souls, created a virtual world for them to live in, and all the magic’s them using the computer commands. It’s an easy enough concept to understand, but the way they teach it to was, at times, pure nonsense. I still don’t know what “release recollection” means. I bet SomethingWittyEntertainment could explain it better. By the end of the season, I stopped trying to understand everything.

In hindsight, I think this kind of lengthy exposition’s better suited for the Light Novels the anime’s based on. There you need to describe everything through words instead of visuals, so it makes sense. In Alicization, though, it didn’t translate well.

Wasting Eugeo

Then, my biggest complaint of the season: wasting Eugeo. I read the Light Novels, so I knew that Eugeo would die, but I still couldn’t help but be upset. Eugeo had potential as a character.

The way I see it, Kawahara created Eugeo to be a foil to Kirito. Whereas Kirito’s confident in himself and his skills, Eugeo’s more insecure and unsure. With Kirito as his best friend, we saw Eugeo steadily develop himself as a swordsman and as a better, to the point where Eugeo openly broke the Taboo Index to save his apprentice. Given time, Eugeo could have rivalved Kirito as a swordsman. His death felt like a massive waste of potential. Worst of all, though, is the fact that Kirito lost the only guy friend in his age group. Klein and Agil are both adults, so I don’t count them.

Pros

Despite what some people may think, I don’t think this season was a total loss, as it did have a few good things going for it. Chief among them, the fights, which have always been the big draw to SAO for me, were on point. Kirito didn’t get as much time to fight this season as he usually does, but when he did, it was a blast to watch. The bloody fight against the goblins in the cave at the start to the battle of wills between him and that guy from the sword academy, Kirito was as cool as ever while fighting.

Good Fights. At Times

If I haven’t said it before, then I think his fight against Fanatio was the highlight of the season. It was a fast-paced duel between two swordmasters and was bursting with energy and excitement. In my review of the episode, I said that both were enjoying themselves fighting. I only wish the other fights this season were as impressive.

Eugeo had some excellent moments to show off his skills, too. The big one, though, was battling the leader of the Integrity Knights, Bercouli, to a draw. Bercouli was someone not even Alice or Fanatio could defeat, so that’s a testament to how good Eugeo’s became under Kirito’s tutelage. That just made watching his death all the harder, though.

Bring On the War

As of right now, this was my second least-favorite arc in SAO. If it weren’t for Sugou being the worst, it would take the bottom rung. Even after all this, though, I refuse to give up hope on Sword Art Online.

In October, the second half of Alicization begins, and it’s going to be the biggest story SAO’s ever seen. After centuries of waiting, the Dark Territory is about to start its invasion of the Human Empire, as Cardinal warned Kirito. If they succeed, RATH will destroy Underworld. At least, that’s how it would have gone originally.

RATH’s under attack by an outside enemy that’s after Underworld and what it has to offer. They’ll use any means necessary to get what they came for, even manipulating events in Underworld to do so. War’s happening, and if done right, we could get fights that will make Game of Thrones green with envy. The best part, though, is that all of Kirito’s friends and allies will be making a return and will have a role to play; especially Asuna.

Alicization: War of the Underworld will either be what brings some measure of greatness back to SAO or will kill it forever. Either way, though, I’m looking forward to it this fall, and you can bet I’ll be covering it when it comes out.

Until then, I have two words: LINK START!

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Check out my friend, Karandi, and their review of the series at 100WordAnime. Click this link to see it.

Sword Art Online: Alicization, Episode 24 Review/Recap

They said that I was mad, doing this series for SAO: Alicization. Here I stand, having done what I set out to do. We’re at the mid-season finale of SAO: Alicization, and this will be my last review/recap until the show resumes in October; not waiting for the dub. Now, let’s get this mid-game boss fight started. Kirito vs. Quinella!

LINK START

Recap

The battle between Kirito and the evil Quinella begins, and for some reason, Kirito changes into his SAO look. Because, why not? Despite not being a fighter, Quinella knows all there is about Underworld’s system, giving her the upper hand. With Kirito on the ropes, Eugeo uses the last of his strength to give him a pep-talk, remind him of their childhood in Rulid village, and reform his sword out of his blood. In the brief clash that follows, Kirito sacrifices his left arm but deals a fatal blow to Quinella. Desperate, Quinella tries to escape to the real world. Thankfully, the still-living Chudelkin intervenes and ends up destroying them both.

The battle’s over, but sadly, Eugeo’s still dying. Eugeo says it for the best, though, because they would have fought over Alice’s fate: Eugeo to save the Alice he knew, and Kirito to save Alice as she is now. Despite Kirito’s best efforts, Eugeo passes away, and the original Alice joins him in going to the afterlife. Kirito then drags himself to the terminal that Quinella used, and manages to contact Kikouka in the real world, only to learn the Island Turtle’s under attack. An unknown force’s attempting to seize control of Underworld’s server. Kikouka gives Kirito one order: bring Alice to the World’s End Server. Right before they can do anything, though, the enemy cuts the power to Kirito’s life-support, causing a power surge that sends Kirito into a coma as the first half of the season comes to an end.

Review

Finally, it’s over! My second least favorite arc in SAO’s over! Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy the idea of a virtual world filled with sentient AI, but this season was handled so poorly. The pacing was all over the place, there was a lot more exposition than I wanted to deal with, and they kept using “Swordland” in almost every action sequence. I love that song, but if they use it over and over, it loses its meaning.

On top of that, Eugeo, the only guy friend Kirito’s age, is now dead after being built up for 24 episodes. I don’t want to tell Reki Kawahara how to write his story, but I think letting Eugeo die was a waste of a character. I’m more upset about that than the fact that Kirito’s going to be in a coma for the foreseeable future.

On top of that, the Underworld equivalent of Armageddon is coming, and if the Human Empire loses, RATH will erase it. At least, that was the initial plan, but since they’re under attack by an unknown group, that changes things. I just hope this war will be as epic as I think it will be.

The only silver lining I could find here was Quinella getting what she deserves. Even then, though, I couldn’t take any satisfaction in it because of the loss of Cardinal and Eugeo. It doesn’t matter, though. She’s dead.

Overall, I think this was a disappointing end to the first half of the season. It’s like if Square Enix donked up Aerith’s death in the first half of Final Fantasy VII. It has the potential to be emotional, but then it falls flat on it. Here’s hoping that the second half of Alicization is better

I Give “My Hero” a 2/5. I’m being generous.

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