Review

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Boruto: Naruto Next Generations - Episode 77 [Review]

Boruto and the gang complete their Ryuchi Cave adventure as Mitsuki's whereabouts finally come to light in this week's surprisingly eventful installment. After turning Cho-Cho to stone and injuring Aoda, Garaga retreats into his feeding grounds in an effort to give himself the home court advantage. Although the young shinobi are eventually able to gain the upper hand against their opponent, Boruto ultimately decides not to take Garaga's Reverse Scale, opting instead to form a summoning contract with him. After looking into the snake's memories, Boruto discovers that Garaga had been betrayed by the last ninja he made a contract with, causing him to distrust all shinobi. Impressed by the group's strength, the White Snake Sage reveals that Mitsuki is currently en route to the Land of Earth with a mysterious group of Earth ninja. What's more, Mitsuki actually saved the gatekeeper's life before departing the village. By temporarily stopping his heart, he created the illusion of death, which prevented the Earth ninja from finishing him themselves.

Back in the Hidden Leaf, Sakura and Moegi discover Yurito's true intentions, causing him to flee. When he stumbles upon Team Udon, it's revealed that the supposed traitor is actually being controlled by a genjutsu, courtesy of an Earth ninja. Unfortunately, no sooner is Yurito freed from the genjutsu than the perpetrator sends an insect-like exploding tag to finish him off before he can reveal anything else.

Now that Boruto has made a contract with Garaga, the Ryuchi Cave affair feels like less of a detour. Whether Garaga will remain with Boruto for the rest of the series and serve as his own recurring summon (like Naruto and his toads) remains to be seen, but it would present a number of fascinating narrative possibilities down the line. The parallels between Garaga's past and Boruto's current situation with Mitsuki feel a little forced, but they certainly help justify his presence in the story. Garaga was betrayed by the person he trusted most, the last shinobi to bond with him, and he spits in the face of Boruto's unwavering trust in his own “traitorous” friend, Mitsuki. As such, Boruto wants to prove to him that some friends are loyal to the end and that some relationships are worth fighting for. (This also mirrors his father's knack for charming one-time antagonists.) Garaga may be outwardly doubtful about Boruto's claims, but he did agree to the boy's terms, so at least part of him isn't sure. After viewing Mitsuki's snake's memories, the group is confident in Mitsuki's innocence, even if certain questions still need to be answered.

Moegi being observant enough to realize Yurito's true intentions was a fun turn in what seemed like a predictable series of events—as was Yurito simply being a genjutsu-controlled pawn instead of an actual traitor. If more surprises like this are in store, this arc's third act should prove more entertaining than its somewhat lagging second one. While nothing spectacular, we also get a couple of solid action sequences this week when Team Udon fights Yurito and Boruto's group goes up against Garaga. Despite the abundance of detective work and exposition this portion of the arc demands, it's nice that the screenwriters haven't forgotten to throw a bit of action our way each week.

With the White Snake Sage excursion behind them, our heroes are free to resume their original quest: locating Mitsuki and discovering his connection to the Earth ninja. At times, this side-adventure felt too drawn-out and detached from the main story, but episode 77 does a decent job of tying it into the bigger picture. As an added bonus, Boruto forming his first summoning contract is a significant level-up that potentially paves the way for big developments in the future.

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Banana Fish - Episode 14 [Review]

Tender is the Night is maybe F. Scott Fitzgerald's most famous novel after that one we all had to read in 10th grade, The Great Gatsby. It also might be his most autobiographical novel—no easy feat in his case. The story was inspired by the psychiatric struggles of his wife Zelda and their relationship. So it's not a bad choice of title for this week's Banana Fish, where Ash is stuck in the hospital and it seems that more than a few unsavory forces want to use that vulnerability to their advantage. Tender is the Night is also Fitzgerald's last completed novel, which could be some foreshadowing of this episode's very deceptive ending.

First though, we get 20 agonizing minutes of Ash and Eiji separated. After they seemed to unconsciously call out to each other before Ash's fight last week, now they're forced apart by the hospital staff and Yut Lung, who's back and creepy as ever. He gets Sing and Eiji released from the jail cell where everyone at the scene of Ash's crime is being detained, but uses it to keep Eiji behind his own bars while he figures out what to do with him. As Yut Lung himself says, Eiji annoys him just as much as he elicits feelings of protectiveness in Ash. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that right before Yut Lung said this, Eiji reminded him that he's a few years older than he is. He's a shady criminal mastermind, but he's still a petty teenager, and that's why Yut Lung is so much more fun than Banana Fish's other villains. I'm glad he's back. I wish the "progress" he's made on his plan against his brothers didn't feel so sudden, after previous episodes built that up so much.

Eiji in peril basically means "it must be Thursday," and he's in considerably less danger from Yut Lung this time than he was in the past. Still, it's frustrating to watch as he calls out for Ash but gets continually stopped from doing anything to help him and vice versa. A pretty early indicator that at least some of the people minding Ash are not all they seem is how hesitant they seem to be about allowing certain visitors. Then again, telling Ash that only lawyers are allowed to see him could also be a way to spare him the agony of finding out where Eiji is right now—and why he can't see him. All of these two boys crying out for each other happens between a new OP and ED that are somehow even gayer than ever. Seriously, along with the visuals of Ash and Eiji running toward each other and giving longing glances, the lyrics literally spell out that they're in love.

Probably the most important thread this week is the explicit detailing of Ash's trauma. We see his flashbacks to Shorter's death and the deep guilt he feels about that through his dreams—and how this parallels fears about Eiji's death. In his nightmares, a vision of Eiji bleeding from the neck literally turns into Shorter doing the same, and back and forth again. Ash seems to be haunted by being forced to kill others in the process of protecting Eiji. That even includes other people he cares about like Shorter, even if we know that Shorter's death was a mercy kill. Shorter still put himself at risk out of his own desire to protect Eiji. I appreciate the way that Banana Fish doesn't just let this go, giving Shorter's death more gravity and realism than it could have had. As Banana Fish has steered away from the "shocking" rape threats, it's revealed a heart-rendingly realistic understanding of how trauma impacts individuals.

Related to this is the way the episode explores Ash's distrust of the justice system (something more than validated by this week's ending). I've seen reports on Twitter about how Japanese fans see Banana Fish as newly relevant in the age of #MeToo—how well it portrays the lifelong impact that assault can have on victims, and how Ash as a male character created by a female writer reflects women's fears and reactions to sexual assault. (That's not to say that men can't be rape victims; we've seen some high-profile male victims come forward as a part of #MeToo. But more that Banana Fish reflects a particularly "female" attitude toward the issue, through its creator. This is particularly true given how Ash feels like it's something he has to worry about around every corner, an expectation that haunts even women who haven't been assaulted.) I think the way that his traumatic history has impacted Ash can hit close-to-home for some viewers even in the best of times. But the news events of the past few weeks make that little reminder hit particularly hard for American viewers. The justice system both here and in Japan chronically fails sexual assault victims, and we've just seen an incredibly frustrating example of that in America. If Banana Fish is part of a larger cultural reckoning in Japan around this issue, that's a real sign of cultural progress for all of us.

So on to that ending. In all of Ash's battery of tests at the hospital, one that stands out is an "intelligence test." Ash gets a chance to show off his super-genius math skills in spite of a lack of "formal" schooling (although I'm sure Golzine hired lots of tutors for him), and his results show a super-genius I.Q. In the real world, high I.Q. isn't necessarily a "superpower" like that, and the test in general is somewhat discredited as speaking more to racial and class subdivisions than raw intellectual power, which we are still not sure how to precisely "test." But this is fiction, and it's a sign to Ash's enemies that he's even more valuable than they thought. After Ash fends off an assassin disguised as a nurse, he's kidnapped by "FBI agents" who are clearly more than they seem. Ash seeing through them is shown as a sign of his super-genius, but any viewer could figure that out pretty quickly. Meanwhile, they "fake" his death by sending out a news report that he died on the way back from the hospital.

Even if you haven't read the manga or don't know spoilers for it, it's pretty obvious that Ash isn't actually dead. Despite Banana Fish's high body count, Ash is the center of the story, and killing him off at this point makes no sense. Plus, we would at least get to see a moment that shocking. The offscreen nature of this incident and the focus on other characters' reactions makes it just a cruel cliffhanger. I'm sure Eiji will be in suspense for a while, and we'll see the drawn-out agony of his reaction. But the real mystery is why these guys feel the need to tell the world that Ash is gone. I guess we'll see.

It's weird how that final plot point makes the entirety of "Tender is the Night" just feel like setup for that twist in retrospect. This is another one of Banana Fish's "slow down" episodes that takes time to explore the dynamics between its characters. Unlike previous installments, we don't get tender moments between Ash and Eiji—quite the opposite, in fact. But we do learn more about who they are to each other, as well as about their relationships with other people orbiting them, like Max, Sing and Yut Lung. The fact that this episode succeeds so well is a testament to how far Banana Fish has come. It no longer just seems like nice moments in between cruel twists. Those "breather" moments are more of an end unto themselves.

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Attack on Titan - Episode 49 [Review]

With Attack on Titan set to go on hiatus until April of 2019, “Night of the Battle to Retake the Wall” serves as our mid-season finale. As far as bridge episodes go, Episode 49 is both very typical and more than a little bizarre – at times it feels like a recap episode, and at others it comes across like a comedic one-off meant to settle the tone of the show back into something resembling Attack on Titan circa 2013. It does its job of hinting at the big changes that we're going to see in the future, but I'm also not entirely sure if the episode comes together in a satisfying way.

We open with Hange, Levi, Erwin, and the other coup leaders trying to make sense of the serum that Kenny snatched from Rod Reiss before he transmogrified himself into the B.A.T, and Hange admits that their technology simply can't deduce the true nature of the concoction. After a bit of deliberation, Erwin decides to leave the material in Levi's hands, giving him the responsibility of deciding when to use it and on whom. Outside of putting that future plot device into the show's back pocket for the next arc, this scene is largely about reinforcing Levi and Erwin's respective character arcs for the season; Erwin is still determined to push forward and figure out Grisha Jaeger's master-plan, to avenge his father's death by finding out the truth behind this world. Levi's place in the future story is more nebulous, save for a teaser that comes at the end of the episode, but we'll get to that later.

All of that foreshadowing is pushed aside for the most part, as the bulk of the episode actually takes place at the celebratory dinner that the scouts have all earned in preparation for the titular mission to retake wall Maria. This entire sequence is largely played for comedy – at the sight of fresh meat, Sasha literally goes insane with hunger enough to try and eat Jean's hand and has to be bound to a pole and gagged for the remainder of the night. Eren and Jean also get into a brawl over Jean's frustrations regarding Eren's tendency to suicidally charge into battle, with the main joke being that the rest of the crew has largely given up on trying to break up their brawling (except for Levi, naturally).

These are cute exchanges that don't do much more than refresh us on character beats we've seen done more seriously earlier in the season, but Conny's brief exchange with Eren does explain why they're still important. They remind us that these traumatized war veterans are only four months removed from the immature dorks we met way back in 2013. Sasha used to be the one who stole food to share with the whole group; now the thought of fresh meat is enough for her to violently attack her friends just to get a taste. These men and women have all been scarred, and while it occasionally manifests as slapstick comedy, the hurt that underlies it all is very real. I don't think that we needed an entire episode of these shenanigans to bring this point home, but it's still a valid one to be making at such a transitional moment in AoT's narrative.

Eren, Armin, and Mikasa also get to do some reminiscing of their own, which is good, because the events of Season 2 and 3 have kept their relationships out of the limelight for a while now. Eren and Armin even get back into their old debate about whether the ocean exists or not, which seems conspicuously appropriate when you take into account the water-focused teasers for the second half of the season (and the opening shot of season 3's first episode). It's still unfortunate that Mikasa has been given so little to do this season – here's to hoping that Season 3 Part 2 will afford our girl some more character development instead of just repeating Eren's name over and over into the wind.

Speaking of next spring, the only other talking point from this episode comes from the post-credits stinger, which shows Eren and Levi duking it out in the ruins of Shinganshina. This feels like one of those teasers that might resonate more with folks who've read the manga, because the seeds of whatever issues that could lead to such a falling-out have barely begun to be sewn; either that, or it all stems from what's inside the Jaeger basement, which anime-only viewers can only guess at for now.

Using a pseudo-cliffhanger like this as a stinger for next year's episodes highlights my issues with this mid-season finale as a whole. Its individual components are valuable to the show's narrative – they foreshadow future events, and they give our characters more time to be their old familiar selves. I just wish either the source material or the staff responsible for adapting it had found a more compelling story with which to deliver all of these disparate pieces. Whether we like it or not, we'll just have to wait until April of 2019 to watch where AoT goes from here. At the very least, we'll finally see Levi Squad take back the wall and kick down the door of that basement once and for all. No foolin' this time, and no take-backs.

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One Piece - Episode 857 [Review]

I have a pretty intimate attachment to this second half of Whole Cake Island, so I've always had the usual concerns for how the anime was going to adapt it. For whatever pacing issues still linger—for the record I still think the more tension-focused action fares much better with all the dramatic slow-motion than the plot-heavy first half—they are animating the hell out of the Katakuri fight, with many show-stopping scenes still on the horizon. Emotions are running crazy high now that Katakuri has a personal stake in the fight and Luffy is at least somewhat able to keep up with him in Fourth Gear.

The hits are getting so strong that the two fighters are sending each other flying hundreds of yards with each blow, and we're witness to some dreamlike tunnel vision as the environment warps around them to emphasize their speed. The fight is getting so exciting now, but by the end of the episode the status quo is restored with Katakuri recollecting himself and turning his pseudo-invincibility back on. It's an exhausting hit of the reset button that wouldn't be so bad if it were much earlier in the fight, but there isn't much you can do but sit back and wait for the next interesting story event to happen. I do like how it serves the power play of the fight, though, where as long as Katakuri can keep his cool and use his Observation Haki, he's the one in control of the fight. (I also like his new Bayonetta mochi arms.)

Elsewhere, we finally get an update on the cake baking subplot, where Chiffon's dad is knocking on the Sweets Factory, hoping to see his daughter for the first time since she was born, but he's coming face-to-face with Charlotte Oven, one of Katakuri's triplets. Oven's arrival on Cacao Island is where you really feel the wrinkles in the plotting of the Big Mom chase. He's there to offer some tension, a powerful foe just outside of the factory where Sanji and Pudding are making the cake. The Big Mom family have overheard the Straw Hats' plan to reunite with Luffy on this island, and so they're gathering reinforcements to make things even more difficult on the off-chance that Luffy wins his fight, but this new tension is coming at the same time we're being reminded that the Straw Hats' plan still has nine hours to go. You've got heroes and villains who want the same thing (a non-rampaging Big Mom) but can't work together because of Reasons™, and the points of tension keep coming at the most awkward times.

Now would be as good a time as ever for the audience to be asking themselves what they think is going to happen. The show is pushing this big gathering on Cacao Island including the whole Straw Hat crew, Luffy, Oven and his reinforcements, and then finally Big Mom herself. What's actually going to happen when Big Mom eats that cake? Will she be satisfied and let the Straw Hats go? Will she be just as antagonistic when she's sober? Maybe the cake will straight up knock her unconscious, like what Sanji bragged was going to happen? There's a really engaging puzzle box brewing in this chase, where the audience is being lured into trying to figure out the trajectory ahead of time. Mom's never rampaged this long so this is uncharted territory, even for her children.

The One Piece anime delivers another bombastic fight episode this week, digging its heels in the ground with a great production. I really like where things are going, but the rhythm at which it takes steps forward and then steps back can get cumbersome, which is an issue for how complicated the plot is and how desperately it needs to keep its story straight in order to be as impactful as possible. As has been the One Piece way for ages, the series keeps telegraphing how long-winded it is, almost like it's bragging, and I think episodes like this suffer the most from it.

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Fairy Tail: Final Season E01 & E02 [Review]

 Welcome back to Fiore, continent of magic and home to the guild Fairy Tail in the city of Magnolia! Or, at least it was – just about a year ago, Makarov disbanded the guild and everyone went their separate ways. Now Natsu and Happy are back from their year-long training and ready to get the guild going again – and the little fact that it no longer exists is in no way going to stop them. Luckily Lucy has been keeping track of where her former guildmates have gone, and together the three off them set off to find everyone and get the band back together again, starting with Wendy, who has joined Lamia Scale in the city of Marguerite.

Of course, this means that everyone has to want to get the band back together again. Wendy isn't sure she does. She's made a new life for herself in Lamia Scale, and more importantly, she has Shelia, her closest non-Fairy Tail friend, and she doesn't feel good about just leaving her. While she does eventually come to terms with the fact that Shelia is her friend but Fairy Tail is her family, the fact that the very first person Natsu and Lucy reach out to almost refuses them says a lot about the amount of time that has passed. Wendy was part of Team Natsu when the guild was operational, a major piece of Lucy and Natsu's adventures since she joined the guild. That she even considers sticking with the new life she's built post-Fairy Tail says that the guild may not be as important to everyone else as it is to Lucy and Natsu. For the two of them, it is unquestionably their family, the one place they never doubted they could (and would) eventually come back to. Look at where we find them at the start of the new story arc (technically the end of the previous season): Lucy has devoted her life to keeping track of where as many people are as she can, using her new journalist job to help with that, and Natsu has exactly zero doubts that he would be welcomed back after a year-long, largely unexplained silence with open arms. “Moving on” is not an accurate description for what either of them have been doing.

It makes perfect sense, given their characters, as does the fact that Wendy does eventually realize that she really does want to go home. (And can we just take a moment to appreciate what an amazingly good friend Shelia is?) But what about someone who came to the guild later, like Gajeel, or who was always a bit more stand-offish, like Gray? A year can be an awfully long time, and people do change. The emotional shock of the guild's dissolution may have had very different effects on the other members, which is something that next week's episode is going to begin exploring. Lucy and Natsu have gotten stronger and Wendy and Carla have as well, but who's to say that everyone else followed the same basic patterns?

Luckily Fairy Tail is adept at not only keeping things moving (this in no way felt like twenty-three minutes per episode), but also at tempering the more difficult bits with humor. Bluenote's mage noticing how much stronger and more frightening Natsu has grown this week is kept from feeling too ominous by the fact that at that particular moment, Natsu is holding Shelia up by her shirt and berating her for stealing Happy. Lucy's relief at Natsu and Happy's return is kept a little lighter by the way she and Natsu fall right back into their regular relationship, and Loke's proud preening over Lucy's new star dress skill lightens up the danger of the fight for Marguerite. Both episodes aren't afraid to have weightier moments, but they also don't wallow in them, which helps to maintain the balance of the story.

These really are “get things going” episodes at their heart. This week's indulges in some flashbacks, both to Wendy and Shelia meeting and to the whole Acnologia debacle. Both are important (especially the latter) and inform what's going on at the moment, but they also serve as ways to remind us of where the characters are coming from without resorting to a full recap episode. There's definitely more Wendy than anyone else this week, but given that we opened with Lucy and Natsu (and ended with them last season), that's fine even if she's not your favorite character because we need to be reminded that her core strength is emotional. She's a strong fighter, yes, but ultimately Wendy is driven by her concern for others, and she'll always put them before herself. She wants to go back to Fairy Tail and she doesn't want to disappoint Lucy and Natsu, whom she says she sees as siblings, but she also sees Shelia as needing her more. Her brief arc in these two episodes does a good job of reminding us what guides her as a character – and why it's so important to those who love her that she be happy herself.

Next week we'll find out what Juvia, and possibly Gray, have been up to during the guild's hiatus. (I say “hiatus” because Lamia Scale and the Bluenote wizard's reactions indicate that no one thought it was ever truly gone.) It looks like we're in for some heavy revelations.

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Goblin Slayer - Episodes 1 & 2 [Review]

The intent of Goblin Slayer is pretty clear straight away. It's self-styled as a dark fantasy-action series, a breed apart from those colorful adventure anime where heroes use flashy attacks and spells to fell magnificent monsters in glorious combat, always emerging victorious. In this story, the main character is a stoic man of few words who uses relatively simple and reliable methods only to dispatch goblins, those most basic of fantasy enemies. It's a methodical task that he must undertake, or else the land will be overrun by the little critters, who actually pose a serious danger in large numbers, as less-savvy adventurers immediately find themselves overwhelmed and gruesomely murdered, and in the case of the female adventurers, captured and raped.

Oh yes, in case you were living under a discourse-free rock for the past week, one of Goblin Slayer's most notable attributes is its full-on display of goblin rape. So fair warning, I'll probably be discussing that element regularly in these reviews. The scene in the first episode is pretty graphic and gratuitous by TV anime standards, seemingly around mostly to make a strong first impression of what kind of subject matter this series will be dealing with. Things are significantly more restrained in the second episode, with only allusions to sexual violence. Still, showing off its grim fantasy world and the consequences of living there in gritty detail is the only notable thing about the series at this point.

Narratively, the entirety of the show's ambitions are right there in the title. The first half of the first episode is spent demonstrating what goblins are and why they must be slain, and then the second half shows the Goblin Slayer slaying goblins. And that's it. The second episode has marginally more going on, defining the Goblin Slayer a bit more as a character, but it's still very much about gritty world-building for its own sake. The main problem is that once we're over the initial shock of seeing all those critical roll failures in all their horrific glory, there simply isn't much to the Goblin Slayer experience. There's actually a pretty good gag in the post-credits sequence of the second episode, where we see a bard recounting the Slayer's adventures in sweeping dramatic detail, when we actually know how dry and simple his process is. Showing a monster-slaying adventure in this way is a neat idea for one or two episodes, but that isn't going to be enough to carry a full-length series. Goblin Slayer needs to find an actual story in all this carnage and fast.

That's a dubious prospect, since what we get so far doesn't instill me with much confidence for the storytelling quality. I don't want to get all pedantic, nitpicking every plot hole and inconsistency, but there are still some glaring issues that mostly come as a result of the disparate fantastical sides of this story being at odds with each other. This is primarily evident in the case of the goblins themselves. One central conceit of this story is that other adventurers look down on the Goblin Slayer for only taking jobs exterminating weak monsters that no one takes seriously, which flies in the face of what the grave danger we're shown that these goblins present. Inexperienced heroes getting caught off-guard by the horrors of trying to face goblins doesn't work when we've already seen how clear it should be to any adventurer worth their salt that there's plenty of danger to the prospect of confronting a goblin horde. It makes the lack of regard that the denizens of this world have for goblins and the Goblin Slayer come off as arbitrary, just to force him into the role of misunderstood loner.

This brings me to my major takeaway from Goblin Slayer so far. So much of it revolves around playing up a misanthropic power fantasy. The hero is looked down upon by society at large, but he gets to be an unstoppable badass in his chosen role of goblin-slaying. The elaborate social revenge angle is hilariously palpable in one scene where he's being mocked by other adventurers, and you can practically hear the story bitterly seething over whatever graphic goblin-based fate should befall anyone who doesn't respect this underappreciated badass. At least he's understood by his cute companion Priestess who helps him slay goblins, his cute childhood friend who loves being protected by him, and the cute Adventurer's Guild clerk who doesn't judge him for taking goblin-slaying jobs. Goblin Slayer isn't subtle about pandering to the fantasies of its target audience.

Despite the too-transparent setup, Goblin Slayer is still technically fine in many regards. The dry and methodical battle scenes are decently impressive to watch, giving us a strong idea of how effort and experience have informed the Goblin Slayer's methods. Generally the animation and art are nice, though the CGI Slayer looks wonky when overused, and a lot of the cartoonish anime-girl designs clash with what's supposed to be a grimy and understated fantasy-world aesthetic. But the show's good production work can't cover up how little there is going on. Many anime fans, myself included, have had that watershed moment where we caught some of Ninja Scroll or Wicked City when we were fourteen, and I have no doubt that Goblin Slayer will find an audience to revel in the grisly pleasures of its premise, but that's all it's got going on right now. Goblin Slayer is a one-trick pony, and the trick isn't that great so far.

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Sword Art Online: Alicization - Episodes 1 & 2 [Review]

Unlike with most series that I've reviewed for daily streaming, I have actually read the source material for this story. I am current with the English releases of the novels (the 6th of 10 novels is in my reading queue right now), so you can expect running anime-to-novel comparisons for most or all of this series. In the interest of avoiding spoilers for anime-only fans, I will restrict commentary to what's currently going on in the story, except for the occasional "this will be expanded on later" comment. Also, for the sake of clarity, I will be referring to Kazuto as Kirito when talking about what he's doing in Underworld, but refer to him as Kazuto otherwise.

The double-length first episode was the prologue for Alicization, so episode 2 is where the main story actually begins. Episode 1 laid enough groundwork about what Kazuto has been doing lately to come to a reasonable conclusion about what probably happened to him after his real-world encounter with Johnny Black. For whatever reason, he was plugged into the STL system, presumably because it's functioning as some sort of life support. Assuming that's the case, it remains unclear why he's not able to contact Kikuoka or whoever else is directly controlling the system from the outside. Previous comments about memory-wipes and time acceleration within the system may be affecting this, or perhaps there's just no mechanical way to directly interface with Underworld from the outside in real time. Whatever the case may be, Kazuto is clearly stuck in Underworld for the time being, and given the length of this arc, he will be for quite some time.

The Underworld setting quickly becomes an intriguing mix of game mechanics and daily life in a fantasy setting. Further references get thrown out about the mysterious Taboo Index that seems to govern everything, and details like Callings suggest that Underworld is a highly regimented world. Even so, the people don't act like normal NPCs and seem to have full autonomy within the constraints of the Taboo Index. Game elements are still present in the form of the System Call windows and the way the sturdiness of objects is numerically indexed, but how deep that system goes is unclear at this point. Kazuto also seems to be able to access his Aincrad Sword Skills, though the reasons why remain unclear once again.

In a story sense, Eugeo is clearly a grown-up version of the boy he knew but can't remember from his earlier time in Underworld, but what has become of Alice in the intervening six years, since she never returned to the village? The promo art and opener for this arc make it clear that she's still alive, providing even spoiler-level hints of what's happened to her, but anime-only fans shouldn't expect to find out what those images mean for probably at least a dozen episodes. You can probably expect an even longer wait for a reveal about the nearly-naked woman in the episode's final shot too. Even by SAO's normal standards for storytelling, this will be a slow-paced arc, so get comfortable for the ride.

Fortunately, the story gives fans a fair amount to appreciate. On top of the bevy of mysteries at hand and all of the tantalizing tidbits thrown out in the strong opener, the relationship forming between Kirito and Eugeo already shows great promise. In all his adventures up to this point, Kazuto/Kirito has mostly been surrounded by girls, so he hasn't had a close male friend prior to Eugeo – and no, Klein doesn't count. Watching how this develops and what effect that might have on a boy who's practically had to be forced into socializing should be interesting, and how the anime version handles this element could be the biggest key to the success of this arc. The technical merits so far also look promising, and the series sports strong songs and visuals for both its opener and closer.

So far, this anime adaptation is following the source material relatively closely. Episode 1 almost exactly conformed to the prologue chapters (except for cutting the cliffhanger off earlier, probably to save for later), while this episode covers chapters 1 and 2 and part of 3, although the scene where Kirito discovers that his Sword Skills work is from content that will probably be covered in one of the next two episodes. The content being cut is mostly just Kazuto's more detailed ruminations on his situation, which wouldn't have translated well into anime form. Overall, I am quite pleased with how this adaptation is starting out, and it gives me hope that the anime version may smooth over some upcoming rough spots.

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