The Olympics are over, this means next week I will be back to three shows. Eureka Seven will restart broadcasting. Besides this, we have Accel World with a “side story” that involves Princess Snow Black in her Okinawa vacations. We also have Part Two of the murder case in Sword Art Online.
Accel World, Episode 18
Side story shenanigans are usually boring. This episode is no exception to the rule for the most part.
So while Haru, Taku and Chiyu are amusing themselves with Dusk Taker, Princess Snow Black is having her own fun in Okinawa. You know, I don’t think I ever had a school trip that allowed me to go to the beach and do nothing for a whole day. I actually never took the plane while going to high school. Well, it seems that Japanese school girls do. OK, it might not be representative of reality. For people who don’t know, Okinawa is a group of islands removed from “mainland” Japan. I met somebody who lived there last year when I went to Tawain actually, nice lady. She told me it takes three hours to reach by plane from Tokyo.
Anyhow, besides the fanservice (you know, beach episode and all that), the episode explores Snow Black relationship with her best friend Megumi. Snow Black’s best friend isn’t as stupid as she seems; she realized that the Princess has a “secret world” of her own. She also talks about having one at some point; I found that remark suspicious, but I suspect nothing will come out of it. We also have the introduction of three new Burst Linkers that live in Okinawa. Two girls show up to attack Black Lotus, but in truth they just want help, because their master is a bit depressed about a “monster” being around Okinawa’s gameworld space.
We then have a funny event where the girls present Black Lotus to this guy (who looks like a screw). He’s “drunk” at a bar in the Unlimited Field and goes on and on saying thing like: “girls you can’t help me, I need a level-9 King specialized in melee combat. In other words, I need the Black King.” At some point Black Lotus just says, look at me, and he turned around saying: so it’s you, Crikin.
He almost fell out of his chair. But besides that last moment of the episode, it was rather lackluster. Hopefully, part two is much better.
Sword Art Online, Episode 6
This episode starts exactly where the last one ended. It also brings a conclusion to the murder case.
And this was an original murder case. There was, in fact, no murder here, but a clever use of game rules to stage one. So besides the guild leader’s death, none of the other guild members died. The alibi wasn’t money either, but “love” with a capital “P” (as in possessing someone).
See, Grimlock was the real life husband of Griselda and he killed her because she was changing. In the real world she was the perfect little wife, you know the kind: meek, never complaining, doing everything in the house while the husband stayed put on the couch watching sports. But in the game, she was the leader, taking action, well, everything she wasn’t in real life. So Grimlock killed her and tried to put the blame on the other guild members. He also sent a PK guild to kill them. What a jerk. In the end, the three remaining members decided to take care of him. Asuna and Kirito didn’t seem to mind it. We also get to see a ghost (Griselda) at the end, which actually raises a few questions, I think.
There were also a lot of “romantic” hints between Kirito and Asuna here. In a typical Japanese fashion: aka comic moments and innuendos.