Sword Art Online 2 – 02
Death From Above!
Highway here! I drew the short straw for the first week, so let’s see what’s going on in the online world? You have to introduce the new character, right?
Sinon, Shino, Hecate
Sinon and her band of merry PKers
This episode was pretty much all about the other main character of this season. Shino, who goes by the name Sinon (or Hecate, after the .50 caliber Hecate II rifle that she looted) in GGO, is a sniper, but in typical SAO hero fashion, she’s pretty quick to abandon her primary role and do something totally different that’s more exciting when the plot demands. She’s also a cool cucumber… until she gets riled up by something. So, basically, it’s Kirito with a big gun and greenish hair. And while she’s not above offering her services for pay to other groups, she doesn’t give off that ‘mercenary’ feel.
It bleeds, we can kill it…
That is usually accompanied by a “screw you guys, I’m just here for the money” kind of attitude, which we don’t even get from the nemesis of the week, Behemoth, who has been contracted by the monster hunters to protect them from monster hunter hunters (it’s evident that without the real death penalty of SAO, PK’ing in GGO is much more frequent and more accepted as just part of the deal). The battle between Sinon and Behemoth was pretty exciting, if a bit rote and providing your normal SAO level of “yeah, they can’t really do that” and “what did those other dopes do that for” action, such as running headlong into gunfire and Sinon actively avoiding a fusillade of minigun bullets while falling. And we have the classic mistake of “don’t trust the instincts of your best player” on the part of the Player-hunters, when they have Sinon follow the plan instead of taking out Behemoth first (would he have been able to sidestep the shot if he was her first target? We’ll never know). There was also the annoying “Why don’t you tell your guys that they’re running at a guy with a minigun?” tactical communication error. Seriously, speak up!
Meanwhile, Back in the Field of Mushroom Trees
Can’t get away from this gag, can we?
The gang’s still together in Alfheim Online, with Silica up to her old “hung upside down by tentacles from a (Flying) Piranha Plant” tricks. Apparently she, Liz, and Leafa are all out gathering materials, but that’s more of a setup to get us to the setting, so that we can see Kirito and Asuna being all rabu-rabu, and Kirito starts to bring up the idea of him going to GGO to help the government guy out. Not the world’s most intelligent look on Asuna’s face (“huh?”), but they did keep them involved in the show. I’d imagine she’s not going to be too happy with the idea, especially if he’s going there to taunt a guy named “Death Gun”, but we know that’ll happen anyway.
Not a bad episode, the sniping was interesting, and I’m assuming that the target circle is related to the shooter’s breathing and movement (smaller represents more accuracy). Sinon feels like a fine character who will fit right in with Kirito… if they don’t butt heads too much. They’re pretty alike from what I can tell, so there’s always that chance that his mansplaining will go over like a lead ballon, especially in a game that he’s a newbie in. Maybe because he’s trapping it up, it’ll be different this time? Thanks for reading me this week on SAO 2, and remember to catch the mystery writer next week!
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Is that huge gun called “Minigun”? Really?
The target circle is affected mainly by the player’s breathing and heartbeat rate, so that would kind of explain why the bodyguard missed all those shots while Sinon was in the air, he could be desperated and his heartrate could have gone up which made the shots less accurate.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…technically speaking a gun refers to larger bore weapons…cannons, howitzers, things like that. So yes, it is a minigun…
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
Actually, a gun refers to anything that fires a caliber size smaller than that of a cannon. The “mini” part refers to the fact that the minigun is smaller than its other rotary cannon brethren.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Summary:
1) Minigun is actually a ™ for a particular weapon, the M134. It is colloquially used for any similar weapon.
2) The “Mini” refers to the fact that it is smaller than its onii-chan, the 20mm Vulcan cannon. And “gun” being any weapon less than 20mm.
3) And as Sumairii puts it, accuracy is of secondary concern when you’re spitting out 4000rounds/minute.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Minigun)
Personally, I would advocate the use of large bore artillery saturation bombardment, but that’s just only my personal preference…
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
It’s quite silly when a minigun is portrayed as horribly inaccurate. In reality, the long barrels make it surprisingly accurate considering how much fire it puts down range. Though obviously suppression and demoralization is the bigger goal here than accuracy.
But, game balancing mechanics at play (I assume) so all this is moot…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t think it was ‘horribly inaccurate’. He certainly put a lot of fire on the other guys in the party.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 163 comments
This reminded me of “Heavy Weapons Guy” from Team Fortress for some reason.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I figured it was more that he couldn’t bring his weapon to bear on where Sinon was falling. That’s why Behemoth was trying so hard to pull the barrel up, but that’s not an easy thing to do.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 167 comments
looks like he was cummin
as always defending a mediocre anime
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
Thing is, the minigun spits out bullets at such a high rate that he didn’t really need to be very accurate. Just waving the gun over her a few more times would have virtually guaranteed a hit on her body. Instead, he aimed low the entire time. To be fair, we don’t know how much control characters have in the air. Could be like some FPSs such as Quake where it’s possible to bend your trajectory after jumping. However, the anime didn’t depict it that way. Rather, Sinon was dancing while in regular freefall. I liked the animation quality in this episode, but that piece of nonsense along with everything else like everyone deciding to bum rush the guy with the minigun or that one guy so fearful of dying in this game that he’d rather rage quit – this isn’t SAO anymore! You don’t die if you’re killed! – took me out of the show completely.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Very nice. I mentioned on the First Impression about wanting to know who Sinon was as a person and that wish was pretty much granted here. And on the second episode, no less. In my opinion, she embodies the saying “silent but deadly” and proves it with her reserved personality and ruthless efficiency thanks to her sharpened skills with a sniper gun. I admire the warrior spirit that resides in her. Even if it’s a game, she strives to better herself, lives with conviction and is willing to go down fighting if the circumstance calls for it.
The bittersweet thing on this is having the exposition of a character when they’re part of PK group who have been consistently classified as backstabbing scum in game oriented animes. It’s almost like promoting the adversaries when they’re attacking the good guys.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 386 comments
Yep same here, I wanted to know more about Sinon and we got it here hehe. I’ve always picked the sniper gun in any fps game I played, always like to snip back and take names.. it quite fun, Even sniping in World of tanks is ideal for me hehe.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Shion belongs in an action movie with the moves she pulled jumping out of the tower after loosing a leg!? That and she got a damn head shot with a sniper rifle while falling? Whoaaaaaaaa that was epic but freaking insane!
LOL those girls still stick in fairy world? I loved how Asuna and Kirito did nothing to help because they are obviously busy LIVING THE DREAM to care, but I know the main focus is GGO anyway so I forgive them if they wanna kick back.
How will Asuna take Kirito’s new job? I asume she will be perfectly fine with it since hes going to save lives.