Well that was a bit of a letdown. I will say though, that I loved Kirito's reflection at the beginning (right after the opening credits). Most of my favorite parts of the show involve Kirito just thinking about the world and the nature of online gaming, and honestly, I feel as though this show has passed on so much potential by not really commenting much on the world or the events. They do comment, and they do it really well when they do it, so it's not like I'm calling them failures or anything, but it's a really small part of the show for me is all. With Kayaba, and the social messages, and all the implications that go along with a world like this, I feel like this show might have been a classic if they put most of the focus on that. It's still a good show though.

Up until now, the strength of the show has been the action sequences and the character interactions, which I think the last episode didn't do too well with. They spent a lot of time adding some depth to Sugu's character, only to just sort of shrug it off and leave all the problems behind.That, combined with a fairly standard action sequence (really subjective, I know) made this episode a little disappointing. I guess I was mainly hoping for Sugu and Kirito to deal with the problems rather than to just (basically) spontaneously make up. Whatever. On the bright side, I'm very much looking forward to next week. Things look promising from here.

You bet!!that was def an adrenaline rush. ny heart was racing....i posted way back that i knew the Sylphs would come in at some point to assist Kirito to conquer a quest,,,i expected this to happen in this episode while Kirito was in battle...loved those dragons!! Yeah, cant wait for next ep...it will be so sweet when kirito and asuna first meet.

What a HORRIBLY BAD episode. Jesus christ...

It could have been 5 minutes long.

Drop the useless flashbacks and combine the two weapons to begin with. Jesus Christ... They didn't even need the "perfectly timed" Caith Siths & Sylphs who showed up. So bad.


AND I'M STILL NOT SEEING ANY ILLUSIONS FROM MR. SPRIGGAN

But that's okay, because he is Gary Stue with Final Fantasy COMBINE ATTACK/WEAPON POWER! WOO.... Not really.


I wonder, are there any bad clichés this anime haven't used yet?


And Recon still sounds like an 8 year old kid - and he is even more annoying.

It started off pretty good... but yeah, I was laughing nearly the entire episode.

Ya, I thought the flashbacks were meh. That confession @ ALO was sort of funny though, ha!

The fight was okay imo although I expected the reinforcements to come. That didn't come as a surprise to me at all except the part involving the "dark magic". LOL @ another cliffhanger. Oh well, going to wait till next week to see what's going to happen.

Uh, ya. The way they left off that episode pissed me off.
I felt like I was watching a painful rerun of dragon ball z. Nothing against Dbz, I actually love it. But the cliff hangers. :<
Ah, I guess ill see asuna next week.

The fight could have been a little bit more epic. But it's the thing I've been looking forward to for the whole ALO arc, so I had higher than normal expectations.

Still pretty sweet though. I liked this episode. It's pretty much how I imagined it would look from the novel.

i am happy

Yeah and if they follow the novel right then ep 24 should probably be the best.

Yes the next episode will be something indeed.

Must continue reading later... got to go

You know, considering how annoying Recon is, I'm surprised that he doesnt get more haterade tossed at him...

I don't know why people are saying it was meh this and meh that. I thought episode 23 was awesome! I can't wait for the next episode!

im not seeing a next episode on my list of ques ....

the last episode of sao is #23????

I just got sad realizing I watched episode 23 out of 25 today and realizing just two more episodes left. Please let there be a new season after.

Would you drop the 'Gary Stu' aspect already, considering as I understand its meaning its 'Mr. Perfect' or the person that has everything go his way. First guild Kirito joined being wiped out, final boss fight of first part where Asuna dies before Kirito, getting knocked back back by the shield Salamanders in the neutral village, and getting k.o.'d by the enemies in the tree all prove the opposite as they are not 'perfection' and nor is Kirito. As far as combat abilities go it was stated early in the newest arc that he was essentially a 'hacked character' with abilities that others may not have and he may not have ready knowledge of. He didn't merge the weapons, he dual wielded which guess what has been shown to be an actual ability in SAO-verse. I could care less about cliches or not as long as they story is good but if you like being so picky have your fun with nothing to watch as EVERY anime has some. Recon is what in his early to mid-teens? so makes since wouldn't per se have deepened voice and you know its not the first anime in history to have teen males sound young so feel free to drop that as well.


I actually like Recon x Sugu because of that fact that he isn't the usual tough guy and is more of an intellectual/loyal guy. Not to say Kirito is bad pairing but he's already got Asuna.


Side-note: The flashbacks are put of giving more story and depth so shouldn't mind them.