Sword Art Online is back for another season with the same characters plus some new ones. The major problem this time is that there is a player in Gun Gale Online who has a “Death Gun” that somehow causes people in the game to die of heart failure in real life when shot by it. The person does not even have to be in the same area of the game as the shooter as long as the person shooting can see the victim. Kirito is called in to help with the problem since he is used to handling situations in games like this. In the second episode the focus changes to Sinon a sniper who is driven to kill people in game that are really good players. Most of the episode is about her handling a situation where the odds are against her party. In real life Sinon does not appear to be as confident or skilled.
The new season of Sword Art Online no longer emphasizes hand to hand combat or magic. This time guns are the weapon of choice, but unfortunately gun fights are not interesting enough for these animators so the viewers have to keep following the bullet’s path as it flies through the air to its target. That gets pretty boring over time. Hopefully they will get bored of this technique soon, but I am not betting on it.
He seems to be enjoying this too much.
He really should have kept his eyes open.
The first episode is mostly just setting up the story for the new season, so that is why I have combined the first and second episodes this time. In the second episode it focuses on a new character named Sinon who specializes in being a sniper and is one of the best. During a raid Sinon runs up against a player that seems to know her shots are coming and dodges them. That seems pretty fishy. There will probably be some kind of cheat that explains that later or the show could just be saying he is that skilled. Sinon fights against that guy and has a really unbelievable moment. Sinon is flipping in the air somehow dodging minigun bullets and still manages to get the Behemoth in her sights and headshot him while all that is going on. She should not have had that much control while falling or the ability to keep the gun stable enough to get the shot. Somehow despite all the odds, Sinon is that good at the game. This series of events should not be the least believable of the series, since if the opening is to be trusted Kirito will be beating people that have guns with a melee weapon. If the people in the game were casuals that would be one thing, but there are supposed to be professionals making money off of Gun Gale Online that will be beaten by Kirito at close range.
Outside of the game Sinon appears to have some kind of problem. When she leaves the game her hand is shaking and she says something about being stronger. Maybe she has some kind of physical condition or it could just being some kind of social anxiety. It would be nice to have these characters have a personality outside of the game and more reason to be living through a video game.
A lot of the old female characters show up in the second episode. Silica tries to prove that she is different now.
In the end Silica still ends up in the same circumstances she did before.
