Sword Art Online episode 8 starts out saying that it has been nearly two years since the game has started. This episode has a progress report feeling to it. Kirito gets an S class ingredient and luckily runs into Asuna who has just maxed out cooking. While the two are eating they go over the current state of Sword Art Online. Only 500 people are on the front lines trying to beat the game because many people have now gotten used to the world inside the game. After Asuna threatens Kirito into being in a party with her, we get to see them fighting together once again.
Asuna talking about her guild in Sword Art Online being too impersonal now is really weird. I know that this is their whole life right now, but in the end when this is over will they ever see these people again? Unless they decide to hunt them all down probably not. So why is it all that weird that they went for strength in numbers rather than a small tight knit group? Beating the game is the top priority for a lot of the people in Sword Art Online rather than enjoying the experience they are having now.
Sword Art Online is supposed to be so immersive to the point where the senses are brought in and they do not even allow magic. A lot of the basic tasks are not normal though, which seems counter productive. For instance in this episode we get to see Asuna cooking. The cooking is not at all like real cooking. The ingredients magically appear and when Asuna touches them with a knife they are magically cut for her. A whole meal is put together in no time. Things like that seem so out of place in a world that is suppose to be realistic. Why simplify common tasks?
Asuna’s personality is really all over the place in this episode. While she is having dinner with Kirito she refuses a proposal that he does not even offer and then turns around and forces him to party with her. I know this is all part of being tsundere, but the moodswings are out of control. We even had the traditional grope and punch after Asuna falls on top of Kirito. I do not know why he keeps hanging out with her.
The end of Sword Art Online episode 8 includes something so dumb. Both Kirito and Asuna should know better than to enter a boss room. Asuna had just been saying that the enemies had gotten unpredictable too. Something bad just has to happen next episode, even though the two main characters obviously can not die.
