What They Say:
Kirito and Leafa have made it to the meeting and Kirito’s bluff as an ambassador has been called out. If he can survive in a fight against the Salamanders General Eugene, his plan to prevent a war might work.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Kirito and Leafa working together so well, they’ve had a few good adventures up to this point but it’s now reached an awkward stage. Things need to be done and Kirito is running out of time in general in order to save Asuna. But with his sense of justice, he can’t leave Leafa to her fate with the others that are pushing back against the Salamanders, who themselves have set up quite the little show of force. With both sides about to turn to full on war, Kirito manages to insert himself in the way that a young man does with a situation like this. Right in the middle of it. Taking into consideration his mindset from the Sword Art Online days, where he knows he can logout but still treats it all as very series, he takes a stand for Leafa’s group as an ambassador while faking out an alliance of some sort.
What he does manage to do is to take a full on battle and minimize it to just him and the Salamanders leader, General Eugene. He’s a powerful man to be sure and he intends to win, full out, to the point of killing Kirito. The battle is pretty good overall and it has a lot of force and impact behind it, which makes for some really engaging moments. And as a lot of things go when it comes to Kirito, it does go in certain predictable ways, but there’s a real meeting of the men at the end of it here that sets the balance between the two of them in a very good way. You have to admire the skill at which Kirito is able to play these games and to interact with others, especially since he was a lone wolf beta tester type player for so long in Sword Art Online.
The show spends the first half dealing with all of that in good fashion and that lets the second half work more of a dialogue based game, showing how Kirito has done a lot of helpful things for the people there. Similar to the previous game, we see how he makes allies and comrades in a simple but effective way, ways that will invariably help him down the line, because he does things simply and honestly and often without the intent to gain anything by it. His sole focus continues to be to reach the tree and even at that state he does things that help the others. So little of the game means anything to him but his actions speak volumes to others that it’s conflicting for them. I like the way he’s just so philanthropic about it and how he’s really not doing it for any particular gain to him personally. And it has the desired effect on Leafa as well as it draws her closer to Kirito.
In Summary:
If there’s a downside to the Alfheim arc so far, it’s that Asuna gets so little time. She gets a minute or so at the end here that’s helpful, but it’s not something that really provides much for her to work with. The focus on Kirito and Leafa is definitely worthwhile though, especially with who she is in the real world and the way she views Kirito through both lenses with him unawares. This episode hits up some very good action in the first half and then shifts to dialogue, intrigue and philanthropy in the second half, reversing what most shows tend to do. It works well, especially since the fight with the Salamanders is so well done and left me quite pleased by it. The show as a whole is still in a quiet phase as it moves him closer to the tree but I’m enjoying the growing relationship between the two leads, especially with Yui sneaking in a few choice words here and there.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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