English Dub Review: Sword Art Online II “Showdown in the Wilderness”

With what should have been a “YES!”, we get a “meh” instead.

I know the main characters in most anime are flimsy,but Kirito really takes the cake. After one encounter with Death Gun, with no guns and just words, Kirito folded like a wet piece of paper. He spent five or so minutes trying to figure out what the connection was between Death Gun, and the Laughing Coffin from Sword Art Online, and for whatever reason, he looked and acted like he was about to loose his damn mind. I tell you, this dude is flimsy.

Then, as he’s holding Sinon’s hand, he gets teleported to his semifinal match, and he runs right into his opponent in a suicidal sprint. He wins, as does Sinon, which sets up the bracket final between the two. Kirito makes Sinon go down to one bullet, and that sets up a duel. From what I gathered, this match didn’t really matter, because the both of them ended up in the finals. All of this was going on, with Death Gun watching from the sidelines.

What really drove the point of Kirito’s cluelessness home in regards to Death Gun was the scene with a big battle in SAO. There was one character that stood out, and Kirito thinks that it’s this guy. It’s odd that there isn’t a name, or anything attached to him. It’s just a random guy who put up a really good fight. This is what brought Kirito to a psychotic break before Sinon’s appearance breaks him out of it.

“Showdown in the Wilderness” seemed like a weaker episode, and a wasted fight between Sinon and Kirito. I figured that a fight between the (obvious) two best players in this game would have been a more explosive fight. Instead, we get cockteased with a lame duel, and left waiting to see something fierce later on. I mean, I guess it builds up anticipation, but what does it do for “Showdown in the Wilderness?” It was a lame duck episode, with just enough to push the episode forward to the bigger battle royal to come.