私の神聖な言葉を: Sword Art Online Ep 12

Friday, September 28, 2012

Sword Art Online Ep 12

Okay, okay, so this is late quite a few days, but anyways, this is the review for:

Sword Art Online Episode 12

Yui's Heart

This episode started off with a continuation from the previous episode, after Yui fainted. Kirito and Asuna let her sleep for a while then met with the bespectacled lady after Yui woke up.

I think it was a cathedral?

The bespectacled lady told her story about how she started the church and where all the children came from.

However, unfortunately for Kirito and Asuna, she had not seen Yui before.

Not long after, someone knocks at the door. It was Yulier, from the Army, there to thank Kirito and Asuna for their splendid work after their run-in with the Army dudes from the last episode.

Yulier was invited inside soon after because she had wanted to ask a favour from Kirito and Asuna after she found out their capabilities as fighters.

She then related her story about how her partner, Thinker, had been trapped in a dungeon, thanks to this idiot of a Kibaou. She recapped on these two characters, you see:

Asuna, being the "on-guard" person that she is, said that she would love to help if she could, but only after verifying that Yulier's story was true.

However, after Yui said her story was true, they relented.

I'll admit one thing: I doubted Yulier at first after that sidewards glance she gave them in the dungeon before descending down the steps in the dungeon.

But I couldn't doubt Yui, so that feeling didn't last very long.

I found the frogs unbelievably annoying. But I guess the lamer they look, the easier it is for Kirito to finish them off.

I was pretty glad he finally got to shine with his two swords. As usual, plenty of action and I loved every minute of it.

Asuna didn't even flinch. She just stayed by with Yulier and Yui -.-

As for Kirito, it's like the exercise he's been waiting for, since all he's done so far was chill with Asuna.

Haha.

What I found funny was the part when Kirito showed Asuna the frog leg and said she could cook it.

Haiz~

Laughed a bit there because she kept throwing away the frog legs that Kirito got from the enemies.

I fully trusted Yulier here because her smile seemed very sincere. Yui was cute to have noticed this was the first time she laughed.

I didn't even notice.

I had to rewind the whole thing just to make sure Yui wasn't lying O.O

And so, Yulier and Thinker met and she ran towards him like they'd not seen each other in years. Expected it to be a trap, though, because he just kept waving.

When he yelled at her to get back, however, I kind of panicked. Didn't know what the hell was gonna happen.

Oh well, Kirito saved her so it was nothing to worry about.

As usual, Kirito immediately took off to battle the unbelievably large monster. I'll just call him the Grim Reaper. Kirito ordered Asuna to take care of Yui and get the hell out of there.

Sadly, Asuna said no. After entrusting Yui to Yulier and Thinker, she joined Kirito in battle.

Didn't help much, though, because the both of them got blasted them off to different parts of the room.

As their lives dwindled to the shade of yellow, however, guess who stepped in?

Haha. Yes. Their very own "child", Yui.

The looks on their faces were priceless. Did they actually think she would have stepped in if she was gonna lose?

My personal opinion, but I thought this part was beyond awesome. I have always loved invincible characters. Such examples would be Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin.

I'd give more examples, but I don't wanna waste time thinking.

Made it much more awesome after I saw that she was an immortal object.

Was expecting a much cooler term for her but hey, I'm not complaining.

As Yui was fighting here - and Kirito and Asuna were busy gawking - she reminded me of Shakugan no Shana's Shana.

Must've been the huge red, flaming sword and cool, blatant look on her face.

After the battle was over, Yui sat them down and properly delivered her explanations. They were chocked beyond words, obviously.

I mean, they pretty much deduced that she was some kind of unique programme, but I don't think they expected this Cardinal thing or that Yui was capable of doing what she did - or could do.

I think it was very sweet, what Yui said, about wanting to stay by their sides. She felt like she could really be happy if she stayed with them.

Obviously, Asuna couldn't bear it and therefore ran to hug her, saying that they would make it happen.

That's when Yui said that it was already too late. After defeating the Grim Reaper with that awesome power she had, it was bound to let Cardinal know of her actions and her disloyalty towards them.

She then told Asuna that she would very soon be deleted. And, as she predicted, she started to fade away.

Kirito, outraged, then cursed Cardinal aloud before running towards the keyboard and typing away.

Asuna was wondering what he was doing and he answered that he was storing something.

Moments later, he was rebounded, but not before managing to save a piece of Yui that he called her heart.

Asuna cried as she held the small piece - that looked like a teardrop, actually - before they left.

Back at their "lovely little cabin", Asuna is seen looking up towards the sky, reminiscing and anticipating a future with Kirito and, as she called it, their first child.

This is absolutely late and quite unlike me because I'd normally immediately watch it and review it later. This time, however, I only watched the episode 2 days after I downloaded it, 3 days after the episode officially came out.

Why, you ask?

I think the last episode didn't leave me with that much of a good impression - despite my positive review of it - so I thought that the next episode wasn't going to amount to much as well.

I'm actually feeling that with this episode too. While it was emotionally stimulating and cleared up some confusion with how Sword Art Online actually functions, I didn't think Yui would disappear so fast. Asuna's reaction to her deletion made it seem like they'd known her forever.

And quite exaggerated.

Perhaps human feelings can amount to that much in a short time, but this didn't deliver the 'oomph' as good as it could have.

Another thing I wasn't too ecstatic about was Kirito and Asuna's fighting scene with Grim Reaper. The only got hit once. Sure, it was about Level 90, but I really thought they could have fought a little more.

I guess I was expecting some really cool action from them since their teamwork should be fascinating, but I was let down. Quite badly, too.

I have no complaints about Yui, though.

I'll give it another merit:

You know sometimes, when you're watching a good movie and when a good scene (usually a sad one) arrives, you get goosebumps?

I got that a lot when I was watching this episode. Of course, particularly, when Yui had regained her memories and let out her feelings.

Loved that the teardrop memento of Yui had quite the shape of a heart too. Not exactly identical to an actual human heart with veins popping out, but the one that has a love shape depiction.

So maybe the 10th episode is still, by far, my favourite, but this episode definitely takes second place, for the details of the game and the long-awaited fighting scenes, with a tinge of tragedy towards the end.