Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Episode 12 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Episode 12.

Here we are end of Squad Jam 2 and end of Gun Gale Online. It all happened so fast, I don’t know how to feel!

What did, the episode? No, the episode is perfectly paced—I meant the series in general, feels like it was just yesterday we were meeting cute little LLENN-chan!

Right… that’s enough strolling down memory lane, how’s the finale, how much of it is taken up by the conclusion to Squad Jam since the previous episode ended on a cliffhanger? Mercifully little, not to say that I didn’t enjoy Squad Jam 2 but by this point in the series I needed this finale to focus on the scenes set irl and boy oh boy does this episode deliver on that!

Now kiss! (Guess I’ll have to wait for later for that).

I know you’re frothing to talk about the “irl scenes” but please, focus on the episode in chronological order, who wins Squad Jam 2?! Well it’s a tough one-on-one battle between LLENN and Pito, things get dirty, things get violent, there’s neck stabbings and face punching and hands being cut off—it’s positively visceral! But in the end, it’s the power of trust and teamwork that gives LLENN and co the upper hand. With all weapons out of reach, the two are face-to-face and on the ground, both on minimal life, LLENN reminds Pito of her promise, that if she ever won that they’d meet in real life. Pito calms a little and LLENN tears Pito’s throat out, claiming her kill.

Wow… brutal… I’ll say.

So LLENN and Fuka win? Nope, there was a third team on the map that were lying in wait and proceed to mow down LLENN and Fuka in a matter of seconds.

Nobody likes this team… whoever they are…

Oh, kind of anti-climactic, no? Not at all! I would have been annoyed if it had kept going, it was ~just~ the right length for me, besides it was never about winning Squad Jam, it was about LLENN “saving” Pito by killing her in the game—and by that definition, mission accomplished!

Hard to hold hands when you have no hands.

Right, I know you’ve been eagerly waiting to talk about the scenes set outside the game. Go on now, have your fun. Arigato! So it’s kind of hard to put into words how much I prefer the show’s scenes set in real life, first we get to see the adorable team SHINC having their sweets and tea with Karen and it’s exactly the amount of adorable I was craving, like the anime equivalent of a sugar rush! Then Karen and Miyu (the irl Fuka) go to meet with irl M (Goshi) who’s going to take them both to meet the real life Pito—whose identity is still a mystery!

I loved their reactions during this scene, nobody likes a stalker!

If I recall from an earlier review, this ‘Goshi’ character is a little ~obsessed~ with real life Pito, to a troubling degree, do they explain any of that? Yup, and it’s as hilarious and twisted as I was hoping—turns out in his teenage years Goshi was an overweight stalker(!) and one day while following her, she confronts him, invites her back to her hotel room, strips him, beats him and takes incriminating photos basically ensuring that he’ll be her manservant for life.

Eek!

Umm… I don’t know who’s worse him for stalking her or her for treating him like that. An essay could be written about how deeply “problematic” that whole thing is, but the way I see it is that they’re too screwed up people who probably deserve each other—nothing come from trying to dissect and discuss the validity of their “relationship”.

Naww?

I guess that’s your way of saying, ‘we’re moving on’, yeah? Moving on… They arrive at their destination a secret Elsa Kanzaki concert! (Elsa Kanzaki is both Karen and Miyu’s favourite artist) they watch the petite singer’s performance with joyful tears in their eye and then backstage we finally meet the irl Pito… Goshi tries to make out that real life Pito is the owner of the club but Karen’s smart enough to know what’s going on…

Well who is it? Turns out Pito has been Elsa Kanzaki all along, that’s right the bloodthirsty, borderline insane master of GGO was a petite pop-star with a cutesy image! And I love her so much!

Excuse me? Elsa Kanzaki is best girl; also she’s bisexual… which Karen finds out as she plants a big kiss on the lips of the blushing tall-girl!

Swoon!

Sounds like Elsa’s got some issues with consent… Maybe, I don’t care, talk about how it’s problematic that a bisexual character is presented as sexually promiscuous all you want in the comments but right now I’m just content to sit and bask in the afterglow of this season finale that was pretty much everything I love about this show in one 25 minute package! I’m going to miss this show a lot, it was an unexpected treat of the season and even if it never gets a second season I’m incredibly satisfied.

Can we get a second season that’s just these two please? Oh and the gymnastic girls too.

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Previous Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 5.5 Review
Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
Episode 8 Review
Episode 9 Review
Episode 10 Review
Episode 11 Review

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Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Episode 11 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Episode 11.

Seems like Squad Jam 2 has been going for an eternity, does it wrap up in this episode? Nope! It’s the Squad Jam that never ends!

Is that a bad thing? Hell no! Especially not here, this episode has probably the best action set piece of the whole series (so far). It’s bold, it’s loud, it’s over-the-top and it’s just so well animated!

Brutal af.

High praise, but haven’t you complained in the past that this series’ action is at times implausible. That’s because early on I was approaching this series like it was a video game—and therefore thinking about the limitations of the current generation of video games. But that’s the absolute wrong way to look at the action in this series—this is more akin to a ludicrous Michael Bay action film, just with cute anime girls in the roles usually reserved for some generic white dude.

Who would have guessed this was based on fan-fiction?

So in changing how you approach the action scenes you’ve appreciated them for what they are rather than what you ~thought~ they should be? Exactly! And at just the right time too, it’s difficult to articulate how terrific the action scene with LLENN on foot versus Pito and M in a military vehicle is!

Well it’s your job to articulate it, so try your best! Right! So it’s one close call after another as LLENN uses her fast and fancy footwork to dodge M’s driving and Pito’s wild firing, until LLENN’s luck looks like it’s about to run out as she’s struck by a bullet and lays bleeding out in a lake. But it ain’t over til it’s over as Fuka has recovered from her previous injuries and comes to rescue LLENN in a military vehicle of her own—accompanied by a couple of cheekily suggestive comments about “not going home tonight” and “love hotels”.

😉

Okay, well explained, but why mention that last part—doesn’t really seem like it has any bearing on the action? In my Episode 9 review I hypothesised that Karen (the irl LLENN) may possibly be queer, or closeted. Maybe this was just a cute little joke, but I like to think that the writer is hinting at something by having Fuka make these suggestive ‘jokes’.

Sounds like ‘head cannon’ to me, but hey this is your review, you can talk about whatever you want. So what happens after Fuka’s rescue of LLENN? More action! Chases, explosions, ramming, running, out of bullets, face-to-face, cliffhanger ending!

Being stepped on by a loli, I know this is someone’s fetish.

So pretty positive all things considered then, anything you didn’t like about the episode? I love how crazy Pito is, and I know this series needs an ‘antagonist’ of sorts, but I don’t get the reaction a lot of other players have towards her—acting like she’s a monster or she’s evil because she’s enjoying killing other players. Last time I checked, it’s a video game; none of the people she’s killing are actually dying in real life. If they all knew the external circumstances around her actions and what her end goal was maybe I could understand their hostility towards her unique brand of crazy but as far as they know she’s just a sadistic player—hardly worthy of such ire.

Well it is a video game, so I’d hope so…

But other than that a great episode? Yup! Maybe a bit lacking in the character development department and I miss not having scenes in the real world as they’re my favourite but being that this is the penultimate episode I’m not going to complain too much about that, it was an action-packed extravaganza and I can’t wait to see the conclusion to that cliffhanger ending!

Me, waiting for the next episode!

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Previous Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 5.5 Review
Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
Episode 8 Review
Episode 9 Review
Episode 10 Review

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Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Episode 10 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Episode 10.

Squad Jam 2 continues? Of course, though we are fast approaching the final confrontation! And what a terrific episode we’re once again treated to!

What’s so good about this episode then? It’s everything that this show does well–albeit with only a single real world scene–but it’s exactly the kind of real world set scene that makes me low-key adore this show. Without the scenes set in reality I don’t think I’d be nearly as keen on this show. Sure it would have held my attention but I’m straight up in love with Team SHINC’s real life identities–the High School Rhythmic Gymnastics Club! The little scene where they’re discussing military tactics in the real world is just so damn cute and cool!

Yup, enough with the creepy cute girl worship–can we talk about the actual episode for a moment? Spoil sport. So basically LLENN and Fuka team up with SHINC to take down Pito’s team–with the one stipulation that LLENN gets the kill shot on Pito. With the help of an anti-tank rifle(!) the girls get the upper hand on M the sniper by busting his otherwise impervious sniper shield and his 50. Cal rifle, but not without taking a few casualties. Meanwhile, LLENN has flanked their position with the intention of confronting Pito–but she’s not quick enough as an enemy sniper takes out Pito from a distance!

A random sniper? No, there’s a small scene at the start of the episode that shows another team wanting to team up with Pito, but Pito being Pito not only does she refuse their terms she also shoots them in the back as they’re leaving–albeit leaving the teams ‘conscientious objector’ alive… evidentially a mistake as she’s enraged by Pito’s actions and vows revenge on behalf of her fallen squad mates!

That seems… kind of tacked on, no? It is a little bit, it’s pretty contrived and honestly the worst thing about the episode–they didn’t need to give the “random sniper” role a motivation, they could have had any number of ~random encounters~ be the thing that almost takes out Pito but I guess the writer wanted to give a face and voice to the instigator.

“Almost”? She doesn’t die? A quick thinking M uses a medkit as she’s bleeding out that stops her on a ~slither~ of health. Which also leads to one of the big “revelations” of the episode–Pito is using ‘nervegear’ which if my Googling is correct is the thing that made the original SAO players die in real life if they died in the game.

So she wasn’t bluffing then. What happens after that? M takes the unconscious Pito to a nearby house to hold out while she heals up to full and regains consciousness. Meanwhile another squad–MMTM crashes the party and breaks into the house, while nearby LLENN can only hope and pray Pito survives long enough so that she can kill her herself. Inside the bedroom, M offers Pito a tender kiss before priming a plasma grenade–intending for them to go out together on his terms, but at the last minute she stops him and from the darkness emerges Dark Side Pito complete with totally not a knock-off light saber to completely devastate MMTM!

A new ability for Pito at the 11th hour… sounds convenient. I’d be more annoyed if it wasn’t so damn cool–which is this episode in a nutshell really. The action if not the best or most inventive it’s been is still consistently very good, plus there’s a real sense of honestly scary determination from LLENN that rivals even Pito’s performance–which is something I never thought would be possible with her pint-sized pink avatar. It’s just enjoyable all the way through and I’m immensely looking forward to the final confrontation between these two very scary women!

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Previous Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 5.5 Review
Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
Episode 8 Review
Episode 9 Review

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If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Episode 9 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Episode 9.

Squad Jam 2 continues? Yup and will do so for a couple more episodes yet.

So is it good? It’s great—but unusual—but great!

Pink mist.

“Unusual”? How so? Well… the action in the Squad Jam is among the best this show has done. Pito’s ’10 minute massacre’ of the episode’s title is unbelievably cool as well as terrifying and hilarious in equal measure. I could watch a full season of Pito killing people in GGO and I’m not sure what that says about me. The “unusual” part was how there seemed to be a recurrent theme through this episode of random men saying and doing ‘inappropriate’, ‘sexist’ and downright ‘rape-y’ things to and about LLENN and Fuka.

He’s talking about what he could do to her dead body in game.

And I’m guessing that’s “unusual” because the show hasn’t done that before? It was vaguely hinted at in a couple of very fleeting moments in a couple of previous episodes but having the moments more ‘in your face’ and having multiple of them in a single episode means they were obviously wanting to highlight something.

And what’s that? That even in an online VR shooter, women have to deal with creeps. Not a revelatory thing for sure but I’m glad the show decided to address the issue, and that Fuka got to beat her would-be molester to death with a machine-gun—I enjoyed that.

You show that perv who’s boss, Fuka!

Wow. Brutal. So, uh, what happens in the episode? Well aside from the centrepiece ’10 minute massacre’ I mentioned earlier, LLENN has something of her own massacre in the savannah dome. I love the contrast between the exuberant and flashy—almost god-like powers that Pito exhibits compared to the raw practicality and strategy that LLENN employs to despatch 17 people. Now that I think of it the episode title probably refers to both massacre’s and now I feel silly for not having come to that conclusion ’til now.

Don’t worry, I forgive you. Tch.

Pito. Is. Crazy.

So anything else of note happen? Actually yes, LLENN and Fuka have an ~odd~ encounter with an androgynous woman named Clarence in the dome. They have her dead to rights, but LLENN notices they carry the same ammo and having used much of hers in the previous battle she instructs her to hand it over. Clarence, being bi-sexual and a fan of cute-girls, requests that in exchange for the ammo she receives a kiss. Surprisingly LLENN obliges and gives her a peck on the cheek, much to the odd woman’s joy.

Right on, girl!

Right… and so what purpose did the scene serve? It’s a very odd scene, though it comes after an intense battle so it’s comedic sensibilities and lightheartedness are appreciated even if Clarence is a very strange character. But I did like the fact that there’s a bi-sexual character in this show, and it’s interesting that she mentioned “wanting to meet up in real life” after the Squad Jam. If that does come to pass makes me wonder if it’ll be a way of Karen (the real life LLENN) in exploring her own sexuality as her in real life persona strikes me as possibly being queer.

Yes.

Sure, why not. So how’s this episode fare among the others? Probably my second favourite after Episode 7, the action is pretty much flawless in this episode and it had a great current of humour throughout, while also exploring some of the darker personality traits of their fellow online gamers. Recently, after every episode I’m just left feeling like I want to watch more and more so that’s high praise if I do say so myself!

I just love this image so much!

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Previous Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 5.5 Review
Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
Episode 8 Review

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If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Episode 8 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Episode 8.

Last week ended just as the second Squad Jam was about to begin, how’s this one compared to the first Squad Jam? Much improved.

Good to hear, how so exactly? Having LLENN as the vocal leader type almost immediately improves things, as interesting as M’s stern and stoic character was (at least initially) his personality was lacking entirely. So with him relegated to an opposing team with crazy death-obsessed Pito ~feels~ like a better fit, they kind of balance each other out. LLENN being paired with the comedic stylings of Fuka works well too as LLENN makes for a great ‘straight-man’ against her silliness.

Goin’ for the dick stab!

So this new girl, Fuka, she’s comic relief then? Not exactly. Her comedic side is in character and while she obviously plays up to it while in VR she still pulls her own weight on their two-person team. Even though she gets her legs blown off by a trap early on you never get the sense that she’s weighing LLENN down.

Excuse me? Her legs get blown off! That kind of seems like an important thing to lose—even in a video game? Don’t worry, non-fatal injuries can be healed with med-kits, and losing limbs regrow (or would that be respawn?) after a couple of minutes.

My legs! I can’t feel my legs!

Right. That’s convenient. So what happens in the game? Not a lot to be honest, we’re following five or six different teams throughout the episode—though the focus is moreso on LLENN and Fuka, Pito and M and team SHINC. And due to the material being spread out across more characters it limits how much the story can actually progress. Which I’m kind of okay with, I kind of resigned myself to the fact that the Squad Jam 2 arc would take up the rest of the season.

Is that a grenade launcher between your legs or are you just happy to see me?

Fair enough, so what does happen in the episode? Pito and M’s team are on the top of a mountain on the opposite side of the map to LLENN and Fuka, so they have to work their way there, in the process they eliminate two teams. M is instructing Pito to keep her position on the mountain as they wait for the enemy to come to them, which is not to her liking one bit. She’s getting restless and she wants in on the action. Meanwhile seven other teams decide to join forces to take down Pito and M, obviously fearing their prowess. The episode ends with these seven teams approaching the mountain, a digital bloodbath no doubt to ensue next episode!

Pito wants death.

So in other words it’s a set up episode? Well there’s still some great action in this episode, the scene where Fuka gets to show off her grenade launcher skills was great and weirdly hot. Also the small scene with one member of team SHINC telling off their leader for using “unlady-like language”—despite their in-game avatars being buff and square jawed toughs was pretty adorable. But yeah, the best is yet to come, that much is for damn sure!

“Have you no testicles?!”

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Previous Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 5.5 Review
Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review

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If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Episode 7 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Episode 7.

So how are things this episode? In previous episodes the action has either been entirely confined to the virtual world or entirely set in the real world, and while I didn’t necessarily had a problem with this at the time—this episode, that cuts frequently between the real world and the virtual world—is so much better because of it.

How so? It benefits the show by never getting boring, never spending too much time on one individual scene and varying the characters we get to see. In fact I think every character with a spoken line in the previous six episodes gets at least a line if not more in this episode and it just goes to show the sheer quality of the characters here that all there’s not a dull moment throughout!

Dual wielding grenade launchers? Sure, why not.

Alright, so what exactly happens in the episode? Well if it wasn’t abundantly obvious, a lot. Specifically though Miyu, Karen’s irl best friend comes into GGO and what are the odds but she spawns in the game as a tiny cute loli too! I’d quibble over how implausible this is, but I don’t really care, she’s just such a great character both the irl Miyu and her in-game persona Fukaziroh!

TMI… hilarious moment though.

Best girl? Absolutely, err, actually no, maybe not…

Huh? What happened? Oh, well I almost forgot about SHINC, the group of ruthless “Amazonians” that came 2nd in the first Squad Jam. Their virtual avatars are great, but I absolutely adore them irl, because as you may or may not remember they’re actually a group of petite high-schoolers in the Rhythmic Gymnastics club.

SHINC’s leader, irl.

Multiple girls can’t be ‘best girl’. I, err… whatever!

Uh-huh, moving on… So aside from our protagonist getting to play with her bestie in VR, what is this episode actually about? Well it’s the preparation for Squad Jam 2, and what’s surprising is that usually these ‘setting the stage’ episodes can be quite dull but this is quite the opposite for all the reasons I mentioned above. I’ve always enjoyed the show, even when it ‘jumped the shark’ last week what with the whole “death game” stakes that seemed shoehorned in. But this was just about the best this show has been so far and makes me hope this show can continue along with the impeccable quality.

Pito is crazy.

Specifically? The character comedy was on-point, Fukaziroh commenting on how many male avatars were around and that she could start a ‘reverse-harem’ goes to show why she’s best a really great girl. The action—while mostly limited to training exercises between LLENN and Fukaziroh—is purposeful as it shows that there is a level of teamwork and synergy between their chosen combat styles. And I was particularly happy about the character development they’ve given to LLENN who seems exceedingly confident in her leadership abilities and tactics, especially when compared to how she was in Episode 1. All of this, plus a bunch of other little moments, equals an overall terrific episode.

I’d watch that show.

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Previous Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 5.5 Review
Episode 6 Review

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If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Episode 6 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Episode 6.

Right, last week’s recap is over and done with, back to the plot? Yes, more or less. The first part of the episode brings us back to the point that episode 1 finished on, with real life Karen entertaining a crowd of high-school girls viewing a replay of the Squad Jam. These girls—as we found out in Episode 5—are the team of brutal “Amazonians” that confronted LLENN and M on the battlefield and nearly took them out! These girls are very cute, with distinctive personalities each and I could seriously just watch a spin-off series about these girls alone! (A spin-off of a spin-off, now there’s an idea)

The girl’s introducing themselves and their GGO avatars was adorable. (I didn’t make this collage, I stole it from twitter)

Uh-huh. So back to the slice of life format, huh? Yes, with a bit of cute girls doing cute things mixed in, or more appropriately ‘cute girls doing critical hits’.

You thought about that for a while didn’t you. And it was the best I could come up with!

Look at these good shoot girls!

So what else happens in the episode? Well the big shock of the episode and the narrative through point that’s going to carry into the next plot arc starts with real life M paying a visit to Karen. Turns out he’s not a square jawed, mammoth of a man, but a kind of handsome looking dude who’s a few inches shorter than Karen (not that that’s unexpected considering how tall she is).

If you’re going to do the “cornering” thing maybe don’t then confess your love for a different girl.

“Handsome”, huh? They’re not trying to peg him for a love interest for her, are they? Nope, because he’s crazy—crazy in love with Pito that is, or rather her real life counterpart who they are still deliberately avoiding naming. I mentioned in an earlier review that I got Pito’s real life identity spoiled by a wikipedia article but they’re telegraphing it pretty damn hard, I’d be surprised if most savvy viewers haven’t already made an acurate guess. Anyway, M—real name Gōshi Asōgi—has come to Karen for help in trying to save real life Pito because she intends to kill herself and him if they don’t win the upcoming Squad Jam 2.

Might be romantic, if you won’t both crazy.

W-what? That’s a bit dark isn’t it? Yeah… turns out real life Pito has some serious issues. See, apparently she was beta-tester for the original Sword Art Online VR game, but on the day of its public launch she had to do something of vital importance to her career, seperate from the game. The game went haywire, trapping people inside it in a ‘die in the game/die in real life’ scenario and because real life Pito apparently has a few screws loose she’s ~upset~ that she didn’t get to be a part of the high-stakes death game.

I’m not sure if this is how he sees her or how she’s imagining her.

Huh… that’s certainly… a thing. The scene in which we’re imparted all this information is a quite honestly a shockingly lazy exposition dump only made tolerable by Karen’s frequent humorous observations and thoughts about her current situation. She’s an extremely likeable protagonist, even more-so than her pint-sized pink alter-ego.

Well it is when one’s insane and the other is seemingly okay with it.

Oh, so you’re not keen about these recent plot developments? I mean kind of… the idea of someone being so obsessed with their own death like the in real life Pito is that she wants to make the stakes of this Squad Jam literally her own life is interesting. But it doesn’t feel realistic in the slightest, what it feels like is artificial drama imposed onto a format that doesn’t need it in order to be interesting. An anime doesn’t have to have ‘life or death’ stakes to be exciting or dramatic. Just look at Sports anime, I may not be the biggest fan of them but there’s no denying they’re able to convey a sense of drama and tension through relatively low stakes. If you’re good at writing characters and the characters are passionate about what they do, then the stakes being high for them is enough to inspire sufficient narrative drama.

I know that feel.

Fair enough. So what does this mean for your opinion on the show going forward? Even though I’d say this episode ‘jumped the shark’—at least as much as an anime about a VR game could do so—I’m still invested enough in these characters to see the story out until the end. I’m just slightly annoyed they’ve went for such a cheap story idea when they had a pretty damn good thing going.

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Previous Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 5.5 Review

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If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Episode 5.5 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Episode 5.5.

“5.5”? What’s that mean, is it a typo? Nope, it’s a recap episode!

A recap? Of what? The previous 5 episodes? Did they think people would forget already? Generally speaking, unless it’s a very long running show, or a specifically complicated show, the only reason for a recap episode this early in a season is because the next episode looked like it wouldn’t be finished by the airing date so rather than air an unsatisfactory/unfinished product or throw on a repeat of a previous episode, studios will quickly throw together a ‘recap’ episode, which generally involve no extra animation work and just the voice actors and some editing.

Oh, so trouble behind the scenes? Maybe, though I’ve read from various “sources” online that this ‘recap’ episode was planned from a few weeks back because they knew they would need the extra animation time. So it’s not like it’s going completely ~disastrous~ behind the scenes (as far as I know), I think it’s just they realised they’d need more time in the future and allocated for it accordingly.

I probably used this pic in the previous review, but what else am I going to do, it’s a recap after all!

Anime is done to that tight of a schedule, huh? Yup, it’s a pretty crazy industry.

So what’s the recap actually like? Honestly… it’s pretty damn good.

Huh? Really? Yeah, I mean obviously my expectations were super low going in, but rather than be a dry recap we have Pito and M watching over the “replay” of the Squad Jam since Pito couldn’t be there due to ‘other engagements’, and their commentary and Pito’s relentless jabs at M are pretty damn funny and very endearing.

Oh, well that’s good. Also there’s a very odd (but still amusing) joke about anilingus that I have to assume was ad-libbed by the voice actors.

This pic looks even weirder, since it’s commentary and not context appropriate to the scene.

…Okay. Anything else noteworthy about the recap? Yes. The penultimate confrontation between LLENN and the “Amazon” looking woman, the one that had me questioning how over-powered LLENN was as a protagonist in the previous episode, is actually edited much better here in this shorter format and actually plays out like a believable confrontation.

Interesting. Any extras? You ask like you knew I wanted you too! Yes, there’s a couple of funny re-edits of scenes after the credits, the one with LLENN’s voice actor doing sound effects in place of the real one’s was super cute and funny.

And the end credits had a fine montage… okay now I’m just trying too hard to be nice.

Great, so not a complete waste of time like it could have been. How do we wrap up a review of a recap episode then? I’d say, if you’re watching this show and are enjoying this show and avoided episode 5.5 because you think it won’t be worthwhile I’d say it’s at least better than doing nothing. Obviously if you lead a busy life and have to ration out your anime into whatever meagre free time you have there’s no need to watch it, you won’t be missing much aside from funny commentary and silly jokes. But, if you want more character interactions between Pito and M and have the time to spare, then why not!

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Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Episode 5 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Episode 5.

We left the last episode on something of a cliffhanger! What happens here? Well it’s more or less resolved in a few brief minutes, namely that the reason M pulled a gun and tried to kill LLENN was because he was left a note by Pito saying that if he died in the game she would “murder” him in real life. So his plan was to kill LLENN making him the leader, at which point he would resign, having made it past an hour in-game as per request but not died as per her stipulation.

She’s crazy and I love it.

Right… Yeah, it’s kinda dumb, which I think is the best way to describe this episode on the whole ‘kinda dumb’. Which is annoying for me to even say because there’s so much about this episode that’s really good, like really really good!

Oh? Like what exactly? Well, at this point in the Squad Jam there’s only two teams left: LLENN & M and a six member team with some impressive skills. And you know what’s the best thing about this other team, they’re an all-female team!

Heh.

But there’s some things about this episode you’re not too keen on, yeah? Well, I fully accept that the “rules” of this VR game are still somewhat malleable, but there’s some things in this episode that truly stretch the credibility of the narrative. Namely, how lucky LLENN gets in her various encounters with the enemy team. I know they set up that her “passive” is the fact that she’s very lucky. But seriously, she gets shot point blank upward of 10 times during this episode and avoids taking as much as a scrape from any of these shots because the plot says so.

Didn’t realise LLENN could ‘bullet time’, but it was a cool scene.

Oh, so she’s got that ‘plot armor’? More or less, and it’s annoying because a smarter writer could have written around these zero point confrontations without resulting to nearly jumping the shark as so many of these encounters ended up being!

So what was good about the episode? Well it was great to see the disillusionment of their pairing and seeing LLENN working on her own and formulate plans without the ever-present additions from the crazy-tactical M. Also—and this should come as no surprise to those who’ve read the previous reviews—but I really enjoyed the quiet but significant scenes outside the game. It was exactly what I wanted!

This scene was so good!

What happened? Well, in the real world Karen, after having narrowly secured victory in the Squad Jam, is confronted by a group of six middle-schoolers whom she’s passed by on numerous occasions in her daily life. They stop her and confess the fact that they’ve often commented on her height and how envious they of her ‘model-esque physique’ which prompts their leader to reveal their true identity. Namely these petite middle-school girls are the 6 strong team that almost took LLENN and M down in the ‘Squad Jam’!

I want more of these girls’ adventures! Slice of life, activate!

Cool, I guess? It is cool, I’m glad there’s so many female gamers being represented in this anime.

And that they’re all cute girls in real life? Well, yeah, I mean it’s an anime what do you expect?

True enough, so still happy with the anime even with the aforementioned issues? Yeah, I mean the issues are annoying but they don’t spoil the experience, it’s just for a show that prizes how tactical it is having such sudden implausibilities in the action feels a bit cheap. It’s still a fun show and the characters are great, here’s hoping for more scenes in the real world in future episodes!

P-Chan’s alive! But not for long… *sad face* R.I.P P-Chan.

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