Sword Art Online Episode 4 Thoughts

Do you know what an anime about real death in a virtual world needs? Lolis. You’ve got one loli… and then you stop, since there’s only one. While I’m thankful for the obligatory loli episode, it’s kinda disturbing that they actually aired… a particular scene… on Japanese TV. (Really Japan? REALLY?) For those of you who don’t know, Silica’s 13 years old. Yeah. It’s sort of jarring to see this much fanservice, really; before, SAO was seemingly avoiding any kind of fanservice (including ones from the original novels), so I assumed it was going for a more serious and straight-faced direction in its storytelling. Normally, I’d take the time to express my discontent over this but since I’m a lolicon, I guess I’ll let it slide.

All the bloody shipping. ALL OF IT.

Anyone who’s ever played an MMO would know that females are often treated differently. Actually, even if you’re not female, if there’s so much as even the slightest possibility that you might be female (like your avatar), expect to be flirted with, doted upon, and even proposed to by the male players on a regular basis. Now, this isn’t always the case, but it usually is; recall how often Silica is idolised by the male players for being one of the youngest, cutest players. With a pet dragon. But I feels as if there’s a double standard here. Hopefully, you readers know what I’m talking about…

That’s one badass loli.

This does leads to an interesting topic; why is Silica’s only friend a pet dragon? A creature spawned from data with an AI no different from a monster? Easy – Pina was the only one who befriended Silica not because she was a moe, young female player. It’s kind of sad really, when your only companion is an AI. I guess it’s not too far from lonely kids who consider stuffed animals or some other inorganic object their only friends. No wonder Silica has a hard time trusting players… other than Kirito, who just happens to be the kind-hearted bishie protagonist (you look like my sister, so have some free stuff!).

Kirito motivations for wanting to imprison the player killer guild is pretty obvious; if their status as player killers in a world where death means death for real wasn’t enough on its own, he still shows pain over Sachi’s death. He never got over it, and who can blame him? People are dying on a regular basis, so isn’t it completely stupid for other players to contribute to those casualties? Even if they’re so deluded in believing players won’t die for real, don’t real murderers and serial killers make similar excuses? In any case, they’re no better than murderers, no matter their attempts at justification.

It wasn’t as action-packed as 2 nor heartbreaking like 3, but episode 4 turned out to be a solid episode; there was plenty of loli fanservice & action, and not to mention Kirito being a completely overpowered badass! Most importantly, it was very uplifting compared to the episodes before, with no on dying on screen… well, other than Pina, but she was revived and reunited with Silica in the end! Sachi would be so proud. *sniff*

Thanks for reading!