ANIME MONDAY: Sword Art Online – “The Blue Eyed Demon” Review


Previously on Sword Art Online:

After being coerced into partying with Asuna, Kirito accompanies her to the dungeon on Floor 74; here they encounter Gleam Eyes, the boss of floor 74. Spoilers Ahead.

ALF

After narrowly escaping the bosses lair, Kirito & Asuna decide to sit down for a minute and have a snack that Asuna prepared. After Asuna gives the Kirito the third degree for being a one handed sword fighter with no shield, the two come across Klein and his group inside the dungeon as well as the Aincrad Liberation Front (Who are essentially SAO’s army). After sharing the map information to the bosses lair, the ALF head forward to face him, despite everyone but the commander being dead tired, against Kirito’s warning. When things go bad, Kirito, Asuna, & Klein are forced to save the ALF, with Kirito pulling out his trump card.

Let me just state that this episode is my second favorite in the entire series (my favorite being the episode right after this one). There is fast and furious action, along with some character drama thrown in to make the choices here mean something. The fight against Gleam Eyes is fast and brutal as he decimates the ALF as if they were nothing but flies and even manages to make Asuna and Kirito look like nothing when they oppose him.

The events unfolding impacts Kirito the most as the fact that they can’t use teleport crystals in the room force him to go back to when he & the Black Cats were stuck in that room where they & Sachi were all killed. This serves to give him a bit more depth as he comes to the realization that the same thing is happening and that he doesn’t want anymore people to die. Asuna feels the same way as she is the first one to rush into battle with Kirito & Klein following behind her. Asuna has only gotten better with time as she is quite agile with her rapier, pulling off multiple attacks at once; which is the reason behind her nickname “Lightning Flash Asuna”. Klein also shows some ability as he holds his own against the boss despite not being as strong as Kirito & Asuna.

Kirito & Asuna after the Battle

We also get another push into Asuna & Kirito’s relationship after the battle with Gleam Eyes, which in turn sets the tone for the rest f the series. Also get a another small look into the cooking system of SAO and how Asuna combined various ingredients in the game to replicate real world sauces like Mayo & Soy Sauce (clever girl).

The biggest asset in the battle however is Kirito (of course) who reveals his trump card when the fight against Gleam eyes grows desperate in what has to be one of the most bad ass moments I have ever seen in an anime. Here’s a clip:

[springboard type=”video” id=”708849″ player=”ulfb001″ width=”480″ height=”400″ ]

“The Blue-Eyed Demon” is a pretty solid episode with plenty of action and character moments. I think it is easily one of the strongest episodes of the show and cemented why I like this show so much. The fight to survive continues next week on SAO.

 

4.5/5