#i’m rewatching sao alicization arc

[koffeenoe]

Good morning ⭐️

[arcaneranger]

Premiere Impressions - The Irregular at Magic High School: Visitor Arc

I think we’d all go back to 2014 if given the opportunity.

The Irregular at Magic High School last aired in the summer of 2014, but despite the monstrous hiatus, will offer you absolutely nothing in the way of recapping here, so you’d better remember who all these people are and what was happening, because it jumps straight into the next arc like it’s only been six months.

This also means that you basically have to have already seen and been sold on this show, because nothing that was wrong with it before is changing. Tatsuya is still one of the most overpowered underdog main characters in anime, his sister is still vocally in love with him (and he might reciprocate), and the magic is all technological and complicated. There’s a lot of dense political intrigue already at play from the last season, and if you’re still with this show despite its flaws, you might wanna go rewatch that.

Ultimately, I’m still here because the show is more watchable than stuff like SAO Alicization and people are gonna be talking about it, even if I can’t really imagine it ever clearing a 7/10 on the wish fulfillment alone, but if Misfit at Demon King Academy didn’t give you the overly-stuffed plot and technobabble you were looking for, this is where you want to turn.

[lost-in-yujikiri]

Congratulations on completing the Alicization S1 Rewatch Posts! They were all really wonderful and eye-opening. :D I'm looking forward to your next batch!!

Thank you so much for reading! To be honest I'm not sure if I should continue my Rewatch posts with WoU anime because the adaptation turned out more coherent than Alicization 1st half even with the cut contents. It's understandable because WoU is very action-packed in LN so it would be much easier to translate to anime medium, and it has less volumes than Alicization 1st half to boot (Alicization 1st half aka Human Empire arc = 6 volumes, WoU = 4 volumes). Not that it doesn't have the usual SAO anime's flaws. I think I will write at least 1 or 2 more posts to cover what has been skipped in WoU though, mostly Alice's state of mind and the backstories of the Integrity Knights and Dark Territory's fighters.

[animesavior]

“You got it all wrong, Pops. I don't give a damn about what happened in the past. This guy's in my way, so I’m going to beat him.”

-          “Gearless” Joe, Megalo Box (Ep. 06)

The Toonami Trending Rundown for January 26-27, 2019. It’s a good night for anime as Joe has a bout against one of Pop’s old students in Aragaki, while Yukako visits a beauty salon in her attempt to get Koichi to like her more, and Asta tries to recover from his harsh injuries against Vetto, among other great moments.

On Twitter, #Toonami as well as every show from Mob Psycho 100 to Shippuden would successfully trend in the US. Character trends for JoJo’s and Black Clover with both Yukako and Koichi as well as Asta. On Tumblr, Toonami would trend alongside Naruto and #BNHA. The full list including statistics and tweet counts from the twitter app and Amr Rahmy’s analytics app can be seen below.

This week, Viz Media has partnered with CineLife Entertainment to bring out a limited theatrical run of the second Hunter x Hunter feature film: The Last Mission. If you’re interested, check out http://www.cinelifeentertainment.com/event/hunter-x-hunter-the-last-mission/ for tickets and showtimes near your area and give your support to the anime industry on the big screen.

Also in Hunter x Hunter news, Viz Media has released Set 5 of the Hunter x Hunter Blu-rays and DVDs, containing Episodes 76-99 or the first part of the Chimera Ant arc, and is available to purchase at all major anime selling retailers with a $54.97 MSRP.

Viz Media has also released Set 3 of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Blu-rays and DVDs, containing all of the Stardust Crusaders: Battle of Egypt arc. With an MSRP of $69.99, it’s available to pick up in all major anime selling retailers.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly’s box office total increased by $3 Million over the weekend, with the total US gross for Broly is now $28,222,444. The limited theater release is starting to wind down, so if you haven’t already, check it out in theaters while you still can. On a related note, reports have surfaced that during NATPE Miami, Toei Animation seemed to announce that new episodes of Dragon Ball Super are in the works, however Toei has denied those reports as of now.

And of course, the big news of the week…

In a case of “it was a matter of not if, but when it was coming” unless you were one of those SAO haters who were praying that Netflix and Hulu would somehow get Aniplex to snake their way out of its contract with Toonami, Toonami and Aniplex have announced that Kirito and Asuna are returning to their US broadcast home as the highly successful Sword Art Online franchise will be making its return to the better cartoon show for its highly anticipated third season in Project Alicization.

Season 3 will make its debut on February 9 at 12:30 am Eastern/Pacific, taking over Mob Psycho 100 on the schedule as the dub for season 2 of the latter is not ready for release as of now (Kyle McCarley, during his most recent Unlocked stream as of this writing, had mentioned that he has still yet to be called in to reprise his role as Shigeo/Mob). As the first episode is an hour’s length, Megalo Box will have the night off to make way. Episode 16 just aired in Japan and on streaming subbed this week, so while this isn’t a simuldub like the ones we’re used to from Funimation, it’s a relatively quick one compared to what we usually see from Alex von David, Bang Zoom, and Aniplex.

In anticipation for Sword Art Online’s return to Toonami, we covered the Project Alicization premiere in Hollywood back in October and got the opportunity to interview Bryce Papenbrook, the voice of Kirito. For those who would like to know what to expect going into this new season, I recommend checking out those articles if you haven’t so already. And of course, for those who are late to the party or who just want to rewatch the previous two seasons and Ordinal Scale in anticipation, the show is available to binge on Netflix, Hulu, Funimation Now and Crunchyroll as well as available to purchase on iTunes, the Microsoft Store, and available on Blu-ray and DVD.

As previously mentioned, as Season 2 of Mob Psycho 100 isn’t ready to go just yet (when the dub will be ready and when Toonami will get to air it are both yet to be announced), the show will be going on an off-season after next week, so make sure to tune in for the season finale of season 1, among other great moments. Until next week, stay gold.

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#8]

#MobPsycho100 [#7]

#MegaloBox [#7]

#JoJosBizarreAdventure [#7]

Koichi (From JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) [#8]

Yukako (From JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) [#17]

#BlackClover [#9]

#HunterXHunter [#4]

#Shippuden [#6]

Temari (From Naruto Shippuden) [Trended with #Shippuden]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [4,825 tweets]

#Boruto [4,544 tweets]

#MyHeroAcademia [4,335 tweets]

#MobPsycho100 [3,086 tweets]

#MegaloBox [1,369 tweets]

#JoJosBizarreAdventure [3,075 tweets]

Koichi (From JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) [3,299 tweets]

Yukako (From JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) [1,296 tweets]

#BlackClover [1,345 tweets]

Asta (From Black Clover) [5,597 tweets]

#HunterXHunter [1,770 tweets]

Amr Rahmy Counts:

#DragonBallSuper [#7 with 1,856 tweets]

#Boruto [#17 with 1,423 tweets]

#MyHeroAcademia [#7 with 2382 tweets]

#MobPsycho100 [#12 with 1,467 tweets]

#MegaloBox [#18 with 816 tweets]

#JoJosBizarreAdventure [#18 with 924 tweets]

#BlackClover [#17 with 1,008 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami

#BNHA

Notes and Other Statistics:

#Toonami: @WhoTrendedIT reported that @blumspew and @ToeiAnimation started the trend in the US.

#MobPsycho100: @WhoTrendedIT reported that @Kirbopher and @CaseyTheVA started the trend in the US.

#JoJosBizarreAdventure: @WhoTrendedIT reported that @DC_Douglas started the trend in the US.

Special thanks to @coreymbarnes  and others I forgot to mention for spotting some of the trends on this list.

Split it evenly, 50/50. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

ALICI-FUCKING-ZATION

Okay so the first thing I want to comment on is the visual direction is a bit different now, particularly when it comes to outlines and hair colours and stuff. Currently, I’m not super fond of the new aesthetic. However, chances are it’ll grow on me and I’ll get to say the show looks good. Actual direction seems a bit more creative so hey. At one point, lighting is used to subtly (or maybe not so subtly) foreshadow the appearance of a later character! One that was foreshadowed earlier in the episode in the first place! Yes!

We only got a mere 2 scenes spent in cafes where the characters dispense exposition. That’s not bad for your first episode.

Speaking of first episodes, it was double length which was a ballsy move, but I think it paid off. Both halves seemed equally important and whatnot.

First half focuses on the Underworld as it were, a VR world where the time passed is way longer than the time spent in full dive, so Kirito spent 3 days IRL full-diving and either 10 days or a month in-game time. He’s not sure. Heck, maybe he’s way off and his entire life in that world happened in those 3 days. I don’t know. It’s a decently interesting world though, with some interesting rules that when broken result in spooky Paladin dudes kidnapping you and later killing you. The titular Alice fell in a pretty dumb scene and touched the Dark Side or whatever so she’s gonna be killed, and before Kirito and his coward buddy Eugeo can save her, Kirito gets decked by some villagers while Eugeo has a stroke. I’m excited to see where this goes.

Regarding the second half, I’ve got some fucking incredible news. Sinon has retained her personality and development that she had in Phantom Bullet! Woohoo! No longer is she just another part of Kirito’s fucking harem like the Fairy Dance Arc and a bit of Ordinal Scale idk I’d need to rewatch it.

Also Ordinal Scale is referenced quite significantly and Yuna’s in the ED which means it’s canon to the anime from this point onwards which is a big deal because it was an original movie that came after the Alicization light novel so we might be seeing some interesting changes to the Alicizaton story. Not that I’d know they were changes since I’ve read none of the light novels but hey-ho.

That little foreshadowing tangent I went on in the first paragraph was referring to the third Death Gun who escaped after the events of Phantom Bullet. Kirito and Sinon are talking about Death Gun so the guy gets brought up, and in a later scene when Kirito and Asuna are walking home car lights cast his shadow on a wall briefly, indicating that someone’s following them. And indeed, it’s the Death Gun boy. He’s got the same poison as before and at the end of the episode he stabs Kirito who also stabs him in the leg with an umbrella. It’d be a funny meme if Kirito survived from that electrode that saved him when this happened before, but I’m calling it right now that the microchip near his heart that lets Asuna know his heartbeat they brought up earlier will be what saved him. I guess. In which case I’d honestly be disappointed because while it’s great that the third Death Gun is here and we’re getting some continuity, they’d basically be doing what they did before having Kirito be so miraculously okay, which was already pretty stupid in the first place. Maybe they’ll surprise me though. I sure hope so.

Decent first episode, I think. Definitely better than the first episode of Fairy Dance and Phantom Bullet and Caliber and maybe Mother’s Rosario. If this quality is maintained or surpassed we might actually see the best SAO arc. I don’t know. It’ll take a lot to beat Mother’s Rosario for me, I think. Though Mother’s Rosario was 7 episodes and this’ll be like 50 episodes so it’s definitely got the time to be better than it.

Originally I’d planned to watch this episode after all the other first episodes I need to watch, save the best till last and all, but it’s Kirito’s birthday so I should get it out today while I’ve got the time.