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Mar 9 2013 11:51 PM
Yeah it was a nice episode since it gave somewhat of a background as to why he suddenly got rather cubby to begin with. to think it had to do with his traumatic-like past, and no it wasn't about him but his family this time.

Although I kind of found it a bit funny as to how Kuroyuki got a bit scared as to what would happen if he ever did become handsome after all of this. Although I think this would be considered something close to the fanservicy onsen episode you'd normally find in most series setup like this.

In any case speaking of hopes for a second season here, I feel as though there more to this, since I only seen the anime only so far. Also, for SAO it's obvious they will do a second season since it has a few more "Worlds" to deal with here.

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Mar 9 2013 10:58 PM
Well, UTW grabbed the second OVA, it was a classic "help the chubby lose weight" plot, segued into a classic hotspring episode... and the throw away saturday territory battle scenes at start and finished managed to show more relevance than anything to date. It was better executed than most of the series, even, although I think that's because it was character driven rather than plot driven.

Props to the writing team for managing to sneak some shouts forward in. The shy girl showing up was a nice touch if you know who she is. (You should be able to guess)

I'm still wondering if both this one and SAO will somehow worm their ways into second seasons. There's a ton of material to go through and Kawahara's work is doing very well in the LN sales charts.

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Oct 1 2012 04:09 AM

I don't normally agree with you, and I can usually find something to enjoy... but holy crap that was bad.

It didn't help that the fight was pretty much tailor made for Scarlet Rain's battle carrier in the first place.

if that was AA2038, and Brain burst was BB2038... I hope there isn't a CC2038.

This ep needed more Fuuko.

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Sep 30 2012 03:15 PM
The OVA was just a great waste of time.
Kuroyukihime acted completely out of character and Haru was even more annoying than normally.
The plot was stupid and totally unnecessary too.
And I totally dont need to see Chiyu inserting her hand into Takus behind either. I just cant believe someone actually thought that up.
The obvious beach or festival ep wouldve been a far better choice than this.

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Sep 30 2012 02:21 PM
Well the first OVA episode out of two just came out the other day and pretty much it went over how Haru kind of saw Kuroyuki has his master instead of someone that really likes him.

Pretty much I kind of liked how they managed to have him do a fusion technique with her during a fight in a somewhat similar but different kind of field to where they could use thier dual avatars to a degree.

Although pretty much it looks like Haru is ganning somewhat of a backbone here, but still tends to apologize rather qucikly since the girls in this series tend to hang all over him. Heck even Chiyu seemed to have a thing for him as well, and not only that but even the Red King does.... somewhat as well.

Still to think that he's having troubble with the ladies when he's trying not to do anything of the sort to any of them is kind fo funny unto itself. Although granted he doesn't have the backbone to stand up to them and speak his mind, but it looks like he might be trying to do so frm here on out with Kuroyuki here.

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Sep 30 2012 02:09 PM
4/10

The best thing to ever happen to this show was Noimi. A great cliched cartoonish japanese villain. He gave the show a sense of purpose. Why he needed to give this show purpose is incomprehensible because from the get go it was already there. Defeat the kings and get to level 10. Simple. Why they did not pursue this initiative with any kind of conviction is my main inherent problem with the show.

Also while the Research Group might address the bizarre lack of any substantial real world applications, one will have to wait and see if that is apart of the main story or just a b- plot like Nomi was.

One day, I pray anime will gets back to its roots, where episode and characters will act and logically concern themselves to the proposition of the premise.

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Sep 23 2012 05:48 PM
Accel World is based on a series of light novel by the same author who wrote the ongoing Sword Art Online. Accel World is set in a futuristic setting (year 2046) where kids now have access to virtual reality networks. However, only a select few are able to access a program known as Brain Burst, which allows the user to put themselves in an accelerated world (hence the title) MMORPG like game. The story focuses on Haruyuki Arita who is constantly bullied due to his physical appearance. Only in virtual reality games does he feel he can excel and have his mind at peace, that is until his high score in his favorite game is beaten by the prettiest girl in school, Kuroyuki-Hime. Through their meeting, Haruyuki's life has began to change. Accel World aired during the Spring and Summer 2012 anime seasons, was simulcasted by Hulu, and licensed by Viz Media.

Accel's World overarching story is nothing special really. It's the run of the mill sci-fi setting with a virtual reality game attached to it. However, the Brain Burst concept is pretty cool albeit a bit ridiculous at times (e.g. physically accelerating (Physical Full Burst I think?). Having read the first arc of the light novels, I thought this show had some potential in it. The first arc of the show is pretty much Haruyuki getting used to the game and Kuroyuki-Hime, the exiled black region king, getting back into the game after her betrayal. The overall motive is to get to the "mysterious" level 10 status, which supposedly no one has done as it required defeating a level 9 opponent permanently. This aspect of the story gradually slips away as the series progresses, especially in the second cour where the supposedly worst arc of the novel to date is animated. Indeed, Noumi's character is unlikable, and not for just being a jerk but also uninteresting overall. There is little development in this second half of the series as Kuroyuki-Hime is not only left out but we don't really get anywhere with any other character's development. Chiyu is now in the game and that's really about it. Story wise, it hit a high point at the end of the first cour and probably should have ended it there and then do a 24 episode adaptation after that if this second arc was truly the worst arc. Character wise, Haruyuki's character is somewhat unique. You don't see many fat characters really running the show. Taku is rather annoying with the whole friendship concept and constantly repeating that after he becomes "good." Conclusion wise, it's a fitting conclusion that wraps up the current arc but probably not the best note to leave off on. Pacing is overall solid though.

Art is pretty nice for this show. Solid details with appropriate levels of CGI. Character designs are okay but generally well drawn and crisp. Animation is by Sunrise, a studio known for mecha designs. Accel World is no exception with mecha like designs of duel avatars. Outside of Brain Burst though, the animation could use some work but not much to really complain. Visually speaking, the show is quite pretty. However, when too many effects get on the screen (e.g. some of the fire/flame effects), the show begins to mix and match colors making it difficult on the eyes. Considering Sunrise has been doing Gundam AGE and Phi Brain for the last year, this is definitely one of their better animated titles recently, especially when you look at say Natsuiro Kiseki's animation quality and occasionally Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou. Can't necessarily say the same for Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon though.

OP1 is by May'n, ED1 by KOTOKO, OP2 by ALTIMA, ED2 by Sachika Misawa. OP1 is okay but lately I haven't been a fan of May'n's songs despite what others say about it. ED1 is great and is arguably the best song of the show. It is by KOTOKO, who is showing that she really is coming back strong after weakening for the last few years. Still nowhere near as her mid-2000s prime though. OP2 is also solid with ALTIMA continuing to show that they are a solid group outside of the two Shakugan no Shana themes they debuted with. Sachika Misawa, who is also the seiyuu for Kuroyuki-Hime is making her grand singing debut with ED2. It's not a bad song to start and she's got quite the voice to boot. I potentially look forward to more songs from her. Background and sound effects are quite solid for this show all around. Seiyuu is also strong overall with a Sachika Misawa requiring a bit of applause. A lot of people seem to dislike her as Kuroyuki-Hime. Yes, the "grand speech" from Black Lotus was probably not the best it could have been but I think she did a fine job in the overall role. You could easily pull another experienced "hime/oujo-sama" seiyuu and do the same thing but for a primary debut role, I think she definitely tried and did the best job she could have. I, personally didn't see a problem with this.

Enjoyment? As I said before, the first cour was definitely enjoyable. The second not so much. Accel World's second arc was very fortunate to be in a season with low anime quality and the boring portions of Sword Art Online as well. In any other season, say Winter 2011, Spring 2011 or even Fall 2011, I think this show would have been blown out of the water and discarded. Presentation seemed generally faithful with a proper balance of improvement and action. We do nee more character development though instead of Haruyuki winning with sheer will power, especially if he wants to change how he is perceived by others.

Overall, Accel World is a fine and easy watch. It's difficult to say right now whether Sword Art Online or Accel World is the better anime (NOT LIGHT NOVEL!) as they both have their fair share of flaws at this point. Personally, I prefer Sword Art Online  as Accel World currently takes Dennou Coil and makes it into a more shounen action title. If I had to recommend stuff, Dennou Coil would definitely be at the top of the list followed by .hack//sign, and then maybe Accel World. Hopefully, however, that with the supposedly boring arc out of the way, we'll see a future adaptation of the more interesting arcs. On a side note, the ED video was completely out of place in the final episode. Also, who is this "Sacchan."

Preliminary Score: 7/10
Final Score: 7/10

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Sep 22 2012 04:28 PM
Initial opinion: 3/10
Final opinion: 8/10 (It would be 7/10, but that scene at the end with Raker was full of D'AWWW since Raker is one of my favorite characters, and I loved the "future characters" roll at the end of the episode.)

The first episode, with the LN book 1 material, nearly torpedoed the entire series for me. It was bar none one of the worst book to anime conversions I have ever seen, in a totally incomprehensible sort of way. The wordiest and most useless dialog pieces were both converted with ridiculous literalism, presented in tell don't show format, and then cropped to fit so that they'd have enough room to fit more than just book 1 and it's wordy premise introduction.

The book 2 material, starting with the appearance of the adorable closet delinquent, Scarlet Rain, shifted the series up a notch, as they went into a proper mode of Showing the story, and from the book 2 material onward the series gradually crawled it's way up into a proper story, ending off on a relative high note: the amazing conclusion of the Dusk Taker arc, spanning books 3 and 4. (Which took a surprisingly minimal amount of explanation, all things considered - they never did completely throw the long explanation kick)

An interesting note - The small gray guy with the typewriter that you always saw in the gallery? "Tin Writer". His seiyuu? KAWAHARA Reki, the Accel World author.

There's supposed to be a game followup to the anime coming, with an OVA of some sort included, so there will likely be some follow up... I kind of want to see another season since I really want to see the space elevator race, and Ardor Maiden afterwards.

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Sep 22 2012 01:27 PM
Pretty much I think that whole rule you're going on by there Ossi-san is probablly a way to make the Brain Burst users to face thier fears IRL. Pretty much if you think of it as a game as a way to get over your trauma it might be a good thing to have.... well that is unless you're one of those types of people like Noumi was near the end of the season.

Pretty much I belive that Haru made that judgement call because if he did spare him he'd probablly still try and do something underhanded to either him or his friends once more. Also, he even found out that he had a very friendly personality once he lost his Brain Burst, so I think it was for the best though.

In any case I do like how things ended here, but for some reason I kind of want to see this series continue onward since I belvie this is an ongoing manga... and a light novel as well?

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Sep 22 2012 11:59 AM
The last ep had quite a surprise in for us. I never qouldve thought that Haruk really would destroy Nomis Brain Burst and make him a vegetable (he really wasnt more than that afterwards).

Overall this show was really enjoyable despite the many flaws it had. The Accelerating system is really interesting if it wasnt for the "the lousier you are the stronger you get"-rule (see my last post).
The action was pretty good and the plots fitted in nicely.
The characters are the worst part of the show because everyone except Kuroyukihime was annoying. Ok the one who fought together with Nomi at the end was quite interesting, but hes not a major character so he doesnt count.

Or course there are still unanswered questions like who and what is the Research Society, which other secrets has the Accelerated world, when will Kuroyukihime show us her real self (at least we know her nickname now), who invented Brain Burst and for what, etc. which could be answered in a potential next season.
Like I already said despite its flaws I really enjoyed this show so Im looking forward to more and maybe I will read the novels if no second season is in sight.

8/10 from me.