Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale Watch Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale English Dub Premiere Live
Then I had the 'laurels' of going to watch Sword Fine art Online: Ordinal Scale on opening twenty-four hours, March nine and boy was it lots of fun.
So let'due south get downwardly to basics, I enjoyed the previous 2 seasons of SAO to an extent merely constantly groaned at it'south terrible moments from its forced time skip, desperately defined villains who got rapey for the sake of making united states of america hate them, harem nonsense and in general the poorly done character of Kirito.
Flavor 2 was still a significant stride up to me with it staying far more consequent despite its constant falls (the villain of the Gun Gale Online Arc and the whole Calibur Side Quest Arc for example) and ended on one of the best arcs of the series thus far in Mother'southward Rosario.
Now a third season is more than or less in the works to cover the next big arc Alicization and we have the all new original picture Ordinal Calibration to quench people's thirsts till that comes around.
At its core, Ordinal Scale is pure fanservice with constant cameos and references to previous story arcs and characters with a heavy emphasis on the original Aincrad story. The ever popular Augmented Reality game Ordinal Scale played with the Augma headset has been holding boss events every dark using bodily bosses from the floors of SAO for a mysterious reason and the SAO survivors that end upward beingness killed in game by these bosses finish upward losing their memories of their fourth dimension in SAO just.
It's a crazy stake that honestly works better than the e'er mocked 'die in the game, die in real life' premise (though seeing every bit this is AR where you can control your body and move in the real world, you have every gamble of pain yourself seriously anyway). Plus it adds something to the much more than focused human relationship on Kirito and Asuna, as Asuna ends up amid the victims and thus loses memories of her first meeting with him and all the fourth dimension they spent there.
Something feels largely genuine about Kirito and Asuna's relationship this time around, between the more time spent on them being together than being with the residual of the gang and their hope together to see shooting stars together by themselves. So kudos for that movie.
The residuum of the gang withal have some moments, except Suguha who the movie has leave for kendo army camp for whatsoever reason since whether she was present there or not wouldn't have changed anything. Klein and Agil gets some fun scenes though even if Klein ends upward amid the offset victims and gets his arm broken too, because overkill.
In terms of the new characters, we have Eiji, Ordinal Scale's #ii role player who'south our chief villain and a full edgelord. Dr. Shigemura, a developer and authority on non-invasive BMI (Encephalon Machine Interface) research who used to teach both Akihiko Kayaba (the insane jackass who fabricated SAO) and Nobuyuki Sugou (the rapey piece of crap backside ALfheim Online). That's totally a great sign *sarcasm meter goes off the charts*.
And lastly there's Yuna, the artificial intelligent idol and mascot for the Ordinal Scale game who'due south at the centre of this crazy plot whether she likes it or non. All 3 have their function to play and they're done reasonably well with decent motivations that are conceivable and don't ever go into anything ridiculous or stupid (for the most part at least).
Ultimately the biggest part of this film is its battles, most particularly the final i. Bodily tactics are employed to attack the monsters in Ordinal Calibration, most of which atomic number 82 by Asuna herself awesomely enough (being familiar with the assault patterns of SAO bosses helps a lot after all). Information technology'south a prissy fashion to highlight the huge divergence in how battles were washed in virtual reality where constant magic powers and weapons were used. Whereas Ordinal Scale offers upwards long and short range weapons like swords and guns only to use and you have to rely on the bodily strength of your body.
Which is where Kirito'south slight claiming in this film comes from. Every bit much every bit he likes the advantages of augmented reality and what it tin exercise (particularly when it helps in being to interact with his and Asuna'due south A.I. daughter Yui who I nonetheless don't like to acknowldge), he'south still heavily biased to virtual reality and is just evidently out of shape. Every fourth dimension he plays Ordinal Scale, his blows don't seem to have much power and he fifty-fifty trips over himself while running fast.
Unfortunately the film doesn't spend enough time on this rather interesting side of the plot due to the timespan of the story over several days with a big deadline to boot. We don't get whatsoever inspirational montage sequence of him constantly training as much as I hoped for 1. Even the actual training moments were kept pretty brief.
By the time the final boxing rolls along, it doesn't finish up mattering all that much. A shame really but at least the final battle made me grin from ear to ear on how fun it was. It's literally a battle against a boss that Aincrad fans would've wanted to see had the commencement arc not ended so hastily. Nigh everyone shows upward to help in the fight with some insane flashiness to kicking. It was absolutely glorious.
Just enough about all that, time for me to pick a bone with the movie's story in a very spoilery style.
Spoiler Corner!
Spoiler alarm evidently! Turn away now! No really. Go away if you don't wanna know annihilation.
So the primary plot of information technology all was that Eiji and Dr. Shigemura were working together this whole time to bring Yuna who was an A.I. based off Shigemura'south daughter back to life, sorta.
Eiji was an SAO survivor that used to be in the Knights of the Claret Adjuration alongside Asuna but was too afraid to die and thus never took part in boss battles. He became a close friend of Yuna, a talented singer who often acted as a bard to support the players that were fighting. At some indicate, that the film never felt bothered to give details on (so it'due south left ambiguous as to whether information technology was another histrion's fault or was in a boss room for some reason), she died in the game.
After Kirito cleared the game and Eiji wound upwardly free, he ended up in contact with Shigemura who was the professor at the university he was attending and the ii decided to work together to bring Yuna back to life. With the A.I. of her created as the mascot for Ordinal Scale, they'd steal the memories of SAO survivors playing the game and use them to reconstruct Yuna completely.
Information technology's a crazy program that largely makes sense. Both Eiji and Shigemura are going through heavy grief for different reasons. Eiji feels guilty almost not doing anything to relieve Yuna'south life while Shigemura feels personally responsible since he pulled strings in his position to gift Yuna an Amusphere for her to play SAO on.
But putting all of that into consideration, the plan was far too large calibration and crazy to even work. If the idea was to steal the memories specifically relating to Sword Art Online from the players that survived the game to recreate Yuna, how would it work? Assuming every role player whose memories have been stolen has interacted with the existent Yuna at to the lowest degree once in the game, that interaction could barely amount to anything that could recreate a real person.
Shigemura could've easily recreated Yuna just from his and Eiji'southward memories (or just Eiji, assuming there wasn't another way to transfer memories without removing them) alone in that instance since both of them closely knew her the nearly of all. There's no guarantee that the Yuna recreated would even be the aforementioned anyway. Hell, Shigemura ends upward betraying Eiji in the climax anyhow and removes his memories of Yuna, but information technology simply doesn't accept much impact.
I wish there was better explanation on this, Shigemura's claim that the SAO survivors losing their memories of that fourth dimension every bit a good matter due to all the pain and suffering during so could've worked every bit a legit excuse for his actions and he could even back information technology upwardly as him making upward for his pupil (aka Kayaba'due south) actions. Simply the line just ends up equally a deflection when Kirito attempts to interrogate him.
Hell, even the fates of these characters end up ambiguous by the end. Eiji recovers from everything and is concluding seen watching the aftermath of the terminal battle, whether he gets whatsoever comeuppance for all the crap he pulled is left hanging. Yuna's A.I. system seems to accept been removed for skillful (though I guess a backup could peradventure exist, I dunno).
Shigemura ends upwards having the well-nigh concrete fate, every bit he gets apprehended by Kikuoka (that guy from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who's responsible for monitoring situations in the virtual world and keeps calling on Kirito for stuff) and we see in the later on credits scene that rather than being arrested, he's been brought on to a mysterious project due to reasons related to his A.I. work and is introduced to RATH. A clear tease to the Alicization arc capped off with the words 'SAO Volition Exist Dorsum'.
On a different note, I really appreciated the Mother's Rosario callbacks. From Dr Kurahashi playing a decent part in studying the effects of the amnesia through the Medicuboid, the Sleeping Knights modest cameo at the first (though only 2 of them, being Siune and Jun, announced. Which is depressing but makes sense) and the biggest pay off of all: Yuuki's spirit showing up to guide Asuna's rapier as she uses the Female parent'due south Rosario motility on the 100th Floor Boss during the final battle.
If at that place was anything I wanted the almost after the end of the Mother'south Rosario arc, it was Asuna using the aforementioned move to assail whatsoever dominate she would be facing in the future and male child was I happy to run across that happen.
Spoiler Corner End
All in all, Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale was a fun time to be had and I look forrard to seeing more of franchise if it keeps up this upward swerve in quality. From the blitheness quality (or sakuga as Canipa can attest), crazy fight scenes, good attempt at developing Kirito and Asuna more as a couple and much more interesting villains. It's an improved experience from either seasons of the series.
I also will definitely be rewatching the motion-picture show with its English dub when it'due south released. The Usa premiere already confirmed the dub'south beingness and the anime'south director Tomohiko Ito even sat in for a session or two with the series' ADR director Alex von David. Plus, judging by a tweet past Christine Marie Cabanos (English language voice of Sillica), it seems the insert songs for the film are getting dubbed as well. Notwithstanding it should exist interesting to see what English actors they'll cast for Eiji, Yuna and Shigemura, unless Alex himself really is voicing all three and singing likewise.
So here's hoping for encore screenings in Australia with the dub only as America is getting on April 22.
Source: https://thejrpictures.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/sword-art-online-ordinal-scale-thoughtsreview/