Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Sam, we're gonna go ahead and get into it. So now this is gonna be a little different because, I mean, we have so much material to choose from. So this one was kind of brought up last week. We were kind of talking about it offline and so we wanted to talk about sword art online. I mean, a look, it's been out for a while.
Good anime, really good manga. Enjoyed it thoroughly through, if you are into, I guess, you know, if you're not familiar, you know, manga Manoir, they come in different genres. This is the I got Isaacide into a video game kind of sorta, you know, except at least in season one, the video game you in, you can die from. So, and let me, let me give you the breakdown of what's going on here so we can get into it a little bit more. So your main character, his name is.
That's his real name, but in the video games he goes by Kirito. You know, I'm saying it's a brand new video game gets released and it is VR. I think they're in 20. I think it's like the year 2022. Yeah, it is way into the way into the future. They version of the future. And you can take this VR headset, put it on and then you in the game. I mean, you know, you just sit there and your whole mind body, the whole thing is moved over to the game and everything's all good. So he's actually, he was a beta tester for the game. So he knows the ins and outs and then again to the game. Everything's cool until an announcement comes on and they tell you basically you're trapped in the game. There's no way out. And the other way out is, is to defeat all the bosses. And nobody really believes it at first. I mean, it's shock. I think the first clue that every should have tuned everybody in is all the people whose characters were dressed as somebody else, men as women, women as men, anything other than yourself. The announcement is made. Then they go back to their actual appearance, how they actually look in real life. So that should have been clue number one. Things is getting real. But right after the announcement is made, the people are trying to log out. You know, everybody's trying to log out and they find out they can't log out. The other part is, is that if you manage to, other people are killing themselves. So if you kill yourself, you die in the real world. And so nobody really believes that. I mean, people take it serious than others. Some don't. But you basically stuck with you know, this whole environment where you got little kids, men, women, old people, all kinds of folks all over the place who are stuck in this game and trying to figure out how to move forward as far as, like, how to get out of this, basically, this simulation that they're stuck in. And like I said, the main character is kirito. He was meaning and still is. I mean, he was a beta tester, so he had a lot of edge on a lot of players. He knew a lot of stuff. And so they resented him because he was a beta tester. They called him a beater, which is a two things at once. Shout out, Kelsey, you know, saying he's a beta tester, you know, and cheater. That's why you get a beater, you know, I'm saying. So nobody likes him, you know, nobody likes beaters. They get a bad name and, you know, everything like that. But in all reality, you know, Kirito is just trying to help everybody. He's never, you know, he's never looked down on anybody. And he is a solo player. He doesn't belong to any guilds or any, any organizations or anything like that. He's a solo player. He develops friends, obviously, along the way. And so, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop it there with the introduction just in case you, you haven't, you haven't seen it. So I'm gonna talk to my co host real quick about it. So let me ask you. I'm gonna go ahead and hit, I guess, I guess, speaker of the professor. I guess speaker today. So, professor, what did you like about sword art online and what didn't you like about sword art online?
[00:04:45] Speaker B: What I liked about it, it's probably my favorite anime series of all time. It combined my, you know, two of my two favorite things, rpg's and anime. And I was just kind of blown away by the story, you know, I think it's called Netgear. You know, you put this VR on and then you were in this, you know, immersionist world, I think log Horizon. It came out before it. I don't remember which one came out of first. Like one of the first animes that you got to, a character got to submerge himself into a fantasy world. You know, they had the real world. They had a fantasy world. And then was a kayaba, the guest of villain. He trapped everybody in the video game, so it was life or death, and they had to live, you know, a real life in a video game. And the only way out was to beat the game, which nobody had done. I think the beta testers, they only got to, you know, a low level. They hadn't even gotten near, you know, I think it was 99 to 100 floors they had to go through. And so you go to the story of these people trying to beat this game. Of course, you know, kirito, solo player, him interacting with other characters. Asuna was one of his friends then became a love interest. So they told a really interesting story of, you know, fighting for survival, friendship, being a loner. You know, he went through, you know, meeting some lower level players, hiding his true identity. Then that ended the kind of tragedy how that affected him. So you got this whole story out of him, got a love story between him and Asuna. You got him Kayab in the background. Just kind of his thoughts of this genius that he looked up to him kind of portraying him betraying all of these players and putting our lives on the line. And so it was just a tremendous story. You know, I probably watched the whole series, you know, six plus times, not the whole original art six plus times. You know, just I watched at least once a year, you know, I enjoy the story that much and I never get tired of. And so it's probably my favorite anime series of all time. You know, I really don't have any dislikes of the, of the original, original art. You know, I liked everything about it. So, no, no real dislikes. Liked all of the characters, how they put everybody together. You know, you had some people not taking things seriously they should. You had, you know, people committing suicide. You had people commit suicide in the game by just fighting, you know, enemies that they had no business fighting, you know, kind of committed suicide, not taking it, you know, as seriously as they should have. And so, you know, just had a combination of just great storytelling things that I had not, never seen in anime before. Now a lot of things get done over and over and over again. It was kind of one of the originals as far as going into a video game world, you know, real world video game world and trying to get back to the real world. And so, you know, it's just a great anime. I think it's. It's a great watch. Definitely, you know, recommend anybody who hasn't seen it. You know, they have different other arcs. I guess we can talk about the other arcs. I think what I did not like is the guess the gun gale arc. Never finished it. You know, I've watched it, tried to watch it several times. I just never got into it and never, never finished that arc. I think I've heard it's good. But, you know, I got to go back and watch that one. That's the only one I didn't like. I just didn't get into the full story. It kind of went too far away from the original two, you know, the original arc. Then they went to the, you know, the fairy arc, I think the third line.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Online. The gun gale arc kind of went too far away. What I liked about the other two, and I think that's kind of what turned me off to it. I bet it was a, you know, it was a bad story. I think they just went too far from what I enjoyed from the first two, two arcs. And so I didn't get into it. So I'm going to go back and try and force myself to complete it. You know, I've heard it's good. I believe that it's good. Again, too far away. From the first two arcs down to fourth arc. Amazing. Kind of went back to what the first two were. The real love story between him and Asuna on the story between him and, you know, the other characters and him kind of being stuck in the game at that point. Now he's a legend at this point. As far as these video games, being a tester, it's a great series. You know, three out of four arcs for me, great series. Can't wait for the next arc to come out. That's all I got.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: I got the same question for you, mister Conspiracy. What did you like? What didn't you like about the series, man?
[00:08:52] Speaker C: Sword art online for me is number one until solo leveling is finished. When it comes to anime, storytelling is phenomenal. I am a rare breed when it comes to sword art online because I've seen every single episode from all arcs, every single last one. And for me, I've seen every arc more than once. So. So for the, um, bullet art, it's, uh, in English, it's called Phantom Bullet. It's the Phantom Bullet arc. Um, I actually like it. I understand why a lot of people don't like it. Like the professor, I get that. Because it goes away from the fairy dance arc, you know, and the, our crad arc, which is the first arc, it goes away from those two, which is what makes water online very special. And I know why people don't like it. And it's because of that. Because it doesn't give it that feel. Now, the Phantom bullet arc is more, I want to say it's more raw, it's more dark, and because it's a murder mystery, but it's in a more of a halo type of setup, modern low mixed with, like, modern warfare type of setup when it comes to the game, when you go into a virtual game. So it's a murder mystery. And for me, it's the griminess of it I enjoy, because instead of just weapons, you know, sword, spears, bowls, things like that, like they are using guns, to be honest with you, they show really good ability when it comes to this all out battle. And it's a one versus all, you know, scenario, winner take all. And I love that. And then you have this guy using a pistol and a sword that. This. This Jedi sword that everyone says you should never use, that it's trash, but. And he's the only one that can use it. And in his hands, it's probably the greatest weapon in the game, but only in his hands mixed with this pistol, it reminds me. He reminds me of Dante from Devil may cry, you know, with how he uses it. Just for me, I like the.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Just.
[00:11:06] Speaker C: Just the grit and grind. Like, he kind of gets away from that kiddish high school type of mentality. Understand? He just went through a kill game, honestly, with sword art online. But for this, it's a little bit different because he can go and come as he pleases out the game, but it's still life of death because people are coming up dead in the game and in real life, and no one knows why. Right. So if a different type of suspense there for me, but, um, just to move past that, I love sword art online. For me, my favorite art, I'm going to have to go with, um.
Hmm. It's the last one. It is called sword art online.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:11:56] Speaker C: That is my favorite arc, and it's the last arc before the movie. If people do not know that arc is phenomenal, you're talking storytelling battle and artwork. All of what we wanted from the get go. They put it all in the last arc for me, and I watched it multiple times.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: So. So nothing. You ain't got nothing negative about the series, then? Nothing negative.
[00:12:22] Speaker C: If there was.
If there's one negative thing, it's like, man, just let that dude accept his hair, man. Dang. I just accepted, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's my only complaint.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Wow. Okay. To our female followers, all ten of y'all. Hey, don't run.
Don't run. Listen, I. You know what? Listen, I like it. Listen, I'm. I'm gonna nitpick at one thing, and, man, and this one day, I'm gonna nitpick. It relates to a lot of manga we got. I don't know what it is about manga, these manga specifically where cousins and brothers and sisters are falling in love with each other.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: It's weird.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: It's weird. It is the weirdest thing. And I'm not specifically yelling at sword art online because it's across all. It's a lot of japanese manga that's like that. And I don't understand why you gotta fall in love with your cousin. Like, incest must not be a thing over there. I don't know. But a lot of these love stories. And I'd be like, this is so weird to me. Like, I don't know, maybe somebody can explain it to me, but that, I don't really like that, you know, that's probably the thing. I'll nitpick it with this one. But the rest of the story, like I say, it's great. Now I got to get into some of the interesting parts. Pester, what is your favorite fight?
[00:13:55] Speaker B: First arc between him and Kayaba is my. My favorite fight. No, just because that's my favorite arc is the first arc. And that battle between them two all online. Yeah, that was my favorite fight just because of what it meant. There were bigger fights, more massive fights throughout the other series. You know, the last series, you get actually armies fighting each other. And you got a lot of, you know, a lot of acts, a lot of fighting. But I think for me, the best one was the first one. My favorite arc, all online, life or death, trying to save everybody. He's, you know, a hero, you know, quote unquote a hero, trying to save everybody. Everything on the line, the way they set it up, because they actually didn't get to the top floor, you know, Kayaba gave him a way out and said, okay, if you beat me, games over. And so they're like, all right, instead of climbing, instead of climbing, you keep climbing. Or you can fight me. He's like, all right, people dying, you know, we've been doing. We've been going through this too long. You know, people's bodies don't know how, you know, if everybody's gonna make it less ended. And so to me, that's my. That's my favorite fight.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Okay, conspiracy, what's your favorite. What's your favorite. What's your favorite battle? I know there's a lot to pick from, so don't. Don't hate a brother, you're saying. I just. I'm just.
[00:15:12] Speaker C: Over there. Make it hard, man. Mister cleans, we're gonna start calling a man with that adjustment, uh, because I love most fights in the first arc. I do just because of like the music, it is perfect. The intensity, the artwork on how they do it. So it's hard for me to go against almost any of Kirito's fights, right, Kirito's fights in the first arc. But I gotta say this though. I think the fight that him and Hallis had in the last arc against Quinella when first it was them too, they fought first together. Alice went down. Berto was like, nah, we not dying like this. Then he went up against Quinella by himself. That right there. And he made that opening for Alice and was like, you end it, bro. The artwork, I mean, the music, like, he put basically everything he had learned in every other art thus far into play with that last battle. Everything he learned, he put it into that battle right there. And you saw it all come to fruition, man. That is my favorite fight.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: Have to go with like, listen. Oh, my God. Like this. This always torments me because there's two fights that I just like. Blue eyes are blue eyes because of what the battle meant with Asuna on the line and everything like that. And he has to reveal that he's got the dual world in and then he first blew eyes back like, you know, and he's like, you know, Starburst stream and he's like, I gotta go find stuff. He gonna fast. The fact he getting hit, he don't care. He like, my baby mama gonna die if I don't, I don't like. And he almost died in the process of fighting. Like that was like, oh, I said it can only get better than that because if that was the midway pointer, you know, taking me in there, like that fight was incredible. And then one more fight, I gotta give it to second arc when he fights the other general and you know, that dude's got that phasing sword and he getting hit and all this other stuff. But when he takes, uh, his cousin's blade leaper, he pulls a blade and he go in and he start cutting that dude up. And no matter what they do could do, he put them blades inside of. He just, he was going ham on that dude. Blew him away. I was like, yo, it's so many cool things like that that you see in there. Like, I mean, hands down. Like there's so many good fight scenes. I mean, like, I could name a whole bunch. I think one of the coolest little details is this one is in the, this is kind of the arc where Asuna is dealing with the lady who's got cancer.
[00:18:07] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And my favorite part of that is where Asuna trying to get in there to go fight the battle. And then Kirito cubs him. And I think Kline show up and Kirito is cutting magic with his dual wielding sword that nobody can do because from the gale, the gun gale arc, he's like your bullet. Your magic isn't faster than a bullet. So the dude, he gets left there and he's like, she's like, she's like, that's my baby right there. And he's like, he puts his hand up, you know, he's going ham. Like, I don't even know if they kill him or not or whatever. But the dude go he hard. I mean it. No doubt. Like, I say so many good things I can say about sword art online.
I mean, like you say, writings good, the artwork is good. And I'll be the first to say this. I never read the manga of Sword art online. So I just saw the anime. Anime was so good, I didn't feel a need to actually read the manga, which is usually a first for me because a lot of times I'll read, I'll watch an anime and like, let me go find the manga and see. I didn't do that with sword Art online. It was actually that good. So, I mean, Sarah, by point, I enjoyed it. I mean, it's a growth series. And if you're a beginner, you're looking for something for you to get into. This is actually a pretty good one. I mean, I would say that some parts, if you wanted to show your kids this, they would probably be able to watch it and have fun. You have to minus out some of that weird stuff. You know, you might want to go ahead some episodes because they do. Like I said, it can get a little weird sometimes. But overall story, great anime to get into. If you've never seen anything. And I don't know what else to say about it, brother. It's.
[00:19:58] Speaker C: I do.
I just realized some now it's. It's more of a spin off because they really don't touch on it. Please, people, skip that whole gunslinger and you will know what I'm talking about because the story is wrapped around some little girl in some pink bunny soldier outfit. She's just really, really fast and she like three foot, you know, two inches tall. Please skip that. Don't get me wrong. She go hard. She does. I seen it. She go hard. But the story sucks.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: Well, story sucks. And sometimes you can't spin offs, man. Sometimes you can't spin off and just stick with the main thing.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: Skip the spin off. So, yeah, I had to throw that out there. DLC, please get the spin off.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: Got you. So let me ask you this. Like, and I think I'm going to ask each of you the same question. So, as far as what your answers. So who is your favorite character saying? I think that's a fair question. Who's your favorite character? Professor conspiracy. Either one of y'all can jump with it first.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: I'll let you. That's easy. Kirito is my favorite character. You know, it's just kind of, you know, my bias, you know, is the hero, you know, he's the hero. He's the guy, you know, he takes on full responsibility. I think that, um, they did the character well, as far as arc, you know, you get some, you know, anime, you know, he's the heroes. You know, he's a jerk or, you know, my, my pet peeve. He's a wimp. You know, he's kind of a wimp. Kind of like a days ago, kind of scared, kind of forced into it. But he was a guy who not initially took on the full responsibility, but he didn't run away from. He just kind of let it come to him. You know, he was a, you know, a beta tester. He was a professional player. He took it seriously. He was trying to, you know, do his thing. And then when it was, when it was when he was called upon, you know, he, you know, when he knew he had the talent, he stepped up to the plate to save everybody. So to me, it's kirito. You know, you get throughout all the arcs. You know, he's pretty much the main character. You know, you got a lot of good supporting characters that kind of make him who he is. You know, he's, he ain't. He's not. He doesn't become who he is without Asuna, without climbing, without the supported characters. They do a great job of telling the story. Story and kind of interweaving everything, his sister to make him, you know, who he is. So he's not who he is without them. But to me, you know, my favorite character, but I doubt the hero, the main guy, Kirito.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: Me.
[00:22:18] Speaker C: Our fans know this. I normally don't do this, but this is one of the very few anime, even manga manoirs that I'm going with. The main character easily here, though, is that dude professor hit it right on the like, right on the head. Um, for being all of my pet peeves. He don't mean any of those before me to hate him. He's not an idiot. He actually, you know, learns. He's actually motivated. He takes things seriously when it's, you know, necessary. And he understands what's important at the end. And he actually thinks things through and he does fall. Watch it say he stumbles but he always gets back up. He always finds his footing and he takes it to the next level. That's what really makes me like his character. Cuz he goes above and beyond. It's like going, you know, plus ultra. You know, he does that period. And I mean, I think it's every arc he does that that dude goes plus Ultra and I love him.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: Okay, I'm gonna take a slightly different path.
And I think Kirito's a monster. You know that. I mean, I think dude is hard. But I'm gonna tell you, I know the person who pushed him to his greatness, you'll say, and I gotta put this out here, you know what I'm saying? It's my boy eugeo from alienization arc. His other. His other friend Eugeo.
I'm gonna tell you because they go through that, you know, with that VR they're in and time is so compressed. He goes through a lot more with him. But when something happens to my man over there, your boy Kirito, it mess him up. It mess him up real bad because that's his boy, you know what I'm saying?
[00:24:15] Speaker C: Like brothers basically. Yeah, yeah.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: I mean, life and death, you know what I mean? And I think it came to Asuna and something would have happened to her. But when it came to Eugeo, like this was one of them times where you like in your character development, your main character, usually some tragedy has to happen. He, Victor, like brought like.
I mean, like that. That last arc and that's the brotherhood that they have is just insane. And what they go through the fighting with Alice and everything. And then, you know, you get to the end and it's like, oh, like I said in the way, it's just, you know, stuff don't go the way it's supposed to. Your boy kirito, he. He has to go ultra, it's. He has to go to the next level because there's no other choice. Like his boy does everything to get him. He puts him in a position to win. Like no matter what.
Out of all the other characters. I'm not. I'm not taking anything away from them. But I believe Eugeo is the one who had the other than Asuna has the greatest impact on his life. You know, I'm saying, because of the time frame. So I will. I will definitely say that. So, yeah, man, like I say, great storytelling, great artwork, great. Like that out to, you know, the author of Sword art online, Ray Kawahara, is the author. Man, you do great work, brother. I hope you think you're working on sword art. And if you're doing any other pieces, hey, listen, we'd love to have you on the show, man. We'd love to interview you. And I, throwing that out there to you right now, man, it's phenomenal work, but.
