Sword Art Online II episode 3 has aired so it’s once again time for me to share my opinion on the episode and how the series is progressing so far. We learn about Asada Shino’s past and why she is the way she is, from at a young age she was forced to hold a gun and shoot a chaotic man three times after threatening to kill her mother. From which she has become really weak to a point that anything related to guns will trigger this. On top of which Kirito goes ahead to “Link Start” into Gun Gale Online (finally)! 

We begin as Asada is bullied and cornered to give a bully her money, to which this female points at Asada with her hand modeled as a gun. She begins to freak out when her friend, Shinkawa comes to her rescue forcing the girls to evade. They go to chat to which Shinkawa was the one to introduce her to the game, however she has surpassed him and also wants to join the competitive matches playing against the strongest players.

They talk on when she gets home, she faces a plastic gun which is in her possession, to which it brings back some memories of her fighting for her life and the life of her mother when a man comes to rob a post office. She freaks out and hurls, she looks very weak to which she tells herself that she needs someone to save her. This part seems really graphics.

Asuna and Kirito talk about how Kirito is going to be hooking up into a game he’d like to go ahead and try due to the fact that the man told him, to work out whats happening concerning Death Gun. At the same time we see Kirito go into a hospital to which attached with electrodes to measure his bodily condition. He links starts.

We also see Asada talk to her grand father telling him that she’ll come home for Christmas break. She lays down on her bed to which she begins to think about the first time she started with Gun Gale Online, she mentions that as Sinon gets stronger, she also needs to get stronger. She Link Starts.

We see a live stream from a few Gun Gale Online players to which they mention that the pro players haven’t been seen for a while now, to which they must have been dealt by Death Gun. To which we can see that this Death Gun player seems to have a list of players he’d like to kill, to which Sinon is next on that list. This Death Gun character may be someone we may know.

A brilliant episode, we’re finally seeing something good in these episodes, as well as learning about Sinon as Asada, we’re getting to know her fears and what she wants most. I like the fact that Kirito has told Asuna and that she knows what he’s doing, well not a lot but something.

On top of which it’s great to finally see Kirito join Gun Gale Online as I’ve been waiting for him to pick his character and what not. Although we’ve already seen his female-looking character in the opening episode video.

Sinon and Kirito seem to have logged on at the same time, so hopefully we’ll get to see them meet really soon, I’d like to also predict that Death Gun is Asada’s friend Shinkawa who can’t seem to get into the top leagues and thus is having to take out the top players. To which if it really is him then he’s going to be killing his friend.

Overall I like the whole build up, however I did expect the series to quickly get on with it, however since this is season 2, I expect there to be a small delay in introducing new characters and a new game. Nevertheless, it may seem like it’s dragging however next week, it’s most likely to get back into the action with Kirito kicking butt. And to end it, can’t wait for next week’s Sword Art Online II episode 4, titled “GGO”.