SWORD ART ONLINE ALTERNATIVE: GUN GALE ONLINE

DESCRIPTION

CAST

NOVEL ActionSword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
MANGA ActionSword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
ANIME ActionSword Art Online II
ANIME ActionSword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II

REVIEWS

• 

  MrChiki

  90/100
  A really fun show about a pink loli killing grown men in a video game.

  So I just finished this show and let me tell you--it was a fun ride. Initially I wrote the show off to be another Sword Art Online piece of cliche garbage, but when I grudgingly watched the first episode I found myself entertained beyond my belief. The show starts off ridiculously and honestly ends ridiculously, but throughout the entirety of it I had fun. So getting that off my chest I'll jump right into it the review.

  Story: 85/100
  The show didn't try to be too deep, and to be honest it shouldn't be. It's supposed to be fun, and I think that really came across well. Another huge thing in its favor was that one doesn't have to have watched Sword Art Online to watch this show. There are a few mentions of it and some easter eggs here and there, but nothing that would take away from someone who hadn't seen SAO.

  Art: 80/100
  Not much to say here, but the art was decent enough for the show and the action shots were done well enough that no blaring mistakes were evident. I did notice some CGI in the last few episodes, which was a little irritating, but overall pretty good.

  Sound: 90/100
  I absolutely loved this show's sound effects and OST. The insert songs were nice and were a nice change of pace, and the ED was absolutely amazing. The OP was a little underwhelming, but not bad, and the normal action scene soundtracks were engaging enough. Not really much to say here, except for crediting Kusunoki Tomori with that amazing ED.

  Characters: 80/100
  The characters were well done in this show. They didn't try to make any of the characters particularly deep or really have any huge character development, but they were still funny characters. To me, the really only stand out characters were LLENN and Pitou with their small but meaningful character progression, and I thought that that was good enough for the show.

  Enjoyment: 95/100
  As I mentioned earlier, I had a blast watching this show, and surprisingly with all the other big shows coming out this season, I enjoyed this the most out of all of them. The fights were serious yet really funny, and the cuts back to Karen in the real world were to me the most enjoyable moments in the show. I can't really place my finger on why I enjoyed this show so much, but maybe it was the pink loli killing grown men with a p-90, maybe it was the ridiculousness of Karen's height difference when she was LLENN, or the amazons, or countless other things I made me love every minute of this show.

  Overall: 90/100
  As I have stated above, this show was really fun to watch for so many reasons, and I think was just what I need to watch at that time--A light hearted show that isn't moe or a typical comedy. I hope that this review encourages all of you guys to watch this show and to not think too hard about it and just enjoy it for what it is: A pink loli slaughtering people in the cruelest ways imaginable.

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• 

  CobaltoNoBlu

  74/100
  A fun show that had a lot of things going for it but ended up flopping and missing lots of opportunities.

  SPOILER WARNING
  PROFANITY WARNING

  So imma just get one thing outta the way, I watched this show purely to meme it and I fricken LOOKED for shit wrong with this one, that being said I shall now commence a completely serious review of this show.

  (Mainly a character breakdown)

  Karen is a twenty-something year old whose height has always bothered her as she is stared at and made fun of. In fact, this is one of the things the show establishes relatively well during her time in the real world. Her "coping" mechanism is to inhabit the 4-foot tall loli avatar of LLENN where she is constantly looked at by other players and referred to as the "pink devil". You see what I did there? Initially, you might see this as an issue, because she escapes into an avatar that essentially gives her the same treatment. I'm stretching it as I know it's a height complex to her and being a little cute girl has always been a dream of hers. The issue I have with this is that it's just an escape for her. Instead of gradually accepting herself for the powerful woman she becomes; we see NO growth of her character on this MAIN issue. It wouldn't annoy me at all if this was just a small thing, but because of the early episodes we are led to believe that this is a HUGE deal for her, and it could have been implemented with one friggin line in the finale. When she meets Pitou irl a simple line commenting about Elsa Kanzaki's age and appearance and how even though she is so small she is powerful and connecting it to how Karen should look past her appearance so that she can show people the true her. This would have made the whole hate boner they had for each other in SJ2 actually mean something rather than being something done for M. It was one of MANY missed opportunities that the show has. Moving onto M, and wowie this is where shit gets crazy. M is a flat character in a l m o s t every regard. I loved SJ1 M as he was a badass shrouded in mystery who was OP and shit. As soon as they turned his character into exposition, it went to shit. They made him crazy for Pitou, which wasn't all that bad. What made this character fail was the pure amount of WE DON'T GIVE A SHIT that he let off. There is no reason why he should have fallen for Pitou in the first place as the masochist thing is aNyThInG but relatable. Plus, the fact that we knew nothing about how he fell for her until the last episode ruined any chance for actual connection. I really wanted to like his character because he was cool, and his action scenes were brilliant but I couldn't connect with his reasoning at all. If instead, we learned that he was Pitou's brother or manager and that he was worried that this yandere path was going to ruin her life. This would have been much better and I would've understood his whole "I can't do it but you can" reasoning that he gave to LLENN (a little more). In short, he's a cool sniper and an idiot pedo. Lastly onto the last main character...Pitou. I'm not gonna lie I think that Pitou was the best character in the series up until that last episode. She had death gun vibes and sure it was kind of cliche to see a character that wanted a death game but it was something that was unexpected for a girl who we saw as LLENN's only in-game friend. Her whole love for killing and fear of death really was interesting to see juggling around inside her. We had epic moments of pure destruction like when she took down 20 men at the same time (best scene of this whole show in my op), while also being able to see her crazed moments when she got shot...in the eye (plot armour but fuck it we knew it had to happen). The whole Elsa Kanzaki reveal was underwhelming as we didn't hear much about her after the end of the first half so most of us forgot. Plus, for those who remembered, she was literally the only person left who it could have been. The reason why this reveal ruined Pitou's character is that THERE IS NO BLOODY REASON FOR WHY IT SHOULD BE HER!!! We get no background on her, so how are we supposed to give a shit??? What pissed me off the most about this whole thing is that IT COULD HAVE EASILY BEEN FIXED. How? Might you ask? A fucking ending fight song sequence. So you know how the opening song plays during the final fight in some shows? Well, top make that fuckfest of an ending fight have more substance (it was fun but just so weird), how about a ten-second tidbit before where LLENN says, "I need some dope ass music from my favorite artist to hype me up for this fight". Then the song would be an Elsa Kanzaki song in which the lyrics somehow pertained to Pitou's feelings, you wouldn't even have to make a new song, just twist the lyrics and make some bs up to connect them. Then instead of M sugar feeding Elsa to Karen, Karen could have figured it out Pitou's identity on her own due to the lyrics, confronted Pitou on her hardships, and the both of them could have made up and been friends or some happy shit, thus skipping the whole letter shit because I'm sure more than one person knows who LLENN is in real life and where she lives, ugh that fan letter could not have been more of a cop out istg.
  I've ranted and given my complaints, but I don't hate this show. Minus the pacing issues at the end and some useless characters (i'm sorry grenade girl but I don't even remember your name) and pointless battle sequences the majority of the show was pretty solid (and of course the writing and characters but that was already addressed). I know a lot of people complain about how LLENN is overpowered and how it's hax but in all honesty, I don't think this show would have been half as fun without it. Imagine LLENN at a disadvantage trying to formulating some master plan to come out of a situation. It doesn't fit her character at all, which is why I appreciate the short strategy talk which lets us know she knows somewhat of what she is doing while still focusing on turning gun lovers into five-minute fleshlights ;). The biggest frustration I had however and the biggest missed opportunity this show had was NOT MAKING THE MACHINE GUN LOVERS OF JAPAN WIN SQUAD JAM 2!!! That would have been such a gag I really want to see someone parody it. Just as a recap, fun show, good action and OST, lots of missed opportunities, characters that needed more work and writing.

  See Y'all for season 2...maybe...

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• 

  TheSakuraDragon

  80/100
  SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online succeeds in creating good characters and teaches us some good lessons as well.

  For a good year now I’ve wanted to take the time out of my schedule to watch Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online. Which I will simply refer to was GGO because I’m lazy, and Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is a long ass title.
  I think a large part of what kept me from watching the show until I finally sat down over the last week or so and watched it, was, probably, the ties it had to Sword Art Online itself. And don’t worry yourself, this isn’t going to become an SAO bashing article, nor anything of that sort. SAO was technically the first anime I watched before Clannad. This caused me to have a bit of a relapse when I watched GGO at first, hearing the references to the “Sword Art Online Incident”. Because yes, this show as you would expect, references SAO a decent amount. It is an SAO spin-off after all. But here’s why it’s different, at least for me.

  I can relate to Karen.
  And I’m sure you can too.

  Karen has a complex about her height. She towers over others, and many times gets odd looks coming her way. She wants nothing more than to be a short and cute girl like the rest of the girls around her. She’s 183 centimeters tall which roughly translates to about six feet. Now that doesn’t mean you need to be just as tall to get the same effect. If you go overseas and you look different then the people within Japan, especially in the rural areas, you might catch some glances. This isn’t racist nor always meant in a poor way. But it still affects us, as it affects Karen. And at least for me, that’s how I relate to her.

  Now before I go back into characters, there is one big problem I have with GGO.
  It’s the SAOism of being overpowered and unbeatable. And it’s something that I think Digibro also less than softly put in his video on the show.
  Karen until one time later in the series always finds a way to save the situation and to do some unearthly things. Even for within a video game. From hiding behind bodies. Which happened multiple times by the way. To hiding in a closed suitcase without moving whatsoever, for minutes on end. Air would technically have run out by the way producer, just saying.
  Overall though, that was one of my few big problems with the show. I feel like if you can ignore that, it makes the show much more watchable.
  Oh and now that think about it, one more thing. Having her P-90 speak to her, although being something I understand the point of doing, was a really really cringe-inducing thing to actually add in. And it was something I found myself skipping every time I saw it come up.

  Now back to characters for another thing that I absolutely love about this show. Both the relationship between M and Pitohui, and Pitohui herself.
  The reason I feel this way and can relate is that it really highlights both the way that relationships can differ between people, and work different ways for different people, as well as shows that sometimes people can be hiding more than you think. Especially online.
  Pitohui and M’s relationship can be called anything but nuclear, other than the fact that they are man and woman. M is on Pitohui’s beckoning call. Doing anything and everything that Pitohui could ever want. And in the end, it is even revealed that his name is actually M or Masochist.

  What I want to get into more than anything when it comes to these two topics though is Pitohui’s mental state. She is from what I’ve seen of and having dealt with the disorder myself, dealing with a major depressive disorder. A disorder that even more of us can relate to as well. Even before the SAO incident she was obsessed with death and missing out on the SAO death game, it made her obsession even worse, and caused her to break in the end. She then turned both GGO Squad Game tournaments into death games for her as well as M. Vowing to kill them both if they lost to anyone other than Karen.
  I don’t want to make some sort of list to what happened in this anime or bore you with all the things and minute details that makes Pitohui such a relatable character for those suffering from depression. But if anything I do want to use it as well to point out the fact that not everyone on the internet, or really anyone you see, are doing all fine and dandy. These people have, many times, seen things and or done things you couldn’t even imagine. Thought thoughts that people would call them insane for, and even hurt themselves in near unrecoverable ways. I guess my point, in the end, would be: Pitohui represents the fact that you cannot and never will be able to judge a person by the cover they put on display.

  So in the end what do I think of this anime? I would say that personally, it wasn’t the best I’ve ever watched. But if I could rewind and do it again I believe I would absolutely still watch this show. Was it cringe-inducing at times? Yes. Did it have an SAOism every now and then? Absolutely. But the amount of enjoyment I gained from this show still made me second guess if I was actually watching an SAO spin-off. I myself watched it a lot as well for the sake of the adorableness of Karen’s avatar. But then found myself falling in love with Pitohui and M as well. And for those reasons, among others. I proudly gave GGO a rating of 8/10

  So tell me. Why did you watch Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online? And what did you think of it? And what did you rate it in the end?

  I’m out,
  TheSakuraDragon

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