Meeting Date: 5/19/2018
Disclaimer: The Herald Anime Club discusses shows as they’re airing. Naturally, there will be spoilers for a given episode. You have been warned!
Samantha Ferreira: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Herald Anime Club! I’m Samantha, and this week we have L.B. Bryant in the house
L.B. Bryant: Hello!
Samantha Ferreira: Tonight, we’re back to Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, following a recap episode with Episode 6: It’s Really Episode 7
L.B. Bryant: Let’s start at the beginning… how adorable was LLENN when she was shopping for a new gun?
Samantha Ferreira: Oh my god, I can’t even!
Samantha Ferreira: LLENN is too precious for this world. that’s why she’s in GGO.
Samantha Ferreira: Like, total cinnamon bun moment there.
L.B. Bryant: I loved her little happy dance.
L.B. Bryant: Perfect way to start the episode IMO :)
Samantha Ferreira: same. Also her little euphoria as she tried to think of names for her new gun. “P-chan za secondo”
Samantha Ferreira: And her little song was just adorbs
L.B. Bryant: Oh absolutely
Samantha Ferreira: Same goes for the rhythmic gymnastics team. Their little introduction was just too much. I was saying “I can’t even” through it all
L.B. Bryant: One thing that bugged me about the high school girls is that their character designs reminded me of another series but I can’t put my finger on which series it is. Been driving me nuts.
Samantha Ferreira: Just throw a rock, you’re sure to hit at least three.
L.B. Bryant: lol fair enough.
Samantha Ferreira: They’re pretty generic designs, which is why it worked so well
L.B. Bryant: Yeah I suppose that’s true.
Samantha Ferreira: That said, I kind of loved the whole fact that less than five minutes of this was in GGO
Samantha Ferreira: We really got to know these characters in a new way… from the girls, to the Hokkaido trip, to the other thing we’re going to talk about because we have to
L.B. Bryant: You know… it’s not that I minded seeing the characters in the real world but I do have to say that I much prefer them in GGO. After spending 5 episodes watching them battle in SJ, suddenly diverting into the real world for almost an entire episode was a little jarring and boring in comparison.
L.B. Bryant: Totally get why it had to be done though.
L.B. Bryant: By the way… Saki loves her emojis a little too much lol
Samantha Ferreira: To be honest, I kind of liked the juxtaposition, here.
Samantha Ferreira: It worked well.
Samantha Ferreira: Also, agreed. she’s a bigger emoji abuser than I am.
Samantha Ferreira: So I totally called the second Squad Jam, lol. I didn’t expect it to have “murder suicide” as stakes, though
L.B. Bryant: I totally get why it needed to happen… there’s no way they could’ve moved the story forward without taking it out of GGO but, as mentioned, going from five episodes of edge of your seat action to “Pito is going to murder people” drama was a little jarring for me.
Samantha Ferreira: It kind of worked, though, as they hinted at this in the recap episode
L.B. Bryant: Well I knew that Pito was going to turn out to be twisted. They’ve been hinting at that pretty heavily for the last couple of weeks.
Samantha Ferreira: True that.
Samantha Ferreira: Didn’t expect M to be so warped, though.
Samantha Ferreira: Speaking of… … … did you expect M to be as pretty as he is?
L.B. Bryant: That’s one thing that I really dig about this series… no one looks anything like their avatars.
Samantha Ferreira: Likewise.
L.B. Bryant: And is M warped… or whipped? :)
Samantha Ferreira: Yes.
L.B. Bryant: lol
Samantha Ferreira: Super whipped, given he gave the whole coffee thing.
L.B. Bryant: Yeah totally
Samantha Ferreira: “I hate coffee – it makes my stomach churn, especially when it’s black. But I drink it because Pito does.” – complete with the comical “oooogh” at the end.
L.B. Bryant: Love is hard.
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed.
Samantha Ferreira: Especially when you’re apparently dating a psychopath who will murder people
Samantha Ferreira: Still saying it’s Elza Kanzaki who’s behind Pito.
L.B. Bryant: I almost screencapped that moment because I loved the facial expressions on both Goushi and Karen.
Samantha Ferreira: It’ll appear in the write-up, lol
L.B. Bryant: lol awesome
Samantha Ferreira: That and the Kabedon were priceless.
Samantha Ferreira: Poor Karen – “My first kabedon and he’s declaring his love for someone else…. why me?”
L.B. Bryant: One thing that irked me about that whole confrontation between Goushi and Karen was the bit where he kept saying that he would explain how he knew how to find her eventually… and then never did.
L.B. Bryant: They just kind of glossed over that.
Samantha Ferreira: Yeeeeah. Sounds like something that was in the book but just got cut out of the anime for flow
L.B. Bryant: Kind of a big detail for them to just “forget” about or choose to omit.
Samantha Ferreira: mm, it’ll turn up in a flashback or something
L.B. Bryant: Yeah probably
Samantha Ferreira: Honestly, I kind of want to see Karen’s friend in-game now. From the sound of things, she’s a monster in-game
L.B. Bryant: Yeah, it’ll be fun to see what she can do.
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed. She seems super confident, so she’s going to be a source of fun… or she’s going to die within ten minutes leaving LLENN alone
L.B. Bryant: Either way I want to see what her avatar is like.
Samantha Ferreira: Same
Samantha Ferreira: She’s been a total dark horse, just popping up from time to time… I want to see how she is in-game now.
L.B. Bryant: Plus I like that she’s a good enough friend that she heard about this crazy plan and was on board with it 100% right away lol
Samantha Ferreira: lol agreed!
Samantha Ferreira: God, I hope she’s another tiny terror like LLENN – that would be hilarious
L.B. Bryant: hehe that would be hilarious
Samantha Ferreira: It really would
Samantha Ferreira: But yeah… otherwise, we don’t have any big shoot-bangs this week… it was just a great chance to build up the characters.
Samantha Ferreira: And shed some light on our arc-2 antagonist
L.B. Bryant: Indeed. This has been a well crafted series thus far.
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed… as someone who doesn’t like SAO, I’m really digging this.
Samantha Ferreira: If it was priced reasonably – REASONABLY – I’d consider buying it.
L.B. Bryant: Well, I’m waiting to see if they stick the landing before I throw around any language like that but I’m tighter on money than you are :D
Samantha Ferreira: hehe, true that.
Samantha Ferreira: Personally, at this point, I’ve enjoyed the show so much that even if it stumbles a bit in the landing, I’d be positive
Samantha Ferreira: Anyway, I think we’ve covered everything this week. Any final comments?
L.B. Bryant: Bring on SJ2!
Samantha Ferreira: Well said! And we’ll be there to talk it up next week. Have a great night!
L.B. Bryant: Night!
