Recap

Kirito logs onto GGO and tries to prepare for his mission despite his complete lack of knowledge when it comes to guns. He encounters Sinon in town, who helps him choose his equipment.

Jel’s thoughts

If you’ve been waiting to see Kirito get back to being Anime Jesus then this is the episode for you. He even has the long hair! Oddly enough out of all the MMO Messiah Moments™ (can I trademark that?) it was the dumb buggy thing that irked me the most. Randomly getting a super rare avatar? OK, whatever. Dodging LASERS at point blank range? Wouldn’t be the first time. Hopping on a vehicle that only the best drivers can handle and instantly drive it like an expert because you’ve played racing games before? Too far. The other things at least have some kind of relevant context since his stats probably carried over from the previous games or whatever, but the buggy was just totally unnecessary power fantasy wanking. If they had just hopped on and drove off without a word it would have made zero difference plot wise, but they just HAD to slip that in there.

Mercifully Kirito does display a small bit of weakness as he’s apparently not good with guns. I’m so glad he missed the target with the one shot he fires because I probably would have punched my screen and dropped the show if he got a bullseye. Unfortunately that’s not going to tip the scales much considering Kirito is now literally a Jedi Knight, complete with a light saber that makes all the authentic Star Wars sounds when it’s opening, closing, and cutting through the air. Between that and apparently having the ability to dodge bullets, I’m not too worried about him ever being in any kind of danger.

It’s that lack of threat or legitimate conflict that is making this arc just creep along with an air of inevitability. It’s not much of cliffhanger ending the episode with Kirito and Sinon racing to get to the registration office as we know they’re going to make it no matter what kind of magic plot device Kirito will need to pull out to get it done. About the only possibly interesting wrinkle I can see is if they both enter the tournament and have to face each other. I mean if it was as simple as both of them playing to win of course my money would be on Kirito, but we’ll have to see how their relationship develops up to that point. Maybe by then Sinon will be totally in love with him and let him win… oh god please don’t let that actually happen.