Accel World
Finally, I can wave goodbye to this arc, and the series as well for a while. I have many complaints. If you are terribly bored: Haru being bad at game;
How is he bad at games? Well, think of all the times he's had to be explained stuff (for the audience's sake presumably) about, well, even the most basic of things, like how people would target him whilst flying with ranged weapons, or not spending all your points so that you're near death (though I can forgive him more for that one). He seems more to be a complete newbie (or noob in gamer terms :p) to gaming in general, and is constantly being fed information that he really shouldn't need. Adaptable? I don't really remember him having many instance of being adaptable, he did learn that jetpack ability quickly sure, but he always seemed a bit lost in new situations.
Haru's righteous speeches:
I do get the fact that because this is shounen the protagonist is likely to spout righteous speeches (usually about friendship), but Haru's seems particularly annoying because it's an incredibly stupid view he's spouting. Do you remember it in full? He said that Accel World shouldn't be used selfishly, forgetting the fact that in the end it's just a game that has rewards that benefit you in the real world. A game, you are there to play and have fun, of course it's selfish! Righteous speeches are fine so long as they don't go on too long, but the ones in Accel World make no sense, and the show delivers it to you unashamedly like it's the truth, like it's a sound argument. Personally, I abhor poorly made argument, and so this made me so very angry.
Could you argue Haru's point? That Brain Burst is not something to be used in an innately selfish way? You play games to have fun, you're not having fun for the benefit of others. The only way it could not be like that is if you're playing simply for the Brain Burst points so you can use them in real life, and if this isn't to use for the good of others, then that's selfish too. Haru's speech is downright pretentious, and lacking in proper thought too. Sure some shounen speeches can get pretty bad, but Haru's ones were awful especially when you hear them after his clashes or confrontations with Noumi. He doesn't even need the damn speeches either that pisses me off, whereas in plenty of these shounen it's clashing ideals, in this it's just a case of Noumi is the bad guy, he's the evil guy, we know it, and we know that he is in the wrong for ****ing around with people, we do not need the speech, especially since it contradicts the lifestyle of almost every single Brain Burster in Accel World to boot.
Character Development:
Yes, you are quite correct, thinking that Haru would get over his trauma quickly, and it's not as if I can't understand his actions, but episode 15 was one of the most rage inducing episodes I have ever witnessed. When Haru gets his wings stolen, he reverts completely back to his past self and cries, showing that all his confidence was based upon the compliments from Kuroyukihime and his wings that were oh so special. Yes, I can understand this, but it was something infuriating to watch during an episode that had already pissed me off and I was in no mood to sympathize. Indeed, I can't fault him for being out of character then, it was just a massive pain to watch, how could that be enjoyable. I believe his actions before he lost his wings were maddening as well, but I cannot recall. [On Sousuke, the fact he cannot adapt is a plot point, and is considered very unusual, to the extent where it is lampshaded seriously in The Second Raid, so I cannot accept that as a comparison :)]. Haru did give up to Noumi twice, it's just that he didn't give up permanently as he was goaded on by that jetpack girl. Again, I don't disagree with your assertion that hes grown, the example you gave where you tricked Noumi si a good example, however I felt that his development has been massively underwhelmed by how Kuroyukihime still saves the day in the most recent episode, as the entire point of the arc was about how Haru had grown so he didn't need Kuroyukihime's support any longer. Also, I believe his growth has been sloppily done, it comes along in discreet chunks rather than gradually like a human would develop. Disagree with this as you wish.
Yes I do also get the point of the arc, and as I have said I have no qualms with it or his development (apart from how he needs KYH in the final battle), but the development is badly done, the development itself is fine (like him learning IS), but any instance where Noumi was involved was excruciating to watch. Character development on the scale of which AW has achieved is easy to find, in fact I believe that Shu from GC was a much better character than Haru, he was developed better too, much better. Haru's development does not happen naturally (I disagree that it happens slowly and steadily), but is forced awkwardly. He doesn't show any difference until an instance where the producers go "Okay, make him put on the serious face and stand up! HE'S CHANGED".
Nomi:
Okay, so Noumi is introduced, he doesn't show up on the matching list, he has an ass-pull ability that allows him to steal other people's abilities, and he can apparently hack into the school system, set up camera's everywhere without being noticed (must have used a lot of cameras), hack into other people's visual things, and to boot be someone that can use the incarnate system. I consider the incarnate system to be a separate problem from Noumi, so I'll leave it out for now. All these different things are contrived, and are signs of incredibly lazy plot writing, as someone on the thread put it TIF said: BTW, the reason this antagonist and his shenanigans are mindnumbingly fucking stupid is because this antagonist is basically pulling the same shit we see in every blackmail related hentai ever. No, seriously, all he needs to do is start raping Chiyu right in front of Haru and you have your basic NTR plot. Yes, towards the end some explanation is given for the fact he isn't on the system, but the ability to hack the school (which okay, isn't unheard of, but in an era where everything is electronically based you would think that schools would implement much tougher security), and the ability to hack PEOPLE'SS VISUAL.... ... THINGS is atrocious. If anyone, let alone a middle school boy could do that, do you think those things would be worn in the first place? Do you not think that the highest security imaginable would be in place on the devices to stop this? Would people buy a device that allowed people to hack their senses? Of course not! Noumi and his abilities affront the setting so much, he gets things done using conveniences of his ass-pull abilities, did he ever do something where he didn't have some shit up his metaphorical sleeve? I think not. Think of this sudden death dual they are having, before in the Battle Royal, Haru had to trick Noumi into allowing him to enter into the competition, but Chiyu just entered fine and healed Noumi up, which wouldn't have been allowed under the rules that prevented Haru from joining. Also, if they have those rules for the Battle Royal, why not for the damn Sudden Death? Surely if they'd implement the rules there they'd implement it in the much more serious/important sudden death. BUT NOOOOOO, any ****er can join in on this! "But the fields were different! One was the unlimited burst field!" you might say, which is true, but then this raises the question (if you're happy with that unsatisfactory explanation), why did Haru and Taku agree to this? Surely the'd know it'd be safer? I don't know :/
This isn't so much a case of Noumi not revealing his hand (I can understand that), but the abilities themselves are atrocious. Imagine for example he got into a fight with the red queen. He could steal her fortress. Now, maybe it's just me, but that sounds very wrong, and something that would never be allowed. It wouldn't even matter if he lost to her afterwards, he would still have her fortress ability. His ability may be limited, but it is still ridiculously overpowered and is something that permanently leaves your opponent at a disadvantage. His ability would never reasonably be in existence, screw flying, Noumi's ability is the one that people would be talking about. His brain implant chip is an explanation as to how he hacked the school you say? Tell me, if the BIC was so powerful, and this normal muggins schoolboy has one, do you not think that criminal gangs throughout Japan would be implanting them illegally and using them to hack into everything under the sun? Do you think that something with such a dangerous potential would not be checked upon examination? The whole BIC and it's apparent power makes no sense as there is no way it could ever come about and remain a secret. Also, I imagine things such as virus protection would be in place against things like that, and how could you even send a virus with AN IMAGE FILE?
On the incarnate system and Otaku pandering:
Now, it's true that most if not all anime have some form of fan service, but I object to the way they do it in Accel World. First of all, the whole thing of KYH falling for Taku when really he hasn't done much to deserve it. I object to it in harems, and I down right object to it here, what makes it worse is by having Haru the way he is it makes it seem like the producers have made negative assumptions about the audience and given them pity service. You cannot deny that the romance between the main pair is as badly construed as that of a harem. The romance between Taku and Chiyu is almost non existent, and the instances of affection could easily be those of a close friend rather than a lover, and in fact Haru has more romantic tension with her, which serves my earlier point as well as being odd in itself. As for the incarnate system, yes, I do agree that it's presence isn't the most unrealistic thing in the world, however it takes away from the world setting of powers and abilities, and all this myriad of colours, powers and skills have simply been reduced to who has the stronger willpower, which is disappointing. You do mention experience, but really, how long do you think it'll be before Haru starts taking on the Kings? It's not going to be that long. It is indeed better integrated than most (willpower) into the series, but it takes away from the world setting, and reduces the entertainment value of the fights.Robotic;Notes
I don't care for the characters that much. Well, I didn't find Yashio and Aki to be immensely likable to begin with, and although they got a little development, they didn't get that much, certainly not as much as I've seen people claim. We never really got to know that much about any of them, even Yashio's development felt half-assed. Each of the 5 main characters was at the center of 1 arc where they were given their allotted development, and then it was just dropped and not much to be looked at again. Basically, this series as a whole falls fat too towards my indifference region, which means that I'm not going to rate it too high. The series spent it's time oh so slowly building up to its incredibly anticlimatic concluding arc that had too few episodes to do anything with. I waited for 18 weeks, looking at the clues and seeing the plot slowly move towards the big reveal, and it was just a massive slap in the face. It was so underwhelming.Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo?
It was better than I was expecting it to be... well, actually, I gave it a cap of 6 way back when episode 1 came out, which turned out to be a pretty good call, because I have it a strong 5 in the end. The characters got much better as the series progressed, even the Gary Stu (who I don't mind too much for some reason). It was fairly entertaining and it had a pretty interesting setting. Nothing special, but not bad at all, and I will look forward to the next season.Koi to Senkyo Chocolate
I thought the first two episodes were poor. "Why do these people deserve our sympathy?" I thought, their club is indeed useless. Sure it is a nice place for them to socialize, but they should pay for their own sweets and chocolate. If I was a pupil at that school I'd be pissed if I knew a significant portion of the budget I paid for was being spent on sweets and chocolate for basically a social group. In the end they are a bunch of self-serving people who don't want to work in order to gave the stuff they want. Should they really be the protagonists? However the series improved, and eventually I ended up thinking that I might be giving this a fairly high rating (like a 4 or 5), the plot was fairly interesting and I was interested to see how they'd handle the romance. But then episode 11 came along:
Yep, seems I did, and boy was I right: This episode was wrong on so many different levels, from the technical to the logical to the execution. 1) Two people facing each other on a bridge, they go in to kiss, but are both tasered in the back. We couldn't see it because of the camera angle, but why couldn't they? Sure they went in to kiss each other with eyes closed, but my god to sprint the length of half the bridge to taser them in that time would be very noticeable. 2) Crappy melodrama, you know, I don't know what went down between Chisato and Mifuyu, but basically they both knew the other liked Oojima, and that they had trouble with their respective issue. They both told the other to "stop" when they started talking about the issue, Mifuyu almost went off in clothes exposing her mid-riff for some reason, but was stopped. This resolved all their issues, signified by Chisato eating some chocolate, and that is that, and then: 3) Oojima has loved Chisato all along... Wait, WHAT?!. Since when? Couldn't they do the decent thing and have the guy reject a member of his harem? Was that too much to ask? This came out of the blue, felt stupid because there was no hint of this beforehand, nor any form of build up, and is just crappy writing. What am I complaining about a harem with crappy plot writing? Was a massive surprise, I know right? 4) The whole shit with Kana at the hospital. I don't know how this hospital doesn't mind a bunch of students running around it like security guards (CAUSE IT'S OWNED BY THE KATAHIRA FACTION BITCH!), how she managed to evade all of them, because of course no one thought to do the obvious thing and just post some guards by Kana's door, "BUT OF COURSE NOT! NO ONE IS SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT HER!", Aye, however, you could in that case tell them a particular corridor, or even floor. BUT NOOOOOOO, let's leave it in the most undefended area! THAT WILL WORK! 5) Coma girl gets woken up by nifty harmonica playing. Nice. It's so cliche and easy to see coming I almost didn't think they'd do it. 6) Student take school politics too seriously. 7) The kidnappers at the end were in school uniform. Is it me, or does that seem really stupid? NO WITNESSES. I was finding this just about acceptable, but this episode left me disappointed (I know right, who'd have thought my fairly low standards would not be met?) and raging. THE RAGE.
Overall:
1) The poorly handled romantic revelations.
2) The very poor plot towards the end.
3) The characters that were essentially forgotten.
4) Harem cliche's galore.
5) Crappy melodrama.I don't have many entries now, but I'm going to be working on it slowly and steadily
Finally, I can wave goodbye to this arc, and the series as well for a while. I have many complaints. If you are terribly bored: Haru being bad at game;
How is he bad at games? Well, think of all the times he's had to be explained stuff (for the audience's sake presumably) about, well, even the most basic of things, like how people would target him whilst flying with ranged weapons, or not spending all your points so that you're near death (though I can forgive him more for that one). He seems more to be a complete newbie (or noob in gamer terms :p) to gaming in general, and is constantly being fed information that he really shouldn't need. Adaptable? I don't really remember him having many instance of being adaptable, he did learn that jetpack ability quickly sure, but he always seemed a bit lost in new situations.
I do get the fact that because this is shounen the protagonist is likely to spout righteous speeches (usually about friendship), but Haru's seems particularly annoying because it's an incredibly stupid view he's spouting. Do you remember it in full? He said that Accel World shouldn't be used selfishly, forgetting the fact that in the end it's just a game that has rewards that benefit you in the real world. A game, you are there to play and have fun, of course it's selfish! Righteous speeches are fine so long as they don't go on too long, but the ones in Accel World make no sense, and the show delivers it to you unashamedly like it's the truth, like it's a sound argument. Personally, I abhor poorly made argument, and so this made me so very angry.
Could you argue Haru's point? That Brain Burst is not something to be used in an innately selfish way? You play games to have fun, you're not having fun for the benefit of others. The only way it could not be like that is if you're playing simply for the Brain Burst points so you can use them in real life, and if this isn't to use for the good of others, then that's selfish too. Haru's speech is downright pretentious, and lacking in proper thought too. Sure some shounen speeches can get pretty bad, but Haru's ones were awful especially when you hear them after his clashes or confrontations with Noumi. He doesn't even need the damn speeches either that pisses me off, whereas in plenty of these shounen it's clashing ideals, in this it's just a case of Noumi is the bad guy, he's the evil guy, we know it, and we know that he is in the wrong for ****ing around with people, we do not need the speech, especially since it contradicts the lifestyle of almost every single Brain Burster in Accel World to boot.
Yes, you are quite correct, thinking that Haru would get over his trauma quickly, and it's not as if I can't understand his actions, but episode 15 was one of the most rage inducing episodes I have ever witnessed. When Haru gets his wings stolen, he reverts completely back to his past self and cries, showing that all his confidence was based upon the compliments from Kuroyukihime and his wings that were oh so special. Yes, I can understand this, but it was something infuriating to watch during an episode that had already pissed me off and I was in no mood to sympathize. Indeed, I can't fault him for being out of character then, it was just a massive pain to watch, how could that be enjoyable. I believe his actions before he lost his wings were maddening as well, but I cannot recall. [On Sousuke, the fact he cannot adapt is a plot point, and is considered very unusual, to the extent where it is lampshaded seriously in The Second Raid, so I cannot accept that as a comparison :)]. Haru did give up to Noumi twice, it's just that he didn't give up permanently as he was goaded on by that jetpack girl. Again, I don't disagree with your assertion that hes grown, the example you gave where you tricked Noumi si a good example, however I felt that his development has been massively underwhelmed by how Kuroyukihime still saves the day in the most recent episode, as the entire point of the arc was about how Haru had grown so he didn't need Kuroyukihime's support any longer. Also, I believe his growth has been sloppily done, it comes along in discreet chunks rather than gradually like a human would develop. Disagree with this as you wish.
Yes I do also get the point of the arc, and as I have said I have no qualms with it or his development (apart from how he needs KYH in the final battle), but the development is badly done, the development itself is fine (like him learning IS), but any instance where Noumi was involved was excruciating to watch. Character development on the scale of which AW has achieved is easy to find, in fact I believe that Shu from GC was a much better character than Haru, he was developed better too, much better. Haru's development does not happen naturally (I disagree that it happens slowly and steadily), but is forced awkwardly. He doesn't show any difference until an instance where the producers go "Okay, make him put on the serious face and stand up! HE'S CHANGED".
Okay, so Noumi is introduced, he doesn't show up on the matching list, he has an ass-pull ability that allows him to steal other people's abilities, and he can apparently hack into the school system, set up camera's everywhere without being noticed (must have used a lot of cameras), hack into other people's visual things, and to boot be someone that can use the incarnate system. I consider the incarnate system to be a separate problem from Noumi, so I'll leave it out for now. All these different things are contrived, and are signs of incredibly lazy plot writing, as someone on the thread put it TIF said: BTW, the reason this antagonist and his shenanigans are mindnumbingly fucking stupid is because this antagonist is basically pulling the same shit we see in every blackmail related hentai ever. No, seriously, all he needs to do is start raping Chiyu right in front of Haru and you have your basic NTR plot. Yes, towards the end some explanation is given for the fact he isn't on the system, but the ability to hack the school (which okay, isn't unheard of, but in an era where everything is electronically based you would think that schools would implement much tougher security), and the ability to hack PEOPLE'SS VISUAL.... ... THINGS is atrocious. If anyone, let alone a middle school boy could do that, do you think those things would be worn in the first place? Do you not think that the highest security imaginable would be in place on the devices to stop this? Would people buy a device that allowed people to hack their senses? Of course not! Noumi and his abilities affront the setting so much, he gets things done using conveniences of his ass-pull abilities, did he ever do something where he didn't have some shit up his metaphorical sleeve? I think not. Think of this sudden death dual they are having, before in the Battle Royal, Haru had to trick Noumi into allowing him to enter into the competition, but Chiyu just entered fine and healed Noumi up, which wouldn't have been allowed under the rules that prevented Haru from joining. Also, if they have those rules for the Battle Royal, why not for the damn Sudden Death? Surely if they'd implement the rules there they'd implement it in the much more serious/important sudden death. BUT NOOOOOO, any ****er can join in on this! "But the fields were different! One was the unlimited burst field!" you might say, which is true, but then this raises the question (if you're happy with that unsatisfactory explanation), why did Haru and Taku agree to this? Surely the'd know it'd be safer? I don't know :/
This isn't so much a case of Noumi not revealing his hand (I can understand that), but the abilities themselves are atrocious. Imagine for example he got into a fight with the red queen. He could steal her fortress. Now, maybe it's just me, but that sounds very wrong, and something that would never be allowed. It wouldn't even matter if he lost to her afterwards, he would still have her fortress ability. His ability may be limited, but it is still ridiculously overpowered and is something that permanently leaves your opponent at a disadvantage. His ability would never reasonably be in existence, screw flying, Noumi's ability is the one that people would be talking about. His brain implant chip is an explanation as to how he hacked the school you say? Tell me, if the BIC was so powerful, and this normal muggins schoolboy has one, do you not think that criminal gangs throughout Japan would be implanting them illegally and using them to hack into everything under the sun? Do you think that something with such a dangerous potential would not be checked upon examination? The whole BIC and it's apparent power makes no sense as there is no way it could ever come about and remain a secret. Also, I imagine things such as virus protection would be in place against things like that, and how could you even send a virus with AN IMAGE FILE?
Now, it's true that most if not all anime have some form of fan service, but I object to the way they do it in Accel World. First of all, the whole thing of KYH falling for Taku when really he hasn't done much to deserve it. I object to it in harems, and I down right object to it here, what makes it worse is by having Haru the way he is it makes it seem like the producers have made negative assumptions about the audience and given them pity service. You cannot deny that the romance between the main pair is as badly construed as that of a harem. The romance between Taku and Chiyu is almost non existent, and the instances of affection could easily be those of a close friend rather than a lover, and in fact Haru has more romantic tension with her, which serves my earlier point as well as being odd in itself. As for the incarnate system, yes, I do agree that it's presence isn't the most unrealistic thing in the world, however it takes away from the world setting of powers and abilities, and all this myriad of colours, powers and skills have simply been reduced to who has the stronger willpower, which is disappointing. You do mention experience, but really, how long do you think it'll be before Haru starts taking on the Kings? It's not going to be that long. It is indeed better integrated than most (willpower) into the series, but it takes away from the world setting, and reduces the entertainment value of the fights.
I don't care for the characters that much. Well, I didn't find Yashio and Aki to be immensely likable to begin with, and although they got a little development, they didn't get that much, certainly not as much as I've seen people claim. We never really got to know that much about any of them, even Yashio's development felt half-assed. Each of the 5 main characters was at the center of 1 arc where they were given their allotted development, and then it was just dropped and not much to be looked at again. Basically, this series as a whole falls fat too towards my indifference region, which means that I'm not going to rate it too high. The series spent it's time oh so slowly building up to its incredibly anticlimatic concluding arc that had too few episodes to do anything with. I waited for 18 weeks, looking at the clues and seeing the plot slowly move towards the big reveal, and it was just a massive slap in the face. It was so underwhelming.
It was better than I was expecting it to be... well, actually, I gave it a cap of 6 way back when episode 1 came out, which turned out to be a pretty good call, because I have it a strong 5 in the end. The characters got much better as the series progressed, even the Gary Stu (who I don't mind too much for some reason). It was fairly entertaining and it had a pretty interesting setting. Nothing special, but not bad at all, and I will look forward to the next season.
I thought the first two episodes were poor. "Why do these people deserve our sympathy?" I thought, their club is indeed useless. Sure it is a nice place for them to socialize, but they should pay for their own sweets and chocolate. If I was a pupil at that school I'd be pissed if I knew a significant portion of the budget I paid for was being spent on sweets and chocolate for basically a social group. In the end they are a bunch of self-serving people who don't want to work in order to gave the stuff they want. Should they really be the protagonists? However the series improved, and eventually I ended up thinking that I might be giving this a fairly high rating (like a 4 or 5), the plot was fairly interesting and I was interested to see how they'd handle the romance. But then episode 11 came along:
Yep, seems I did, and boy was I right: This episode was wrong on so many different levels, from the technical to the logical to the execution. 1) Two people facing each other on a bridge, they go in to kiss, but are both tasered in the back. We couldn't see it because of the camera angle, but why couldn't they? Sure they went in to kiss each other with eyes closed, but my god to sprint the length of half the bridge to taser them in that time would be very noticeable. 2) Crappy melodrama, you know, I don't know what went down between Chisato and Mifuyu, but basically they both knew the other liked Oojima, and that they had trouble with their respective issue. They both told the other to "stop" when they started talking about the issue, Mifuyu almost went off in clothes exposing her mid-riff for some reason, but was stopped. This resolved all their issues, signified by Chisato eating some chocolate, and that is that, and then: 3) Oojima has loved Chisato all along... Wait, WHAT?!. Since when? Couldn't they do the decent thing and have the guy reject a member of his harem? Was that too much to ask? This came out of the blue, felt stupid because there was no hint of this beforehand, nor any form of build up, and is just crappy writing. What am I complaining about a harem with crappy plot writing? Was a massive surprise, I know right? 4) The whole shit with Kana at the hospital. I don't know how this hospital doesn't mind a bunch of students running around it like security guards (CAUSE IT'S OWNED BY THE KATAHIRA FACTION BITCH!), how she managed to evade all of them, because of course no one thought to do the obvious thing and just post some guards by Kana's door, "BUT OF COURSE NOT! NO ONE IS SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT HER!", Aye, however, you could in that case tell them a particular corridor, or even floor. BUT NOOOOOOO, let's leave it in the most undefended area! THAT WILL WORK! 5) Coma girl gets woken up by nifty harmonica playing. Nice. It's so cliche and easy to see coming I almost didn't think they'd do it. 6) Student take school politics too seriously. 7) The kidnappers at the end were in school uniform. Is it me, or does that seem really stupid? NO WITNESSES. I was finding this just about acceptable, but this episode left me disappointed (I know right, who'd have thought my fairly low standards would not be met?) and raging. THE RAGE.