This week introduces us to two more characters who appear from the OP rainbow heretofore unknown to us: the short-statured drama club president Hori Masayuki, and the dashing, statuesque, academically and athletically gifted “Prince of the School”, Kashima Yuu.
Interestingly, Chiyo assumes both of them to be the opposite gender, getting angry at Mikorin for “cheating” on the guy in Nozaki’s shoujo manga with this Prince, who turns out to be a girl, and worried about Nozaki spending late nights with the mystery background artist, who turns out to be a guy.
With six of seven listed main characters now introduced, rankings are inevitable, and sadly it’s been a game of diminishing returns. We like the pair of Chiyo and Nozaki the best, followed by Mikoto and Yuzuki, and finally Kashima and Hori. And we like Kashima considerably more than Hori. Hori’s a bit of a dick!
Maybe he’s a great actor trapped in the wrong body, and he’s got that chip on his shoulder. He certainly likes Kashima far more than he lets on and genuinely wants her to shine on the stage (which she does). But what’s with all the physical abuse? None of the instances where Hori hit Kashima were what I’d call abhorrent…but they weren’t that funny, either.
Let’s just call them..awkward, shall we? If she’d hit him back once or twice, maybe it wouldn’t have rubbed me the wrong way, but it’s very one-sided and repetitive: she pisses him off, he draws blood. Too often Kashima came across as a big dumb lovable punching bag for Hori’s frustrations, which overshadowed her more positive qualities and sapped some but not all of the comedy.
RABUJOI - An Anime Blog 
It’s opposite day/universe at Rabujoi HQ again I guess?
I took the cartoon violence as elementary school in nature. A representation of how best friends (especially 2 boys) can be rough on each other and totally unaware of each other’s needs/feelings. Regardless, ep 3 was still full of laughs and easily a 7-8 by our standards?
And here the rest of the office loves Sword Art online 2, which has gone nearly no where in 3 episodes and gets 8+ ratings. FOr goodness sakes, it’s second episode had nothing at all in it except a how-hum no stakes FPS fight. pbbbbbb :P Come on guys!
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I’m pretty consistent when it comes to objecting to guys beating on girls in a high school setting, even if the girls in question are bigger. It gets into a very uncomfortable discussion of “did they deserve it” that leaves a bad taste. I also disliked Yuuta constantly knocking Rikka on the head in Chu2Koi, and more recently Shogo smacking Saki on the head for saying something he didn’t. I don’t like girls unjustly whaling excessively on guys either. Still…in hindsight a 6 is a bit low, so we’re revising the episode rating upward a tick.
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It obviously affected you more than me (and Griffin, who was watching it with me) and I get where you’re coming from with not wanting to condone violence on women, especially when it’s spun as a convention. I certainly shrugged it off as part of the archetype/convention of that character type.
As I mentioned at the Ramen shop, I wonder if it would have had the same impact if Kashima was actually a guy? Even a guy wearing a skirt, which is essentially how I responded to the character, regardless of how the show defines her true gender?
I was just surprised by the 6 rating, which we usually reserve for fairly sub-par episodes/shows. (surprised since we got a good string of laughs out of the show, in general, when we watched it)
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Nobody is “right” or “wrong” on SAO II, Frank. Everyone has their own opinions, which are of equal value. “Nothing happened” is a matter of perspective. I think quite a bit happened; I wouldn’t have written so many hundreds of words on the three episodes of SAO II so far had I thought otherwise.
“Stakes” is also a relative term. When playing video games, the stakes are always going to be fake. It’s all about whether the people playing the game lose themselves in the game such that it ceases to be a game for them, at least while they’re in it.
I felt the stakes in the second episode (where Sinon and her group bite off more than they can chew) were just fine, considering Sinon is trying to become strong in the real world and this is the only thing that seems to work for her. The episode was also a showcase of the down-and-dirty operations of Gun Gale Online, which, if you’re not interested in, you’re not going to like procedural episodes like that.
I’m not saying SAO II is Shakespeare. My positive feelings on it don’t seem to be as strong as your negative feelings towards it…not yet anyway. But (and I’ll wrap this up quickly, as this is not the right thread to debate SAO) this is a 24-episode show in a fairly complex world where more than one MMO is going at the same time. It can afford to take its time building things up, and I’m glad it’s doing so.
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I certainly don’t claim to be right or wrong about SAO2 (or any show, really). Nor do I not understand why people are forgiving of the start / have subjective likes for the fighting style that equally subjectively didn’t interest me. It was more a comparison of how highly one show was reviewed that could as easily have been read as lacking, and how lowly the other was rated despite how easily it could be seen as meritorious.
For everyone who hasn’t been to Rabujoi HQ, we argue the merits of the rating system — any rating system — in general terms CONSTANTLY :)
It’s just the natural challenge of trying to bend 10 numbers to meaningfully represent both how much we liked something as we reflect on it AND how ‘good’ that thing is, relative to other shows going on at the same time, and over all time.
For everyone who hasn’t rolled their eyes during one of these HQ debates, I both agree with the current rating system we use BUT would be happier if everyone preferred a simpler, concise alternative. I’ll never lose my love for the old X-Play 5 star system (5* Everyone must see this and it will stand the test of time, 4* It’s worth watching, 3* the average, watchable, but unremarkable and forgettable, 2* only watch it if you really like its genre, 1* not good by any standard)
but i’m not gonna start that fight all over again, all over again, all over again, all over again… … ;)
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