Review of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
Once upon a time there was an anime called Sword Art Online. I never watched it, except for, like, a few minutes of it and never really picking it up again. It looked kind of generic. Bland male protagonist, hot looking love interest, a bunch of other cute girls that don't really stand a chance. Didn't really stand out. But this anime has a 6 foot tall college girl masquerading as a less than 5 foot tall loli dressed in pink fighting in a battle royale video game with a just as pink P90. Now Sword Art Online has my attention. SAO Alternative doesn't really stand outin terms of its plot. Like JoJo Season 1, it's a very straightforward plot: "Pink Loli plays Fortnite". A few sideplots show up, including a major one where a character is trying to replicate the "People Die If They Are Killed" mechanic, and a minor one where she meets a few school girls who have the opposite height complex as she does, but it often takes a side line to the main one where its just her and the friends she meets along the way playing the game.
It doesn't have a complex story like Fate/Zero and Code Geass with five million plot threads and character arcs that wrap together nicely, but many anime, including its bigger cousin, try to replicate that and fail. GGO thankfully sticks to its guns (pun intended) and tells a simple, yet entertaining story.
It's animation doesn't stand out either, though several key scenes do look pretty good, not to the point of "sakugasm", but pretty damn good. The soundtrack is also pretty good, but not "I'm gonna go listen to this on repeat ad nauseum" good.
The best part of this series is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. We live in an age of anime that can't decide whether to be goofy or serious, which is one of the big gripes I have with Darling in the Franxx. Sure, SJ2 does introduce a pseudo-antagonist, but it rarely negates from its little goofy tone it has going. Even when it does take itself kind of seriously, it's in a very nonchalant way and doesn't hesitate to crack a joke when it starts getting a little grim. I mean, the anticlimax ending of SJ2 would have baffled me in some anime, but in this one, I laughed my ass off.
Overall, it's a simple, yet effective anime that may not blow your mind, but it will leave a dumb smile on your face.