Review of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
SAO Alternative GGO: A fun series that served as the opening act SAO Alternative GGO had only one function: to warm up the public for the arrival of the main dish of the franchise, Alicization, which is coming in October. And the series fulfilled. The novel written by Keiichi Sigsawa (known for novels like Allison and its sequels "Lillia and Treize" and "Meg and Seron", which resulted in the anime Allison & Lillia) and supervised by Reki Kawahara (creator of SAO) was never ambitious nor did it seek to overshadow the original story Therefore, it was foreseeable that after the announcement of the start of Alicization for nextOctober, the GGO anime will be released before; this in order to prepare the stage. Doing it later or during would not have made sense because all the attention would be focused on the work of Kawahara and this spinoff would have passed without pain or glory.
Let's not forget that the 3Hz studio, with just 5 years of foundation, is still a novel studio that seeks to position itself within a highly competitive industry; for that reason, seeking to adapt something from one of the most successful franchises in the medium, and then try to compete with their Magnum Opus would have been totally absurd.
From there, I'm not even going to enter the debate on whether this spinoff is better or worse than the original work. It is true that the arches of the novel adapted in the first two seasons of the anime (Aincrad, Fairy Dance, Phantom Bullet, Early and Late and Mother's Rosario) have many flaws (for something Kawahara himself is rewriting all that in the SAO Progressive saga ); however, when we enter the world of Underworld, within the arc of Alicization, everything changes and the rest of the frames, spinoff included, are reduced to mere companions.
When I have to talk about Alicization I will elaborate on this point, but for now let's go back to what brought us here today. SAO Alternative GGO was a series told in good form, with an easy to follow plot, loaded with good action and combat sequences that were handled in a great way. By the way, from here Spoilers come.
In fact, if it had stayed there it would have been a series of round action. Unfortunately, Sigsawa wanted to put the element "someone's life in the game is in danger" and that's where the plot (and therefore the series) showed the seams.
Since then, there were many attempts to sell us that Pitohui was in danger of death; however, the more they explained it, the more absurd it was. So much so, that it went against the much-needed "suspension of disbelief", which ends up taking the spectator out of the plot.
Not to mention that trying to make us believe that the only way to help this maniac was defeating her in the game was even more bizarre. And the police? Even in the Aincrad incident, the government got involved almost from the start; which also did in the case of Death Gun, so there is no reason to believe that they would turn a blind eye on this occasion.
Even accepting that Goushi really is a good for nothing, that he is, Karen from the beginning proved to be a competent woman, so her attitude did not make sense. It would have been more reasonable for everything to be taken for a game and to simply go with the flow. However, seeing her try to defeat Pitohui with the conviction that she was saving her life; and worse, with the fear that the maniac could die was simply surreal.
Therefore, every time this was mentioned, all the magic and atmosphere of the series was lost. It was as if all of a sudden they turned on the light while they told you a horror story. Fortunately, in the end that did not have all the relevance that was tried to give and the focus was always more towards the side of the action and the combats; Otherwise, the series would have ended very badly.
In fact, it seemed to me a good point that the whole matter of Llenn and Pitohui's encounter in the real world was handled with humor, because it marked a change of tone that was unexpected and appropriate in equal parts. Above all, considering that the series did a terrible job hiding the true identity of Pitohui.
In addition, the fact that the letter that Karen sent to Elsa was used as a main part of the outcome served very well so that point would not remain as a loose end.
Regarding the technical section, 3Hz studio did a competent job in character design, direction and animation. Of the three, I highlight the last because the combat sequences were very well worked; and let's not forget that they are the heart of an action anime.
Regarding the soundtrack, I'll say that Kajiura-sensei's absence is quite noticeable, but Starving Trancer made a great effort to show us themes that accompanied what happened on screen without clashing. Of course, within this section I have to highlight the opening "Ryuusei", played by Eir Aoi, which came as a glove to this anime. It was a nice touch to choose Eir as a gesture to connect with the main series.
In short, a very moving series, with excellent combat sequences and a simple, but well-armored plot, which fully fulfilled its role of heating engines for the arrival of the crown jewel, Alicization. It is true, that its attempt to sell us that Pitohui was in danger of death and could only be saved by beating her in the game was a joke; But at the end of the day, SAO Alternative GGO was not a dramatic series, but an action anime, so do not give it too many laps.
SUMMARY
A series of well-armed action that only got messed up when it wanted to get into the drama.