Review of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online blazes onto our screen that doesn't involve KIRITO! and LA might as well say it but without him or anything of the harem antics and false grandeur the original Sword Art Online had done, it's kinda nice to see Sword Art Online through not only a different lens but a different atmosphere altogether. Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online (or GGO, LA will shorten as of this review) focuses on Karen Kohiruimaki voiced by Tomori Kusunoki being rather abnormally tall for her age she can't make many friends in the real world, however in VR or to bemore precise GGO, she's a chibi pink character who's extremely quick at that. Karen's entire development in the real world as well as VR is being accepted and her gain of friendships along the way.

Because of how the Sword Art Online franchise likes to take gaming trends and use it for their setting, from the first season's Sword Art Online of the MMORPG trend, to the second season of the FPS boom to Ordinal Scale movie take on AR trend and now well what has become popular by LA's time of reviewing this anime?...Battle Royale thus Karen or "LLENN" Karen's online handle takes in and the setting is mainly based on the Battle Royale setting and to this end, GGO capitalizes this in making some adrenaline fueled not to mention some incredibly intense battles almost every single time and LLENN has goals and promises in mind to her new GGO friends (mainly the crux of the plot Pitohui voiced by Yoko Hisaka, a mysterious women LLENN encounters and befriends her) and that is where the majority of the interest for LA to come into this spinoff and LA freakin' loved every moment of it. And sure the Battle Royale trend might die out along with this anime, but it's something of a time capsule much like the SAO franchise as a whole about gaming trends...in anime form.

Again the aforementioned Pitohui brings in some subtle mysteries, from many of the virtual avatars and who they are in real life (like Team SHINC, LLENN fights in the first BoB) to Pitohui herself and we see her open up to who she truly is and what her rather insane motives are and these mysteries along with the setting of VR Battle Royale allows most of the tensest moments in the anime especially when it involved Pitohui.

Character-wise, many of the characters are badass throughout the anime and by god it works in this setting along with how LLENN and especially Pitohui goes insane and batshit crazy in order to win the tournament or for satisfaction makes many of these either badass or likable because of their personalities (well main cast anyways) and because of that, LA's favourite cast goes to THREE characters, LLENN for one as she's the narrative focus of the anime and how much development in both real life for her opening up through GGO and gaining friends through her notoriety but in GGO itself, she becomes the pink demon and a contender in the BoB, almost like an underdog everyone roots for. Pitohui for LA gained LA's favourite character mainly because of how batshit crazy gets in ALOT of ways and LA does love these types of characters, being an unpredictable wall of a character and finally Miyu Shinohara voiced by Chinatsu Akasaki or "Fukaziroh" was a bundle of energy and always the comedic relief and like the majority of the cast badass in her own right that LA liked Fukaziroh as well.

In terms of animation by Studio 3Hz, the animation was consistent to say the least but the animation in general was great from all elements, from the exotic character designs (Mainly in GGO, though the real life characters are expected, yet still decent character designs anyways), the great atmospheric animation details and touches to the great battles that goes along with it, almost like your watching the battle royale itself and oddly enough for as much as GGO is the lighthearted version of SAO without the death and everything and as much as this is VR, the "deaths" in the BoB are ruthless sometimes and how much senseless violence that takes place.......and LA loved it!, seriously Studio 3Hz's great attention to detail on all fronts made the animation great all round.

Voice acting wise, well the majority fo the cast was great but like LA's favorite characters and LA's bias, LA's favorite voice actors goes to Tomori Kusunoki as LLENN (though LA oddly thought Rina Hidaka was voicing her, but Tomori still did great as LLENN nonetheless), Chinatsu Akasaki bringing a bit more of that comedic atmosphere that was needed in the later half of the anime and Chinatsu utterly nailing Fukaziroh's nature and all round genkiness and LA's real MVP going to the crazy batshit badassness of Pitohui voiced by Yoko Hisaka...just DAMN...Yoko hammed it up in this anime and LA loved every second of it.

Ohh and Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online takes some potshots at the original SAO, which is kinda funny as Reki Kawahara is the SUPERVISOR for this anime, kinda like Reki Kawahara is self aware of the flaws of the original series, *ahem* anyways the potshots are lighthearted jabs at the original series mainly of the variety of "This isn't SAO, you CAN'T die" kind of jokes as well as referencing the original SAO (and it's second season) in the process from time to time as well.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online manages to take all the good points of the original concept of SAO, drops that into GGO and executed and used it's setting to it's utmost greatest potential and managed to make it interesting and tense without all the melodrama which GGO is ALL about.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is a great alternative (hehe) look at a different GGO with all the crazy interesting and fun gun battles that LLENN goes through and GGO just has fun with it even it's most tense moments and LA just loved the atmosphere of GGO throughout. Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is one of the more surprising and fun entrees to the Sword Art Online franchise and LA wouldn't mind having a second season of GGO to see where LLENN would go next and maybe see more of her real world self and how she progress there too...