Sword Art Online: Season 2/ Episode 19 "Absolute Sword" – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)
Sword Art Online: Season 2/ Episode 19 “Absolute Sword” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)
Overview
As the focus shifts to Asuna, it seems it is time for her to be the hero of her own story.
Review (with Spoilers)
Thus far Asuna has been seen as a fearsome warrior, the damsel in distress, and most recently, the girl who Kirito may or may not be dating. However, with her relationship with Kirito confirmed, the last episode introduced the idea of exploring Asuna’s life for that is still…
It’s been two weeks, and A LOT of stuff has happened.
So, I got an e-mail on Friday, May 27 from Kato Engineering that they wanted to set up a phone interview for the Software Development Intern position I applied for. I did the phone interview last Wednesday, June 1, and it went pretty well. I was pretty nervous and stumbled over my words a bit, but I think it was a good interview overall.
It didn’t help that my older brother, who always likes to force his expertise on you, was writing notes on my paper of what not to say DURING THE INTERVIEW. I should have taken the call in private instead of in the dining room. He’s such an ass sometimes. And unfortunately, I was trapped in the truck with him later that day him while he gave me all of his critiques, because we had to start moving him back into our house. And after he told me everything I could’ve done better, he told me that I did a pretty good job. Well, gee, why the heck didn’t he say that in the first place.
I got an email saying that they wanted to schedule an onsite interview with me. So, I had an onsite interview with Kato Engineering this Monday, June 6. I had an interview with the project manager, and then two technical interviews afterward. It’s been a little while since I did C++ programming, so I was kind of rusty. I also wasn’t used to coding Win32 Console applications in Visual Studio. All of the applications I’ve done in Visual Studio have been form applications, so this was a lot more like CS 111. Overall, I think the onsite interview went pretty well, and I learned a lot. I should hear back in a week or two.
So, as I said earlier, we started moving my older brother’s stuff back to our house (I live with my parents and commute to school). He was a lot less tolerable towards the beginning of the move, but we’re getting a lot better now. Unfortunately, there’s still stuff in the garage that needs to go the storage unit.
… Never mind, we’re doing it right now. I’ll be back.
… Ok, I’m back. That didn’t take too long, and it was fairly pleasant. He was actually more organized, because I told him that I wanted him to be more organized. We took two loads over, and then moved the remaining stuff to the left side of the garage so that our dad could park his truck inside. Yesterday, I helped him go through a bunch of his stuff to pare it down.
That wasn’t too bad either, and he also gave me his Kimono that he’s worn for a costume. Yes, I realize that I’m not following a chronological progression anymore XD. So, let’s jump back to Monday, June 1 when I had my phone interview. After we had taken one load to our house from his house, my older brother took me for sushi (The proper pronunciation is “osushi”, the “o” is an honorific prefix. We’ll get to that later, or this will be a very long post.) at Tokyo Sushi and Hibachi.
Osushi wa oishikatta!! I didn’t know if I’d like it since it had a lot of stuff that I’ve never had, like spicy mayo, avocado, cucumber, etc., but I did quite enjoy it. Unfortunately, there was shrimp which I have a mild reaction to (maybe allergy), but I still like shrimp. One of the cool things was that I could read the a word on the paper wrapper of the chopsticks. The word was a stylized version of “おてもと” (otemoto). In Kanji, this “お手許”, which means “chopsticks”. But it’s usually written in Hiragana on the paper wrapper of chopsticks. I’ll try to find a picture. Yeah, not finding it. I’ll have to take a picture next time I go there. It’s a cool design.
So, now I’ve eaten Osushi and have a Kimono. It’s gonna be much harder to convince people that I’m not a weaboo, now XD.
Last thing for updates, I swear! This is what happens when I don’t post every week.
My neighbor had her graduation party last Saturday. I bebopped between my house and hers a few times. One of the times that I headed back over, I decided to run and it was raining.
It was almost a good idea…
I started slowing down before I got to their driveway, but slipped on the grass going down to the their driveway, and fantastically tumbled on to their driveway. From what I remember, I fell forward, caught myself with my hands, and then my knees, and used the momentum by rolling on my right hip after which I just stood up. The people who saw it were quite impressed. I said I was fine and just walked it off, like nothing happened. But then I saw that my palms and knees were bleeding. “Well, shit”, so I headed back to my house (shortly after I left it) to clean the wounds and patch myself up. But I got a lot bruises as well as scrapes and rubs, so I iced both my knees. I’m doing pretty well, now. I have a pretty high healing factor (I say that my body makes up for my stupidity), so everything has scabbed over quite nicely.
Ok, let’s get to the last post in the Sword Art Online Character Song Special. It’s time to get to New ALO, and the Mother’s Rosario arc. And just so you know, the Mother’s Rosario arc was my favorite part of SAO II.
Liberty Rosario by Aoi Yuuki is the character song of Yuuki Konno.
Yuuki earned the title of “Zekken” (which means “Absolute Sword”) by winning 67 consecutive duels. She was also the leader of the Sleeping Knights (a guild whose goal was to defeat every floor boss of Aincrad with just their members). In fact, the reason she had been in so many duels is because she was trying to find someone who could beat her to lead the Sleeping Knights.
As I mentioned in previous posts. This is my favorite SAO character song. I like how it changes between different tempos, feels, and styles. It starts as a nice slow piece, but then quickly lets you know that you’re in for a ride. It also has a good instrumentation, that kind of reminds me of Chicago (and no, not the movie) but with more strings. It’s really jazzy and upbeat. I like the rhythms, and Aoi Yuuki’s voice compliments this song so well. I also really like the harmonies that the strings provide. But I think I like most is how it seamlessly connects these different “styles” (for lack of a better word).
Liberty Rosario really captures Yuuki’s character well, because she’s always trying to be optimistic and in a good mood.
< GIGANTIC SPOILERS!!!! Seriously, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that people who want to watch SAO II at some future point DO NOT READ THIS!!!! >
So, Yuuki is eventually defeated by Asuna in a duel. Kirito tries but loses to Yuuki. Asuna becomes the person in charge of the Sleeping Knights, but she sees that they’re acting odd. Well, she does some research and finds out that they’re all terminally ill patients who live out the rest of their lives in Virtual Reality where they can do whatever they can’t in the real world. And it turns out that Yuuki had Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Yes, there is a character in SAO II that has AIDS. This was very shocking to me, and made me realize how deep the world of Sword Art Online actually is.
Here, read her background from the SAO wiki:
“Konno Yuuki was born on May 2011. Due to dystocia, a caesarean section had to be performed, but an accident caused a large amount of bleeding and thus a blood transfusion was given. However, the blood was infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). By the time the virus was detected, the whole family was already infected. Yuuki continued to fight the disease but, during the course of her 4th Grade, a group of students found she was a carrier of the HIV virus and started spreading rumors about Yuuki around the school and she was forced to transfer schools. At that moment, Yuuki's immune system began collapsing and she was hospitalised. Her parents died two years prior to the events of the Mother's Rosario and her sister a year prior.”
Yuuki had to be kept in a solitary room hooked up to a machine. Kazuto Kirigaya (Kirito’s actual name. He studies mechatronics in SAO II) used an interactive camera, that he had made for Yui, to let Yuuki be able to go to school. She was able to see, hear, and speak through Kazuto’s interactive camera.
And then what do you think happened. Yuuki gave Asuna the skill that she had promised to give to Asuna if she could beat Yuuki in a duel. And then, Yuuki DIED!!! Yeah, I wasn’t okay with that. And there’s also the story with Asuna’s mother.
And that is why I think Sword Art Online II is much better than Sword Art Online. Overall, it’s much more real. You get more character development, and you get a large dose of Reality… (well, I thought that was clever). Even Gun Gale Online has a more serious tone, and connects more with reality. It really shows you a different side of the world of Sword Art Online, and I think that’s beautiful.
Album: Sword Art Online II Bonus CD 8: Liberty Rosario - Single -
Track: 01
Lyricist: SAO MUSIC GUILD
Composer: SAO MUSIC GUILD
Arranger: N/A
Artist: Aoi Yuuki
That’s all I’ve got for this post. I hope you enjoy the song, and can strive to make the best of your situations like Yuuki. I wouldn’t say be optimistic, but you should always try to have a positive outlook on life.
