Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

*SPOILERS* A spin-off from SAO, SAOA:GGO is... amazing! It's not 10/10 perfect, but compared to SAO it's much better in terms of cast and story. For the first time Kirito is not the MC and thank God he isn't! There's a better MC for GGO, Llenn-chan, who's twice as savage as Kirito can ever be! I love SAOA:GGO because it's different to the usual SAO or SAO 2. Much better story and way less episodes which is good because i always find SAO a bit draggy. Story: SAOA:GGO revolves around Karen, who's critical of her tall height and is basically a shut-out from the world(she does go out but doesn't interact with people much except friends and family). She strives to be shorter and cuter so she decides to try out a few games but.... to no success, UNTIL GGO where she becomes the cute,short but SAVAGE Llenn! There she meets Pito(Elsa Kanzaki), M(Goushi) and a group of cute high school lolis and participate in both SJ and SJ2, winning SJ 1 but losing the 2nd one. It's a more interesting story, not the usual just all fights. There's at least some SoL moments and the fact that Llenn has to kill Pito in order to prevent her from killing herself(or something like that) makes the story very intense, especially the last 2-3 episodes where Pito and Llenn fight. Fortunately Llenn wins in the end and gets to meet the real Pito(Elsa Kanzaki). The story is very well executed and despite the anime only having 12 episodes, you don't feel that the story is rushed. It's just the right, consistent pace, which is not really seen in other action animes. And you'll always look forward to the next episode because the story gives off a cliff-hanger feeling for some episodes. Rating: 9.1/10 Animation: I really like how they animate the whole anime, including the GGO game itself. It's not CGI(at least I hope cos it doesn't look like CGI) unlike a certain Toji anime(not that I mind it a lot), the monsters are very well animated and the scenery also. Rating: 8.7/10 Music/Sound: Oof the opening is lit! I mean of course it'll be lit it's sung by Eir Aoi! And the ending as well, sung by none other than Llenn. I always love anime songs that are sung by the cast. Bullet, explosion sounds are on point too! Rating: 8.9/10 Characters: I love all the characters in general. Alright fine they still carry the OP feeling as SAO(yes Llenn, I'm looking at you), but they're not unkillable like Kirito is(yea screw Kirito). Llenn the pink loli irl is kinda aloof(until she meets the loli students) but in game she's more open to making friends like Pito and M. She's also SAVAGE in game too! Pito is.... just... SAVAGE and is a sadistic loli(her irl) who just loves to kill for fun and is not afraid to kill her own teammates too(rip M). Heng ah Llenn killed her otherwise.... idk what will happen. Maybe Pito will kill herself(COMMIT SEPPUKU jk). M is.... a masochist that's all I can say. Fuka... tbh i dont really know a lot about her. And this is where the criticism comes in. Despite the story being well-paced, there aint much character development is there? This anime is more about the story than the characters. Oh and before I forget, my fav character(most important thing) is the SAVAGE Llenn cuz she's a loli and I'm a lolicon :v. Rating: 8.2/10 In conclusion, SAOA:GGO is 10x better than SAO. And I don't feel sian watching this anime unlike SAO where after like 6-7 episodes I'll be like when is the next arc it's freaking boring. I doubt they'll make a 2nd season of this cos it's a very concrete ending. I really love SAOA:GGO. Final rating: 8.7/10

I'm between a 7 and an 8 on this series overall. Honestly, I think it would be a much more solid 8 if not for one factor: it's part of a franchise. While this is an enjoyable and fun standalone story, it assumes that the viewer has already watched all of SAO and is familiar with its universe. This is BY FAR the best thing that's been done within the framework of that universe, but I would say it's not really worth going back and watching both seasons of SAO just to have the context for it. I certainly wouldn't have done it if I hadn't already. That said, this was fun and well-made. If you've already seen SAO for context, I would highly recommend it (which is something I was fairly sure I would never say about an SAO spinoff). Don't expect anything too cerebral, but it's a good time.

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 out in 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.

The Sword Art Online franchise has always been a weird one, with such an interesting concept but a failure of a cast and story. I was pleased to hear that Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online or GGO for short had a brand new cast, this spinoff handled by Studio 3hz is a step in the right direction for the franchise. With the polish from what you expect from SAO but a story that doesn’t make me want to tear my hair out with pacing issues. That said that doesn’t mean the show is great, it’s good enough for a SAO show. But for what it is, I enjoyed it. And maybe you would too! So with Kirito and his harem out of the fucking way, who’s going to replace him? Introducing Karen, better known as LLEN. A girl who has a complex about her height, she being 1.83m tall has always been ostracized for being an outlier and therefore has been having trouble with making friends. This doesn’t work wonders for her confidence so she strives for a new body. Something cute, something smaller. After hopping VR games in the hope that the RNG gods give her her desired body she came to GGO. Where she plays as a chibi. Less than 1.50m in height donned in pink. Combine that with a pink P-90 and she is all ready for rushing B for the motherland. In GGO she meets Pitohui, a woman who has issues. She is known for her sadistic fighting style and personality. And doesn’t fret to threaten to kill in real life if she doesn’t get what she wants in GGO. She takes on the role of LLEN’s teacher/friend before she actually learns the game, after a huge misunderstanding on her part. Deeming LLEN as a huge monster killing other players for fun. With Squad Jam on the horizon we won’t know will happen, but it’ll probably end with LLEN murdering everyone, cause P-90’s are OP as fuck and require no skill. The story is nothing worth noting, it’s serves it’s purpose and that is keeping you watching. It does profit from the world building already done in SAO. So there is less time wasted letting you know the world and dropping you right into it. Which is fine by me, there is an improvement compared to the main SAO anime, the pacing is actually coherent. And everything is easy to follow, making the binge ability of this show pretty high. The new cast, jokes aside is actually pretty good. The main character LLEN is adorable, and the chibi style character really suits her personality. Her uncertainty is something we all experience in life, so she is relatable to some degree. The other members of the cast is also very solid. We got all different types, from M a hunk of meat armed with a sniper rifle. Who may surprise you later down the road, Pitohui for the people who like psycho girls. (I know you guys are out there) and another chibi character by the name of Fuka. A real life friend of Karen, armed with 2 grenade launchers. What’s really enjoyable in these characters is that they all have their unique charm and personalities. The side characters are also there, but they are in comparison to the main cast rather plain. The relationships between the characters is nothing special, what is special is LLEN’s relationship with Pitohui. It’s a friendly rivalry but at the same time not. LLEN goes so far that she promises to kill Pitohui in GGO, otherwise terrible stuff is going to happen in real life. This dynamic is certainly interesting, and it’s also the driving force off the story. The animation is great, I at first was rather scared to hear that Studio 3hz is going to handle the animation, cause I’ve never watched their works before. But I was pleased to see that it’s still the same polish I’ve come to expect from SAO. The action scenes are fluid, movement is dynamic and doesn’t feel floaty. Plus the use of tricks is minimal, with no cut outs, camera shaking and the likes. The art style is still the same one from the main series. Sharp and polished. The backgrounds are magnificent, capturing the desolate wasteland of GGO perfectly. Overall I’m really happy with how the show looks, and props to Studio 3hz for capturing the feel of SAO magnificently! PEW PEW RATATATATA BOOM. That’s basically the sound of GGO. The individual gun sounds are good, but mixed into the battlefield and they become a mess, reminding me off a round of Red Orchestra where my ass is getting suppressed by MGs. This is both a plus and a downside, as you won’t be able to pay as much attention to the quality of the individual gun sounds, but at the same time it captures the chaos of battle perfectly. The other sounds are normal, but polished to an extend. The OST is lacking, apart from the opening performed by Eir Aoi. Which I thought was LiSa for a second. The ending is alright, but still not catchy enough to be able to be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. That’s the main gripe with the OST. It simply isn’t memorable, and will be forgotten very quickly. The verdict? Go watch it, it’s a great point to start if you hate the SAO franchise and have been derailed with the franchise. For the fans it’s more off the same stuff, with more polish and improvements in general. And to be honest, I hope this gets a season 2. As it’s better than the main show. But at this point, everything is better than the main show.

Something i've come to understand while reading and watching SAO is that the antagonists are poor(not money wise -.-). The concepts are amazing, love the art design and animation is on fleek so that makes up for it and I usually give the adaptation benefit of the doubt. I always dread being introduced to the villian though. 90% of them fall into the same category: Laughing Coffin. Whether they were apart of laughing coffin, related to someone in it, wished to be apart of the group, have the same motives, etc. It was nice the first time, but it got old. Another thing is pito's real identity. I wouldn't have ever put sao in the cliche category, but you learn something new everyday. If you didn't figure out Pito's real identity the first couple episodes in, I hate to break to you but you are a human being that is classified as dumb. I tend to watch a lot of intellectual animes just for the sake of having no idea whats going on, so I can rewatch and say, "ahaha I knew that's what was gonna happen" (attack on titan things..) So When I got to episode 3 I came to two conclusions: shes either an ex laughing coffin or elsa. So yeah. Two more things, I'll make it short. All anime characters named pitou are fucked up and the ending was horrible. Overall this was good though. Thankyouforreadingthisiloveyousomuch Aryale :))

I'm writing this review from jail, and that might happen to you too, if you watch it until the end! It started out really nice. Just a bunch of random new people playing Gun Gale Online, several years after the events of SAO. Kirito is mentioned in passing once or twice, but neither him nor any other of the previous cast is present at all. The main character is insecure IRL and a bit lonely, and so wants to try out VR gaming with a friend. They get into GGO, a shooter game, do some quests, level up, and eventually end up in a tournament. I dig it!! The animation is also -really- nice, many of the fights scenes are lovely. I also enjoy the main character, and the music is usually on point, too. Also, there's very little fanservice! Nice! ...But then it all fell apart for me. :'( When they introduced the extra stakes of: your friend is suddenly insane and will kill herself IRL if she loses this tournament. Unless she loses to the main character. Wut? This series did not need weird crazy stakes like this, in my opinion. I was happy just watching normal people play a normal game. Maybe put more realistic stakes if necessary, but this felt so forced, sudden, stretched out, and totally ridiculous. On top of that, there are some really silly things that happen throughout the game. The main characters are pretty much immune to damage, as opponents will either always miss, hit non-vitals, or worse, hit the one part they can't hit, ten times, emptying their clips. The parts that can't be hit include a radar, a dead body (seems OP), an overpowered shield that only one character has, or someone's gun (which can absorb a questionable amount of bullets before it finally explodes). The main character has super speed, which is never explained, and no-one else seems to have anything like it, other than the main villain who gets a lightsaber at the end for a few seconds. The main character can use her plot armor, err, super speed, to dodge any incoming fire, even at point-blank range, but only when the plot demands it. The gun has an uwu face and talks randomly. In these big fps team-based arena tournaments, several professional teams (including main characters) are just running head-on at enemies or standing right in the open, discussing nonsense at length. Also, at the end, it turns out one character is a pedophile and a stalker who gets blackmailed and abused by a child, the manager is guilty of forcing child labor, and the singer is a bi-sexual insane nymphomaniac. All in the space of 5 minutes. This is why anime will never be main stream, aaah!

To those looking for anime to watch I highly recommend Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online. I watched the anime twice as of recently and I loved it, even if the story could use a slight tweak. The action is exciting, the visuals are beautiful, and there are twists in the story when you least expect it. My only complaint was that sometimes everything seemed slow when it needed to be fast. What sells me that anybody can enjoy it was sharing it. I showed this to my younger brother, who has barely even seen anime. After hassling him to watch it we finally came to an agreement, after watching it in 2 chunks he said he really enjoyed it. While I am not the greatest explainer or reviewer I still STRONGLY recommend this if you're even slightly interested. So what are you waiting for? Go enjoy it! [Watched English Dub: Netflix]

(When I was less than halfway): I rate this a 6, so far, but I'm staggering between a 6,5, or 4. I heard this was [slightly] better than SAO, but I'll still try and finish to put out my rating. I don't know how this is compared to the light novel, because this is less talked about than SAO, but let me see what it is by itself, because I get a lot of references to COD (Call of Duty) in this anime, which makes me want to keep watching. Story, however is starting to get on the shaky side. Ok so I finished: and it's bad. It was epic, sure, but weird character development takes away a point, from 8/10, and the cross team communication rule break takes away another. And somewhere in there, fit in story execution, which brings it down to 4/10. The main plot is taken place after episode 6. During that time, the whole situation gets dragged out into the other half of the show, which is annoying when that's only what the entire show focuses on for the rest of the episodes and nothing else. I'd say it's only about 0.1 points better than SAO.

Total trash, almost to the point thats it's offensive. Logic wasn't relevant too any degree when they produce this. The whole time watching this I felt like I was being trolled. SAO and Accel are pretty good shows, so I don't understand how they got this one soo wrong. Even the fan service was bad, it got to a point that it creeped me out. The only redeemable thing about this show is Miyu. Her character is awesome, she very funny and likeable. Filler# Total trash, almost to the point thats it's offensive. Logic wasn't relevant too any degree when they produce this. The whole time watching this I felt like I was being trolled. SAO and Accel are pretty good shows, so I don't understand how they got this one soo wrong. Even the fan service was bad, it got to a point that it creeped me out. The only redeemable thing about this show is Miyu. Her character is awesome, she very funny and likeable. Total trash, almost to the point thats it's offensive. Logic wasn't relevant too any degree when they produce this. The whole time watching this I felt like I was being trolled. SAO and Accel are pretty good shows, so I don't understand how they got this one soo wrong. Even the fan service was bad, it got to a point that it creeped me out. The only redeemable thing about this show is Miyu. Her character is awesome, she very funny and likeable.

It's better than SAO proper, but not by much. Story: A girl plays a game because she can be short in a video game (she is very tall in real life). She goes on misadventures for no particular reason other than they are there. Why does she want to be good at the game? How did she become so good at the game? None of this is ever explained. That effectively sums up the plot of the show. You may as well just be watching a "Let's Play" of the game featured in the show. The most criminal aspect of this is the lengthy exposition dumps we get multiple times from characters that establish the seemingly arbitrary rules of the game, flag poling the fact the main characters will find some "clever" way to bend or exploit them. There is also a "twist" you can figure out from literally the second episode, so look forward to that. Art: It looks fine. Serviceable. Character designs are what you'd expect from this genre. Sound: The gun sounds are pretty accurate (as far as I am aware). At least they put in the effort to get that right. The ED is quite good, believe it or not, but everything else is forgettable. Character: There's one single character with any real established motivation in this show, and he is a side character. He is also the only character that shows a third dimension to his personality. Everyone else, including our main character is as thin as paper. None of the characters are shown to have any stakes or motivation for their actions. They simply do what the plot dictates. Enjoyment: I watched all of this on a second monitor while playing Doom. I was hoping it would go somewhere interesting at some point, or at least shock me or show me something interesting, but that never happens. Even the ending does not even hint at a resolution for the single "mystery" of the show. At least the pacing wasn't insane like it's counterpart, SAO proper.

This show is fresh off the presses of my memory from just watching it and boy howdy do i got some stuff to talk about, and for it being apart of the sword art online franchise it surprises me that i can talk about this show in a good way. Before i get to far into this i believe it would be good information as to where i stand on the SAO series as a whole and how much i've seen of it. I've currently seen all of season 1, the first part of season 2, and Alternative. I have not seen the movie or the new series thats out but i've heard its gotta at least a tad bit better. As for where i stand on the series as a whole note that i don't detest sword art online as a show in its entirety, honestly when it first came out i enjoyed the concept of it. But as i rewatched it i could see the obvious flaws in the shows and get this, i still didn't hate the show, (i know shocking isn't?). I would say i compare SAO to a show thats not similar to it in concept but in quilty, Absolute Duo. I enjoyed absolute Duo for what it was and like SAO i saw its flaws as well. But to SAO lovers dismay i'm no fanboy of the show even if i was ok with it, no quite the contrary, i disapprove of SAO's existence but for a completely differing reason. You see, SAO and AOT are 2 shows that got many newcomers into anime because thats when a sort of renaissance of anime happened, but for me and others from the times of anime past it was a renaissance that would breed much mediocrity into the anime fandom. The reason i disapprove of SAO is because it is currently STILL one of the shows at the forefront of anime despite its overwhelming writing issues, its flawed design, and its continuation despite these issues. I would say it does warrant popularity because it brought forth the Isekai genre (and if anyone wants to say its not a genre i'm going to call you out as blatantly copying a current anime youtube who said as such because whether you consider it a genre or not is subjective), of which i'm a fan of when its done correctly, but that doesn't give it a pass simply for that reason. The issues of SAO being praised are basically similar to saying anything made by Illumination is a masterpiece of which for anyone with any semblance of insight knows is bullshit. SAOs success may have lead to the creation of more Isekais, it it also brought with it a swarm of shows that were extremely mediocre that turned enough profit to say to the industry "hey, we'll accept anything regardless of its quilty you throw at us". To this day we have may issues in anime that are a result of us accepting mediocrity, not just in bad shows but also in good shows where the animators either want to "save money" rush the production to get it out on time, or just get lazy with writing, animation, 3D animations (i think many can see that in stuff like Berserk, Overlord, and Golden Kumey to be name a few) and other issues because they are now mass producing anime which mean quantity over quality. That's not to say that all shows suffer from this but eventually THEY COULD. THAT is why i disapprove of SAO, not because its a bad show but because by its success, we courage companies to get lazier and lazier and THEY WILL if we just allow it and keep believing the industry is working for us; the industry couldn't care less what you think of them, all they really are out for this the money and if you think people in japan give a damn about what anyone else in the world thinks of their shows you best go do some research and think again. Now if anyone still thinks for some reason that i shouldn't disapprove of SAO then go do you bo, i'm gonna get back on track now so if anyone wasn't reading the whole thing or just doesn't care then continue to where this review says "Story:" and i'll get started. The review begins here if you wish to skip my thoughts on SAO as a series as i'm sure some will want too. Story: I'm gonna give the story an 8/10 BECAUSE in comparison to the other parts of SAO the person who wrote this, Keiichi Sigsawa; did an excellent job with the flawed world and series he was given to work with. Unlike the other SAO arcs this one seemed a lot more relatable and realistic to be regardless of a bit of cheesiness here and there. There's no hugely grand stakes, the combat throughout the show seemed why less bullshit then SAO and its conclusion was sort of hinted at early on but was in no way one of the worst ones i've seen in a while, in fact one of the better ones i'd say, (i kinda want a sequel to see what happens and to improve this franchises image). Also the MCs backstory was a huge improvement but we'll get to that in the Characters section. Art: If there's one thing thats a constant for SAO, it's that the art and battle scenes almost always look great, I'd say an issue i had was the not hugely diverse array of character designs but it could be call back to SAOs second season or something so i can't really hate on it to much (though in a real MMO their would be tons of female models regardless if they were played by a guy or a girl, but in the second season of SAO they made it seem rare so again it could be a call back. I feel sorry for the writer having to work around that if thats the case). I enjoyed the aesthetic of GGO in the SAO second season and i enjoy how they can make a cute character look good in it so i can't complain to much, and the character movements looked amazing, 9/10. Sound: I wouldn't say i was much of a fan of the opening or ending songs but a part of the sound qualifies as also the sounds of combat in the show and for that i'd say it deserves a good 8/10, plus the background music wasn't terrible or annoying so an 8/10 is appropriate in my book. Characters: This category i'll go into some depth of why i enjoy Karen vs Kirito and how i like most of the characters, but this is also where i'd like to deduct points, the issue is that MAL doesn't have .5s in the rating system even though they use then to tally up peoples scores to see what has the highest rating... For this category at least here i'm giving it a 7.5/10 because i can't fessibly do it on MAL. Lets start with why i don't think a 8/10 is appropriate. I think most of the main and supporting characters are decent for the stories progression, HOWEVER its the other characters that annoyed me. You see, besides the "creeps" as they call them in the show, no other players acted in a way that didn't seem kinda dumb or in a way that annoyed me (not EXACTLY including some of the more noteworthy teams in the game but sort of including them too.) For example, the machine gun brothers were EXTREMELY stereotyped where as for almost every other no name team at least seemed semi realistic to a game setting, these guys were acting like Hebros which in most games you rarely see unless they are just dicking around and in no way organized. But as for the "other" non named npcs, after the elite teams combat scenes we just see 2 different teams doing the EXACT SAME FORMATION in the middle of an open terrain, in a game with snipers... REALLY!? You couldn't have them do SOMETHING ELSE?! Like make just walk around the map unaware, or literally anything else... "facepalm". There was also the girl with green hair later on whos extremely minimal backstory made no sense in retrospect because , i'm sorry if this is in some way spoilers but WHO BRINGS A GIRL WHO DOESN"T WANT TO SHOT ANYONE IN A VIDEO GAME TO A PVP TOURNAMENT WHEN THERE WAS NO PARTY MINIMUM AND YOU HAD ENOUGH PLAYERS!? DA FUCK!? At least Sion in SAO DID kill people in the game but only sometimes hesitated due to a traumatic event, this girl had no actual excuse for even trying to participate in a pvp event when she doesn't do what's required of her in the event lol, and if your gonna try and say cause she could spot for them, her team were ALL gun trained and any one of them could do the same thing and participate in the pvp match so thats no excuse! As for OTHER characters in t…

Honestly, the show is very enjoyable if you like action in general. The show mainly focuses on the action rather than the story, where the story is not hard to comprehend at all. To me, that's a good thing, where it doesn't try to overcomplicate things. I would definitely take this over the original Sword Art Online storyline any day. The sound is great, where it really complements the action scenes. The music is also enjoyable, where the EP is easily one of my favorites. Characters are whatever, I only really liked the MC (Karen) and her friend (Miyu). The art was good, for the most part, it was consistent. My only complaint was like one episode that had bad CG, that particular scene did take away from my emersion in the action. Even with that complaint, it wasn't enough for me to not enjoy the show. Overall, I had a lot more fun watching this show than I thought I would have. The show had great action, a great soundtrack, and even a likable MC. I would recommend this to anyone, especially those who did not like the original Sword Art Online story since this is a totally separate story from that.

Story: 5/10 I think the SAO series has potential but never utilises it and it becomes a dumb shitty show. The first half of this series is simply about Karen/LLENN enjoying GGO and it is generally enjoyable. The second half of this series reminds you that this is a SAO series. It is so over dramatic and dumb. The mystery of Pito's identity isn't even hard to figure out if you even have a brain you would know who it is... Such a shame really Art: 6/10 The character designs are generally pretty good but the animation ranges from good to just awful sometimes especially with the fight scenes near the end... Sound:8/10 The opening and endings are great. The soundtrack is feasible but the music by fictional singer Elsa Kanzaki is phenomenal. Character: 3/10 The main character is all right especially since she isn't plain as hell like Kirito from the main series. Her best friend Miyu has a great personality as well. Everyone else is just ehhh... Especially Pito and her stupid obsession and personality that makes absolutely no sense. Just a over the top villain type character which makes me remember all the similar over the top villain type characters from SAO. Enjoyment: 6/10 It was more enjoyable than the main series though so it wasn't too bad Overall: 7/10

STORY: 5 There's nothing inherently special about the story of this one, but it's entertaining if nothing else. Still, it's Sword Art Online, so they had to somehow fit in the "you die in the game, you die in real life" element. The way they did it was kind of convoluted, and I couldn't tell you offhand how it worked in this one, but by golly, they did it. ART: 7 Although it's produced by a different studio than the rest of Sword Art Online, the art still looks practically the same as the rest, which is to say it look very good. SOUND: 7 The music wasn't terribly noticeable, but still pretty good whenever light was shed on it. The gun/bullet sounds were really good, too. CHARACTER: 5 The main character, Karen, is nice and all, and they dive a little bit into what drives her, but she's just okay in terms of character. Now when it comes to the characters Pitohui and M, that's when we eventually get into something really messed up in terms of their relationship when it comes to light. They kind of glorified their abusive relationship, which is messed up on the account of the writer/director. I really liked Karen's motor-mouth friend, though; she was funny. ENJOYMENT: 7 Aside from the generous amount of bumps, I enjoyed it. They handled the battle royale action very well. It was kind of different from your typical SAO series, which was much needed. OVERALL: 6 Its greatest strength was the action, which is to be expected from Sword Art Online. It's over the top, and I really enjoyed that. It's lacking in terms of deeper (and especially in relatable) characters, but that's also to be expected from Sword Art Online. Maybe one day, they'll surprise us.

Ok so this is a shooter game set in the world of supakirito kun. I enjoyed the first 2 or 3 episodes and really thought I was rid of the abhorrently ridiculous mix of unbelievable skills and luck supakirito has. I enjoyed the original content because it's so stupidly ridiculous by the way. I really thought this was going to be serious. I thought I was going to get a BoB without the weird deathgame SAO fans are extremely into for some reason. But as the anime goes on it started bugging me. I know it's a trope to have long speech without movement but it's hardly something you do on a battlefield out on the open. I also feel like the anime doesn't understand the basics of anything fps related. People will generally shoot at visible targets that aren't moving. The characters are unbelievable, unrelatable and if you remember what they say in GGO arc, their luck with rng avatars is absolutely over the top. We used to have 1 kirito, here it's more like giving EX luck level to all the "important" cast for no reason. The anime tries to be funny at times but fails. It's really bad. The only redeemable quality is the OP and ED and maybe P-chan. Yes I am really saying the only redeemable thing in this whole anime is a pink p90. It is that bad.

GGO is what I'd call the bare minimum for an enjoyable anime. And it IS enjoyable, I don't regret watching it, but I probably wouldn't watch it again. The animation and art are what I'd consider "ok". There were some moments of kinda bad animation, but it's balanced out by some not really good but at least above average character designs (at least for the important characters, the background characters couldn't be more generic). Everything else was just average. And to be honest the same goes for pretty much every other aspect of the series. The story is average, the music is average, the characters are average... There are only two exceptions to this: -The opening is better than what we see on the show in every way: Directing, music and animation. -The main character's best friend (who sadly only starts being important later in the series) is hilarious and easily the best character in the series. Also there's the fact the main character says SAO is a terrible game, that really was a nice touch. But for some reason I still enjoyed it. In the middle of all the mediocrity there were several genuinely fun and/or funny moments that made it an experience worth of my time. In conclusion, I recommend watching this show, but only if you have nothing better to watch. It's not a complete waste of time, but you're not missing anything special if you skip it.

As far as I'm concerned SAO was by far the best game genre anime I've ever watched and, well, I believe this spin-off does not deserve to have the SAO title. First of all, this spin-off (not sequel!) is hardly related to the main SAO story - There are no characters from SAO making any appearances here (not even cameo) and other than the general universe, the GGO environment and a single (insignificant) mention of an event from SAO-II, the story is completely unrelated. Basically if you've never watched SAO at all, reading the synopsis of SAO and SAO-II here on MAL gives you all the background you need to understand the plot of this show. You'll probably say "hey, but this does not inherently mean that the story is bad". Well, even if it's not because of that - the story is pretty boring. Actually there's hardly any story at all - 90% of this show is basically people shooting each other, so it may be enjoyable for people who are more into the action genre and don't really need a deep plot. There are no real plot twists and by the end of the 6th episode I'd already guessed exactly what happens in the last episode - correctly. Graphics and sound are obviously great, as expected, same as SAO, so no complaints here. Bottom line - Hardly related to SAO, hardly has any plot, mostly just people shooting each other, but that could be a positive if you're into action anime. Definitely does not deserve the SAO title.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is an Anime that at the end of the show, you will say "Ah, it is finally end.". This another story of GGO has a good beginning of story, it interest me since first episode, I can't deny it. But as the show goes, the show just realize me that this show has many flaw. It got a good backstory. "You do not satisfy with you real life condition. So you want to play a game as a different person." It suit the story of GGO as a virtual game online so well. But a good backstory isn't enough to say that the story is good. Half of the show it is still acceptable, the story still has a good pace, good story telling, good character representing, good game mechanic, more gun action than the previous GGO show. But, what is making me unsatisfy with this show is, after that "ok" first half of the show (because i expect it is just an opening for the show at least), the other half of the show is just complete torment. The rest of the show (the last half of the show) has a really really poor character, I mean these characters that we should've knew how they supposed to be, is not gonna be what we expected. It got so much unreasonable action, poorly characterization, some other new character out from nowhere that has zero backstory that maybe or not and unexpectedly has some influence with the story. Here is my suggestion for you who haven't watch the show yet. Just watch half of the show. You should have know "who is" and how the story gonna be, when you have watched first half of the story (6 episodes). I guarantee, yes it have the story and "who is" that you expected. Except you are actually clueless well i don't rush you.

You know, I was ready to dig deep into this anime and give a really in-depth review, but I actually don’t have much to say about GGO as I thought I would. In terms of story, not too much happened, but it was still good. In terms of characters, there weren’t too many that stood out, but the ones that did were great and there weren’t any truly unlikable ones. Pitohui and LLENN carry the cast. Both of them are endlessly enjoyable to see on screen and interact with their environments and other characters. It wasn’t as in-depth or character driven as either of the SAO seasons (If you can even call them in-depth and character driven) but it was still ultimately better than both. The animation was good, the soundtrack was good, the fight scenes ranged from good to great. Considering we are in a time where battle royal games are all the rage, this came out at a very appropriate time. It delivered fast paced, high action BR matches with some great gun fights that were very entertaining to watch. However, considering all the matches are just video game fun for the most part, it’s not really high stakes. It’s hard to get genuinely excited over the battles at times knowing it’s just a game with no real stakes to it. Even when they do manage to introduce something to make the Battle Royal important, it’s not very compelling. While the anime was still fun to watch, there’s not a whole lot of substance to it. The final battle was awesome, but the conclusion to the last Battle Royal was very quick and underwhelming in comparison. Overall, it was still fun to watch play out. I trusted the studio to do a good job and they delivered on that. Surprisingly, Yuri undertones weren’t as present as I was expecting from Studio 3Hz anime. It’s not something I’d deduct points for, but still something that stood out to me. The main take away from SAO Alternative though is that a spin-off managed to be better than BOTH seasons of the main series. That’s both funny and sad to think about.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, a successful and engaging spin-off of Sword Art Online. Overall, this anime is very well done and has nothing to envy from the original series since they chose the game Gun Gale Online to make this spin-off. And "GGO" is one of my favorite universes in the Sword Art Online series. Regarding the characters, Karen, named LLENN in the game, is endearing in her little loli avatar in a pink outfit with her FN P90 weapon of the same color, which she affectionately nicknames "P-chan." What's interesting is seeing who's behind the username and avatar in question. This gives a more realistic look, which isn't always seen in the first two seasons of "SAO." This is the case for Pitohui and M. The animation and character design are fluid and remain beautiful to look at. In terms of the soundtrack, the opening, the ending and the OST correspond well to the atmosphere of the anime. In short, it is a spin-off that has managed to detach itself from the original series.