There must be something about the Autumn anime season and Goblins. Between Goblin Slayer, That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime and now this goblins are getting quite the show casing early this season. Still, I somehow suspect these goblins aren’t the cute and friendly kind we met in slime and I also doubt they are going to give Kirito all that much trouble (though it is early in the season so who knows).
On that note, Kirito really is learning his limitations within the game world. Things he feels he should be able to do from past experience are proving beyond his current skill level and there’s a lot about how this particular system functions that he’s yet to understand. This makes it a pleasant experience and one we haven’t really encountered since Aincrad where Kirito isn’t already fully developed and ready to go. Sure he has a lot of past experience up his sleeves but clearly he’s going to have to work if he wants to employ that to maximum effect in this world.
As much as people make fun of Kirito being overpowered, in Aincrad while he was certainly a strong solo player there was always the risk of death and he was grinding hard to ensure he could keep climbing the levels (they just fortunately cut a lot of that process off screen so we didn’t have to watch it). However that meant that at each stage of that arc, Kirito was evolving as a player and a character and it was by far my favourite part of SAO. Alicization seems to be returning to that dynamic without actually doing a full reset on Kirito’s character and so far they are actually kind of pulling it off.
Eugeo is also remaining a pleasant enough character to get to know and I’m looking forward to how he changes under Kirito’s influence (and we do already know Kirito can influence him given he did back when they were kids even if neither of the characters remember it). Though, I’m hoping Selka is more than just the damsel in distress to get things rolling because it really seems like she could be a more interesting character than that.
All and all, the first three episodes of Alicization have been intriguing. While it is definitely a slow lead in to the story, there’s been enough going on to keep me interested and certainly I’ve enjoyed coming back to seeing Kirito in a virtual world, so I’m looking forward to more, and to when they eventually get around to showing us what is going on in reality.
I’m completely undecided on whether to watch this or not. Honestly, I enjoyed plenty of the first season’s world building and how the MMo mechanics were dealt with. I really enjoyed the Gun Gale stuff, it was a lot darker and, though technically lower stakes, had higher personal stakes that worked.
The last was utter utter garbage, badly written, poor pacing – for me, I could not stomach another season of anything resembling that part.
Based on your review, I’m intrigued but still on the fence.
I think that’s probably where things are at the moment. This beginning has been fairly good set up but only if we now do something with it all so at this point I’m not going to say jump in because while potentially this could be great (and I am enjoying it so far) just not enough has happened yet to know how this will play out. That said, I’m still pretty optimistic because it seems like the things I like about SAO have been front and centre so far and there’s a lot of potential in what has been set up.
I agree completely with you. It might be slow, but it’s an entertaining slow, and I like the way that they are building up this world and gradually introduce to a few of the new mechanics (that granted we still don’t really know much about).
And you are right: what is it with Goblins all of a sudden lol. (Great cliffhanger ending by the way…and now we have to wait another week grumble..).
I think there is more to Selka than we might think. I have a hard time believing she is “ just the damsel in distress”, but we will find out soon enough I guess. All in all, I have had a blast watching this so far 😊