Anime: Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online s1ya

Review
Let's be blunt: Sword Art Online is a shit-ton of failures. Its fandom may blindly say otherwise, but the heart of the franchise was built upon lames harem-building and siscon templates that completely destroyed the amazing premise it had. It's second season, however, retified some of its mistakes, doing rounds with a more interesting heroine and ultimately becoming an emotional drama about the joys of sharing happiness with friends in death's door.

Now we have this spin-off tale derived from Gun Gale Online, perhaps the setting where things went the best in the series so far. The name of the spin-off, however, is not remotely inviting. Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online (SAO Alternative for short) is an surprisingly different show from everything else in the franchise, a stand-alone tale about the Pink Devil, a famous player-killer in the game, and her rise.

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1. Yup, as simple as that
   No ingame deaths, no massive experiments, no fucking Kirito for god's grace. SAO Alternative is a much simpler tale this time around. It goes around the fact that GGO is a serious game with gun-whores fanatics and guerrilla lovers, throwing in a cute girl with pink clothes and a pink submachine gun capable of murdering other players with the speed of a devil. It starts with her skill being shown off in a team battle royale and later the show gets back to how she got to the game in the first place.
   
   And it's about the players finally
   Yeah. SAO Alternative is a lot more about Karen, the player controlling the Pink Devil (Llenn) and less about just being a game addict. There are a lot of scenes dedicated towards the real life setting and very little focus on the game. In fact, the game only matters during the two battle royales of the story, every other time the focus is on Karen's life, although it does evolve mostly on the fact that she plays a game. Anyway, such a move from virtual world to real world makes SAO Alternative the most sensible of the franchise so far, rivaling the late arc of the second season, which I will forever call Sword Feels Online.
   
   It's also far too dumb
   Well, it is. You see, Karen's main drama this time around is dealing with a cheater player, which is her best ingame friend, and the fact she (the ingame friend) is traumatized for NOT playing Sword Art Online a few years back. It's an interesting (although contradictory) idea, but sadly everything is so exagerated that any kind of drama or sadness is thrown away instantly. Pito, the traumatized girl, is completely nuts, M is completely nuts, Karen's best friend and loli-companion ingame is a pure copy of the genki template, and so on. There is not a single character that draws a sense of complexity besides the protagonist, and even she is just slightly developed in her problems (and they are very mundane and superficial as far as the show give us too).
   
   It got a different studio
   Studio 3Hz is the hand behind the animation this time and not A-1 Pictures. The result is, however, not that much different. There is a lot of wasted time in idle talks, a massive chunk of the show goes to M explaining things, and when combat ensues things are just ok. For a show about guns and firefights, however, it does things decent enough, providing the battle royale a good deal of tension while impressing us with the skills of some players with the expressive and cute cast. It could be a lot better though, especially because Gun Gale Online is sold as a dark and gritty game, which would require darker and more dirty characters to sell that idea better. It's funny yet how Llenn and her pink suit stands out.
   

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Comments
SAO Alternative respects its name. It is an alternative approach to the franchise in comparison to the two main seasons. Instead of being an attempt at detailing and giving life to a virtual world, it is more about the players having fun with it while facing their own personal problems. Considering the mess the first season was and how it shone when dealing with tragedy later in the second season, it is interesting seeing this spin-off take the route of fleshing out the real world of this setting.

Karen yet proves that anyone can be better than fuckn Kirito, as she is a decent lead with a funny character while ingame and a resemblance of a normal life outside it. Sadly though, the rest of the cast is a major turn down to what could be a much darker and more personal tale about traumas and escapism.