Login! Gun Gale Online - Sword Art Online II (Ep 1-4) Review

Genre: Cyberpunk/Fantasy/Action Adventure
*Minor Spoilers*

Sinon GGO (anime.anonforge.com)

It has taken a fair amount of build-up for our protagonist, Kazuto 'Kirito' Kirigawa, to finally log into the cyberpunk cesspool known as Gun Gale Online (GGO). The first three episodes of this story arc were mainly exposition to explain why Kirito was converting to the virtual massively multiplayer role-playing gun game. The reasoning: players from GGO are being found dead in real life after being shot in-game by the mysterious villain known as Death Gun. Who or what Death Gun truly is remains a mystery.

The first three episodes have also introduced a new character into the SAO story, a skilled female sniper named Shino 'Sinon' Asada who plays GGO in order to overcome her real life hoplophobia, or fear of guns.

Kirito SAO (animevice.com)

In episode 4, Kirito finally logs into the new cyberpunk world and, knowing nothing about the specifics of the game, enlists the help of a passerby--Sinon. Sinon shows Kirito around the marketplace, where he is unable to afford any of the weapons, and then introduces him to an impossible game-of-chance where Kirito might earn some extra credits. After analyzing one round of the game, Kirito employs his celerity to overcome all odds, impressing Sinon and onlookers by winning the game-of-chance in a single shot (pun intended).

Kirito then chooses his new weapons and goes through some firing practice before heading out to sign up for the ranked GGO tournament: Bullet of Bullets (BoB). By participating and succeeding in BoB, Kirito hopes to attract the attention of Death Gun so that he might solve the mystery of player deaths.

As stated above, the first few episodes mainly provide exposition for the upcoming GGO story arc and also give viewers evidence of Kirito and Asuna's continued relationship.

The introduction of Sinon, voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro (possibly better known as Canaan from "CANAAN," Celty from "Durarara!!," or Suruga Kanbaru from "Bakemonogatari") saves the first three episodes from being completely slow and dry, but it is not until Kirito, voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Titus Alexius of "Magi," and Kaede Makabe of "Oreimo"), finally steps into GGO that things seem to really begin ramping up.

I am a fan of this anime series as a whole and have watched each arc. It will be interesting to see how Kirito handles himself in a new and unfamiliar VMMORPG genre where guns are the norm and the skill of the players is higher due to the ability to earn real-world money by being skilled.

Rating: 3.75 out of  5
+ room to grow
+ good voice acting
+ cyberpunk-fantasy
+ smooth action animation
- slow to start early on
- heavy exposition early on

Sinon and Kirito in GGO (i-azu.deviantart.com)