Forum - View topicSword Art Online (TV).
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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The fact that, over a 2 year period, 3 girls became interested in him to various degrees, and not necessarily at the same time, does not make this a harem. He's not living with them all simultaneously. One of them dies in the same episode, and only one has shown up in more than one episode. So, *how* can that be called a harem?
Even aside from the "harem" part, it's not like he's pulling in the chicks from all corners: there has been less than a handful of girls shown to be interested in him over a TWO YEAR SPAN. Do you want the series to show all the times cute girls were *not* interested in him? That doesn't sound like much fun to me. As to those who have talked about Kirito being a loner: I agree. He definitely is a loner. But does he *prefer* to be a loner? I think the answer to that is that in the negative. I think he has various psychological reasons for choosing to be a loner, some of which we have been shown, and others which was have not yet been shown, but that he doesn't want to be that way. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23910 |
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Ah, yes the good ole impassioned SAO IS NOT A HAREM, ZOKAY??? LALALALALALALALALALA!!!
Yes, SAO is not a conventional harem light comedy where multiple girls swoon over a bland male lead at the same time for no discernible reason. However, in a number of these side-stories in the first seven episodes, a cute girl was helped by, and seem to dig, Kirito - Mr. "I Vant to Be Alone." So, while that does not a traditional harem make, can we at least acknowledge that there is a harem-esque dynamic at play? Or would such a shocking admission detract from the ultra-awesomeness that is SAO? 
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18270 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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SAO isn't a harem series in the conventional sense, but grouping all those short stories together consecutively can give that impression. (The time frames splitting that up is irrelevant because there's no intervening content shown.) Going through that many girls in a two year span is hardly unreasonable, and this probably wouldn't get the "feels like a harem" label if it was in any other medium than anime. The fact that it is, though, makes such comparisons inevitable.
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jl07045
 Posts: 1527 Location: Riga, Latvia |
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Besides those are probably half the females in the game.
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Xanas
Posts: 2058 |
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I really don't understand the complaints about the side stories or the "harem" either. I will admit this is because I like/watch harem series, but I wouldn't put this series among them at least at this point. These other characters would have to be recurring outside their arc regularly and so far I see no sign of that.
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3655 |
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I don't think of "harem genre" as a plot detail, it's a storytelling style. The fact that these episodes take place over the course of two years in plot time doesn't change the fact that Protag McBlackerman was going through a chick a week in a storytelling sense.
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getchman
He started it Posts: 9127 Location: Bedford, NH |
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do you count Yolko in that? she already has herself a man
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23910 |
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I have no problem with the harem aspects - I simply get confused when some people refuse to acknowledge that they exist. I'm not sure why you don't understand why some of us aren't thrilled with the choppy, side-story structure. You need that explained to you? Really? I'm not suggesting you are wrong not to be bothered by it, I'm just a little surprised you don't "understand" how others might feel differently than you do. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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That's because I define a harem as requiring one male and several females all vying for the male's attention at the same time, usually with some sort of love triangle, square, or nth-sided polygon going on. Even more precisely, they ought to be all living in the same house. Kirito's situation comes close to a love triangle briefly in the episode with Lizabeth in it, and other than that there's only one girl involved. It may, as Key stated, seem to sort of appear as a harem in a narrative sense (in the respect that there's nothing to break up the time between these occasions) because there are different girls interested in Kirito in a few consecutive episodes, but "within" the story, this isn't really the case. Still, I can understand the viewpoint, I just don't think that even looking at it that way it makes Kirito's situation harem-like, though it does make him seem more popular with the ladies than he probably ought to be. The only female we're shown to have any sort of regular or long-term interaction with Kirito is Asuna. So SAO seems to me far away from actual harems like, say, Tenchi (which is usually considered to be the exemplar of harem anime). |
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Rhyono
Posts: 1039 |
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And now we all know why spoiler[the sword from the side story wasn't used until now.] I found that to be a very good episode.
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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Fansubs appearing before CR's simulcast. Just how slow can they get.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15523 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 9
Now that was a good episode, and some of the side stories came into relevance. Kirito is still spoiler[traumatized over the incident with the Moonlit Black Cats guild and Sachi dyeing, which caused him to freeze up]. And his extra sword from Lizbeth, is plot item. I do wonder what makes Asuna feel so owned by her guild, that she can't just tell them that she has the right to go her own way. |
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 9
Now that was a good episode imo especially in the soundtrack department. I had a feeling that Kirito had something up his sleeve before spoiler[he went full throttle with those dual swords.] I also somehow found this episode sort of cute in a way with Asuna's little smile and the beginning part of the episode spoiler[involving the food.] Anyways, it looks like spoiler[a duel] next episode and of course:
Amen to that. Last edited by Stark700 on Sat Sep 01, 2012 11:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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superdry
 Posts: 1309 |
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Supposed "production issues" is causing the hold up....whatever that includes. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18270 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Yes, definitely the best episode so far. That was an awesome fight scene, and I agree that the musical score was at its finest during it. I also very much like how they integrated in details from a couple of the side stories (even spoiler[a guest appearance by Lizbeth, whom many thought we'd never see again]). This proved the worth of having viewers go through most of those side stories first, as it would also be hard to justify how serious Asuna seems to feel about Kirito without showing them having interactions in episodes 5-7.
Yeah, I thought that, too, although spoiler[Kirito did stop her from saying something at one point]. As strong in both skill and character as she seems normally (and would have to be to be a vice-commander), she seems to almost go into a Timid Mode at times around Kirito, and that concerns me a bit since it implies some rather sexist interpretations. Also, despite what I said above, we haven't really seen enough yet to justify how attached to Kirito she is here - unless, of course, they've stayed in contact more off-screen than what we know about so far. |
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