Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online

This series is set some time after the events in the original 'Sword Art Online' when the flaws that meant people couldn't exit the game and death in the game really meant death have been fixed. It is centred on Karen Kohiruimaki a girl who is self-conscious of her height so seeks out a virtual reality game where she can play a short character. Her character is Llenn and the game is Gun Gale Online. In this game there are tournaments where players form teams and fight it out till only one team has any members surviving. In her first such competition she is teamed with a player who goes by the name 'M'; he informs her that somebody will murder him in real life if he dies in the game.

If you weren't that keen on the original 'Sword Art Online' don't be put off this as it is effectively a totally new series that just happens to be set in the same reality and feature a virtual reality game. There is plenty of action and it gets tense even when there is no threat of real death for the vast majority of characters. Llenn is fun protagonist even if fans of realism might not be too keen on her entirely pink costume and matching P-90 submachinegun! The other characters are nicely varied; gun-nuts, kids just playing a game and even real soldiers using it for battlefield simulation. Given the cuteness of our protagonist there are a few surprising moments... I certainly wasn't expecting a mini-tutorial on how to sever somebody's femoral artery with a knife; I wouldn't be surprised if that gets cut from any UK DVD release! The story plays out nicely over the course of two such tournaments with the plot deepening as we learn more about the characters. The character designs are pretty good and the animation is solid. Overall I'd recommend this to anybody wanting virtual reality action without the cliché of in game death meaning real death.

These comments are based on watching in Japanese with English subtitles.

Karen Kohiruimaki always felt out of place in the real world. Due to her extreme height, she found it hard to make friends with other girls her age. Everything changes when she's introduced to VR and Gun Gale Online. In GGO, Karen is free to play the cute, chibi avatar of her dreams. Can Karen find friendship in this bullet-ridden MMO...?

In terms of origin I would say Llen has a better origin since Kirito is just some kid playing a video, where as Lelien in real life is a sexy woman who is surprisingly tall to most characters and is a college student. However, as a protagonist she is annoying but only in the game.

It is overall a good side story but I prefer the other series. That is all i am going to say about it.

As if that wasn't already obvious. Dont be whiney that a spin-off is a spin-off. Meaning its intended to be very different.

GGO follows a different set of characters with different issues. Namely? One is suicidal and its up to the protagonist to beat her in a game to keep her from dying irl.

This is actually a much more realistic issue than most people realize. That's kinda why i didnt like it as much. I came for a more fantasy type scenario but this was good too. It was a little... eh to me but i still found it enjoyable. Got to see more of GGO and it doesn't really contradict anything from SAO storyline.

All in all it doesn't deserve the hate it gets from the toxic gatekeepers

The protagonist once again is someone using a close range weapon with super human speed and reflexes. She's almost an interesting character that forms inexplicably strong attachments to weirdos in an RPG. Speaking of, this is a shooter but the writers randomly portray antagonists that enjoy the killing as immoral. It's a shooter, toying with the other team and enjoying the kill are intrensic to the genre. But protagonists that enjoy the killing are not portrayed the same way. And the worst part is that in real life the protagonist would have reported the antagonist to the police and that would have been that. It's not a bad anime, and many people will enjoy it but I found the story and characters to be elementary and shallow.

It's a fun series worth a watch too bad there's no season two but that's really the only thing I can complain about.