Accel World - First Impression

Title: Accel World
Genre: Action, Romance, Sci-Fi

Summary:
The year is 2046. Haruyuki Arita is a young boy who finds himself on the lowest social rungs of his school. Ashamed of his miserable life, Haruyuki can only cope by indulging in virtual games. But that all changes when Kuroyukihime, the most popular girl in school, introduces him to a mysterious program called Brain Burst and a virtual reality called the Accel World.

So far, I haven’t been impressed with the story yet since its full of clichés. We got a loser protagonist who caught the eye of a beautiful girl and apparently he’s not the same loser in real life when he jump in the virtual world. Yup, definitely your usual shounen formula. What really caught my eye is the setting. The setting have captivated me since it was nicely built and somehow let us get a glimpse of what might be the possible future of gaming. What I love about this show is that it feels like as if I'm playing a game. It might also be one of the reason why people have turned away from the show since the first episode really felt like a game tutorial but not for me. I like how they explained the mechanics of the game and the world where our characters live, their circumstances and their complexes. The setting was so far have been successfully brought to life and it really felt like it'll be possible in the near future.

As for the characters, our protagonist is currently drowning in self pity. I'm not
against whiny and weak characters but they get really annoying if I can't see any good character development. A good example of weak and whiny characters that I actually  like are Yukiteru from Mirai Nikki, Simon of Gurren Lagann and Evangelion's Shinji. So it all comes down to how the show will mold its characters. So far I'm not yet annoyed with our pudgy protagonist but instead I felt pity for him since it seems like he is being used by both Hime(I'll just short cut her name alright?) and best friend (ugh forgot her name). I just hope he won't be another Ouma Shu. Hime on the other hand is very mysterious as if what we see for the last 3 eps is only her mask but underneath it is someone twisted and that might have been the reason why Hime is ashamed of showing Haruyuki her brain burst avatar. Best friend (Chiyuri finally remembered her name) also has questionable motives and after seeing ep 3 I wonder if she really is Cyan File but I got a feeling her boyfriend also has a hand in this.

 

As for the animation its pretty but not ground breaking if I base it on the the current animation standards. Btw I have to commend the animation during the brain burst activation since it has some nice direction and the fight choreography is commendable.

 

I like both the OP and ED song but I prefer the ED more. The OP "Chase the world" is not May’n’s best song but I like how upbeat it is and definitely fits the action theme of the series. The OP animation is very standard but what I like about it is how it gave us a glimpse of the possible enemies of our protagonist. I’m also surprised with the ED song "→unfinished→" by KOTOKO since its upbeat like the OP and in my opinion should be the OP instead. I just wish the ED song would have been more mellow. Misawa Sachika, the seiyuu of Kurokyohime has gained a follower in me. Man, I love her sultry voice as Hime since it gave me this HHHHNNNGGH feeling specially that Oho~ scene at the end of ep2. Oh and Kaji Yuki’s voice as Haruyuki still reminds  me a LOT of Ouma Shu.Oh man this is not good since Shu still left a bad taste in my mouth after Guilty Crown eck...   

A very solid start and I’m actually looking forward to it and hopefully it won’t disappoint.

until then…

~ja