So this past week I watched Sword Art Online, and very much enjoyed it. It's been a while since I've watched a newer anime and wanted to finish it. But this is not a review of the anime itself, but rather looking at whether or not setting it inside of a video game was the most effective way to do it. Not really intended to do any bashing just something I've thought a little about.
So in case you don't know, Sword Art Online is an anime in which people begin by playing a video game called Sword Art Online, (SAO) and I forget what it's officially called but they play with this thing that goes on your head, and it intercepts all the messages your brain sends to your body and translates it to your in game character. Allowing you to be totally and completely absorbed into the game. However after the release of the game it is discovered that the game and Nervegear (the system) have been tampered with. Making it impossible to log out, and if the Nervegear is taken off forcibly you will die, and if you die in the game you die in real life.
This is certainly a very different setting, but is it more effective putting it in a video game? Or would it have been more effective to just make it being real life?
The negative of putting it inside a video game is that it sometimes can take away from the ability to take situations seriously. For instance when Asuna is "cooking" and she is cutting up the food and she isn't actually doing any cooking. Also when they make references to video game lingo and it just sort of takes you out of the moment and definitely detracts some from the overall feel of the series. It almost felt to me like they were breaking the 3rd wall when they reminded us that they where in fact in a video game.
However I find that there are more positives, most importantly is that the fact that these people truly had no idea what they were getting into and are such hopeless victims in the situation, when people die or are close to dying there is a little extra "umph" behind it that wouldn't be there otherwise. The only way you could have the same plot without putting it in a video game would be to do a hunger games type thing, but even then I feel that there is a little bit less feeling of victims. Because the thing about the video game is that no matter how awesome you may be, once your hitpoints start going down to 0 there is no amount of willpower or anything that can make a difference. One other bonus is that most of us anime watchers can relate in some way because a very large portion of us are gamers in some respect of another.
All in all I do feel that it is a positive, it makes you really feel for the players and how helpless they are, even if it takes you out of the moment occasionally.
Manere sitientem amicis meis
This is certainly a very different setting, but is it more effective putting it in a video game? Or would it have been more effective to just make it being real life?
The negative of putting it inside a video game is that it sometimes can take away from the ability to take situations seriously. For instance when Asuna is "cooking" and she is cutting up the food and she isn't actually doing any cooking. Also when they make references to video game lingo and it just sort of takes you out of the moment and definitely detracts some from the overall feel of the series. It almost felt to me like they were breaking the 3rd wall when they reminded us that they where in fact in a video game.
However I find that there are more positives, most importantly is that the fact that these people truly had no idea what they were getting into and are such hopeless victims in the situation, when people die or are close to dying there is a little extra "umph" behind it that wouldn't be there otherwise. The only way you could have the same plot without putting it in a video game would be to do a hunger games type thing, but even then I feel that there is a little bit less feeling of victims. Because the thing about the video game is that no matter how awesome you may be, once your hitpoints start going down to 0 there is no amount of willpower or anything that can make a difference. One other bonus is that most of us anime watchers can relate in some way because a very large portion of us are gamers in some respect of another.
All in all I do feel that it is a positive, it makes you really feel for the players and how helpless they are, even if it takes you out of the moment occasionally.
Manere sitientem amicis meis
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