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Joint with GotWoot Fansubs.
We’re a little late tonight, but here you go anyway!
CR delayed their simulcast by an additional hour compared to last week, so we decided to do our own translation. Unless CR suddenly starts on-the-dot simulcasting again, we’ll probably keep doing that too.
As for the episode, I think they adapted the Red-nosed Reindeer side story pretty well. Please enjoy!
I just waited all night for this!! Thanks guys 😀
YES, YES!
Fuck yes, and thank you!
Woa!!! It’s here! Ikuse!!!!
I should say, the [spoiler]guild members of Kirito were pretty stupid.[/spoiler]
Thank you, guys!
@Raze
Do you mean you guys usually use CR’s translation when their simulcast wasn’t delayed? If so, then what’s the difference between your release and horriblesub’s?
Finally get to see the animated version of this. I also agree with you VJ. Not only that… the title “Beater” is dumb too.
Uhm, wait do you normally use CR’s subs and then edit o_o.. I thought you were doing translations from scratch.
Thanks for the release~
キターーーーーーー(ﾟ∀ﾟ)－－－－－－－!!!!
Agreed. Glad that Reindeer was better than Aria adaptation.
Thanks guys, i’ve been waiting all week for this o 3o
Two years worth of semen
For all the people who griped for like a week how could this possibly be only 1 episode, I thought they did an excellent job adapting it. [spoiler]Although I was a bit disappointed they didn’t have her sing the song lyrics[/spoiler]
AWESOME!
I’ll also work on fixing the OP/ED too so it can play smoothly! THANKS FOR THE TIPS AND THE EPISODE!
NIGHT!
Thanks for the new episode!
for those who have read this side story, care to tell us what they didn’t include in this episode?
the fight scenes with the santa?
Hope SD version Quickly Release…
Why the long face
@John
They skipped quite a few bits. They rushed over his meeting with the guild. They skipped Kirito and the guild having a vote whether or not to open the chest. They skipped Kirito screaming and destroying the resurrection item and they skipped Sachi singing at the end. They cut out less than Aria, but Aria, as an episode, had much better execution. This episode, especially in comparison to the short story in the novel, was mundane and bland.
@Larsen
The fight scene with Santa is mostly skipped over in the novel as well. Kirito briefly describes it as the first time his HP ever decreases into red territory.
OK, LN or not, this was LAME. They didn’t show the Kiriko’s battle OR Kline’s battle against the Divine Dragons. It was about as boring as .hack.
oh my mistake it was carried out well : ]
why they didnt let saori hayami sing this? D:
Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose.
All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names.
Then one Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
“Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
Rudolph who was always crying, started smiling that night.
I haven’t read the originals, but this does all feel rushed. Time just keeps skipping, battle scenes aren’t shown, characters are introduced and killed off five minutes later…my head is kind of spinning.
I still would’ve preferred two episodes (or really one and a half if that were possible somehow :x), but like the other two eps it turned out adequate. Not nearly as much emotional impact as I would’ve liked though. Thanks for the subs.
@Ashitaka: I consider this more of a flashback ep, since it’s from a side story.
and it seems they’re going to keep rushing stuff too. next episode is most likely the same as this too, a quarter of a book turned into 1 episode.
I just hope they keep the novel’s pace when the main story begins.
@sapphi
Personally, I think it was stupid of them not to do this one later on as a legitimate flashback episode, put in place of when Kirito just summarizes the events. Wouldn’t that have made a whole lot more sense than putting it at the start like this where it loses all its impact?
Just a note for future releases: “Col”, rather than “Coll”.
It’s shown on the battle result windows.
Well, this is an episode focusing on emotions, so the lack of battles is only to be expected.
SAO isn’t just about fights, even if it is about an action VRMMORPG.
@Novelfag
There wasn’t any voting, and the destroying was more of a “trying to destroy”.
And Sachi at the end was a change in representation, rather than skipping.
@John Dou
Some of the things that were missing, that I found to be an important part of this side story, were:
[spoiler]
1. Initial meeting of Kirito and the members of the Black Cats of the Full moon (this includes how they became friends and then Kirito joining their guild as a result of this new-found friendship)
2. The growing and deepening relationship of Kirito and Sachi (even though Sachi thought of Kirito as more of a father figure)
3. Kirito’s desperation in grinding levels, and his pursuit of information on the location of , to find a way to revive Sachi
4. Kirito’s despair as he finds out he can no longer revive Sachi due to the restrictions of the
5. Lastly, all the emotions that lead up to Sachi’s timed message to Kirito
[/spoiler]
those are just some of the things that I found lacking in this episode, they did make a pretty decent adaptation of this side story, but I found it too rushed and, in some cases, a little disappointing.
For anyone that has read the LN, were the chapters/volumes continuous to read? That is, does the story have a logical progression? By just skimming the titles and dates for various chapters, it seems to me that the LN jumps all over the place in terms of its setting.
The first tearjerker episode in SAO. But unfortunately, they have to cramp the story because it would take longer than 20 minutes if they follow the book itself. So it becomes less sadness (just a bit) than in the book.
I can understand why they need to rush the story. They need to reach (maybe) ALO arc in about 24 episodes. Of course, all anime should be end in the end of seasons.
@qwertyd
If you want a chronological timeline of the progression of the chapters/volumes/side stories, you can check it out at baka-tsuki
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=SAO_Timeline
IMO, this was only acceptable. They completely dropped some bits of information that was what really made red nose raindeer a fantastic side story.
Things like [spoiler]Sachi sharing an pot window with kirito[/spoiler] and [spoiler]Sachi actually singing the song as opposed to just humming it[/spoiler] really ended up contributing to the overall feel of the story.
But some things were done better, like [spoiler]Sachi mouthing the words that came up at the end[/spoiler], so I guess it made this episode worth watching for me.
@gwertyd
They are mostly, but there are a ton of side stories with a couple of the volumes being just side story collections, all of which are set all over the place. The past two episodes have been from those side stories (the first volume actually skips a whole 2 years from the end of the first episode).
Thank you for the episode.
I was a bit hesitant about this show at first but after the trap room-scene, I’m a fan to the end =)
(haven’t read the novels but if, according to the comments here, they improve on this then that’s one more reason to learn to read japanese =D)
Can someone help me play the ED without it lagging? I have the latest CCCP. It happens with GotWoots Moyashimon Returns’ OP too.
Man, this is good. Will be a pleasurable pain waiting for the episode each week for the next five months!!
This even made want to watch the .hack series. A lot of ya enjoyed the .hack series? I skipped through some of the episodes and it won’t be nothing near Accel World or Sword Art but…
@devilztutor
[spoiler]I thought they decently showed his despair once he got the item, even if they had Klein read out the effect. For a guy who got what he was looking for, he clearly was not in a happy mood.[/spoiler]
@thewizardninja
[spoiler]When would you have done the flashback though? If it was just the death of Sachi, you could do that when it is covered in the other side stories/main story, but if they wanted to do the Santa fight this was the only place to do it and it’d be pretty dumb to do the Santa fight without explaining why he wants to fight it so badly.[/spoiler]
@woods
All the novels are translated in English and available to read or download at baka-tsuki, in multiple formats for various e-readers, or, for .pdf to read on a computer. Well, all of them but the 10th novel as well as a minor side story or two.
They’re located here: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Sword_Art_Online
It saddens me a bit to know that they left out a few things but some of them were not necessary. Though a few are probably wondering why this was called Red-Nosed Reindeer. There is a specific reason why Sachi hummed that song (even though she should have sang it instead).
Sachi had considered herself to be much like Rudolph while Kirito was like Santa. When Rudolph was feeling down, Santa came in and made him feel better. Thus, the significance of the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the song. This was a pretty well adapted story though. I just REALLY did not like how it felt like it ended abruptly.
Thanks for the release! Late for download it cuz just now at school in my place
Hoping this episode is great! 😀
Hm i have a bit of problem. According to baka-tsuki timeline he already have the Elucidator before Red-nosed Reindeer. Did the producers forgot that? Did baka-tsuki just made a mistake? or is it just that he can’t still use it by that time?
I havent read the LN myself, but this sure is a rush, im kinda dissapointed, the last 2 episodes was good and way better than this one .Btw without larsen42165’s writting the song lyrics, i might never know why this episode called The red-nosed reindeer as Balance said above…
@Shuichi
[spoiler] What I’m saying is that they could have adapted Reindeer IN PLACE of when the events are covered in the main story. Rather than Kirito giving a quick summary of just up to Sachi’s death like he does in the novel, the whole thing gets covered (in detail) in the same way as it was here, but not super rushed to fit one episode and properly displaying how and why these events were important to Kirito. It’s not like anything’s lost by that, rather it’s likely much would be gained. It’s certainly a better idea than what they did here – rushing a story to fit into one episode and making it lose a fair amount of the impact since it’s supposed to be read AFTER knowing the story of the first novel and not before knowing it.[/spoiler]
@zilentworld nope, baka-tsuki didn’t make a mistake. The anime follow chronological order and on the other hand, SAO anime ep 1-3 was written as flashback side-story in LN. Kirito in the 1st chapter of LN is already a high lv player and use Elucidator.
sd,avi version where?
@Kojiro
my humblest thanks for pointing out the translations. I’m off to do some reading =D
Actually, getting a lot better then aria…
But, still feels there is a lot that can be done…
Dunno its because I’ve read the novel, or its just because this anime’s pace is damn fast xD
It feels like the climax isn’t built enough..
just some background information for those that didn’t read the LN (no spoilers included but just incase it’ll be in the spoiler tag)
[spoiler]
Just some background info you might wanna know
No Spoilers included!
(in case you didn’t read the LN):
Why does he join the guild, even though he just said he could/doesnt want to join one?
Because when he rescued them and talked them they had really nice atmosphere within their guild and he kinda couldn’t resist when they asked him to join.
What’s with that field @ midnight where he sees Klein?
As you saw, his is lvl(40 or 48), being way ahead of the ppl of the Black Cats, because he is one of the active ppl, fighting at the frontlintes (normally) and trying to clear the game.
In order not to fall behind(cause he’s lvling with the black cats at lower lvl floors) the ones that are still fighting at the front line, he sneaks out at night, to farm/lvl at those fronline lvling spots.
He also thought it could pose a problem if they knew his actual lvl, and some other stuff.
Why didn’t they notice that he was such a high lvl, should become kinda obvious if you level together?
As you can see @3.55, Kirito didn’t finish the mob, when they(Kirito +lack cats) were lvling, he never killed the mobs, he just defended(when they were low and needed to switch etc.) and let the others kill the monsters.
(thats also why his track skill is at a high lvl, which makes it easy for him to spot or find ppl, which is why he found Sachi so fast).
@11.30 , they are actually on their way out of the dungeon, as they were done farming.
Whats with that chest/hidden door, shouldn’t Kirito know all the shit when he’s one of the clearer + beater?
It’s not shown here, but he actually told them to just drop and ignore it,though he couldn’t tell them why when they asked(they ignored his opinion and opened the chest in the room).
Reason was: He knows the shit, the deal is, that, compared to the floor where they lvled before, the trap difficulty was higher and he couldn’t tell them straightforward, cause then they would ask questions/suspect that he’s way ahead of them which could cause an awkward situations which could lead to a lot of shit’n’trouble.
Whats the name of the chick @13:40-13:50?
Argo, as you may conclude she buys/sells/deals with information, apparently, it was also her + beta tester information that created and spread that Guidebook we saw in Episode 1.
Anything else i should know?
When he “draws” his sword at 16.25, his emotions were actually in a lot of turmoil and he was wondering if he had to slay one of his few friends, additionally he felt that he wouldn’t be able to stop once he drew his sword.
(might be a slight Spoiler for the end)
When we see Kirito at the end, looking sad and depressed it is not just this. At this moment he is also thinking about an ending for “this stupid clown” (as he saw himself cause he couldn’t fulfill what he promied).He was thinking about just going off and challenging(by himself) the Boss of the current frontline (floor 49 in the Novel) and if he beat that one then challenge the one afterwards if he beat that one then the one afterwards etc.
And at this moment the message arrived.
forgot to mention he was actually very close to dieing and used up pretty much everything(potions and other rare stuff) he had to solo that Santa 😉
Also no one died, no one got pked, at most they got knocked out and had to back off.
Hope this helped a few ppl,hf watching 😉
[/spoiler]
Hmm, as one that never read the manga, the story is happening way too fast. There is little character development of the secondary cast, and we jump already to 49th floor in 3 episodes? That’s too quick.
@zilentworld
Yeah, that was a mistake on the show’s part.
[spoiler] He didn’t get it until some time after Sachi and the others died but he did get it before fighting Nicholas, which means he should have been using it then.[/spoiler]
also for those that missed it
[spoiler] Kirito is lvl 70 at the end of the ep , not 48 [/spoiler]
thanks
At last, Argo the Rat has appeared! (Too late, heh)
They did a decent job adapting this side story into the main storyline with again alteration and cut offs. As a LN reader, I still have my reservation on it but still it’s ok job; getting the right points why the episode it’s called “Red-Nosed Reindeer” (Humming the tune would be ok, since it save the engrish pronunciation). Hey, it’s called adaption if you didn’t notice. Duh.
Now, let’s hope they will get the Sachi story right.
Thanks! 😀
Opss.. My bad. It’s Scilica
/facepalm
i’m still disappointed that they didn’t show kirito’s reaction when he knew the revival requirements
the ED section needs fixing. it isn’t playing smoothly.
I guess we can safely say that it has as much emotional impact proportional to the amount of material cut huh.
to be fair, my eyes did get moist watching this ep, but it didn’t have as much impact when I first read it in the LN (wherein my throat hurt an hour afterwards and my eyes stung like it was flushed with seawater). I guess it’s because a lot of the build-up was cut like some have pointed out
Still, thanks for the EP as always UTW.
[spoiler]spoiler tag test. 😀 [/spoiler]
“and the meaning behind our having met” shouldn’t it be “us”?
For those that are concerned about the pace so far. You need to understand that in the Light Novel the first anime episode follows the first 4 chapters of Book 1 and then it goes straight to floor 74.
The vast majority of the story occurs from this floor onwards.
What we’re seeing now are the sidestories that introduce characters that really only feature briefly even in later books. If they didn’t follow cronological order like this then I don’t see how they would be able to adequately explain the game world.
In the novel there are whole sections where obviously the book just describes the situation and how stuff works. None of which you can do in an anime without some kind of lame narator or something else unfitting.
By using the sidestories by the time it gets to floor 74 (at this rate maybe around episode 6 or 7) you’ll understand what on earth they are all talking about.
[spoiler] As the story is all about Kirito/Asuna. Screw the rest of these guys. Bring on Asuna!! 🙂 [/spoiler]
@BelaGuez
We have to wait for next two weeks for her. huhu.
Thanks! 😀
@AMg
Well if Lizbet is episode 5 then we might get a brief glimpse of Asuna 🙂
THANK YOU FOR THE FAST SD RELEASE. HAIL UTW.
Boring episode though
At least Kirito’s hollow expression at the end of the episode wasn’t bad.
@Progeusz
Nah, “the meaning behind our having met” is perfectly fine english.
@BelaGuez
Episode 5 is “A murder case in the area”, no Lizbet and a lot of Asuna :3
@dwdaw
[spoiler]Kirito was farming, not to get the lead, but to prepare for the Christmas quest.
[/spoiler]
Thanks guys! And yeah, It was a bit too fast paced. I liked it, I think it covered the most important parts of that short story, but It should have been done in 2 episodes, or 1.5 episodes. They did portray the time jump (Kirito was level 40 with the cats, lvl 70 when fighting Nicholas), but they did not explain it well. Still, not bad, but they could take a bit more. We have 24 episodes! If they do 1 short story on each, there won’t be anything for the other episodes (if they are tackling the first 2 volumes)…
@kal, they have more than enough once they reach the end of the 2 year jump when the main story really happens. I’m not worried at all, they have more than enough material to fill all those eps.
@garyforyou
[spoiler] what? when i talk about the farming, i’m takling about the guild farming, which is prior to their deaths.
i read the LNs, i know that he farms like hell later on so he can solo dat boss.
i dont really know what you wanna tell me with your post. [/spoiler]
A good episode. You’ve lost me as a fan though. UTW has always been associated with quality releases, but that additional quality isn’t worth missing out entirely on the OP and ED because you guys want some pretty karaoke effects, in my opinion.
And for those who will repeat the tired line of installing that extra bit of software, not everyone is in a position to do so, or even wants to. Why would I go about tinkering with a media centre setup that works 100% for all other fansub groups just for pretty karaoke effects? Its just not worth it. If it was a step up in quality/filesize like the 10bit change was, then that is a worthwhile upgrade. But pretty karaoke effects?
Pass.
Just feels rushed all over. Doesn’t even compare how heart-breaking reading it felt.
[spoiler]I just hope that later when stuff happens with Asuna and it gets really teary they’ll slow down a little. For example when she rescues him, his arm gets cut off by her “bodyguard” and she almost runs away and stuff.
If they screw up anything with Yui though they can just kil themselves.
[/spoiler]
I actually cried when I read this side story… I don’t know about the way the adapted it though.
@BelaGuez
Like @Kai said, we gonna see lotsa Asuna action in Episode 5 (hopefully :3). For episode 7 I have a hunch it gonna be like this:
[spoiler]They make the First Strike Duel between Kirito and Cardil before Asuna invites Kirito for dinner.[/spoiler]
Also, I do suspect they gonna release special episodes on their DVD/Blu-ray on [spoiler]First Day side story, fishing battle in 22nd Floor during Kirito and Asuna honeymoon, how Kirito got the Unarmed Combat skill and/or sweet shorts on Cold Hand, Warm Heart[/spoiler]
Too speculation….
I love y’all sub of this series, but why are y’all file size so freaking huge? There is a secondary release of y’all sub for this series that’s in 10bit at only 1/3 y’all file size
@zilentworld
There’s a part in the Red-nosed Reindeer side story where he switches out all of his gear for new gear. Nowhere is Elucidator mentioned in it.
is it me or does Kirito need more self dialogue? there are many scenes where if you read the LN you’d understand his actions because of his narration.
anyway I think these episodes are OK, just would be greater if we had more details…
Would it be possible for you guys to also upload to MediaFire? I mean RapidGator’s ok, it’s just that I get popups up the wazoo and sometimes end up closing the wrong window as a result. >.< Would be much appreciated.
@AMg: It’s properly spelled “Silica”. It was spelled ‘Scilica’ in a number of volumes alongside other misspelled names, like ‘Egil’ instead of “Agil”, ‘Lizbet’ instead of “Lisbeth”, and ‘Cline’ instead of “Klein”.
As always, thank you very much for these translations!
(On this episode, I wonder if they had to take out the song words for copyright reasons..?)
I also want to give thanks for the words at episode 2: Though I have read the novels all the way through, somehow I had completely overlooked the existence of the side stories which were at the bottom. I’ll read through them after having slept!
{While I’m currently not qualified to say anything about the second episode,} {for both Sword Art Online and Accel World, I’ve found myself very appreciative of their relative faithfulness to the source material compared to Campione, another light novel series of which the translations were read and the first few episodes have been followed.}
*again, immense gratitude for the translating role taken*
I was thinking that you guys should add the end cards on every ending. Like you did with Amagami SS. I’ve checked episodes 1-3 and they looked amazing!
“Ch,yeah” “Ch, yeah” CH, YEAH”
What kind of translation is this?
Very belated realisation: I’ve started the episode-2-equivalent story (I didn’t sleep after all), and I now know that I definitely haven’t read it before. Due to that, I have the qualification to respond to the earlier question of whether it felt rushed or not.
By comparison–in my memories, strongest for parts of the Dragon Crisis anime–I have come across episodes which felt rushed in the path, to the point that I winced at their crammedness. (In the named example, I also had not read the original which corresponded to what I was seeing.)
However, I did not get that the-pacing-is-horrible feeling from the second episode, though there was disconcertion from having no memory of its contents from the novels.
As I read more, I’m sure my (mental/internal) eyes will get wider and wider at how much was cut out (along with my gratitude increasing at being able to devour it anyway), but the flow of the episode by itself did not produce a negative reaction.
*dives back into the reading where it was left off, mind swimming with tactics one could use to safeguard one’s information from others (until further notice) with default minimum payments…*
Just looking at the character cast should make pretty obvious that they’ll also cover the whole Alfheim Arc within the 25 episodes plus it would feel kind of awkward having the anime end right after the Aincard Arc. Making a cut after ALO arc makes A LOT more sense than after Aincard.
I am like 99% sure that the Aincard Arc will end at around episode 13-14. Consider the pacing of other adaptions. 5 episodes per volume can already be thought of as slow when compared to other ones.
I don’t know about you guys but I read the novel and watching this episode make me think this anime is is going to the direction of doom to fail. Sachi’s story was one of the major part of the story with so much heart and feeling that change how Kirito thinks. I didn’t think they would rush it all of it into one episode plus they cut off all the fighting within and how he treat the item at the end before he gave it away, all that emotion gone… I had high hopes but if they crap out anymore then this then it’s doom.
to the novel readers, sorry if the question is a bit off topic, but I was wondering if it’ll be explained how the physical body survives for so long (years?) in the real world. I mean, I don’t want to spoiler it for myself, so I’m just asking if it will be revealed, or we just have to adopt, ehm, a “don’t be bothered about what is not explained” phylosophy …
Yes. It was said like in the first episode that they were all transfer to hospitals (within 2 hour of break time) like they were all in a coma.
thanks Kohiro, I think I need to rewatch the first episode since it’s clear I missed some details. So basically they are all in hospitals attached to life-support machines, and they will stay still in a coma-like state for years. I wonder if the survivors will be able to move at all, after that long inactivity … well, being 2022 the technology may help against atrophy. We will see, admitting that someone will survive and the anime adaptation covers up to that point …
thanks again for the reply
*leaves to watch ep 1 again
kohiro, the fights weren’t and aren’t written in the red nosed reindeer sidestorys, so they didn’t cut them, they were never there to begin with.
@ki ni narimasu
I think the anime left out that detail. In the LN, Kayaba allowed a period of two hours for the trapped players to be disconnect and enable the government team to send them to hospital/medical institutions that specialize on comatose patients. I think that detail will be explain in one of the episodes.
@Sumguy
I’d just follow the official names published by ANN. :3
I have hunch it gonna be like Guilty Crown; 12 episodes in the first part (I think a cliffhanger about the shocking revelation of [spoiler]who is Heathcliff really is[/spoiler] and 10-12 episodes after 1 month hiatus that covers conclusion of SAO and starting of ALO.
thank you too AMg, it’s nice to see there are so many kind people here that take time to answer even a minor random curiosity such as mine.
@bok Your loss; any decent group that does typesetting does it on XY-VSFilter standards. Of course, you might not notice it now, but it’s very likely you’ll eventually see a few screwy signs, and eventually, broken karaoke on other releases.
@Gungrave223
Then download the re-encode if you care that much about filesize. We care about quality, that is our first and foremost priority. We don’t really care about filesize, and stuff comes out whatever sizes it happens to come out.
@dwdaw
Yes. The final fight was never written but what I meant was how he was soloing at first before he met up with Klein and the time how he save the Black Cats of the Full Moon. Though they quickly talk about it in the show but the fighting was there in the novel like (how Kirito join in the fight and held back his sword skills and such).
it’s already let me down since ep2 but I’m still sticking around to see how it will all turn out.. just don’t let them spoil the [spoiler]Kirito vs Eugene fight in ALO since we already got deprived of the Rakan vs Negi one -_-[/spoiler] oh, and really looking forward to them making an OVA/Movie *wishful thinking* out of Vol.7’s Mother’s Rosario 😀
Silica next week!!! KK, that was embarrasing.
God, it’s almost 500 MB. My poor HDD.
To the people who have read the light novels. Can the people in SAO kill each other? I am asking this because the scene right before the fight with the Christmas boss suggest that it can be done.
@Vic: Yeah, next episode should explain red/orange guilds. When you do violence against other characters (read: people), your marker turns orange on the map. The people/groups of people that go so far as to -kill- other characters (read: people) are labeled as beyond that, as ‘red’.
.
On another note, I…uh, really hope they don’t actually show the lisbeth and murder mystery stuff before making the jump. Not quite sure that the Asuna entrance/most of her character even works after seeing murder mystery stuff in particular. The author even singled that work out as the worst of the bunch in terms of fitting with the main story. While I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it as a mystery story and for the bits of comedy (comedy that is comedy due to a spoiler for later events and falls flat without knowing these events…and by later events I mean the ENDING, as in the END of this entire arc), not as part of the SAO continuum.
Damn this was so sad I’m feeling suicidal right now!!!
@Solitud I think they need the Lisbeth arc in the anime. It will serve a glimps of [spoiler]Kirito’s unique sword skill[/spoiler]
Anyway, in the rule of thumb of OP/ED, 90% of what they put in it will come out in the actual series. From that, I’m speculate most of the scenes/characters will appear.
To anyone wondering about where their bodies are hanging out in the real world — I just started reading the LN and Kayaba (the creator) tells the players in his ‘opening ceremony’ this;
‘Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies you left on the other side. As of this moment, all TV, radio, and Internet media are repeatedly reporting this situation; including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve Gear taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have provided, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax… and concentrate on beating the game.’
I read comments that they may include this info in a future episode? I guess we’ll see, when the moment it took place in the LN has already passed! 😛
@Solitud
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sword_Art_Online_episodes
sadly it’s up next at ep5 and would prolly be rushed like this one as well.. oh dear xD
subtitle flicker on MPC-HC, izit just me?
@klaynne14 That’ll confirm our worst fears o_O
It’ll be really nice if it were two seasons (s1: Aincrad, s2: ALO, maybe even s3:ALO+GGO) or three. That’ll make the pacing really nice.
As of now, it’s starting to feel rather too fast. Each sidestory deserves at least two episodes for the emotional pacing to flow.
Still, it’s likely a management decision, funding and all that.
I do say that the anime really does feel way too rushed. If they slow it down and take their time, they could really make the anime especially good. But so far, with episode 2 and 3, it seems quite rushed. Which is really sad considering how good the anime really is.
<.< Adaptions are always lacking. Sad really. It's pretty good but not good enough….. *sigh* what a waste…..
OMG, Hayami Saori was spot-on for Sachi.
If you didn’t cry, you’re a heartless bastard.
Hey UTW, will there be a delay on the subs? Please read the SAO news
http://www.swordart-online.net/news/index.html
@Icarus
you mean that “special program broadcast for the ‘London Olympics'” thing?
or rather:
● TV Aichi
25:50 (Sat.) 25:50 ~ → 2012/8/4 (Sat) 2012/7/28 [Episode 4]
※ special program organized for the “London Olympics”, broadcast day pause
26:20 (Sat.) 25:50 ~ → 2012/8/4 (Sat) 2012/8/4 [Episode 5]
※ Because of the specially organized, sequential broadcasting and 30 minutes late ※ Episode 4
26:06 (Sat.) 25:50 ~ → 2012/8/11 (Sat) 2012/8/11 [Episode 6]
※ Because of the specially organized, with the possibility of up to an additional 28 minutes late 16 minutes late ※
● Mainichi Broadcasting System, Inc.
28:28 (Sat.) 27:28 ~ → 2012/8/18 (Sat) 2012/8/11 [Episode 6]
※ special program organized for the “London Olympics”, 60 minutes late next week ※ broadcast day pause
27:58 (Sat.) 27:28 ~ → 2012/8/25 (Sat) 2012/8/25 [Episode 7]
※ Because of the specially organized, 30 minutes late
28:28 (Sat.) 27:28 ~ → 2012/8/25 (Sat) 2012/8/25 [Episode 8]
※ Because of the specially organized, sequential broadcasting and 60 minutes late ※ Episode 7
(google translate is so-so)
It seems like not all stations would not air it though. 4/5/6 would be delayed for TV Aichi, and 6/7/8 for Mainichi.
…
I doubt that will affect subbing though in any way though
more importantly, what the hell is this:
http://www.aniplex.co.jp/app/sao/login
aggh! we’re missing big-time 😀 hahaha
Watched the CR and then a bit of the UTWoots (couldn’t wait…)
“I… and my arrogance killed you guys” really irked me as a single line.
“I…”
“My arrogance…”
“killed you.”
seemed better.
Just a comment 🙂 Thanks for the subs 🙂
@Icarus
We encode from the Tokyo MX broadcast, so unless MX decide to delay the broadcasts then it should just be business as usual.
I thought i was gonna cry when i saw this episode…. not that I was moved one bit just that I thought i was watching a reminder episode (for those who follow One Piece you know, those that do in 1 episode what was covered in 2 or 3 previously) it was empty, void of any character development (even talking about Kirito there is no development it’s simply first part was fun second part was not). When i knew they did an SAO anime I thought i would hail them, now i’m more into hating them for this. Though those episodes are good they are not aimed at LN fans at all.
Awesome. Thanks UTW! 🙂
@Madox:
Good suggestion. But doesn’t that sort of release him of his responsibility for the crime? “Oh, it was my arrogance that did it. That darn thing.” The original line reads more like “I killed you because I’m damn arrogant.”
That encode was super glitchy. I expect better from you people. 🙁
I’m still afraid to not seeing Kirito’s unique sword skill after seeing the OP, and watching asuna and kirito beat the boss without any sign of difficulties and any sign of the unique skill..
I still get lag and minor flashing in both the OP and ED, even with that filter, and setting up MPC to pre-render frames causes MASSIVE lag (even when set to the minimum, 4). So, would the fine people at UTW (and GotWoot if necessary) please be so kind as to turn down the effects during the OP and ED, so that plebs such as myself may enjoy the magnificence of your work? I would be eternally grateful, and in your debt. Please consider this, and thank you.
Yours forever,
Shawn263241
@Shawn263241
” For those of you experiencing lag with the OP/ED karaoke, we highly recommend that you update to xy-VSFilter, which is very simple to install and will drastically improve the efficiency of softsub rendering.”
http://code.google.com/p/xy-vsfilter/
(From ep 2 Description)
@Shawn263241; copy the subs to a separate ass. file [I use MPC-HC for this], then play subs from that. It works for me about 99% of the time for any subs playback issue I’ve had with a video file.
@Masc: I pretty much just said that doesn’t work for me. I still get lag and blinking subs.
@sandoe41: How would I go about copying the subs to a different file, and what would I play them with? How would I get them to perfectly overlay the video, and how will that help with performance?
Update: Alright, I switched back to EVR DirectShow video with buffers set to 60, and xy-VSFilters set to high-priority, and that actually got rid of the lag and blinking, but now I get an error every time I start a video, and the menus in the D3D Fullscreen are invisible, which makes things a little harder to use, and eliminates the ability to seek. Anyways, here’s that error:
CreateDevice failed
Error code: 0x8876086A
DX9AllocatorPresenter failed
D3DERR_NOTAVAILABLE
Since I’ve seen this questioned a few times in various places, let me make it clear that it’s impossible for subtitles rendered by xy-VSFilter to blink or flash because your computer is too slow. xy-VSFilter never drops subtitle frames, so all you would experience is lag alone.
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The only subtitle renderers which blink or flash when your computer is too slow, are VSFilter 2.40 & 2.41 when pre-buffering with animation is enabled, as well as the MPC-HC internal subtitle renderer (ISR). Unlike xy-VSFilter, these subtitle renderers do drop subtitle frames when they are unable to render in real-time, which is the underlying cause of the blinking/flashing anomaly.
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Bottom line:
Anybody experiencing blinking or flashing subtitles, either isn’t using xy-VSFilter, or hasn’t followed the installation instructions properly.
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If you experience lag without blinking or flashing subtitles when using xy-VSFilter, your computer is just too slow. xy-VSFilter, VSFilter, and Libass are all single-threaded. As far as subtitle rendering is concerned, CPU IPC and clock speed are all that matter.
arEdit: Thanks for the post mate, appreciate it~
For those of you that are using MPC-HC and have installed xy-vsfilter but still get slow/blinking/lagging subtitles: Are you certain that xy-vsfilter is running?
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Go to “Options” -> “Subtitles” and set “Maximum texture resolution” to the lowest possible (384 x 288), then watch the video.
If the subtitles are of low quality (low resolution), then xy-vsfilter is NOT active.
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To make sure, MPC-HC won’t give priority to its internal renderer, go to “Options” -> “Playback” and uncheck “auto-load subtitles”, then watch the video.
If there are no subtitles, you need to go one more step.
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Go to “Options” -> “External Filters” click the “Add Filter…” button and select “DirectVobSub (auto-loading version)”, set it to “preferred”.
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I hope this helps.
@Shawn263241
DON’T use D3D… Just don’t do it!
Trust me, mate.
MPC-HC’s implementation of D3D is absolutely no good. Its only merits are its attempts at reducing (or removing) tearing by using DirectX. Drawbacks are the inability to use the user interface, and to quit you need to press Ctrl+C (if only it would work…)
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In short: just do yourself a favor and don’t use D3D; uncheck it.
it couldn’t be more rushed. What the’ve shown up until now could have been made into 7 episodes. They’re basically making a summary of events that influence the main story, they could have adapted these so well and use them as mid-story flash backs, but nah, make a shitty adaptation, cut it into 1 episode and fuck up the chronology.
Art, animation and music are so good… So why do they need to mess up so bad :/.
@pro
ain’t the reason they do this in 1 episode and all “rushed” up to make it chronology correct? Instead of doing a 2year skip and say. This is where we are, which would be rushed compared to what we got now… and now and then 1 episode of “flashbacks” that we are getting at the start.
@Cyberbeing: Thanks for the info. Clears some stuff up, I suppose.
@Drano: Without D3D I get massive tearing, so I think it’s worth it. I’ve gotten used to the minimal interface, and now I’ll just have to get used to no interface and no seek. :/ Also, I’m pretty sure alt+x closes out of the entire video and player.
@pro: I agree, but not to such an extent. I mean, they could totally do that and really draw things out, but 7 episodes for each mini arc is a bit much. However, I do agree that 1 episode to introduce a whole cast of characters and then kill them off at the end of the episode is just way too rushed; though they didn’t do a terrible job of that, thankfully.
Also, I’m still getting that error every time I start a video. Already updated drivers and restarted my computer, but that didn’t really help.
Agreed with cyberbeing…
I’m playing the HD version in my netbook (Intel Atom N570 1,7 Ghz, 2 GB of RAM, onboard VGA) without any problems…
For myself, I installed the latest k-lite mega codec pack and then installing xy-vsfilter…
And everything went smooth..
Where can you watch the light novel?
Seeing you guys talking about how the anime was rushed and spoiled the chronology makes me interested in the time skip some guys were talking about.
@morehandsome
As I said on the first page of comments:
All the novels are translated in English and available to read or download at baka-tsuki, in multiple formats for various e-readers, or, for .pdf to read on a computer. Well, all of them but the 10th novel as well as a minor side story or two.
They’re located here: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Sword_Art_Online
For blinking subtitles you just need to install xy-vsfilter
You can use the installer, or like me use the .7z file (does not install at all)
Go to your folder for your codecs (K Lite folder or CCCP folder)
Next search that folder (use the toolbar) with “vsfilter.dll”
Open the file location of that file you just searched
Extract the .7z archive and copy and overwrite the new vsfilter.dll onto the old one
Open MPC-HC, go to OPTION -> PLAYBACK -> uncheck auto load subtitles
Click apply and restart MPC-HC (just close it and reopen it)
opps I screwed up the link (just click on that massive link text) to get the .7z file
@Inquire: That bit of info (and a lot more looking-into and screwing around on my part) fixed all my problems, so thanks. I actually used the installer this time, and it worked like a charm. 😛
Firstly and foremost, thanks for this release and all your releases UTW/oots. i’ve even gone back and just downloaded the rest of your stuff based on your released em ;D now…
i’m already read through the vsFilter comments and maybe i just didn’t see it, but i installed the filter before when fate/zero OP had the lag issue and just today when i saw the installer for it was released. both times what happened was it made all the subtitles grainy AND the actually full episode, it’s not just with SAO, it’s everyting. also, yes the filter did clear up any lag. and before asked, yes i removed the old filter and went into the options, unchecked autoload and setup the external filter, no matter how different or how many installs, it always make everything grainy. I figure with the vast group on here, someone may have an idea =] thanks in advance
The xy-vsfilter works wonders. I don’t have many problems with lag but there’s one specific anime that always lags during the ED but this fixed it. Now I can watch the *gulp* girls dancing during Highschool DXDs ED without all that lag!
Why is everybody complaining about the speed in which this is going so much? I’m sick to death of most animes these days dragging things on longer than they need to be. It’s nice to have one that’s faced paced for once.
@tinkarrr
If I were to take a guess, you have your video renderer set to or automatically falling back to ‘System Default’ or ‘Old Renderer’ in MPC-HC, which are completely broken on most GPU drivers. If not that, make sure your DirectX runtimes (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35) and GPU driver are up-to-date, and then change your directshow video renderer in MPC-HC output settings to one recommended for your OS.
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EVR custom / EVR if on Win7/WinVista, VMR9 renderless if on WinXP (3D surfaces, Bicubic -0.60 recommended), or Overlay Mixer if you have a slow integrated GPU which struggles with the other video renderers. madVR is the highest quality option, but that requires a decently powerful GPU.
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This all assumes that what you’re calling grainy, is actually ‘nearest neighbor’ resizing and/or chroma upsampling performed by your GPU.
@Jamie
mainly because at the pace it’s going, a LOT of detail that gives emotional and factual depth is thrown away.
for examples:
[spoiler] if Red-Nosed Reindeer was two episodes, they could have shown how Kirito saved the guild, how he level-grinded almost fanatically before soloing the rare boss, how he levelled up at night, and maybe even the full version of her last message (it explains why she chose to sing Red Nosed Reindeer – Kirito reminded her of her dad, etc.)
[/spoiler]
@Jamie It’s because it’s too fast. :> If it were two episodes, it certainly wouldn’t be longer than it needs to be. It’d be just enough to cover the entire chapter of the side story. I think it’s fine though; it gives more room to cover the main story later on! In summary, the reason people don’t like the past few episodes short is because the episodes had to exclude a lot of important information since they didn’t have time for it, and it makes the story seem less thrilling than it really is.
It also made it seem like a filler when it wasn’t
I’m on a 2008 macbook, but I got massive screen tearing frequently with VLC, and lag with MPlayerX. Movist, surprisingly, handled it just fine until the ED, when it just *blanked out half the screen*. Regardless, installing this new windows-only stuff isn’t a particularly viable solution.
Given that my macbook handles 10 bit HD just fine *the rest* of the time (including, say, Fate/Zero, which had a lot more visual detail than the ED of SAO), I’m inclined to think it wasn’t a very good encode. I mean, I know my GPU sucks, but maybe stop blaming the viewers and make a better encode next time. >.>
@Kojiro
Thx for the link. totally missed out on the first post though.
Saw the link and there are ALOT of chapters….gotta take a while to finish reading them all….
@Mayhem
This has nothing to do with the encode though, it’s to do with the complexity of the subtitle script. As time goes on, we are finding ourselves able to improve subtitles etc through real-time cpu rendering rather than overlaying the subtitles at encode-time and burning them into the video permanently. And unfortunately this isn’t always perfect for every system or cpu. It’s fine if you choose to use OSX or Linux, but again we prepare the subtitles on Windows to work 100% with reasonably specd Windows systems, and them just happening to work nicely on OSX/Linux is a bonus, but none of us test anything on Mplayer2/etc, so we have no idea how they playback and nor can we promise they will be 100% compatible in anyway on anything other than (xy-)VSFilter on Windows.
I’m so confused as to what the hell is going on. How big of a jump was there between episodes 2 and 3? I’m getting the feeling this is just a side-story…
If I wanted to be up-to-date on this, where do I start reading SAO? I’m aware it was a story that got a manga adaption, right?
@Matty G Approximately 1 year skip.
They did adapted to manga. So far from the scanlated version, it’s stay true to the LN.
If you gonna ready the LN, you either go by the Volume by Volume and read the side stories to fill the blank or (this might be messy a bit) read the chapter by chapter and the side stories related to the chapter.
Lol the next episode is called: “The Black Swordsman” Guts is coming to SAO guys XD
@スタン lol. Hilarious in hindsight there. :3
@Matty
[spoiler]http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Sword_Art_Online[/spoiler] lists the dates each story/side story takes place. If they continue to go chronologically, after Black Swordsman will be Warmth of the Heart, Sound of Water|Sound of Hammer, Morning Dew Girl, then the rest of Volume 1.
Next episode preview:
[spoiler]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nlnpRGzTRQ[/spoiler]
I can smell perversion of canon in here. :9
@about black swordsman..
haha i actually think kirito is kinda inspirated with guts when i first read ln, it was at part when he targeted enemy sword or something (light novel chapters, doesnt shown in anime though), with the addition of .hack series.
by the way, i only get few second missing-appear fonts at ed . i think i got them too on early episodes of accel world, at op when niko show up, though its sound on this case. not get it anymore in latest episode though, is this normal?
@Cyberbeing
sorry for late response, been busy, and thank you for your information. sadly though, mpchc is not reverting to default (checked multiple times) there was a new update for my GPU and also checked my settings were on EVR custom. deleting the autoload settings and reinstalling vsFilter anyway hasn’t helped. It’s okay if it doesn’t work out, it’s only maybe 3 total OP/EDs that have a problem that i’ve noticed. but just so you can get a picture of what i mean by grainy…
filter 2.4 http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r302/tinkar/oldfilter.png
filter 3.0 http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r302/tinkar/newfilter.png
it’s also not “nearest neighbor” it’s “bilinear”
thanks again
@tinkarrr
Uninstall CCCP if you have it. Download K lite 9.1.0 Mega Pack just so you can just reset all the settings of mpc-hc and all crap you put on (it fixes broken codecs so no worries). Then update to 9.1.4 because it adds the xy-vsfilter. From there disable the internal filter of mpc-hc to use the said filter. Then you can profit.
@AMG
wait, there are previews??!?!
was it something just removed with these subs, or are they not broadcast as well?
@カノト
I’d found it on FB fan page. Digging through the official website, the preview can be found the Story section. [spoiler]http://www.swordart-online.net/story/index04.html[/spoiler] I’m safely assume they will not broadcast it on the air.
@tinkarrr
This isn’t VSFilter behavior.
VSFilter renders the subtitle text, which is then pasted on top of the video. VSFilter does not have access to the actual video frame (or at least, I don’t think it has).
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If I had to guess, I’d say you somehow managed to activate the Post-Resize Pixel Shaders on MPC-HC (default: Ctrl + Alt + P).
Actually, ignore my previous comment.
I didn’t see your first comment.
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If this issue only happens, when you use xy-vsfilter, then it’s highly unlikely that you somehow activated the shaders without realizing it.
so will we get SAO 4 this weekend?
Hey guys! Is SAO 4 being released this weekend or are the Olympics delaying it? I read that it wont be effecting future episodes but u guys usually have SAO released by now. Whats up?
Great job on the series! Loving it, bang up translations too!
@tinkarrr
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Your video renderer appears to be performing extreme sharpening to the video. If it’s not what Drano said, and you have a sharpening shader enabled in MPC-HC, then you must have the video
enhancementdamage controls maxed out in your GPU’s control panel. Set all the video controls in your GPU control panel to 0% or disabled, and I suspect that will resolve it..
The reason that would only occur with xy-VSFilter and not regular VSFilter, is because xy-VSFilter supports NV12 output, while VSFilter doesn’t. GPU video
enhancementdamage controls usually only support NV12, which just so happens to be the preferred colorspace of most decoders and video renderers..
As a last resort, if you can’t figure out how to disable the cause of the problem in your GPU’s control panel, unchecking NV12 on xy-VSFilter’s colors tab I suspect will resolve the problem. You may also want to confirm that you don’t have something like FFDShow’s raw video filter sharpening xy-VSFilter’s output.