Shonen

Plot:  Set in 2046 (in the same world as Sword Art Online) the world has been revolutionized by neurolinkers.  A technology which almost everyone gets at birth placed around the wearer’s neck.  By linking directly to the nervous system it has connected people as computers to the world around them via cell phone networks making online games and connections highly influential to real life.  Here we meet the protagonist: Haruyuki.  A short, fat, overly bullied and under-ly confident middle school student who often withdraws into the digital universe due to his ability to retreat from real life problems and excel at digital games.  His proficiency draws the attention of Kuroyukihime, who is a student council member and the most popular girl in school.  She has chosen him for a gift, a program known as Brain Burst in which people in different areas and prefectures battle each other as Burst Linkers to gain levels, the highest -and Kuroyukihime’s goal – being level 10.  However, to reach level 10 you must defeat other level 9 opponents, losing one match uninstalls the program.  Haryuyuki agrees on the onset to help Kuroyukihime reach the illustrious level 10, but as he becomes more involved in the digital world of Brain Burst black and white begins to gray as people aren’t what they seem, and new enemies lurk just around the corner.

Length: 24 episodes

Original Release: April 6th 2012

Staff:  As mentioned in the plot summary the story takes place in the same world as a similar, popular, series: Sword Art Online.  This is because both series share the original creator Reki Kawahara.  Accel World is based off a series of light novels which are currently at 13 installments and still going.  Because of this a second season is, of course, entirely possible (though not absolutely necessary based on the shows ending).

The director, Masakazu Obara, only has one other major directing credit which is Mi-Hime, given the action nature of that show and a “monster of the week” flair I can see how some things translated over to the burst linker fights we saw in Accel World.  Even that may be a stretch and there are thankfully not too many other similarities between the two shows.

The music was done by Hiroyuki Oshima and I actually give this man props as this is literally is composer debut and the music was very well done.  There was a large range to the show and because of that every type of scene was punctuated with good music.  Not technically astounding music, but better than your run of the mill.

Animation-wise the show does not disappoint.  The action sequences during the Brain Burst fights are engaging and well done.  Two notes for this could be Studio Sunrise’s hand in the animation, as well as a man named Nobutaka Ike being one of the two main art directors.  Ike has worked on other projects such as Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika, and Millenium Actress as the Art Director.  The styling of the animation is also wonderful, however, I question some choices with regards to Haruyuki’s design.

Main Review:  Accel World is a show that I really, really, wanted to blow me away.  When I first started watching it I was completely sold.  The characters were engaging and interesting, Haruyuki was dynamic and felt like he had a depth to him that I enjoyed – even if his character design was a little disjointed feeling.

It starts off in about a 6-episode getting to know the world and characters type of arc.  The world has a depth and complexity to it while still having a number of quirks that make it feel very very real.  As a result you’re hungry for more during these first episodes and there are more questions as you begin to learn more about Brain Burst and start to question people’s real motives.

Through episode 12 or so the show really continues to deliver on this.  The battles are catchy, even if from time to time shonen cliche, and there’s even some romance, however superficial it felt to me.

However, around episode 13 and on the show really began to drag.  Characters began to make decisions on a habitual basis that I kept wanting to punch them in the face for and that initial annoyance with Haruyuki that could be overlooked due to the magic of everything else began to creep up again.  To me it felt like the show lost some of its focus on what it really wanted to do and introduced a new villain rather than delivering on earlier promises – such as achieving level 10 and meeting the creator.  Granted, this can be as a result of the fact that the source material is still ongoing and they didn’t want to make any major closures but it did feel more than a little disappointing for the viewer.  But, I do go back to giving the creators props that the villain in the second half was fantastic, a perfect example of a “love to hate” villain.

Not to harp on art but I think Haruyuki’s design as a strange chibi character was a wedge right from the start that kept getting deeper for me throughout the series.  I get that he is meant to be fat, ugly, and from the “lower” rung of the social ladder but I feel like the chibi design showed a lack of commitment to this.  It was almost like despite those things he was still cute, which put him in stark contrast to the depth he received from being that social outcast.   I would’ve much preferred to see him in a similar style to all the other characters but still have all those other traits.  And for the record, I’m not the only one! Men in Japan voted him the second most aggravating character from recent anime.

Either way, the show started out very strong and then lost itself somewhere along the way in the second half.  There were things that remained good such as character growth and a big twist… But, there were also a lot of over-used plot devices, poor pacing, and just all around aggravation over the main point of conflict surrounding the villain.  It involves blackmail and you just keep feeling like it drags on for no good reason.

In sum, the show could’ve been great, but ended up feeling very lackluster because it lost almost all of the great momentum it had gained on the onset.  It’s almost even more disappointing this way and you really want to ream it, but the show did have a lot of strong points, and a few carried all the way through.  In an effort to not let my personal let-downs with the show cloud my judgement I felt a 3.5 was a fair score.  It was more than I expected from a shonen show, but didn’t live up to all it could’ve been.

[starrater]