[Kawahara Reki's Twitter Commentary] Alicization War of Underworld Episode 18 Commentary

Seeing as a lot of people were interested in Kawahara's commentaries of the WoU epiosdes on Twitter, I decided to translate them. Here's this week's commentary. I'll work my way back to the previous episodes over time at a later time.

-Gsimenas

Introduction

I will now be making a series of petit commentary tweets on Alicization WoU episode 18, "Memories". It seems like today's commentary will alos end up being large, thus I will be splitting it into Part A and Part B again.
For the 'Nope! No commentaries (needed) here!'(1) folk, please mute the #WoUcom tag. In order to mute it, open Twitter's home page from a Web browser, go to the menu on the left, (...)
(...) where you need to click on the "(...)" button --> Settings and privacy --> Privacy and security --> click on the "Muted" option on the "Security" column on the right --> click on "Muted words" --> click on the + button --> enter #WoUcom into phrases field --> (...)
(...) and save. I'm sorry that it's such a complicated procedure. Can't we have this all done in just 2 clicks, Twitter-san...

Pre-opening scene and opening sequence

Anyway, let's begin! A middle school age Kirito staring at the setting sun in an empty classroom. The gakuran uniform gives him a fresh look... As I've mentioned briefly in a tweet from last week, this scene is set a month before the official service of SAO began, thus Kirito here is just short of his 14th birthday.
Considering that, you can really feel his boyishness from his face and body build. Walking through the hustle and bustle after leaving school, Kirito passes by a girl who looks like Alice, yet doesn't notice this.
Hey, I remember that wireless earphone that Kirito's wearing in the train...! In actual fact, during his middle school year, Kirito didn't commute to school by train; since the setting is his own memories, he probably just mixed in his commuting route from the Survivors School here.
Oh, a boy in a school uniform that looks very much like Eugeo on the seat behind him. When I got to see this cut during storyboarding, I wondered, "Isn't this going to be too out of place?", but with hue of the setting sun added in, it settled in quite nicely. The paperback novel looks super good on him...
The SAO PV shows up on the digital billboard at Hon-kawagoe station. I like how they added some noise that normally wouldn't have been there into the mix, and had it black out midway through...!
Just when he was about to pass by an alley close to home, he hears someone calling "Kirito". On the other side of the alley, he sees the members of the 《Moonlit Black Cats》 guild. Sachi's voice calling out to Kirito was newly-recorded for this scene! Now for the OP!
Have you noticed a few new cuts switched into the OP sequence? The chapter titles that started with "Beginning" have finally reached "Lasting"... I'm sure some of you already know this, but this word doesn't mean "to end", but rather "to continue for a long time".
The Sachi background visual on the sponsor list is also new! To think we'd get a new drawing of Sachi all the way out here...

Part A

Part A begins. With Eiji and Yuna out of the scene, Vassago/PoH is going full throtle with his Incarnation of instigation. Moonphase, Mei Mei Xiang, and a minority of other players are able to resist the mental intereference, but as a result the red knights begin killing each other.
Paying this no mind whatsoever, Vassago lets out a loud laugh. His stance is that as long as he gets to awaken Kirito, he doesn't mind if the players he dragged into UW himself get wiped out, huh. And just when he was about to kill a soldier from the Human Empire Army himself...
A phantom of Yuuki the 《Absolute Sword》 addresses Asuna as she finds herself unable to stand. This Yuuki here comes from Asuna's memories as she is connected to an STL... probably, at least; however, there's one factor in play here that prevents a definitive conclusion that that's all there is to her.
The STL developed by Rath makes use of data acquired from the 《Medicuboid》 medical FullDive machine, thus there is a non-zero possibility that some data on Yuuki, who served as the Medicuboid's tester for an entire three years by herself, remains in the STL. I'll mention the reasoning later on.
Having mustered the last of her stregnth, Asuna goes on a charge. The 《Linear》 she unleashed with all her might was evaded by Vassago, who went on a counterattack while she was suffering from the post-skill rigidity; however, Asuna uses her Stacia GM authority to lift the ground from under Vassago's feet, breaking his posture.
Having recovered from their respective delay states, Asuna and Vassago cross blades. As Asuna asks him 'What is it that you desire', Vassago responds "Ain't it obvious, the guy in 《black》"
The reason why Vassago entered the death game version of SAO of his own free will was his desire for revenge against the Japanese, and he had made it his goal to kill as many players in Aincrad as he possibly could. However, if he were to kill the players by his own hand, he'd turn into an Orange Player, which would have hindered his actions from the very start of the game, thus (...)
(...) Vassago thus primarily engaged in 《Instigation PK》, whereby he sowed seeds of discord among the players by controlling the flow of information to make them kill each other. Due to his plans being foiled by Kirito numerous times, Vassago attempted to kill him by his own hand right after Floor 5 was cleared; however, (...)
(...) he failed to fulfil this goal of his as well; ever since then, Kirito was ranked up from 《mere nuisance》 to 《important target》 in Vassago's mind. Even afterwards, Vassago endlessly attempted to kill him or make him go orange yet constantly failed; as this continued on an on, (...)
(...) he eventually found himself seeing Kirito as an existence who was "the only one I could believe in unconditionally" and who "gives me hope and joy". He even stooped to sacrificing the entirety of the 《Laughing Coffin》 PK guild that he had been leading in his attempt to bring Kirito down the road of a PKer, but SAO was cleared before he could accomplish this goal, (...)
(...) and now he was finally able to meet him again in UW. That's specifically why he could declared "I'm going to wake that guy up no matter what it takes. To achieve that goal, it doesn't matter who, or how many thousands or tens of thousands of people it takes, I will kill them all!" with conviction.
Koyama-san's Vassago has been supremely cool ever since his first appearance during the training scene in episode 1, but this series of monologues are particularly exhilarating in how you can feel a seductiveness that only evil can have! No wonder LaughCof members adored him so...
As Asuna finds herself pinned down by a powerful pressure, Vassago tells her of the ability of the 《Mate Chopper》, his beloved dagger (although it doesn't look like one). In SAO, the weapon had a 《grows weaker with every monster killed and grows stronger with each player killed》 curse feature; now that this feature has been handed down to his weapon in UW, (...)
(...) it is able to put its ability to 《become stronger by absorbing human life (=spatial resources)》 on full display. By the way, in SAO, if the player continued fighting monsters regardless of the weapon's specs going down, the curse would be lifted after defeating a set number of monsters, turning the weapon into a powerful katana named 《Tomogiri-maru》(2); however (...)
(...) if that were to happen, the weapon's category would change from dagger to katana, thus the player's long-used Weapon Skill would be rendered useless; in the end, it's still a curse for a different reason...
The 《love》 for Kirito that Vassago talks about is utterly unacceptable to Asuna. She saw through Vassago's true nature as a 《coldhearted revengeaholic who only desires to make people suffer, torment them, and kill them》; however, she finds herself unable to push back against the growing cleaver...
Just then, receiving encouragement from her comrades, she hears Yuuki's voice again and pure white wings appear on Asuna's back. This is probably a manifestation of Asuna's (and Yuuki's) Incarnation, rather than a power of the Stacia account.
Now, why does data on Yuuki still (possibly) linger in UW. It's because of the existence of the 《OSS Mother's Rosario》 that Asuna was able to trigger here. In UW, Sword Skills from the no-longer-running SAO have been incorporated as 《Secret Arts》; however (...)
(...) Mother's Rosario is an Original Sword Skill developed by Yuuki in ALO; on top of that, Asuna didn't covert her ALO undine account which has inherited Mother's Rosario from her, thus this skill shouldn't have existed in UW.
In the novel, Asuna made the conjecture that this was the power of her imagination, but... I personally hope that that's not all there is to the matter, and I'm sure all of you do too!
The 11 hits of Mother's Rosario is one of the most prominent action scenes throughout the Alicization Arc... The action animation director Kanno-san has released the layouts (is that how you call them?) for this scene and I still get goosebumps every time I watch it...!
Also, the lines in this scene are touched up with the same cinematography effects as in the Bercouli VS Vector battle, doubling the impact. The scene is also packed with sound effects, and adding Tomatsu-san's fervent performance with the shouting on top of all that...
I am once again made aware of just how much endless passion from a great many people has been poured into all the cuts. As the author, there's nothing that could make me happier...!
After saying her thanks to Yuuki, Asuna is about to head over to Kirito. However, Vassago stands up once again behind her... His heart has been blown away at this point, thus under normal circumstances he should have lost the entirety of his Life here; however, is able to suppress the decline of his Life with the resource absorption power of his Mate Chopper.
However, this does not relieve him of his sense of pain, thus Vassago should be experiencing a pain so intense that it wouldn't have been strange for him to faint any moment now...
Vassago gives an order to exterminate all the Human Empire Army and Japanese player survivors that he had ignored until now. Pushed down, Asuna valiantly reaches out her hand towards Kirito, but...
And this is where Part A comes to an end. As for the Part B petit commentary, I'll do it later tonight if I manage to make it in time, or tomorrow noon if I don't manage. Thank you for keeping me company all this time!

Part B

Sorry for the wait, I will now be tweeting the petit commetary for Part B of episode 18! For the 'This sure is overflowing, Champion' folk, please mute the #WoUcom tag. Instructions on how to mute can be found here:
For Part B, we once again return to the world of mental images. Kirito is vicariously experiencing the scene of the Moonlit Black Cats' demise. In actual fact, Kirito had continued to fight feverishly and took down all the monsters that were summoned by the alarm trap here, but the dream is not lenient enough to even show that fact...
Despite his cowering and shutting his eyes, he's still unable to shut down the flow of memories... The deaths of Diavel, Kuradeel, LaughCof members continue playing back one after the other. After the battles in ALO and GGO, the flow of memories finally reach his meeting and parting with Eugeo in Underworld...
When Kirito's Fluctlight was damanged by the power surge at the end of episode 24 in the first half of Alicization, Kirito was fervently blaming himself that "I should have died in Eugeo's stead." In the process of his self-image being repaired, this regret was the first thing to return.
Kirito piercing his chest with his hand in an attempt to gouge out his heart. Here, he's actually attacking his own Fluctlight himself. Just then, images of Asuna, Shino and Suguha appear, calling out to him, but...
When I had the pleasure of witnessing this series of scenes at the studio, I thought: "Man, Matsuoka-san's performance sure goes beyond mere acting...". I'm not exaggerating, I myself found it hard to breathe at the performance.
If Kirito had crushed his own heart at this point, his Fluctlight would have ended up trapped in a loop of self-destruction, experiencing the nightmare from Sachi's death to Eugeo's on and on.
However, this is where Higa in the real world noticed a new connection request coming from the Main Visualizer, requesting access to Kirito's STL. The 《WLSS703》 ID belongs to the Blue Rose Sword and means 《Double-Edged, Long Sword, Single-Handed, Serial Number 703》.
This ID also came up during the scene where Kirito used a Sacred Art to look up the current position of the Blue Rose Sword in order to find Eugeo's whereabouts at the Central Cathedral. That's a bit too far away in the story to count as foreshadowing...!
This may be a bit redundant, but using W in the sense of "double" only flies in Japan; apparently, they just use a "D" for that overseas. Rath is filled solely with Japanese, thus this was unavoidable; however, Rinko-san would have had a thing to say to them if she ever found out about this.
The fourth voice that spoke out to Kirito through the Blue Rose Sword... is Eugeo, of course. As I had mentioned in the commentary for the scene where Administrator spoke to Bercouli after his death, a phenomenon where 《Fluctlight fragments are preserved in object data》 has taken place in this instance as well.
As I mentioned before, when Kirito lost Eugeo, he vehemently blamed himself for that; then what about Eugeo, you ask... knowing how kind-hearted he his, he must have been tremendously worried about Kirito blaming himself.
When he was finally able to reunite with Alice Zuberg before he passed away, Eugeo asked her "This is how it should be, right?"; I believe these words contained both a satisfaction at successfully fulfilling his role, and a concern about leaving Kirito alone.
This lingering regret turned into a pseudo-Fluctlight and took refuge inside the Blue Rose Sword, continuing to watch over Kirito, I guess... Eugeo's sure had his hands full with taking care of Kirito ever since he first met him...
With Eugeo, Asuna, Shino, and Suguha's words, Kirito's self-image is finally restored, and he resolves to stand up once more.
On the Dark Territory battlefield, Vassago's continuing to emit his Incarnation of instigation while absorbing the spatial resources in the area. As a blade is about to strike down on a collapsed Asuna... just then, Asuna notices a scent of roses.
And Vassago takes notice of it too. When he turns around, he finds Kirito having stabbed the broken Blue Rose Sword into the ground, taking a deep breath, and reciting the command for an Armament Full Control. Notice the size of the magic circle that appeared beneath him!
When we were doing the dubbing for this episode, the studio had already taken strict infection prevention measures, thus Matsuoka-san and Shimazaki-san were doing their recordings in separate booths; however, when their "Enhance Armament" line overlaps ideally, it sures gives you the goosebumps...
Due to the Blue ROse Sword's Armament Full Control art, both the red knights spured on to slaughter, and Vassago are completely frozen up. If the technique that Eugeo had devised had dealt pain to its targets, it probably wouldn't have been able to stop the conflict.
However, Vassago's able to break out of the ice by his own strength, shouting out "Now then, how's about we dance... Kirito!!". This is the first time he called Kirito by name, rather than 《blackie》, 《kuro》 or 《that guy》.
As Vassago goes into a dash, Sortiliena-sempai attempts to intercept him; however, now powered up to its limits, the Mate Chopper breaks her sword in one hit, blowing her away. Asuna and Ronye were able to catch her, but just then comes a merciless slash from Vassago...
However, that attack is blocked by a golden barrier. The barrier was formed by a transparent right hand. This is an 《Incarnation Arm》, like the one tht Kirito once subconsciously used to repel Bercouli's 《Incarnation Slash》; however, the power held in this one is on a whole new level.
As Asuna turns around, she finds Kirito finally standing up. I've spent a whole lot of time stressing about how I should depict this moment both for the web serialisation, and the bunko version... In the web version, I had him perform a super cool series of moves to stand up: a high vertical jump, followed by a series of somersaults, and ending in a stylish landing; however, (...)
When I turned the story into a bunko version, I chose to change it into him slowly stepping down on the ground to stand up, which you now see here. Now that I see the visual for the scene, I'm glad I made that change, I really am.
As the long awaited Swordland begins playing, Kirito steps forward one step at a time. His right arm that had remained in its severed state for all this time gradually regains its form, fully regenerating at the moment it overlaps with the Incarnation Arm. Although blown away, Vassago stands his ground with an expression of joy on his face.
In the final episode of Season 1, Asuna had said "I'm back, Kirito-kun", while Kirito responded "Welcome back, Asuna"; here, the lines are reversed to "Welcome back, Kirito-kun" and "I'm back, Asuna." With a side view of Kirito's face as he turns around, we head to the ED.
The cast list on the ED credit roll for this episode sure is impressive! Seeing Shimazaki-san voicing Eugeo, Yuuki-san voicing Yuuki fills me with emotion, sure, but to think I'd see Kouji Yusa voicing Kuradeel, Koyasu-san voicing Oberon, and Hoshi-san voicing Death Gun here...
And now we turn to the names of the cast for the Black Cats. I'm getting the urge to write an IF story about what would have happened if they handn't opened the treasure box back then... Though I'm finding it difficult to imagine how the story would have gone afterwards...
And so the episode 18 petit summary comes to an end. I look forward to seeing you for episode 19, "Awakening" too!

Notes

1. ^ Kawahara is making a joke here by imitating a line from Kanamoto Atsushi (Johnny Black) from the very first episode.
2. ^ The Japanese name for Mate Chopper is 友切包丁 (friend-slashing cleaver). The katana's name is 友切丸, where 友切 is the same "friend-slashing" from Mate Chopper, while 丸 (maru) is an affectionate suffix for sword names.

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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous18 August 2020 at 23:28

    cool

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  2. Unknown23 August 2020 at 01:27

    Thanks for doing these, I've been reading the light novel translations as they come out and I like getting to read what Reki is thinking in the afterword sections at the end of each book, so it's nice to get well translated commentary from the anime episodes to read as well. o7

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