[Kawahara Reki's Twitter Commentary] Alicization War of Underworld Episode 19 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. Sorry that it took longer this time; real world stuff was eating my free time.

-Gsimenas

Introduction

I apologise to all of you for making you wait so long. I will now be tweeting a petit commentary of Alicization WoU Episode 19, "Awakening". To all the "I need thy commentary not!" folk, please mute the #WoUcom tag. The process of muting tags is described in the following thread!

Pre-opening scene and opening sequence

Kirito-san has finally recovered! With the insert-filled pan-up, his protagonistness is on full display. Since this scene in the novel was portrayed from Asuna's point of view, it wasn't clear what Kirito was thinking at the time; however, I presume that even while feeling gratitude for all his comrades, he was still enduring the pain of taking in Eugeo's death once again.
With that thought in mind, you can actually feel that his expression does look somewhat clouded. On the other hand, although Vassago maintains his cool facade, he must be bubbling with emotions on the inside... As I've written for the previous episode, the reason why he doesn't die despite the huge hole in his body is because the Life absorption rate of his Mate Chopper surpasses the Life depletion rate from the damage he has suffered.
Having started out at the size of a somewhat largish dagger, the Mate Chopper has already grown to the size of a two-handed sword by now... I really love the dark-reddish aura with sparks effect on the weapon when it's sucking resources...! I wanna use it as my desktop background!
Walking over to Vassago, Kirito retrieves his Night Sky Sword with an 《Incarnatino Arm》. It's the first time we've seen him dual wielding ever since the Administrator battle, but it does sting seeing the Blue Rose Sword still in its broken state... However, the Blue Rose Sword still continues unleashing its Armament Full Control Art even in this state.
"Let's continue where we left off with our showtime that got put on hold back in Aincrad!" Like a great many survivors, even Vassago still has a part of him still stuck in SAO even now. With that thought in mind, the floating island Kirito looks up to at the beginning of the OP sequence――it is actually the 《World End Altar》――feels like Aincrad.
The storyboard and directing for the opening animation is done by NAKASHIGE Shunsuke, just like episode 19 itself. A very elaborate and delicate piece of work... this is what I feel every time I watch it.

Part A

Part A! I really like the background music playing during Vassago's scene... It's sad that this is the final time we'll be hearing that disturbing sax... though that fact is not necessarily set in stone! Kirito's being pinned down by Vassago's fierce attack. It is his first fight after an 18 episode break, after all... He hasn't quite returned to form just yet.
Gaining the upper hand in their sword-crossing, Vassago spits out "Throw that junk sword away". However, the moment Kirito lets go of the Blue Rose Sword, the Armament Full Control Art keeping the red knights frozen would be undone, thus Kirito has no choice but to bear with it.
"That modus operandi of yours put us through a world of mayhem in SAO", Kirito remarks; the Clearers have in fact been driven into a corner numerous times due to Vassago/PoH's schemes. PoH was the one pulling the strings behind the scenes in both the weapon enhancement fraud incident in the Floor 2 arc of SAO Progressive, and the Guild Flag incident in the Floor 5 arc... I've gotta get back to writing SAOP already...
A figure appears as if responding to Tiese's prayer...! The fragment of Eugeo's Fluctlight dwelling inside the Blue Rose Sword is, generally, imperceptible by sight; however, he's been given form by the interference on the Main Visualizer from Kirito's, as well as Eugeo's, Incarnation.
However, in this state, Eugeo's using up his own existence (data) itself to power this interference, this the more he uses this power, the more his Fluctlight fragment gets consumed in the process. For those of you who read Accel World, please think of this as basically following the same logic as when Metatron was about to vanish from existence in her attempt to save Haruyuki.
.
The presence or absence of a Lightcube has no bearing on this phenomenon; rather, the phenomenon is mainly determined by how deep the connection to the world (the Main Visualizer) is. The more linked you are to the world, the greater the power you can excercise on it, yet the bigger the risk that you expose yourself to in return...
Having gained Eugeo's help, Kirito pushes back against Vassago. And so, adding on to the aforementioned Armament Full Control, the two trigger its memory release art. Having regenerated inside the ice, the Blue Rose Sword sure looks beautiful... Roses start blooming on the ice imprisoning the red knights, turning their Life into resources that it then emits into the air.
As the red knights log out peacefully, Vassago attempts to suck in the spatial resources they've left behind with his Mate Chopper. As Asuna gets anxious about this, Yuuki from her memories once again speaks out to her. Perhaps Yuuki's words here describe the story of SAO in a nutshell through a point that's been repeatedly expressed throughout the years.
I wonder, would the five Sleeping Knights, who can't see Yuuki here, be able to have a face-to-face with her if they had been using STLs... just thinking about that feels heartrending. Though it would be nice if such an opportunity ever arose...
Following up on his use of the Blue Rose Sword, Kirito triggers the recolletion release art of the Night Sky Sword as well. The Armament Full Control art of the Night Sky Sword is an ability that turns the Gigas Cedar's super high priority into offensive power and unleashes it in a beam; on the other hand, the recollection release art is an ability that invokes the Gigas Cedar's wide-area resource absorption capability.
The reason why the Mate Chopper was unable to absorb the resources released by the Blue Rose Sword is because the aforementioned resources do not contain any experience of death. Although the Mate Chopper was capable of absorbing 《death resources》 that came from corpses, it is not capable of absorbing regular spatial sacred power (resources that are supplied from the earth and sunlight).
On the other hand, the foundation for the Night Sky Sword is a tree, thus it is capable of absorbing 《life resources》. Although Cardinal was the one who put together the rites for the Night Sky Sword and the Blue Rose Sword, she didn't construct the rights with the intention of having a synergistic "Blue Rose releases resources --> Night Sky Sword absorbs them" effect (though she may have desired such an outcome a little bit).
The synergy is entirely a fluke, or perhaps a combo ordained by fate. In the novel, Asuna felt that the two swords are "The perfect pairing, the ideal partners". Unfortunately, that line was in a narrative paragraph, so we couldn't get it voiced!
With the absorbed resources and his imagination, Kirito turns into his 《Black Swordsman》 persona just like in his battle against Administrator. The direction for this scene featured the iconic piping of abec-san's coat design first appearing as lines of light; my impression for this choice: "Now there's a idea!" Well done, Nakashige-san!
With the transformation complete, the scabbards held by Ronye and Tiese were also drawn in by Incarnation. Wait, no, I'd like to interpret this as the scabbards flying out on their own to complete the image of the Black Swordsman, rather than Kirito pulling them to him of his own will.
"C'mon... let's have some fun, Black Swordsman!", Vassago-san looks super happy! In actual fact, he looks like he's reached his peak in life with how fired up he is right now... Perhaps having turned this joy and will to fight into his energy, he overwhelms Kirito even more. When Kirito comes slashing in after using Sacred Arts to restrain him, Vassago blows him away with a kick, before...
Whoa, he splits into three! It's neither an Incarnation ability, nor repetitive high-speed side jumps, nor afterimages with mass, but rather a Sword Skill from SAO, though not even Asuna knows about it, thus it probably has some sort of extra unlock condition aside from merely levelling up skill profficiency. Like making ten thousand consecutive repetitive side jumps or something...
Kirito intercepts the three Vassagos with the seven-hit Sword SKill 《Deadly Sins》. Although he destroys the body doubles, Vassago's main body comes in just when he's recovering from the post-skill rigidity! Normally, it would take more than a second to recover from the Deadly Sins' rigidity, thus it left him fatally wide-open for a following attack; however, Kirito uses the Non-System Skill he developed in ALO (...)
(...) known as 《Skill Connect》 to cancel the delay period by unleashing 《Vorpal Strike》 with his Night Sky Sword. While Leafa's Incarnation Vorpal Strike boosted the skill's range, this one is boosting power! At the end of the full-powered clash, the Mate Chopper finally breaks...
Although Vassago had his right arm severed here, he already had a giant hole dug in his chest by Asuna's Mother Rosario, thus he didn't suffer any additional physical damage in the attack. However, seeing as his resource supply from the Mate Chopper was now cut off, his Life began depleting rapidly.
Though, even if his Life were to be fully depleted, Vassago would just be logged out of Underworld once again; for as long as he still had an account to use, he could still come back. Kirito was well aware of this himself, thus he took one heck of a measure to prevent him from logging out...
In the Web novel version, I had Kirito say "Have you forgotten our policy for dealing with Red Players in SAO? "Disarming, followed by indefinite incarceration.", but I thought that maaaaaybe that's rubbing it in too much, so I had it removed for the bunko version. But now that I'm watching the anime, perhaps I should have kept it in!
With memories of the Gigas Cedar inserted into him from the Night Sky Sword, Vassago turns into a tree. Now this is what you call the 《Demon Tree》... Of course, despite turning into a tree, he has not lost his consciousness, though he has been deprived of the sense of vision, hearing, taste, and smell. Although I do feel like he still maintains his sense of touch, that doesn't change the fact that Vassago will have to put up with being in this state until he manages to log out.
Although Kirito mentioned "years or decades", the raider team would log Vassago out if someone among them noticed that something was wrong, thus he presumed that even if the thousandfold acceleration were to be restarted beforehand, Vassago would only spend several tens of days as a tree. Who would have thought the acceleration would be ramped up THAT much.
Maaaan, be that as it may, Vassago sure was tough! Among all the villains in the series, there's probably no one who's been as tenacious as him. Thanks to Koyama-san's passionate performance, as well as the passion from the staff, I believe he'll leave a remarkably strong impression on people even considering how long SAO's story is! Thank you very much!
Kirito uses the resources remaining in the Night Sky Sword to heal his comrades with Sacred Arts. Normally, healing arts first require turning the resources into light elements and then turning the elements into a liquid, but he skipped over the details. Well, Charlotte did say that "All Arts are but mere tools for harnessing and framing your Incarnation"...
Klein beats Asuna to the punch by running up to Kirito first! Klein letting out some manly tears on Kirito's chest!
Even though Asuna herself wanted to just rush into an embrace herself... It's so like Asuna-san to hold in her urges for the time being... However, seeing Kirito holding out his hand to her is the straw that broke the camel's back. Hey, ever since Kirito was assaulted by Kanamoto at the end of episode 1, she's been waiting for this moment for 24+19 = 43 episodes, after all!
With that thought in mind, I found the scene where Kirito and Asuna embrace each other to be very touching... Their expressions, tears, and voices; an awfully beautiful scene this is.
In order to rescue Alice, the two set out for their final battle. How exactly do they plan on catching up... is what I'm sure many of you questioned at this point, but they just flew there... This is a skill combining Incarnation with Sacred Arts; while a membrane made out of wind elements envelopes their bodies to cancel out air resistance, bursting wind elements behind them gives them propulsion.
In the scene where their friends see the two off as they fly away, Klein said "Hey hey, what are you supposed to be, a ――, you bastard"; I explained in the narrative paragraph that the ―― was supposed to contain the name of a protagonist from a certain national manga, though we of course couldn't use that line as is in the anime...
However, Klein's voice actor Hirata-san was informed what the novel version of the scene had during recording, thus he ad-libed an awesome "Kuuuh!" that I'm sure the novel fans will appreciate! Kuuh!
That's it for the Episode 19 Part A commentary! I'm sorry, but I think Part B will most likely have to wait till tomorrow afternoon, so I hope you all can hold on till then!

Part B

Sorry for the wait, I will now begin the petit commentary for Episode 19, Part B. For the "noo sankyuu" folk, please mute the #WoUcom tag! Instructions for muting can be found in the following thread!
"Damn!", curses Critter-san in the Main Control Room at the Ocean Turtle. Seeing as Vassago is still alive yet isn't making any moves whatsoever, he says "What's he doing". He couldn't have even imagined that the guy turned into a Vascedar...
Although it was possible to force Vassago to log out from outside, the "PoH" account would end up no longer useable in Underworld. In order to avoid that outcome, Critter made the decision to leave Vassago logged in.
Albeit a bit ahead of schedule than Gabriel had ordered, seeing as the red knights were all practically wiped out, Critter attempts to restart the time acceleration in Underworld. The reason why the FLA rate is set using an old-fashioned mechanic lever... is probably because of the preferences of the Genius Higa!
As he uses the lever, the rate stops at 1200; however, it would be in Critter's best interest to increase it even further if it's possible (since that would give Gabriel more time to capture Alice). However, he notices that the rate cannot be raised above 1200 without releasing the lock beside the lever. As he clicks his tongue, a trustworthy (?) helper comes to his aid!
Meanwhile, in the sub-control room, Higa is being treated after being shot by Yanai. Although I, of course, have never been shot with a gun, I do know that even a slight cut with a blade is pretty painful, thus being pierced by a burning hot lump of lead probably hurts like hell... I want to go through my entire life without learning what it feels like though!
Having been pulled up from the cableduct, Higa received cardiopulmonary resuscitation from Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka and Doctor Koujirou, though which of them handled the cardiac massage and which of them handled the breaths will remain an eternal mystery.
Hearing that a large number of VRMMO players logged in from China and Korea, Higa becomes dejected. Half of the reason for why he joined the Alicization Project was because a Korean friend of his had fallen victim to a terror attack while he was deployed overseas, thus it's not surprising that this piece of news is unbearable for him...
In the novel, Higa's friend died during his deployment in Iraq; though in 2007, an actual terror attack that took the lives of Korean soldiers did in fact take place in Afghanistan. Military service is obligatory in Korea; I'd like people to always be aware of the reality that young people in a country right next door live in.
An abrupt warning! I love this sound, so I'd like to use it as my ringtone! (it would cause a whole lot of trouble if it were to ring outside). Due to Brigg disabling the lock through brute force, the countdown for the 《maximum acceleration》 phase begins. The acceleration rate is, whammy! 5,000,000! (90% of my followers won't get the reference).
A 5,000,000 acceleration rate means that in the span of 1 second in the real world, 5,000,000 seconds = 57 days, 20 hours, 53 minutes and 20 seconds pass by in Underworld. That'd basically mean 10 years pass by in the span of a single minute. A certain 《Room of Spirit and Time》(1) has an acceleration rate of 360, thus, ehm... basically, it's bad news!
In order to log Kirito and Asuna out the usual way, it's necessary to use the controls in the Main Control Room, thus Higa resolves to once again go down the maintenance hatch into the cableduct. But then, going down the ladder on his own is out of his league with the major injury he suffered, thus Kikuoka offers him a piggyback ride.
In Underworld, Kirito and Asuna are flying at high speed in pursuit of Gabriel. By now, Kirito is aware that he is deeply connected to the 《Laws》 of Underworld. Explaining the logic behind this from scratch would take a whole lot of time and would include spoilers for upcoming plot points from the novel, thus, in short (...)
Please think of this as 《a state where his Imagination=Incarnation surpasses all laws in UW》. Meaning that everything Kirito imagines (there are limits to the scale of this though) practically becomes a reality. Of course, someone having an Incarnation this strong is an exception rather than the rule.
At this point of the story in the novel, Kirito's memories back from his time in his comatose state were gradually coming back to him; when he recalled the 《Story Exchange Meetup》 Asuna, Alice, Ronye, and Sortiliena had in a camp tent the previous night, he let out an "Ugyah――――!" as his Incarnation went out of whack, leading to a risk of crashing down... that's what it led too, but (...)
That was a rather comedic scene, thus there were concerns that it would break the tension of the story, so it was, unfortunately, cut. In a novel, it is possible to adjustments to things like that with stylistics, yet seriousness has to be clearer than comedic bits in a visual medium, thus (...)
(...) for the "I wanna know what Kirito and Asuna talked about back there!", I hope you'll read volume 18 of the novel... (shameless plug)
Kikuoka's voice suddenly rings out inside Kirito's head as he's flying. At this point, the acceleration has not yet begun, thus it is still possible to communicate between the worlds. After being warned about the maximum acceleration phase, Kirito apologised to him, "Sorry for all the things I said back there", referring to his shouting at Kikuoka after the battle against Administrator.
The fact that anyone who didn't manage to escape through the 《World's End Altar》 before the maximum acceleration would be stuck in UW for at least 200 years... Kirito decided to keep to himself, instead of telling Asuna. The reason why he did so is because he believed that if he did tell Asuna about this and only Asuna herself had the chance to escape in time, she would choose to discard this choice. Well, this is pretty much par for the course for Kirito, but (...)
(...) there is another reason why he didn't tell her about it, though I'll leave that for later. Kirito gets back to flying. But Asuna's look implies that she realised something was up...
Meanwhile, Alice is flying towards the 《World's End Altar》 with Amayori and Takiguri. Although she finally gets a glimpse of something that fits the bill in the distance, by now the dragons have flown over two thousand kilometres from the Great Eastern Gate, thus they've reached their limit and their Life has begun depleting.
Further beyond the World's End Altar, you can get a faint glimpse of the 《World's End Wall》 that surrounds the Dark Territory; according to the UW creation myth, this wall continues endlessly into the sky. There were individuals among the goblins, ogres, and giants who attempted to climb the wall bare-handed, but they all fell to their death without exception.
The one responsible for the creation of this wall is Higa; it was quite the simple way to delineate the 《end of the world》. Though, if he'd gone for an ocean instead, UW people would probably have just built boats, while the 《invisible walls》 frequently used in open-world games would be hard to accept for the people...
The smartest move would have been to make the map into a planet-sized sphere, but "it's too big of a pain in the ass to make all that content!", this is why Higa chose the 《super tall wall》 option, though he did underestimate the Cardinal System's abilities himself... this will come up sometime later.
Now then, now then. Seeing Gabriel Miller=Subtilizer=Emperor Vector steadily closing in on her, Alice comes to the conclusion that he would catch up to her before she is able to reach the World's End Altar at this rate, thus she resolves herself for a fight. However, the dragons are already at their limit, thus she gives them their final order to return to the Human empire.
Amayori and Takiguri are sibling dragons (Takiguri is the elder brother, Amayori is the younger sister), thus they each have to find their own husbands and wives. Alice speaks very kindly to them here... Although dragons are weapons rather than pets, they are also the ultimate partners for all high-ranking Integrity Knights, soothing their souls that have no place to go.
Tears appear in Amayori's eyes at receiving Alice's order... The two dragons ignore the order and assault Subtilizer. Despite burning away what little remained of their Life to fire hot flames, Gabriel has already suffered an attack of the same attribute from Sinon, thus he nullifies it with his 《Incarnation of emptiness》, as if saying that the same attack won't work twice.
The two dragons suffer near-fatal damage from the black lightning counterattack. Although they were able to withstand it, there comes Subtilizer's merciless followup. Just wen Alice screamed out... zudoon, comes a pillar of light from the sky! When I had the pleasure of seeing this cut during storyboarding, I thought: "Maybe Kirito-san folding his arms like that is going too far...", but then I remembered that this is what the novel scene was like when I spent more time thinking about it!
Kirito finally confronts Subtilizer. The other reason why Kirito didn't tell Asuna about the maximum acceleration phase is because he had already sensed Subtilizer's abnormal Incarnation by that point and had concluded that it would be dificult to bring him down within the timelimit.
Next episode, we're finally having the last battle. Please enjoy the battle against the strongest foe with your own eyes! This concludes the petit commentary for Episode 19, Part B, thank you for tagging along!

Notes

1. ^ Reference to Dragon Ball. The English translation (or dub, I don't know for sure) changed the term to "Hyperbolic Time Chamber".

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