u/zephyria_

Joshua awakened as the Phoenix as a baby. He first primed at Phoenix Gate.

In addition to the obvious Game of Thrones and Devil May Cry influences, parts made me think of Attack on Titan, Dragon Age, and the Persona games

Blue Rose Sword reflecting gold light from Alice Zuberg

Kirito to Eugeo

My estimate is not until around episode 8 of the next cour.

Not entirely true, he fights someone else first.

Well, Kirito can’t exactly interact for the time being.

Some additional ones, throughout all arcs: Introspective, Insightful, Wise, Intuitive, Sentimental, Compassionate, Noble, Altruistic, Persevering, Creative, Childish, Playful, Bold, Righteous, Heroic, Stubborn, Awkward, Regretful, Self-Loathing (at times), Self-Destructive (at times), Traumatized

Imo, Selfrontier >> Resolution, for the latest OPs.

Honestly, I'm not feeling it, mainly because I don't think it matches the tone of this arc. It's too bright-sounding for a war story...

As always, thanks so much for translating for us!

I've seen someone comment that Kirito could not imagine a future without Eugeo by his side, hence losing him was as if his own life ended.

I’d love an adaptation of Moon Cradle after Alicization ends, and then of Progressive while we wait for Unital Ring to conclude. I also wish we could have more about what happened in the Underworld post-Moon Cradle.

The Night Sky Sword's Release Recollection absorbs a mass amount of Resources from a far-reaching range of distance and uses it to heal its user and/or others, or for dealing greatly enhanced damage to opponents. When activated, the sky / lighting turns dark, and the Resources being absorbed by the sword look like stars. Without spoiling too much, Kirito uses it against major antagonists near the end of the main Alicization story / War of the Underworld (Volume 18 of the Light Novels).

I believe she was also trying to set Asuna up to get engaged with a cousin who works in banking.

I do enjoy the thought that "Kirito defeats two gods with a flower and a tree branch."

The training was not fleshed out in the LN either; we get straight to the day of the tournament.

I’ll give you that nothing of the Style performance was shown, but the only tournament duel that was detailed in the LN was Kirito vs Egome, the end result of which was animated.

Nobles bending rules is fully depicted at the Academy on multiple occasions, so I feel what happened at the tournament is not irreplaceable in the adaptation.

How they got into the Academy was adequately summarized.

I wouldn't call the anime original scenes "filler"; they've each served a purpose for the benefit of the anime viewers who may not have read the source material.

Re: that certain character's introduction - it could be done later. Re: UW residents not all being nice - sort of introduced with Jink, and that point is driven home at the Academy.

It's possible we'll actually get more Eugeo scenes, though. Who knows at this point.

I'm not saying people can't have an immediate reaction to each new episode - no one can help that. I also reacted to the anime skipping Zakkaria with disappointment. It's mainly that I don't think the anime adaptation for this arc as a whole is completely ruined, terrible, crappy, etc., as others have been saying.

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I agree about the new director. At first I was a bit worried about the change, but now I am so glad it happened.

It comes down to *adaptation* and telling the story of the Alicization arc as best as could be done in an audio-visual format such as anime (whose viewers are not all light novel readers), with limited resources and a set episode count. Hence, I'm taking a "wait and see the overall picture" approach, even if particular episodes don't deliver exactly what I personally want or envisioned.

I mean, I wish the Zakkaria chapter was animated, too, but what about Zakkaria is absolutely essential for driving the main plot forward, that can't be summarized in a flashback or isn't covered in other parts of the story?

We'll have to wait until the entire Alicization anime ends to see what Zakkaria was sacrificed for and whether it was for better or worse, really.

I agree. Though I am sad we won’t get to see the Zakkaria chapter animated, and wish it wasn’t skipped, it’s not super essential to the main plot. iirc, this chapter did not even exist in the original web novel.