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そーどあーと・おふらいん
9
Special
Finished Airing
Oct 24, 2012 to Jun 26, 2013
BD/DVD specials.
5.0/10
Average Review Score
14%
Recommend It
7
Reviews Worldwide
Sword Art Offline didn't seem to add anything; I felt that if you watched it or didn't watch it, you're not missing out on anything (action-wise or information-wise). For animated chibis, they displayed a very limited range of emotions (most of the time it's just blushing); they're chibis, they're supposed to be over the top in my opinion. Plus, too much useless fanservice and tsundereness that I find plain annoying. The attempted humour falls flat, and everything that happens is extremely predictable. The segment that I did enjoy was the trivia corner because it wasn' something that was necessarily repeated information - usually it was something newthat you wouldn't get from just watching the series lightly.
Click an episode to read its synopsis.
first of. there is NO new material in these shorts. secondly, whatever any other reviwers say, this is NOT a recap show. and, imho, you should only watch this if youre a true SAO fan. maybe even a hardcore one. i'm not, but i still enjoyed these short episodes. the review: each episode consist of up to five parts of a SAO news station broadcast: the headlines, sword art offline, trivia, playback corner, slot talk, life counseling and ending the show starts with "news headlines" by chibi anchor asuna followed by either "sword art trivia" with chibi yui (yeah) or goes straight to "sword art offline". in the swordart offline part there is dialog between the chibi host asuna and the chibi commentator kirito. the dialog plot is far from complex. it's buildt on nothing more than; jealousy, mild slapstick and character knowlegde. in the "playback corner" there is one special guest in each epsiode which the playback are supposed to be about. only compromised by the simple dialog plot. there is some character building in this part since the chibi characters are reviewing scenes from SAO and commenting on them. but nothing comes up that you didn't already know. from here it moves on to either a new "sword art trivia" or to chibi "kirito's life counseling". in chibi "kirito's life counseling" the guest is put behind a 'identity concealer' and can ask chibi kirito for any advice. usually falling on the dialog plot or the guests obvious character strengths. in the second episode chibi klein takes over the "life consulling" part and makes an apperance with the host and the commentator ever after. when all this is done it goes to a little summary where they end it in a news station manner. in epsode 6 chibi leafa takes over as host and "life consulling" is replaced with "slot talk". based on the nine episodes i have seen i rate this show as: "(6/10) Fair"
Yeah, it's ok. The art style was pretty good however, the soundtracks were not that good. There were some facts about Sword Art Online like the reason behind the name "Titania", and many more. The character design was really so cute. If I talk about the story so it was nothing that special. It was just an ordinary filler or breaktime story. This extra edition doesn't play any role in the main story so, if you have enough time if you don't wanna finish the anime early so, you can watch it. Overall the extra edition was good and some seen were so funny.
Since many of the reviews for these shorts bring a railing judgment against them, I thought I'd offer a modest defense for them and why they aren't (completely) terrible. Ultimately, I evaluate any anime series, including chibi short spinoffs like this one, based on how well it meets the objective that it sets for itself. The main Sword Art series attempts to tell a sweeping story about how players hold on to their humanity in a virtual world, and while we can debate the efficacy of its attempt to meet that objective, Sword Art Offline sets no such lofty goal for itself and thus shouldn'tbe held to the same kind of standard. This series is, in every sense, bonus material: it's meant simply to offer a few laughs and smiles to fans of the series who have already watched all there is to see, but want to see more of their favorite characters. So, painting with broad brush strokes, this miniseries gives us just that: a series of comedy sketches featuring most of the prominent SAO cast members, the humor of which is primarily slapstick, but for what it is, that sort of approach *works*. Is it high-quality entertainment? Perhaps not, but it's certainly good for a few laughs, and some of the visual gags are indeed pretty funny. The show maintains a decent sense of comedic timing, and for what it may lack in subtlety, it delivers in exuberance. If you enjoy hearing seiyuu clowning around a bit, you'll probably enjoy this series. It's the kind of show you probably have to be in the right mood to enjoy, and for better or for worse, I found myself laughing my head off at it, even though I knew that the humor wasn't particularly well-developed. The humor may get a bit stale if you watch everything in one sitting, so perhaps try breaking it up and watching an episode or two during a lunch break when you need a quick anime pick-me-up. Overall, if you come in without too many expectations, I think you'll find this eager-to-please miniseries entertaining. If you find it's not your thing, well, that's what the "dropped" category is for on our lists. Oh, and the episode in which Heathcliff is a guest contains some foreshadowing for the Ordinal Scale movie. That combined with the trivia sections is probably the only plot-relevant reason to watch this series. Most of it is just for fun.
An idea that didn't work for me. This chibi-style Sword Art Online special attempts to be light and fun within its premise: short episodes where the characters appear in caricature form commenting on events from the main story. The intention is clearly to connect with the audience, revisit moments from the anime, and, incidentally, promote the work in a more "fun" way. But, to be quite frank… for me, this was an extremely tiring experience. The format quickly becomes repetitive. The idea of taking already known characters and putting them in sillier situations might work in small doses, but here it's stretched too far. Instead of adding somethingnew or interesting, the episodes seem to revolve around superficial comments and jokes that don't have much impact. There's no development, no depth—just a constant repetition of a formula that loses its charm very quickly. The biggest problem, however, is how much this can hinder the overall experience. In my case, this special was one of the factors that even made me temporarily distance myself from the main series. There came a point where I became so saturated that I simply couldn't stand this type of content anymore. I couldn't even finish it all in one go; I only completed it years later, with a different mindset and more patience. There's also a significant cultural factor. This type of promotional material, with its more specific humor and short episodic format, tends to work better in Japan, where this style of extra content is more common and accepted as part of a franchise's experience. Outside of that context, it can easily sound empty, unnecessary, or even irritating, as was my case. That said, it's not all completely negative. The voice acting, for example, is a positive point. It helps to give the episodes a bit more life and, at times, even improves jokes that wouldn't originally work so well. It doesn't save the whole thing, but it prevents it from being completely unwatchable. In the end, it's an extremely dispensable type of content. If you really like Sword Art Online and want to consume absolutely everything related to the franchise, you might get some enjoyment out of it. Otherwise, it's something you can skip without a second thought. For me, it was a frustrating, tiring, and unnecessary experience. I don't recommend it; it only avoids the lowest rating because of the dubbing, which manages to somewhat mitigate the damage. =================================================================================================================Versão em Português===================================== Uma ideia que não funcionou pra mim. Esse especial em versão chibi de Sword Art Online tenta ser um conteúdo leve e descontraído dentro da proposta dele: pequenos episódios onde os personagens aparecem em forma caricata comentando eventos da história principal. A intenção é claramente aproximar o público, revisitar momentos do anime e, de quebra, promover a obra de uma forma mais “divertida”. Mas, sendo bem direto… pra mim, isso aqui foi uma experiência extremamente cansativa. O formato rapidamente se torna repetitivo. A ideia de pegar personagens já conhecidos e colocá-los em situações mais bobas até pode funcionar em pequenas doses, mas aqui ela é estendida demais. Em vez de agregar algo novo ou interessante, os episódios parecem girar em torno de comentários superficiais e piadas que não têm muito impacto. Não há desenvolvimento, não há aprofundamento — só uma repetição constante de uma fórmula que perde a graça muito rápido. O maior problema, no entanto, é o quanto isso pode atrapalhar a experiência geral. No meu caso, esse especial foi um dos fatores que me fizeram até me afastar temporariamente da obra principal. Chegou um ponto em que a saturação foi tão grande que eu simplesmente não aguentava mais esse tipo de conteúdo. Inclusive, nem consegui terminar tudo de primeira, só fui concluir anos depois, já com outra mentalidade e mais paciência. Existe também uma questão cultural que pesa bastante. Esse tipo de material promocional, com humor mais específico e formato episódico curto, costuma funcionar melhor no Japão, onde esse estilo de extra é mais comum e aceito como parte da experiência de uma franquia. Fora desse contexto, ele pode facilmente soar vazio, desnecessário ou até irritante, como foi o meu caso. Dito isso, nem tudo é completamente negativo. A dublagem, por exemplo, é um ponto positivo. Ela ajuda a dar um pouco mais de vida aos episódios e, em alguns momentos, até melhora piadas que originalmente não funcionariam tão bem. Não salva o conjunto, mas evita que seja algo totalmente intragável. No fim das contas, é um tipo de conteúdo extremamente dispensável. Se você gosta muito de Sword Art Online e quer consumir absolutamente tudo relacionado à franquia, talvez consiga tirar algum proveito. Caso contrário, é algo que dá pra pular sem pensar duas vezes. Pra mim, foi uma experiência frustrante, cansativa e desnecessária. Não recomendo, só não vai pra nota mínima por conta da dublagem que ainda consegue segurar um pouco o estrago.