kunori - Episode 15 Commentary (SAO II)

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The Kirigaya's in Kawagoe, Saitama. They have their kadomatsu out, but the year's not over yet.
Kadomatsu are officially supposed to be put up on 13th Dec; I was surprised by how early that was, but lately,
families usually put it up after Christmas instead, on the 26th-28th. By the way, I haven't done it even once since I started living alone…

A 28th Dec (2025) on the TV screen. That's exactly two weeks after the 3rd BoB tournament held on 14th Dec.

It's the second… no, third… time seeing Kazuto and Suguha having breakfast? I've been into tables lately,
so my eyes focused on the dining table instead of the food, lol. They use placemats, so it's probably oiled solid wood, and such…

《Mechatronics》comes from "mechanics" and "electronics" and like it suggests, it's a field fusing mechanical and electronic engineering…
…Apparently! Kirito's been attending the mechatronics course in school mainly due to Yui.

It's been a while since we saw Kirito as a spiky hair spriggan (haha) Yui didn't like it, but it does look cool too, right? Maybe.

This part where Kirito, Leafa, and Yui fall into Jǫtunheimr is in the 4th volume. If you're interested, do check that out too… (ad)

I happily wrote "like a mix between an elephant and a jellyfish…" in the books, but I guess it must have been horrible for abec who had
to illustrate it and the anime staff who had to draw it. It can only be said to be an "elephant jellyfish"; what a gro… no, cute design!

As for why Kirito must have known it was the《Holy Sword Excalibur》just by seeing the end of the floating dungeon,
it must have been through his experience of generating the item with GM authorities when he fought King Oberon.

Suguha's so cute when she went "Mgh!" against Kirito's "That creepy…"! How she blew bubbles into her drink → getting a milk moustache too!

I made Kirito say all that, but I've been diving into Hollow Fragment's hidden areas just for the enjoyment of finding rare items…
I want another EXP +30 one-handed sword…

In Asuna's! House, there's! A jacuzzi! (That's what matters?)

It's the American Jacuzzi (ジャクージ) corporation that developed the jacuzzi (ジャグジー), but  I don't quite know why it became ジャグジー in Japan…
It's probably something to do with the Mishaguji (ミシャグジ) faith, nope.

Even Asuna who first appeared at 15 years old is now 18. Not that that has anything to do with anything. Not at all.

The opening changes from this episode 15 onwards! It's pretty different from the OPs so far, with the cool art focused on the digital.
The part where Asuna and Leafa's simultaneous buff casting sparkles make me tremble!

The OP's Tomatsu Haruka's "courage". I loved it since I first heard the demo, so when I said that I kept listening to it after putting it
on my Walkman, someone retorted with a "Already?!". The CD will be out on 3rd December!

The scene changes to Lisbeth's Smith Shop in ALO's Yggdrasil City. Yggdrasil City's a new city built right above Central Capital Arun,
and Kirito and Asuna rented their room here too. That's where Asuna and the rest watched the BoB tournament.

Klein said all that as an employee of an import trading company, but seeing as he was reemployed right after imprisoned in SAO for 2 years,
it's honestly a good company & has a good CEO.

The Cait Sith sitting beside Silica is Sinon who made a character in ALO. It's newly created, rather than converting GGO's Sinon,
but she's quite seasoned thanks to Kirito and the rest helping with her training lots.

"Spirit Blade Kagutsuchi", "Light Bow Shekhinah"; these are legendary-grade weapons on par with
the Holy Sword Excalibur or General Eugene's "Demonic Sword Gram".

Kirito changed his hairstyle because Yui disliked it with the reason that it's "hard to sit on". And she takes her seat straight away!

The four major variants of quests are "Fetch", "Escort", "Collection" and "Subjugation", but I don't quite like lumping those about killing
weak mobs over and over again under "Subjugation"… So I coined the "Slaughter" type, but I guess that's not quite right either, huh, lol.

I went "Uohh!?" the first time I saw the cut with all the characters and that pickup after the weapons were fully restored, lol.
It was all seriously cool, including that last group shot, so merchandise of it, please…!

Sounds like Lisbeth's a long-time gamer from her words… Well, she wouldn't have suddenly went into crafting otherwise, lol.

The stairs going down leads directly to Underground World Jötunheimr from
Central Capital Arun and only Leafa can open its door with the key she got from Tonkii.

A Cait Sith's triangular ears and tail naturally don't exist on the players' actual selves, but they can still convey sensations.
When they're held onto, those players not used to it get a "really strange feeling"… or so Silica says. I want to try too.

Jötunheimr's huge! It looks cold! The underground space's has a diameter of thirty kilometers and it's five hundred meters to the roof.
Neither sunlight nor moonlight can reach, so players can't fly.

The inverted ice pyramid hanging in the middle of the ceiling is the dungeon where Excalibur is and the huge hole below's called《Great Void》.
It's still unknown what's at the bottom of that hole.

I often represent distances and sizes in game worlds in meters, but as virtual worlds don't have the meter standard,
I thought it would be a little awkward, but when I discussed it with Bandai Namco's Producer Futami the other day about "Lost Song",
he represented the map size in kilometers too and I went "ooh!" in my head. Next time we meet, I'll ask him about the standard for a meter…
or so I say, but I forgot it several times already; next time for sure!

I wonder if Klein's the only one looking cold due to Salamanders' cold resistance being low, lol. Or maybe he's just bad with cold…

Asuna's pretty used to the spell chanting too!
It's good to chant slowly to avoid mistakes at relaxed times like this, but chanting in battle is done as fast as possible.

Klein's grandpa's last words sound real unconvincing! And I like American cars! The new Mustang V8GT Premium Coupe's way too cool.

It looks like more than 7 can ride on Tonkii's back, but there's a weight restriction, or rather, a 1-party restriction, or rather…
If an eighth person were to get on, that eighth person will get eaten. I'm kidding.

The music when flying on Tonkii's wonderful with its "BGM for the skies" feel! And Silica and Sinon shaking their heads are wondercute!

I honestly thought Hidaka was amazing for getting the okay in just a single try for the line,
"It's zero percent even for a Cait Sith master tamer fully boosted with specialized equipment!"

Urðr is here! Huge! Since she's of Jötunheimr's giant race. As a comrade of Tonkii, her hair ends feel faintly like tentacles… lol.

Urðr's story = The base for this quest, Norse mythology, mixed with Excalibur, Celtic mythology; the reason's in the next episode…!

In other words, Urðr's spring was frozen and extracted from the ground, becoming《Þrymheimr》while the hole created became《Great Void》.
So the bottom of Great Void is connected to Niflheimr, but that's still presently unimplemented.

About the quest from the NPCs allied to the frost giants' king, Þrymr, it would be the players hunting down Tonkii's allies earlier.

Sure, it's a false sword, but Caliburn's considerably strong, so the players who got it would be satisfied.
It's like that. It's like Excalibur and Excalibur II…

The《MMO Tomorrow》Klein said is the game information portal site managed by Thinker from the first season.
Well, even if they clear Urðr's quest, it's questionable whether that's top news or not, though… lol. It's not like the other players know!

The ED changes from this episode too! The song's LiSA's "No More Time Machine" that was never revealed in public until episode 15's broadcast.
This song will be coupled with the ED song for Mother's Rosario, "Shirushi"! The CD will be out on 10th December!

The ED song's wonderful, but the art's amazing too… And that choice of scenes behind the dozing girls, lol.