Saturday, April 7, 2012

Accel World First Impressions--How to Not Create Sympathy

Accel World First Impressions Screenshot 1

There are things in here that I like, yet...

Accel World First Impressions Screenshot 2 Accel World First Impressions Screenshot 3 Accel World First Impressions Screenshot 4

First off, I need to clarify that these first impressions are not from the two-episode web pre-air but are from the first episode of the Viz simulcast that is up on Hulu. With that out of the way, my main take-away from the first episode is this: is the main character some kind of masochist? The episode makes a big deal about establishing how pathetic our protagonist is before he gets his hands on a program that will apparently change his entire life. He's short, fat, gets bullied, and his only escape is beating his own high score in virtual squash. Once this was all established, I did feel a bit sorry for him... but then it was shown that he has friends who want to help him. Then all the sympathy I had for the character flew out the window. If the point is to create a downtrodden character with nowhere to go but up, don't give him an out! And I don't mean the program that stops time and puts him into 3-D Street Fighter, since that's the premise of the show. Seeing the main character make a big deal about not wanting his friends to help him makes me think that he's not so much a social outcast as a victim of teenage angst. I'll be giving this the three episode test, since I like the way technology works in this world and want to see more of it. I'm also interested in the intentions of Kuroyukihime other than the obvious "you too can get an attractive female to like you for no reason" angle. What does she get out of helping this kid? There's no immediately obvious reason, and I hope that they do discuss it. This episode disappointed me a little, but I'll stick with it for now.

Images from Hulu.com.

4 comments:

  1. Huh. Sounds like a series to skip. I'll keep a watch for how you feel about it after 3 episodes, but Teenage-angsty characters are so... >.>" I didn't like them, even when I was one.

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  2. If it weren't for the scene where he's a jerk to his friend (who also happens to be a cute girl) I probably would've been a lot more forgiving of it. He spends most of the episode complaining about how people look down on him and that he wants a better life, yet when someone does try to help him, he immediately rejects them. ;-_- Characters like that are a pet peeve of mine, so it's a good thing that I liked the other stuff that was presented in this episode.

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  3. Well now the real question is...does he consider them friends?

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  4. Well, the definitely have the superficial trappings of friends... They walk home together and seem to be aware of what's going on in each others' lives to a certain extent. The girl character at least knows where to find the main character when he's trying to escape from reality, so she's at least known him for a while. But yeah, that's a good question.

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