Phantom Bullet

Key Events

There’re only 5 left including Kirito, Sinon and Death Gun with one of the others being Dark Wind who came in second last time. Keeping on with the theories Kirito believes there are more than 1 accomplice with Death Gun as he believes Death Gun killed another and it would be too convenient if they are in the same place for 1 person to get to. So it’s logical that out of the 10 surviving members of Laughing Coffin, others may be working with Death Gun.

With Dark Wind being someone they believe could also be a target for Death Gun, they decide to take him out as well so that Death Gun can’t kill him. The plan is put into motion as Kirito takes the buggy out with Sinon as back up on sniper from far away.

As soon as Dark Wind approaches after hearing the commotion from the start of Kirito vs Death Gun, Sinon instantly takes him out. Sinon then locates Death Gun who also sees Sinon, they fire a shot at each other. Sinon’s destroys Death Gun’s sniper whilst only the scope is destroyed on Hecate. Kirito then makes his charge. However Death Gun comes out of hiding and draws a blade from a part of his sniper and surprises Kirito with some fast movements.

In the real world, Asuna arrives at Kirito’s ward as he fights Death Gun who Asuna recognises as one of Laughing Coffin’s leaders. Death Gun is finally confirmed as Sterben, which is German for when a patient dies in hospital.

Death Gun brings up an interesting fact, that Kirito never asked for his name, which is why he doesn’t know. And he proceeds to surprise Kirito with his excellent sword skills.

Thoughts

Well, I nearly fell asleep during the first half, I mean seriously, they just repeated again what we already know. Well not quite exactly that, but close enough and either way it was quite boring without anything interesting happening. I don’t know what they’re doing but surely they’d think us viewers will get it the first time. That made this episode very slow however I was given a bit of a jolt awakening when Death Gun vs Kirito started. And that was actually a good fight with fluid animation. That bullet time thing and Kirito’s acrobatics were more engaging in the fight rather than standing in one place flipping around like he was in some sort of hamster wheel. Certainly a tale of two halves, but I do say that the second half of the episode made up a lot of ground and left it at a very nice cliffhanger, which might explain the lacklusterness of the first half so they could end it there. Still, that’s a poor excuse to waste half an episode.

I wonder what people are thinking when watching BoB, in terms of the amount of swordplay. Kirito and Death Gun can definitely set the new meta in the game. In all tournaments following there’ll probably be a lot more swordplay for close quarters combat. If you’re skilled, as proved, it is more useful than a gun. But again, you have to be really skilled with some pretty fast reflexes and agility.

What a surprise, Kirito’s rehab nurse wasn’t part of Death Gun’s group. I think they’re missing a trick here, would’ve been a very nice plot twist, although it would’ve made little sense and hard to explain… but still…

Anyways, it was a nice fight to end, I’m hoping the buildup continues and blossoms into something good next episode.