Sword Art Online: Season 2/ Episode 7 "Crimson Memories" – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Overview

This episode steps away from GGO to have both Shino and Kirito reflect on what happened in the last episode.

Review (with Spoilers)

I wouldn’t necessarily call this a filler episode, but I must admit I was kind of bored watching Kirito give himself a guilt trip over the three members of Laughing Coffin he killed while hiding his feelings from everyone he cared about. Also, watching as Shino’s friend Shinkawa tried to hide his jealousy made me roll my eyes. But, at the very least, it seems this development episode, for a lack of a better term, is just to bridge the qualifiers with the main tournament. For more on “Crimson Memories” look below.

Topic 1: I Said Are You Gonna Be My Girl? – Shinon (Sinon) and Shinkawa (Spiegel)

After that weird intimate moment between Sinon and Kirito in the last episode, it is hard to tell if Shinon is mad Kirito held her and got close to her like that, or because she kind of liked being held like that but wished it wasn’t him to do that. Either way, you can tell Shinkawa is worried about how Kirito is making Shinon flustered and with him unable to tell if she likes him, him being Kirito, or not, he really tries to push his position. He tries holding her hand, see what type of response she’ll give him when he hugs her close, and while he doesn’t necessarily get rejected, he is told to wait. She tells him she wants to be stronger and while facing off with Kirito is starting to help with her gun phobia, assumingly it still exists in some form and she wants to get rid of it totally. And while she may not fully like herself and Sinon combining into one person anymore, she realizes to get stronger it has to be done.

Topic 2: Suppressed Memories – Kirito

Kirito leaves the hospital and, upon returning home, his little sister Sugu starts to grill him a bit about where he has been since he didn’t tell her anything about joining GGO. Leading Kirito to try to be a bit secretive about what he is doing, but since Sugu has already asked Asuna, and knows some details, Kiritio ends up getting caught in his own lie. Though he doesn’t get in trouble with her from lying. If anything she pushes the idea that Asuna is worried about him. Especially since Kirito doesn’t seem to want her to help him in GGO, despite his face visibly showing how worried, and perhaps frightened, he is.

But while he doesn’t confide in his sister or girlfriend, or even Sinon in this episode, he does in his nurse Ms. Aki. With her he speaks about his guilt when it comes to killing those Laughing Coffin members, and how bad he feels for forgetting their faces or names. So, being that Aki used to work in the surgery department and has some knowledge of partaking in life or death situations, she does her best to remind Kirito of who, or what, he was trying to save in his split second decisions. And while Kirito may feel guilty for remembering just now, after a year, perhaps it was just his subconscious didn’t think he needed to remember the names and faces of those Laughing Coffin members till now. And through her dialog with him we see her help him calm down and seem ready to head back into GGO and win BoB.

Topic 3: The Main Tournament – Kirito & Sinon

With the qualifiers over and Sinon somehow making it to the real tournament despite losing to Kirito, both seem ready for a real battle now. Sinon is ready to take down his “Jerk, sexual harassing, show off” self (1), and Kirito just seems ready to not hold back. Now, whether that will mean we may finally get to see some good battles from this season? Only time will tell.

Collected Quote(s)

“If it’s something you’re meant to forget, you will without even thinking you want to forget. Because, you know, the more times you think you want to forget, the stronger those memories become, right? So doesn’t that mean that, deep in your subconscious, you think you really shouldn’t forget them?”

—           “Crimson Memories.” Sword Art Online

Things To Note

1. Shinkawa was talking about maybe ambushing Kirito out of revenge, but Sinon says she wants a fair one on one fight. Probably to not only prove herself as the better fighter but beating Kirito to her probably means she is strong enough to maybe quit GGO.