important relationship things from unital ring so far:

asuna considers sugu one of her best, closest, most trusted friends

asuna trusts yui and kazuto more than anything

yui has a favourite uncle and it is not klein

the whole squad adores yui and she has been given nicknames by fucking everyone

kazuto started the princess thing

silica's closest to lis out of everyone

lis and kazuto tease eachother like siblings

kazuto regrets not getting closer to his friends when they were in aincrad

kazuto and asuna's relationship is so well-known that even other players who don't personally know them think it's one of the only good things to come from sao

lis and silica are officially over their crushes

sinon has other friends outside of the squad

trish calls agil andy

trish and agil are both very close to kazuto and trish is very maternal towards him

kazuto sees lis and asuna as above him because they're in the grade above him, but he's on the same authority with klein and agil

sugu and yui are super close, they're more like sisters

this is the plot of unital ring

Breaking News!

Unital Ring will have a manga series and here's the sneak peek preview

dying of second-hand embarrassment at the start of unital ring

girl what are you doing... why did you do that?!

and you're stuck with the consequences

you idiot

help

(worst part is i perfectly understand every step that lead there and also if i was in the same situation there's a very real chance id have ended up in the exact same cringe-ass position)

^bullying me

It's shikimi, It's mito, eiji, sugou, kouichirou, kayaba, siune...

(wow it's almost like the relationships that Asuna has with these characters that are tied to her are so unexplored and with an unclear conclusion, it has so much to be desired)

Sword Art Online Unital Ring VI Cover by Abec.

When delivery bends the book...

Sword Art Online 27 Unital Ring 6

Author: Reki Kawahara

Illustrator: abec

Label: Dengeki Bunko

Release Date: 7 October 2022

English Release: Yen-press is currently releasing this series in English so check it out if the series interests you.

My Score: 3/5

Once again, I found myself asking throughout this volume why Unital Ring and Return to Underworld aren’t seperate arcs. The two never feel related at all and both plotlines have new elements introduced this volume that complicate them even further and make the story harder to follow. It doesn’t help that large chunks of this volume felt made up of explanations of previous events. I think both stories really would have benefited from being seperate arcs and I just hope that Kawahara is able to connect the two plotlines in a way at the end of the arc to justify them being told at the same time.

Anyway, this volume opens with the Underworld team (Kirito, Asuna, and Alice) being reunited with Selka, Tiese, and Ronie who have just awoken from their deep sleep. Kirito and Asuna are kicked out of the Underworld soon after they wake up because of the time limit but Alice is able to stay for longer so the volume is split between Kirito, Asuna, and the others in Unital Ring, and Alice in the Underworld. In the Unital Ring plotline, the gang has progressed to the second floor of UR and there’s some further potential connections to Aincrad revealed. In the Underworld plotline, Alice learns why everyone decided to go to sleep until Alice’s return and it turns out that there are people other than Selka, Ronie, and Tiese who were frozen in time. We learn more about what happened during Kirito’s and Asuna’s time in the Underworld and there’s some fun reveals there with regards to romance. There’s also the introduction of another plotline in which Kikuoka is working on developing a cat AI product but the cat keeps on acting in a non-catlike way so he requests Kirito and Asuna to find a cat in the Underworld so that they can use it to work on the product. He also gives the prototype to Asuna to look after. This plotline isn’t brought up again after it is introduced but I have to assume that it will become relevant in a later volume.

This volume had some really interesting plot points and character moments but for me it was ruined by the further complication of an already confusing plotline. Again, my hope is that Kawahara is going to do something to connect the plotlines and justify them happening at the same time but, for now, it feels like a bit of a mess.

I will say that this volume did make me want to read Moon Cradle though. I haven’t because I’ve never been that interested in Ronie and Tiese, it seemed skippable, and I assumed it would get adapted into an OVA or something but this volume succeeded in making Ronie and Tiese interesting to me so maybe I’ll finally read them. I do also want to read the first volume of Demons Crest, Kawahara’s new series that just came out, so I’ll do that soon. But first, time to read the new Astrea Record spin-off of Danmachi.

Yknow, you'd THINK Yujikiri would be part of the "bury-your-gays" trope: but THEN they pull out Lycoris and Eolyne...😳 The yujikiri continues afterall...

I think that's an extremely rare occurrence and I think we are extremely blessed to have them. ✨🙏😭💖💯🌈

SAO Volume 25 Unital Ring 4 - Review/Discussion

also, because this is something i'm thinking about a lot given... *gestures vaguely at unital ring* reki originally wanted kazuto's parents to die because they were working on fulldive tech and a company had them assassinated so they could steal the technology. just throwin' that one out there for no reason.

Chibi Kirito

Kirito Party/Friends

Kirito/Kazuto Kirigaya

Asuna/Asuna Yuuki

Leafa/Suguha Kirigaya

Silica/Keiko Ayano

Lisbeth/Rika Shinozaki

Sinon/Shino Asada

Yui

Alice Zuberg

Klein/Tsuboi Ryoutarou

Agil/Andrew Gilbert Mills

i really need to get to unital ring, because i need to know whether or not the theories my mind has constructed from the spoilers ive read actually hold water or i misinterpreted something

(mostly: how much do we actually know in-canon about those 200 accelerated years in the underworld? i know it's *not much*, but i need precise info; and for that i need to find time and motivation to read beyond the end of alicization; and like, i have the pdfs downloaded and ready so it shouldn't be an issue)