This episode opens on Sinon's real world player in a small shopping area as she looks for groceries. An eerie voice starts to whisper her real name from behind. We find out her real name is really
Asada Shino, and she lives alone in the same city as Kirito. The voice is coming from two rather mean looking girls in school uniforms standing behind her.
The two girls then guide Asada to their self appointed leader known as
Endou. The rough looking girl continues eating her candy as she explains that her and her friends spent all of their money on karaoke and that Asada now has to give them her money. When Asada stands firm and refuses to pay up, Endou then approaches her and begins to taunt her. She forms her hand into the shape of a gun and aims directly at Asada. This causes her to go into a state of pure fear and panic. Asada appears as though she's about to crumble to the ground a weep uncontrollably.
Just as she's about to fall apart someone calls out that the police are coming. This causes the three girls to pick up and take off in a flash. When they are out of sight a young man comes over to Asada and asks if she's alright. This is her close and possibly only friend
Shinkawa. After a few moments the scene moves to a small café where Asada and Shinkawa are enjoying a drink together. They discuss life and school. They reveal small little points about one another and it starts to reveal that they seem to have a pretty close relationship.
Skinkawa then brings up GGO and compliments Asada on her progress through the game. He then asks if she's going to the yearly competition known as "Battle of Bullets" or BoB, which is the huge competition that every player enters into in an attempt to win large amounts of money and amazing prizes. Asada says that she will enter, and this year she's going to win.
The scene moves to Asada arriving back at her home. She lives in single room loft by herself, and the room is surprisingly devoid of color and character. She goes to her desk and opens one of the drawers to reveal a model gun of some kind. As she takes it into her hand we are shown a flashback of her as a child with her mother. In the memory an armed man comes into the bank where her mother has an account with. The man kills a worker and threatens to kill Asada's mother if he isn't given money. The man is obviously on drugs and begins getting increasingly violent and paranoid. Asada dashes to him and manages to knock the gun from his hand. The man loses it and charges toward her. As he's about get his hands on her, she grabs his gun and brutally kills him with several shots to the chest and face. The rest of the people in the room, including her mother, look at her in complete shock.
It suddenly cuts back to her in present time and she is shaking from the memory. This probes Asada to have another panic attack and she begins to weep in her room uncontrollably.
We then move to Kirito as he enters into the same hospital that he woke up in nearly a year before after he beat SAO. He meets the nurse that watched over him and she says that she will be monitoring him while he plays the game and will be there is case something happens. He is visibly uneasy about going into this world and facing this new enemy. He has already proven that he can kill in the real world through the game, and he won't hesitate to do it again. With a deep breath and sweaty palms, Kirito hooks up to the game. With medical instruments attached he dives into the unknown world of Gun Gale Online...
REVIEW:
This episode was very interesting and full of much needed background information on our newest member to the cast. The origin of Asada is incredibly dark and has many disturbing scenes even by SAO standards. The darkness and tone of this episode was equivalent to the near rape scene at the end of the first season if not more so. The brutality of the death definitely left an impact and made it very clear as to why Asada acts and feels the way she does. Though her official goal is still a bit unclear, I can speculate as to what her motives are. This also a good lead into Kirito entering into the new world. Now we know exactly how much this game means to Asada, and we know what Kirito's mission is. So seeing these two interact and go through this game together is sure to bring some entertaining and dramatic moments that remind us why we fell in love with this series in the first place. I for one, and really excited to see how Kirito does in this new world, and how Sinon reacts to him...
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Otaku Anonymous
Website Source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/sword-art-online/episode-3-memories-of-blood-656629
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