Why is everyone in anime-Japan a complete sociopath? Even the bullies hounding Sinon are waving guns around and doing the most dickish things imaginable and laughing like maniacs all the while. The conformist message has to be starting to wear thin here even for the most unperceptive of viewers. ‘Tis entirely possible, anime writers, for people to fall outside typical behavioral norms without departing the sunny shores of sanity. One can not conform without wanting to rape everything. Well, except meme-Spiderman. That guy’s hopeless.

So blah blah, Sinon’s fine, and Kirito doesn’t get injected with the evil drug because Shinkawa just happens to stab the syringe in the one place where a metal diode for a heart-monitor remains, turning the whole scene into something more resembling a gay porno than anything else. (Oh come on, you know I’m right.) Then Sinon goes through a typical sequence of happy-resolutions while Kirito talks us to death for another half-episode. Blah blah. Then Sinon finally, finally, FINALLY realizes that defending herself from the crazy killer and saving everyone’s lives at that bank was a GOOD THING. My question is why does Sinon seem to mentally cast off the personality of Sinon? As if that’s a good thing? What’s wrong with being Sinon? Said personality has done nothing but help her be a better person. Why does she stop being a badass? In real life (or at least somewhere that is not Japan), Sinon might go on to be one of the top hardcore players in GGO, maybe making her living off competitive gaming and stuff. That would be a nice, strong, female character that would break some stereotypes. She might even become a gun aficionado and relish her knowledge and capabilities. Instead, her experience in GGO is subtly treated as if it were some strange aberration not worth repeating, so as soon as the GGO scenario is resolved, Sinon gets shuffled off into Kirito’s stupid harem, right next to Asuna’s worn-out vibrator. Kawahara Reki, I have some bad news: you suck at writing and are a misogynist pig, even though you might not realize it.

Tune in next week, when Part II of SAO2 starts going and we start this whole fucking cycle of death and despair over again. Better get your drink on.