{"id":5918,"date":"2017-02-20T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/?p=5918"},"modified":"2017-05-07T09:31:14","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T13:31:14","slug":"rosario-v2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/2017\/02\/20\/rosario-v2\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Sword Art Online: Mother’s Rosario, Vol. 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Author’s Note: This review contains spoilers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">—<\/p>\n<p><em>Sword Art Online: Mother\u2019s Rosary<\/em> Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 left off: after talking with the Sleeping Knights, Asuna agrees to join their six-player team and help them take down the final boss of a dungeon floor. After a disastrous test run, the Sleeping Knights get through their boss battle thanks to Asuna\u2019s strategy and Yuuki\u2019s power, succeeding in being the first guild to defeat the floor boss. Their names are inscribed on the wall of victory and all is happy\u2026 until Asuna asks to permanently join the guild. Her request is rejected, and before she can learn the real reason why, Yuuki dramatically logs out of the game.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shareasale.com\/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=65886&userID=1411976&productID=652424700\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5986\" src=\"http:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/SAOrosario-v2-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/SAOrosario-v2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/SAOrosario-v2.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Like the first volume, Volume 2 is economical with its story and pacing. Fights are delivered quickly with plenty of action, magical explosions, and heroic poses (complete with wispy, action-suspended hair).<\/p>\n<p>But thanks to the dialogue, credible RPG details, and logical strategy based on character stats, they don\u2019t feel rushed and, ultimately, bring the Sleeping Knights\u2019 mission to a gratifying and exciting conclusion\u2014even if it\u2019s clear the <em>real<\/em> story is just getting started.<\/p>\n<p>While the answer to Asuna\u2019s question isn\u2019t answered in this volume, the story successfully accomplishes what it set out to do: move from a story about a game to a story about people and the relationships they develop in whatever world they choose to include in their reality. The battle is won, there\u2019s no more fights to be had, and for once there\u2019s no additional villain lurking in the background to mess it all up again. All that\u2019s left to do is figure out what\u2019s going on with Yuuki and untangle the web of melancholy that surrounds her whenever a future in the game is mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>However, I don\u2019t think this volume of the story accomplished its mission as well as it could have. Why? Kirito.<\/p>\n<p>Right before the second attempt at taking down the floor boss, Asuna and Yuuki discover a band of nasty players lurking in front of the entrance to the boss battle, ready to slip in and steal the kill from the Sleeping Knights. Just as the Sleeping Knights are getting ready to take on the lot of them, Kirito shows up and offers to godmod his way through the fight and keep the players busy so Asuna and her new squad can complete their mission.<\/p>\n<p>What makes his appearance especially <em>frustrating<\/em> is that everything about this arc is focused on Asuna finding her own strength to be successful alone, without standing in the shadow of her parents or her boyfriend\u2014as dictated by the story itself.<\/p>\n<p>Just before Asuna agrees to join the Sleeping Knights, the reader sees Asuna IRL. After being forcibly removed from the game by her mother, she leaves the house for a quiet, head-clearing walk. Understandably upset, she pulls out her phone\u2014Kirito\u2019s contact information already up on the screen. But after a moment of thought, she puts it away.<\/p>\n<p>This moment in Asuna\u2019s story is quiet but significant. Though she never says as much, the art suggests that she had intended to call Kirito and ask for help. The scene shows that she recognizes that it\u2019s time for her to fight her own battles alone, which is why when she logs back in, she agrees to join the Sleeping Knights. She has something to prove not only to herself about the game she loves, but to the people in her life that she loves.<\/p>\n<p>While one <em>could <\/em>argue that it\u2019s nice that Kirito swoops in on white horse to help his girlfriend, his appearance before the floor boss basically undermines the significance of Asuna\u2019s moment of power. It\u2019s like the writer is saying that Asuna is incapable of succeeding without the help of her boyfriend, which sort of counters everything the story had initially promised to prove wrong\u2014hence my complaint.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of Kirito\u2019s appearance, Volume 2 delivers, leaving the reader satisfied and ready for Volume 3. Again, those who have seen the anime will know what\u2019s coming, but for those who haven\u2019t\u2014hold onto your hearts. We\u2019re about to log in into a world of feels.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Story: 4 out of 5 stars<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Art: 4 out of 5 stars<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Overall: 4 out of 5 stars<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/30770070-sword-art-online\" target=\"_blank\">Goodreads<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780316272353?aff=girlsincapes\" target=\"_blank\">Indiebound<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shareasale.com\/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=65886&userID=1411976&productID=652424700\" target=\"_blank\">RightStuf<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">—<\/p>\n<p>This review contains affiliate links.\u00a0While Girls in Capes does make revenue from purchases made at affiliate links, reviews are not paid, and all reviews contain the staff writers\u2019 honest opinions of the work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author’s Note: This review contains spoilers. — Sword Art Online: Mother\u2019s Rosary Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 left off: after talking with the Sleeping Knights, Asuna agrees to join their six-player team and help them take down the final boss of a dungeon floor. After a disastrous test run, the Sleeping Knights get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":5985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1830],"tags":[360,252,1081,320,504,1165,1441,172],"class_list":["post-5918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anime-manga","tag-fantasy","tag-manga","tag-manga-monday","tag-manga-reviews","tag-sword-art-online","tag-sword-art-online-mothers-rosary","tag-the-toxic-romance-issue","tag-young-adult","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/SAOrosario-v2-banner.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3zNPp-1xs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5918"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5987,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions\/5987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}