Let’s try to enjoy a part of this episode with some typical hentai subs doujinshi style.
Okay, back to serious stuff.
Snow Black’s Ulterior Motive
As it turns out, Snow Black wasn’t just being a seductive sadist the whole time. She approached Haru not only for his gaming skills, but because she wanted someone close to Chiyu to spy for her. It is possible that she deliberately put Haru into socially awkward situations hoping to see Chiyu’s reaction as well.
In a way, the 6th screen almost makes it looks like she was intent on using him from the very beginning.
Way of the Burst Linker
Black Snow has this bushido-like philosophy about Burst Link and gaming.
This really explains her actions 2 years ago more than anything else.
She feels that there must be more to it than just about personal gain, and what they are doing is not what the developer meant this game to be. I find it rather ironic that she used player’s immaturity to explain the present situation though.
I think using whatever advantage you can use to get ahead, and using tools available to you for personal gain is a very “grown up” thing to do. On the other hand, risking a perfectly good ability that has such a great real life application all to see how a game ends, because you were instructed to… sounds childish to me.
Perhaps I have a view that adults are corrupted from watching too many anime with child protagonists and I am a corrupt adult myself, but I see no problems with trying to throw away the game for such a useful ability 
Burst Link Legions
The final screenshot is a map of Tokyo, and the tiny labels are the real ward names. Each “king” rules several wards, which makes me wonder what happens in the unruled areas. More importantly, what would happen if you had a different color and you happened to reside in one of those regions? Would you need to relocate or get cyberbullied?
“Legions” sounds like clans in online games. The usage at times made me doubt whether or not the Japanese animators messed up the spelling in Ep1 sign again, but I checked the light novel and it said 「レギオン」(Legion) instead of 「リージョン」 (Region), so it appears to be fine. Phew!
There’s a lot of preemptive plot hole busting in this episode. I hope it doesn’t backfire later, because they’re laying out a lot of rules and explaining a lot of stuff very early.
Not surprisingly, Snow Black is a very experienced Burst Linker. In fact, she’s Level 9 and even headed a Legion of her own. Now that she’s disgraced, the Blacks must be pretty unorganized. I have no idea what that means…
It did appear like multiple players can fight at the same time though (as she described that night 2 years ago). Maybe being a part of Legion gives you trustworthy allies for team battles. But to be honest, I would want to team up with players from different elements to make sure I don’t have instant losses handed out to me when facing bad elemental match ups.
This is a nice motivational device for story development, albeit a bit gimmicky.
I initially speculated that it was possible to have a default avatar looking exactly like the person themselves and add items since Chiyu, who was supposedly disinterested in cybergames, had such a realistic avatar. However, one of above certainly would explain her appearance without such a feature. Perhaps it was a foreshadowing of her true nature.
We know already that Burst Linker can access your subconscious, as that was how avatars were constructed. Could this be a side-effect of the program reading their subconsciousness as well?
I have to say, this is a suicidal strategy. In the case she really is Cyan Pile (lol @ the name), he’s exposing his own data as well. Even if Snow Black’s analysis was correct and she did know his identity already (the whole having the child snatched)…
…crap like getting your data stolen or having virus programs uploaded is a real possibility.
Taku
They’re making it pretty obvious that Taku is hiding something.
Taku being the real Cyan Pile looks like a possibility from what I see. Heck, even his eyes are blue. Having Burst Points would certainly help your for kendo matches, and his point consumption must be pretty high (needing to use it for every enemy strokes to dodge etc). It would also explain why a mere freshman can advance to the national tournament.
His expression after seeing those kids definitely isn’t normal. He’s probably thinking back about their times together and how good things was back then. At the very least, he knows that Chiyu is truly in love with Haru rather than himself.
Haru wasn’t connected to the globalnet, so that’s probably why he had no idea she called and emailed him.
Sexual Innuendo
Okay, we already know this section is hentai-tier, but it starts with some seriously obvious crap leading to the whole scene lol…
Cabling is sex, and he gets a short… tool. Of course, Mr. Perfect, Taku has a meter-long tool 
So yeah… Porky is a virgin, and he has trouble finding the hole.
I’m not the only one seeing this, right? Right?! I don’t have a sick mind at all!
Dude, you look pretty suspicious right now. I wonder what you’re doing with 90% of her firewall bypassed.
This line almost sounds like Chiyu consulted Haru about whether or not she should go out with Taku.
Okay, that’s a pretty dumb reason to go out with somebody, but believe it or not, I’ve seen a similar thing happen in real life.
Plot thickens. I can’t wait to see her suddenly turning into a evil girl who played the good girl all this time.
It was a fanservice episode this week, but it had style unlike your typical swimsuits in beach episode IMO.
Episode rating: 8.5/10
I thought the legions were simply coloured according to their king, not necessarily grouped according to class/colour. Of course, I don’t know about what it is in the light novels, but it’d be pretty stupid to make a guild full of just one class.
If it’s grouped according to class, then what happens to mixed colours? There’s a spectrum, isn’t there?
Posted by S_ | April 21, 2012, 4:54 amCorrect, the name of the legion is purely related to the color of the king leading it. Any player can join any legion, regardless of their color.
And yes, multiple players can band together and fight as a team against other teams, and joining a legion is the best way to arrange such team-ups. Once you reach level 4, you NEED to fight team battles in order to gain points, which makes the legion system more or less a necessity.
Posted by Mario | April 21, 2012, 8:28 amAh, that makes a lot of sense. Coloring like that is kinda confusing though ^^;
Posted by 8thSin | April 21, 2012, 1:04 pmLOL!
I had a good chuckle from the little hentai section. There’s no way the studio was animating that scene without sex in mind.
Posted by Raze | April 21, 2012, 6:26 amI was getting way too many inappropriate screens when I was taking screenshots for the post, and I thought hey, there’s enough material here to make a doujinshi! lol
Posted by 8thSin | April 21, 2012, 1:06 pmSo yes you were the only one thinking that. Atleast I wasn’t. Also, considering the amount of hentai I read, thats rather surprising.
So a few things you were off on.
Posted by ergZay | April 21, 2012, 6:46 amT_T
That kinda explains why an opponent wasn’t detected in the LAN list, and it’s Taku who hacked into her isn’t it? Because he can’t install Brain Burst on himself again.
Posted by 8thSin | April 21, 2012, 1:12 pmYou’re right on who it is, but there’s no “installing Brain Burst again.” He’s using his brain burst through her if I remember right. Basically as some kind of proxy.
This show is rather good at using technical terms, for future note.
Posted by ergZay | April 22, 2012, 6:22 amI have to say the manga covers some of this much better, they maintain a lot of description of how the cyber brain works and what brain burst is, in the manga. (And presumably in the original light novel as well.)
Posted by ergZay | April 22, 2012, 6:37 am“At the very least, he knows that Chiyu is truly in love with Haru rather than himself.”
I feel this is probably going too far. I watched the episode raw and don’t know how the subs you used worded things, but Chiyu seems to admit the possibility of her going out with Haru if things had gone differently, but quickly discards the idea as a “what if” of the past. I wouldn’t feel comfortable making to many assumptions about the complicated relationship between the three.
Nice Chiyu hentai montage. The scene is only as dirty as you want it to be – smart way to implement fanservice in a series
.
Posted by Cytrus | April 21, 2012, 8:27 amI kind of judged it from his expression after seeing the kids alone. I guess it is a bit too much of a stretch, but the presentation of that scene definitely suggests something’s up.
Posted by 8thSin | April 21, 2012, 1:14 pmErm… is it not obvious that Taku is the one Snow Black beheaded when she “betrayed” the game? He’s cut off, which is why he’s all real-world now, and why Chiyu is out for revenge. Note that 2 years ago is also when Chiyu confessed to Taku, after he lost his in-game girlfriend (whom he may not have known in real life—I assume that it wasn’t Chiyu herself, since Chiyu is only Level 4).
Posted by Margaan | April 21, 2012, 8:29 amMan, that makes so much sense. It would also explain the backdoor (see the backdoor comment)
Posted by 8thSin | April 21, 2012, 1:16 pmIt’s not true, though.
But
Posted by Mario | April 21, 2012, 1:48 pmI see. It clicked so well though lol
Posted by 8thSin | April 21, 2012, 3:44 pmOh well, random speculation disproven… I thought that the real answer was too obvious, so I became too clever for my own good.
Posted by Margaan | April 22, 2012, 5:07 amIs it just me who found the last screenshot pretty funny (to continue the theme)?
Posted by FalseDawn | April 21, 2012, 9:27 amlolol take both virginity!!!
Posted by 8thSin | April 21, 2012, 1:17 pmLMAO!
A BACKDOOR?!
ROUND 2!
Posted by asda | April 21, 2012, 9:03 pmShe “beheaded” one of the kings, wouldn’t that count as beating a level 9?
And according to her, beating one level 9 is enough to get to level 10.
Posted by tria | April 21, 2012, 10:14 amNah, it was five battles (I think), not one, so she still has a way to go.
Posted by Cytrus | April 21, 2012, 10:50 amNo, you need to beat 5 level 9s.
Posted by Mario | April 21, 2012, 10:51 amI see, I thought you needed 5 wins to get to level 10, which now that I think about it doesn’t make sense. I blame Saturday morning for that.
And, please clarify this for me: the concept of experience points doesn’t exist, right? You just gotta win 5 times against someone of your level to level up, i.e. 45 wins against people of the same level = level 10
Posted by tria | April 21, 2012, 9:24 pmNo, there are “experience points” – or rather, burst points. If you win against an opponent, you get a certain amount of his/her burst points determined by what your levels were (it’s 10 points if both players are level 1, and 20 points if the winner was level 1 and the loser level 2, at least. The lower the level of the winner compared to the loser, the higher payoff there is, while winning over a much lower leveled player just gives you a couple points, if any at all. Also, the challenger needs to spend a point to accelerate in order to start the fight in the first place).
Points can be exchanged for level-ups, which come with various powerups, some which can be selected by the player him/herself (Ash Roller mentioned choosing the wall climbing ability as a level-up bonus). There are also special items that can be purchased for points.
It’s a bit unclear if this is how all non-level 10 level-ups work, but level 10 is gained in a completely unique way – you need 5 “special points” to reach it, and the only way to gain a “special point” is to be level 9 and defeat another level 9 player. This will give the winner a “special point” while the loser loses everything and is gone from the game forever.
Posted by Mario | April 21, 2012, 11:03 pmThis is one of those episodes it’s probably a solid idea to check what the animation director did in the past. You definitely weren’t the only ones that noticed the very explicit sex jokes rolling in this scene. (Mostly as you’d normally sit back to back in that type of scenario or to the side. )
I can understand wanting to reach lvl 10, but, well, yeah no one would ever bother, really. Though I could see making an organization with the express purpose of doing it. But it’s just too valuable.
I know Mario will say there is other ways to manufacture points, but, well, that’s all anyone would really be doing. While there will be more game world exposition, it’s still got some serious problems, haha.
Posted by sqa | April 21, 2012, 11:11 amAn organization for the purpose of reaching level 10 was more or less founded this very episode, when Haru said he’d help Snow Black reach level 10, and expressed his wish to eventually reach level 10 as well.
As for “manifacturing points”… I mentioned it earlier, but the higher your level, the less points you get from beating low-level players, and after reaching level 4, you NEED to fight team battles for points. Preying on newbies only really works for very new players.
In addition, “recruiting” new players requires their complete trust, since you’ll be installing strange unknown programs on their Neuro Linker while cabling with them, and since the two of them know each others’ real identity, they need to have a mutual agreement not to reveal it to others. Snow Black is in pretty deep shit right now because Cyan Pile knows her identity, and is mortally afraid of Pile spreading that information. That’s why recruiting new players and farming their points won’t work – it’d just lead to your identity being leaking, and make you a giant target.
Posted by Mario | April 21, 2012, 11:52 amBah, disregard what I said about you needing to fight team battles to gain points after level 4 – what’s actually the case is that Snow Black says it’s “almost impossible to reach level 5 playing solo” (this line was absent from the anime for some reason). Players band together as teams to cover their individual weaknesses and settle into more specialized roles, just like other team-based MMO games.
Posted by Mario | April 21, 2012, 12:09 pmJust a few things that might clear some unclear parts in the anime up (although some of it may be changed from the manga):
Also, Taku asked Chiyu out and she didn’t want to go out with him but she consulted Haru who suggested they should go out so they could maintain the friendship the three of them had.
Also a backdoor is actually a program that allows you to access another program secretly and:
Posted by Kaykays | April 21, 2012, 1:39 pmLOL at the string of images for the “hentai” scene. The underlying theme is much clearer without audio and subs.
“I see no problems with trying to throw away the game for such a useful ability”
Agreed. Would this mean farming easy opponents to gain back the points used to accelerate?
Posted by MotsuCQ | April 21, 2012, 1:40 pmYeah… I don’t think it’s even necessary to game the system. Just beat the crap out of weaker players all the time.
Besides, I’m probably the type who will try to reach level 10 on my own without teaming up with anyone, just for the hell of it.
Posted by 8thSin | April 21, 2012, 3:44 pmOmfg, that “hentai” scene with your subtitles is simply AWESOME. Kudos to you man!
Posted by feal87 | April 21, 2012, 2:06 pmThanks
Posted by 8thSin | April 21, 2012, 3:45 pmMaybe?
Posted by dt | April 21, 2012, 4:53 pmUgh man.
The way it seems to me, Chiyu has very low self esteem much like Haru. And the moron made her date a guy she didn’t exactly see that way. Geez. I have seen this happen in real life and it’s just sad. I really feel for Chiyu. I could care less about anybody else in this show, including Haru, because he is just a dumb fat virgin who let himself be used the moment a hot girl pushed herself onto him, but I hope Chiyu grows up into a strong lady. And I really hope she breaks up with Taku because relationships that had such a frail basis will never be healthy on the long run. The best thing would be her growing out of her girlish desire of keeping things the same as when she was a kid. She doesn’t have to turn evil, but her getting into a real relationship with somebody else while maintaining her friendship with Haru and treating Taku as a mere associate would be the best character development she could possibly get. Alas, I don’t see that happening anytime soon since she seems to be the stock “poor cutie” character for this show and shows love milking such characters to the point of complete character assassination. Still gets me every single time though. Sigh.
Posted by Forsaken.infinity | April 21, 2012, 5:17 pm
Posted by burnpsy | April 21, 2012, 6:51 pmAre you going to update the Accel World Fansub Review soon?
Found some grammatical ‘herp derps’ in Commie – wondering if there are any translation ones.
Posted by asd | April 21, 2012, 9:05 pmYes, I will in a few days.
I made some derps of my own in our release too though ^^:
Posted by 8thSin | April 22, 2012, 6:02 pmDamn, that spoiler makes me turned on XD
Posted by Doko | April 21, 2012, 10:28 pm
Posted by 8thSin | April 22, 2012, 6:02 pmI think Cyan Pyle is Pyle with a “y”, or at least it comes up that way in a lot more things than the regular spelling. I don’t know if that’s the original intent, but it makes some sense as a slangy mis-spelling of the word for one of those adjective-noun video game character names, especially used in the sense of what I think it refers to, a pile driver, not a pile of cyan.
The stuff I’ve read about Accel World also puts Taku in a lead role as having Brain Burst and fighting with Snow Back, Haru, and Chiyu. Maybe he’s such a good hacker he somehow reinstalls it or piggybacks off Chiyuri.
Definitely looking forward to more of this series. The plot mechanism to discover the purpose of the program is interesting, and the romantic aspect adds another layer to it.
Posted by A.Crush | April 22, 2012, 6:47 amAll the avatars have their names written out in latin letters in the light novels(?). It’s “Cyan Pile”.
Posted by Mario | April 22, 2012, 9:26 amYeah… I had to check because I could only come up with retarded names for what was being said, but that’s the official spelling.
Posted by 8thSin | April 22, 2012, 6:07 pmAh well, maybe it’s just me then, I think the double y’s in Cyan and Pyle work better.
Possibly reading too much into it, but that would mean Taku could be “using” Haru to throw Snow Black’s suspicions off Chiyu, if Taku suspects that’s what she’s actually using Haru for. I don’t know if things get that compicated or not in this storyline.[/spolier]
I hope the whole thing stays interesting, and the relationships don’t either get lost as a subplot or turn out to be more interesting than the Accelerated World if the battles are either predicable, or repetitive and dull. I almost hope for a Haru + Chiyu end!
Posted by A.Crush | April 23, 2012, 12:27 amspoiler tag fail.
Posted by A. Crush | April 23, 2012, 4:40 amSaying the line about obtaining the information a week before is to reassure Haruyuki that she’s not using him for that purpose, isn’t it?
Anyway, gonna expand on the legion thing.
Posted by Tap | April 22, 2012, 6:55 am
Posted by 8thSin | April 22, 2012, 6:09 pmIndeed, the plot is really thickening looking forward to ep.4!
Posted by Rizlim | April 22, 2012, 8:57 amI can explore her memory and confirm whether the program is installed by cabling with her, right?
Just wtf… Imagine going to a LAN party, connecting to the network and then everybody else on the network can read all data on your computer. Just crazy…
…crap like getting your data stolen or having virus programs uploaded is a real possibility.
If he really has full root access he could make it so it automatically records her vision while she takes baths and uploads it on some porn site.
You could really do anything, so I’m curious about the exact permissions because this sounds crazy…
Btw, was it just me or did it look like there will be a car accident next episode?
Posted by Spiller | April 22, 2012, 9:40 amStuff that you suggested makes perfect sense (which is why it was a major violation in the Ghost in the Shell world and would land you in prison for a long time), but this series doesn’t have a well thought out world. It’d be thought out okay for a standard Shounen series, but the “MMO crowd” would expect a lot more. It’s really not going to be there.
So, think about it more like a standard Shounen series with a different take. That seems to be the way you have to take the series.
Posted by sqa | April 22, 2012, 11:36 amTry
rather than accident.
Posted by Mario | April 22, 2012, 12:00 pm@Spiller
I wouldn’t assume that. Connecting to a local network would be more like connecting to the school’s network, and surely it not seem like any and everyone had access to anyone elses’ data.
Instead, think of cabling as more like accessing a friend’s computer directly. You can do all the dastardly things stated and the only permission required is usually trust.
@sqa
I am not sure what the “MMO crowd” expects, or what isn’t “really going to be there”. But I think it is rather harsh to send a friend to prison for a long time for what is usually a relatively harmless prank.
Personally, I cannot agree that the series isn’t well thought out. Perhaps it does not conform to your ideas of reality or your ideas of what a well thought out world is like. But too oftenly we attribute our own thoughtlessness on the series, and assume that something we did not immediately figure out must be an indication of a plot hole or thoughtlessness on the author’s part. Give it time, or better yet, give it more thought.
Posted by Merrybell | April 23, 2012, 1:16 amWe’ve already seen when Haru cables with Snow Black that there is still some firewall/antivirus protection, or at least notification about programs being sent/installed.
Cabling is an intimate thing, hence it’s something couples do, or apparently close friends. Chiyu seems to completely trust Haru (and maybe Taku as well), so her giving complete unrestricted access is how she shows that trust. That doesn’t mean that anyone who cables has everything open and visible, but if you so choose, you can allow it.
I don’t see how this isn’t well thought out, there are many different levels of access, from networks to direct unrestricted cabling, and they correlate with different levels of trust. It’s just a leap forward from facebook settings or who you let use your computer.
This may be an important part of the plot, with relationships changing based on who abuses such trust when they have full access with someone’s permission. It’s also going to show Haru is clueless when it comes to girls if unrestricted cabling isn’t very common among friends, yet Chiyu gives him completely unrestricted access.
Posted by A.Crush | April 23, 2012, 4:56 am@Mario
I didn’t want to read spoilers, but shortcodes are apparently ignored in email notifications and I ended up reading it…
Anyway, I actually hoped it would be something like that so I’m really looking forward to next episode now : )
@Merrybell
Connecting to a local network would be more like connecting to the school’s network, and surely it not seem like any and everyone had access to anyone elses’ data.
That is exactly the point! There is no difference between connecting two computers with a cable and accessing the wireless network at a school. You have access to all computers on the network, but you don’t have any permissions to do anything with them. You need to have been given explicit permission in order to mess with their computers. This doesn’t change even if you connect two computers directly with each other, which is what the author is suggesting should happen.
Perhaps it does not conform to your ideas of reality or your ideas of what a well thought out world is like. But too oftenly we attribute our own thoughtlessness on the series, and assume that something we did not immediately figure out must be an indication of a plot hole or thoughtlessness on the author’s part. Give it time, or better yet, give it more thought.
When you are working in a technical field and you read fiction which tries to implement something from your field into the story, you will notice that most of the time they get it wrong. And it is obvious, you received many years of education on the subject, the author in most cases wouldn’t be able to gain that knowledge. (I have even seen engineers making fatal mistakes in their own field without noticing it themselves, which is quite sad considering I haven’t even finished my own education.)
In this area it is far from well thought out and I don’t expect it to be either (because it is too much to ask for). I’m just making fun of one of several stupidities.
@A.Crush
We’ve already seen when Haru cables with Snow Black that there is still some firewall/antivirus protection, or at least notification about programs being sent/installed.
There was no sign of any antivirus programs at all. If there is a firewall is also questionable as the message box was simply a warning, only containing an OK button so it didn’t provide a way to block access. I would like to know what the text in the box actually read though.
I certainly hope that it is just the animators which did a poor job on it, because otherwise you could sneak up on a sleeping person and Cable with them doing all kind of fun things.
I’m not disagreeing with you, I’m just pointing out that the only thing we can be sure about is that Haru was given the choice to install it. Perhaps Snow Black could have forced him and simply choose not too, we can’t tell.
Chiyu seems to completely trust Haru (and maybe Taku as well), so her giving complete unrestricted access is how she shows that trust. That doesn’t mean that anyone who cables has everything open and visible, but if you so choose, you can allow it.
If a friend said to you “I want to apologize to you, so please give me full access to your computer” it would appear quite off, wouldn’t it? (He obliviously haven’t cabled with her before either, so it is not like he already have those permissions.) Anyway, there is nothing in this episode which indicates that Chiyu gave or would even need to give higher permissions to Haru (so he could apologize to her). Chiyu didn’t seem to care much about it which further support that Haru didn’t get special permissions. Sure, this doesn’t rule it out, but it seems rather unlikely, also because there is no point in doing it.
Cabling just doesn’t make sense at all from a computing point of view, as all of it should be possible without a cable.
I don’t see how this isn’t well thought out, there are many different levels of access, from networks to direct unrestricted cabling, and they correlate with different levels of trust. It’s just a leap forward from facebook settings or who you let use your computer.
It would help if you knew how access is controlled in computer systems. Hint: It is a lot more sophisticated than the settings users can modify on Facebook ; )
Posted by Spiller | April 23, 2012, 10:35 pmIt’s perfectly possible that Taku hid the backdoor setup in some innocent program and got Chiyu to agree to installing it, though. Wouldn’t that work?
Posted by Mario | April 24, 2012, 7:03 pmboth kuroyukihime and chiyuri likes haruyuki but they have different opinions, I think kuroyukihime likes haruyuki is that he is good at playing games, I think childhood chiyuri likes haruyuki is that she likes his good point and keep the fat body, I can’t wait to see kuroyukihime quarrel with chiyuri for different views and opinions about haruyuki.
If the ending of accelerated world anime, I predict kuroyukihime finally meet the creator of brain burst then ask haruyuki to exercise.
Posted by SeerHu | April 24, 2012, 5:39 amI think using whatever advantage you can use to get ahead, and using tools available to you for personal gain is a very “grown up” thing to do. On the other hand, risking a perfectly good ability that has such a great real life application all to see how a game ends, because you were instructed to… sounds childish to me.
I don’t think it’s childish so much as idealistic. Commitment to an idea or philosophy above oneself is rare in adults, who are often jaded to the point of not believing in anything.
Then again, said jaded adults would probably consider someone with such commitment as childish/naive…
Posted by R | April 25, 2012, 1:41 amboth kuroyukihime and chiyuri likes haruyuki but they have different opinions, I think kuroyukihime likes haruyuki is that he is good at playing games, I think childhood chiyuri likes haruyuki is that she likes his good point and keep the fat body, I can’t wait to see kuroyukihime quarrel with chiyuri for different views and opinions about haruyuki.
In the ending of accelerated world anime (Episode 12 of Accel World Anime), I predict kuroyukihime finally meet the creator of brain burst then ask haruyuki to exercise
Posted by SeerHu | April 25, 2012, 3:45 am