The Mother Rosario arc started recently that finally shifts focus to Asuna, Kirito’s girlfriend if you remember. Sword Art Online always focused about the future of MMOPRG worlds and shows us games like they could be possible in the close future. Since Asuna started to behave like a NEET, it would be interesting to analyze what is happening in SAO II at the moment.

In the first season it was shown how deadly the future of gaming can be, when security measures are hacked. In Sword Art Online II our heroes and heroines are cheerfully playing ALFheim Online without having to risk their lives or other upsetting things. After Kirito saved Asada san she also joins the ALO group and it seems like everyone enjoys their time.

After the first Sword Art Online incident and being saved from Aincard, Asuna and a number of high school kids attend a special school, to close the gap between the time they lost when they were imprisoned in the virtual world. What we never saw so far was, that at Asuna’s home, her life appears like a golden cage with a rich family that seems to have fallen apart.

She is faced with a mother who is disappointed with her daughters development and doesn’t understand her true feelings. She wants to pull her to arranged meetings in order to get a social fitting husband, to strengthen the families social status. Her mother also wants Asuna to change into a for her standards, real school with a higher ranking and career options.

What appeared rather heartless and cold in episode 19 might have a certain truth. It’s the reaction of a mother who lost patience and worries about her childs future, since she’s has no real idea how to help Asuna to move on, she’s pushy and her method is very questionable.

Well, she’s definetely a bitchy mum, but far away from being a villain.

Asuna’s passive behaviour at home and her long gaming sessions might have triggered her mothers outbreak, as well. One day Asuna lost track of time, while playing ALFheim Online and her mother interrupted her game, because she missed dinner again. She gave Asuna a tongue lashing and announces to take her beloved device away if it will ever happen again.

The mother can’t understand why Asuna is still attached to virtual worlds after it send her in a comatose state for 2 years, to me it’s reasonable that her mother worries about her daughter.

Faced with too high expectations, a mother denying her boyfriend and no real life friends around Asuna is desperate and feels very lonely. This is a truly heart wrenching scene.

Is gaming the whole day something you would do in Asuna’s situation ?

We might realize now that Asuna uses ALO as source for escapism from reality. She was overjoyed about buying a home in ALO where she can live with Kirito and Yui in the cozy virtual world. Sorry little lady this not the right way, it’s a sign that Asuna hasn’t found her place in the real world yet.

I know about the appeal of gaming in general as source for entertainment, free time activity and also escapism. My first MMOPRG was Final Fantasy XIV and it was quite captivating how everything was designed and fascinating how you could design your unique character, it was great to dive into such a different world. I played quite a bit and you have to invest quite some time to increase your stats, some days I played all of my free time before my persistent sense of moderation stopped me *lol*.Well, I haven’t touched it since a few months yet.

Do you sometimes reflect about the time you invest into your gaming ?

As advanced as the virtual world in this anime is, I imagine it to be very difficult not to prefer such an augmented reality virtual world over your real life, especially when your real life seems to be a mess like in Asuna’s case. In the recent events Asuna found a new friend called Yuuki, I’m pretty sure she can give her some helpful life advice.

Sword Art Online always was very positive about MMORPG’s, sometimes with all the tech talk it felt a bit nerdy and boss battles were taken too serious. I wonder if the author/director will push all the blame on the mother or if they also intend to question Asuna’s escape from reality. After watching two seasons of SAO I don’t have the highest expectations of Kawahara, Reki’s talents as writer, but the Mother Rosario arc has quite some potential.

Today we will take a look at Kirito’s cousin, Kirigaya Suguha. She’s one of the heroines of Sword Art Online, she didn’t take part in this, but plays ALfheim Online with pleasure.

After a number of delays ALTER released this figure in early May 2014, I review her quite late, but other things came up and Kirigaya Suguha ended at the end of my review queque.

Suguha is scaled 1/8 and is sitting on a veranda with some snacks next to her. A funny or better said interesting fact is her low price, back then I preordered her for 6.080 yen, nowadays you can pay 10.000 yen for such kind of figure. Yeah the good old times *cough*.

The shoulder long hair is very pretty and also quite distinctive with it’s style and the dark blue color, the seam line above her bangs feels a little misplaced, somehow. The figures head is round and has a smooth shape, sculptor Mumei gave Suguha a reclusive facial expression with big cute eyes and a slightly parted mouth she also seems to be daydreaming a little.

These sad eyes are lovely, unfortunately even if I try, I can’t make this figure smile.

The young lady is wearing her workout clothes, a red jersey with a black shirt underneath, below she is wearing very loose blue shorts, that expose some amount of skin. The choice of colors is quite nice and give the figure a sporty appearance. The small and big details on her outfit look very convincing and are very well done. The jersey with the high collar shows many wrinkles, but tightly stretches around her ample breasts, which looks quite nice.

With her foot it looks like she’s reaching out to somebody, while being concerned about covering her crotch with her hands. The bare feet create a natural atmosphere around her.

Her veranda base is an interesting accesory it has a realistic wooden surface, the figure only connects via magnet to it, the other parts are not glued together and can be placed wherever you want, you can also use them together with other figures.

Sword Art Online is an interesting anime, the first season, also the second one leaves many opportunities to trash talk about it, because of questionable decisions or cheesy turn of events, on the other hand it’s entertaining enough to keep the audience at the screen.

On his journey Kirito gets in touch with many cute girls, who develop romantic feelings for him,but in the end it’s always Asuna. Suguha also had no luck with winning Kirito’s heart.

She still has feelings for Kirito, but somehow to accept his relationship with Asuna and also befriend with her. As cute, busty girl she should have no problems with finding a decent boyfriend, but she’s quite shy outside the virtual world. Her friend is also no real option.

Suguha has an above average bust size, as her game alter ego Leafa it’s even more prominent, but this figure accentuates them in a really subtle and modest way, for my tastes it could have been more erotic, like a more pulled down zipper and some cleavage. The part where the figure shows some skin are her legs and the loose shorts that partially reveal her buttocks, The figures butt has been flattened, to make her balanced pose possible, I’m always not so happy about such solutions.

Final Words

ALTER’s Kirigaya Suguha is a nice figure overall, she has a cute face and appealing workout clothes. The craftsmanship is well done, but her sad expression also makes me a little sad, an alternative happy expression would have made her more appealing. Some might not like her expression, others she might not show enough fanservice, but she’s actually very pretty.

She is a compact figure you can carry her around when traveling for example without risking her to get damage, although her clouded expression will limit the kind of pictures you can take with her. Nevertheless I’m happy with her and don’t intend to sell her soon. In case this Suguha caught your attention, you can get her for around 4000 Yen on the aftermarket.