Accel World (3/5)-Watch

Accel World's Premise

Part Persona, part mortal combat, and all high school angst Accel World is an enjoyable if drawn-out series.  Haruyuki "Haru" Arita is a short, pudgy little high schooler which results in him being constantly bullied by the local knuckleheads.

Due to this intense bullying, Haru develops incredibly low self-esteem.

Eventually, like every good anime protagonist, he becomes irresistible to attractive girls for pretty much no reason. If you're into the kinda thing you'll also like Bladedance of the Elementalers

Haru has bottom-of-the-barrel self-esteem

I’m talking about the kind of low self-esteem that makes it so I’m surprised this kid manages to roll himself out of bed every day and stuff himself into his uniform if half the things this kid says about himself are true.  

To escape from his everyday life Haru logs onto the local net to play games via a neuro link which is a collar-like personal computer that can communicate wirelessly with the user's brain.  

This allows for augmented reality in which the students access the net and type via gesture control and virtual reality where the person can be in complete control of their avatar.  I have to admit that the uses that the series creator come up with for the neuro link were pretty interesting.  

A nice touch of how this technology would affect society was the idea that the links can be connected via a secure wire cable but that this kind of interaction is incredibly intimate and usually only done by lovers.  Which can lead to some pretty funny almost Yaoi scenarios.

Anyway back to Haru’s journey.  As I said Haru escapes his everyday life by diving into the virtual reality of his local net and playing games.  

Kuroyukihime enters Haru's life

Usually, he plays squash against himself and holds the area's top score.  His innate gaming abilities bring him to the attention of Kuroyukihime the attractive, super intelligent, politically connected vice president of the school.  

Kuroyukihime for some reason is really really into Haru and we’re not entirely sure for a long time until you kind of forget that her attraction is weird.  Kuroyukihime helps Haru to deal with his bullying problem and proceeds to tell him about an underground fighting MMORPG-style game.  

This game, called “Brain Burst” allows those who have it installed to speed up their conscious thoughts at the expense of points.  This allows players to plan a perfect dodge, cheat on a test, or exceed at sports in real life.  

Thus the abilities this game grants seem significant.  You get points by fighting other players in Brain Burst and if you lose all your points Brain Burst will uninstall itself and you lose that ability along with all your memories.  

Haru goes through many trials and tribulations that test his newly formed bonds both with Kuroyukihime and with his two friends who join him in Brain Burst eventually.  Eventually, Haru finds that inner strength can wait for it...only come from within so goes figure.  

Accel World was fun to watch for some of the offbeat humor and some of the fight scenes are really cool however the low esteem of Haru really drags the entire series out.  

We get it you're depressed Haru!

Haru literally spends episode after episode talking about how unworthy he is and how he’s lower than scum and after a while either through brainwashing or lack of wherewithal I became inclined to agree with him.  Don’t get me wrong Haru isn’t the worst anime protagonist that has been thought up but he definitely isn’t the best.  

We’re not quite to the level of Neon Genesis Evangelion’s Shinji Ikari but we are close to that level of just soul-arresting depression and inability to cope with reality.  

Accel World could be shorter

In some scenes, you just want to ring his neck and tell him to get on with the show.  The season is 24 episodes long and frankly, I say it could have been done in 12.  

If you have the time and there aren’t any better shows available on simulcast then Accel World is worth a watch but I wouldn’t buy the signed collectors box set if you know what I mean.  Accel World isn’t going to change your life but it is a fun ride with good action scenes and pretty good comedy bits to boot.  I give it a solid three out of five.

Watch.