This is the first volume of the Sword Art Online spinoff manga, Girls' Ops. It focuses on a trio of main cast members from Sword Art Online, Silicia, Lisbeth and Leafa, and one new character, Lux (real name Hiyori). This is the volume that introduces Lux. I enjoyed reading it but it has its share of flaws. To go into more detail...
The story is framed by the release of a new quest in Alfheim online, Angel Rings. It is one that was present in Aincrad, and the new admins tweaked it to make it work in the world of the fairies. Lisbeth and Silicia invite Leafa to join them, and while on this quest they meet a dual-wielding sword-user wearing a black cloak. They assume it is Kirito, but it is actually "Kuro", an avatar created by Hiyori.
This is one of the reasons that I find the first volume to be lackluster. Creating a copy of Kirito to anchor the plot feels like a narrative crutch. It is as though Reki Kawahara created a new (supporting) protagonist by flipping his main-story protagonist's gender and then justified it with a hero-worshipper angle. Silicia even convinces Lisbeth and Leafa to assist "Kuro" by suggesting they would be abandoning "a Kirito" if they didn't. However, it is more complicated than that.
Hiyori has good reason to be emulating Kirito. This informs her decisions in this volume, gives weight to the plot, and it is funny to see her fangirl over simply meeting Kirito's sister. However, emulating Kirito obscures her actual personality and uniqueness.
One does not see the real Hiyori until she appears before her new friends as "Lux", which was her SAO avatar. The glimpse is in this volume was enough to pique my interest in seeing more of her, now that she was no longer role-playing The Black Swordsman. Indeed, the reader does not see an unobstructed view of Lux until volume 3. Trust me, it is worth the wait!
Anyway, about the other aspects of this volume. There are three or so stages of this quest for the Angel Rings. Each scene has a narrative purpose, and so the story has a nice structure and progression leading up to its climax. That was fun to read.
Another plus for this volume is the running gag about the Tsundere Angel. This is the name given to the NPC who is the quest giver for the Angel Rings quest. She is an angel who acts like a "tsundere", grumpy and rude at the start of the quest but becoming more affectionate and/or flustered to the player(s) at the end. The means of triggering the "dere" side of this Tsundere Angel is a fun little sideplot.
The battle with the boss at the end of the quest was a little difficult to follow. The art style didn't convey action as well as I would have liked. Perhaps that was the fault of the boss itself; he's huge, and the players are human-size. The scale might might have been the problem.
Otherwise it was a fun and meaningful battle. The emotional content of this tough fight makes the fire-forged-friendship at the end feel more earned. Three of the four of them are SAO survivors, after all, so they know what it is like to depend on party members when fighting monsters.
The art is good. It shows the cuteness of the main cast, but also the immensity and threat of the boss and the subordinate monsters. The panel showing what happened to the Tsundere Angel's rose pavilion is a stark image that shouts, "something bad has happened".
Trickster Eric Novels gives Sword Art Online Girls' Ops volume one a B+
Click here for my next book review: SAO Spinoff Girls Ops volume 2
Click here for my previous book review: Spiral, The Bonds of Reasoning volume 1
Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.
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