This is the second volume of the Sword Art Online spinoff, Girls Ops'. I checked this out of my local library at the same time as volume 1 and volume 3. I must say I have mixed feelings about this one. It is about a contrast of content.
Spoilers. Yes, lots of spoilers here. I need to spoil in order to make my point. So take heed, ye be warned of the dreaded spoilers!
The quest for this book is a swim suit beauty contest. Yes, really. The whole thing takes place on a beach area in Alfheim Online, and the main cast wears swimsuits for the whole thing. It is basically a Fanservice Episode. However, it is also a Take-That against fanservice episodes, and fanservice in general. Basically, that pandering to fanservice is missing the point as a storyteller, being ultimately a shallow means of grabbing attention that closes the teller off from a broader audience.
Going off the prior volume's ending, the main cast needs to repair their armor because it was damaged in the prior volume's quest. So they travel to a renowned tailor who was recommended to Lisbeth by Asuna. This tailor, Ashley, tells them a surprisingly high price for the repairs. After explaining the debuffs currently afflicting their armor, Ashley points them towards the swim suit beauty contest. Its first prize will net them enough to pay the repair fee.
The swim suit beauty contest rules encourage the contestants to "be the hero of the beach". Rankings in the contest are determined by the amount of attention gathered by each contestant, as determined by focused stares. However the rules clearly state that the Ethics Code is still in full effect, and that "unnecessary staring" will be reported to a game master. So right here we see the contrast, which is made explicit by Leafa: are contestants supposed to attract the sort of attention that could violate the Ethics Code?
Reki Kawahara and the artist Neko Nekobyou cover many different types of fanservice. It is invoked by Lisbeth to attract the sort of attention that she thinks will win her group the contest. However, the more blatantly she goes into fanservice, the more her group's collective rankings drop. While they brainstorm, a crying NPC girl walks by .
This leads to accepting the little girl's quest, to find her older sister. This ultimately leads to fighting a giant octopus monster, who had captured said older sister. They do this in front of everyone on the beach, thus gathering the most attention and winning the contest. It is implied that those higher in the rankings were completing similar quests this whole time.
Evidently, the quest designers planned on someone taking the little girl's quest and finding the giant octopus. After realizing that the monster possessed a great advantage in its lair, the players would drive it out to the beach to deny it this advantage. Defeating this monster would earn them a great deal of attention, thus making them more likely to win the contest.
So Lisbeth was wrong-genre-savy about the contest. The contest was never about sex appeal. It was about helping others in a beach setting. We can see this in the first chapter, where selling yokisoba was more effective in gaining attention than playing volleyball or dressing up in fanservice costumes. That is, fan service costumes other than swimsuits, of course.
The message is loud and clear, but the volume still has the main cast and the background characters in swim suits for 90% of the story. Then there's the octopus, who engages in Silica's infamous running gag, and is also the villain of the piece.
There are other pluses to this story that don't fit into my argument. These include Lux's continuing character development. A lot of foreshadowing is dropped regarding the history of Hiyori's "Lux" avatar, and it becomes the center piece of the next volume. Winning this beauty contest also sets up the plot for the next volume, and it happens in a very smooth way.
So I have mixed feelings about this piece.
I don't want to dock points for personal distaste, but I also sincerely don't think this volume is worthy of an A. I know this because volume three is worthy of an A, and volume two isn't as good as volume three. So I will settle in the middle.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "SAO Spinoff Girls Ops volume 2" a B
SAO Spinoff Girls' Ops volume 3 (read for fun)
Click here for my previous book review: Sword Art Online Girls' Ops volume one
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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