User blog comment:WhiteStorm82/SAO should have a whole new season/series/@comment-24393258-20140107160638

Happy New Year!

I agree that a new season should take a new track!

I find the prospect of a "secret" Leafa/Kirito VR romance and quiet Asuna/Leafa rivalry refreshingly intriguing and would set SAO apart from the herd. Variety is the spice of life and I think this potential taboo but sinless VR pairing will be largely responsible for carrying on interest in the show since SAO imitations are doubtlessly in the wings. Though I've read of fans who believe the two would’ve recognized each other off the bat, my own real-life experience finds it quite credible as there're tons of real life examples from plastic surgery cases to insurance disguise deceptions that attest to that.

Though a secret Kirito x Leafa VR romance has been publicly blown in the "Extra Edition" episode (where I like Leafa's gesture of hope and tacit determination at the very end to get her man!...), if we dismiss that EE as omake, the close of Episode 25 opens that sly romantic possibility for a season two. Their moving mid-air lover's waltz at the end of 25 was a blatant teaser that something is going to bloom between these two because most brothers just wouldn't be so seduced into that poignant scene even for a jest.

Ah yes, Suguha is a sly one...

Additionally the EE gives us a peek that Kirito is uncomfortable just how to treat Leafa in public -- being just brotherly doesn't seem to cut the quiet tension. Everything hinges on his acknowledging his split skittish heart and Leafa finding a way to bridge it by pressing him that there's technically no incest going on and they otherwise have a great real-world relationship. We get flashes that they think of another, and that Kazuto envisions Leafa in Suguha -- a "safe" excuse to deny any siblinghood. (Then one can wildly imagine what we'd had had SAO replaced Asuna with Leafa from the get-go with no breaks back into the real world! Maybe a parallel universe version?...)

At first blush it seems Asuna holds the cards in Kirito's heart but just how secure is this? In VR they mostly pressed together to escape the gloom and depression of captivity and death and never going home again. Would've anything sparked between them had they first met in the real world? They might've been "married" in VR, but by the EE you wouldn't known it. Maybe VR desperate ardor has cooled to mere close friendship in reality -- and an opening for Suguha. Even Liz whiffs this in the EE. There seem to be hints that Asuna smells something going on between the two with how she reaches out to Leafa at 25's close and her visuals in the teasers. Maybe a head's-up spoiler here, but I think Suguha is sly enough to have her cake and eat it too by coaxing Kazuto to keep a platonic sibling relationship in the real world but a full-blown romance in VR. She has an incredible advantage; she knows what buttons to push and many fans say she's lovelier and cuter than Asuna.

Anyway this is a well above series with mucho potential if the producers are daring enough!