Manga: Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online 3

SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online Vol 3 
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

A surprise attack leaves Llenn and M fleeing to the wasteland, where they devise a strategy to eliminate their trigger-happy pursuers and seize the Squad Jam victory. 

The opening of this volume is fairly tense as we pick up where we left off at the end of the last volume and our cornered heroes attempt to make an escape, of course the Squad Jam isn't over yet and we're down to the final two teams. 

Moving forward a little bit more, we have quite an interesting change in character from M, it made for a good twist and provided some interesting information on Pitohui as well as a slight sense of foreboding. 

This volume is action packed as we have a couple of little showdowns before tailing off as we prepare for the final showdown in the next volume. I think I struggle with this series a little bit because it takes so long for the volumes to come out, and they're quite short so we've had three volumes but we still haven't finished with the Squad Jam yet, and I feel like any progress we make is very small and it kind of inches forward, rather than anything else. 

Manga: SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online 2

Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online Vol 2
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Karen is living her best life, getting to play as her cute chibi avatar Llenn in the VR game Gun Gale Online. She becomes fast friends with mysterious woman Pitohui, who invites her to an in-game event called the Squad Jam. But Karen won't be teamed up with her new friend-instead she gets paired with the stern and silent M. Not 10 minutes into the event, they get surrounded by a hail of gunfire! Will they be able to hold their own as a two-man team against squads with actual military training...? Hey, wasn't this supposed to be just a game?! 

We rejoin the story in the Squad Jam. Llenn and M make quit the brilliantly strategic team. He has all the tactics and experience...particularly real world experience, and she's not exactly an idiot either. I find it interesting to see how they'll strategise their way out of various different sticky situations. They really do work well together. 

There's plenty of action and tension in this volume as they face off with a team of professionals as well as a second team out of the three remaining. The volume has a fast pace as we see them face down both teams before about to have the final showdown with the remaining team. At present the only story we're focusing on is the Squad Jam and Llenn and M hopefully winning it, but there isn't really much else to this series so far and I'm not sure how long it can go on with nothing else to pique your interest. I know there's a bit of a mystery around Llenn's other friend but we're yet to see that. So far we're just seeing Llenn and M dispatching various opponents, and while the volume is pacey...at the same time it does seem a bit too easy. 

This volume has plenty of action to keep the plot moving forward, and the gun fight scenes are excellently drawn. The tactics are brilliant and it's not even just limited to Llenn and M, but the other teams as well. But there's not really much else I can say about this volume. 

Manga: Alternative GGO

SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Karen Kohiruimaki always felt out of place in the real world. Due to her extreme height, she found it hard to make friends with other girls her age. Everything changes when she's introduced to VR and Gun Gale Online. In GGO, Karen is free to play the cute, chibi avatar of her dreams! Can Karen find friendship in this bullet-ridden MMO...?

Ahhh yeaaaaah, brand new Sword Art Online, with brand new characters! Or you know....Gun Gale Online as it where. There's some brilliantly drawn, fun colour pages at the beginning, and the art in general is very well drawn. There's lots of detail and the characters are fantastically drawn too! Llen is cute but not overly cute you know? 

Karen as Llen is cute yet badass. That's literally her all over. As Karen you feel for her. I didn't have a great time at school because of my appearance either, and I really empathised and related with her and her situation. Pitohui is hilarious and badass...but also kind of shady. Like maybe it's me being overly suspicious but she seems shady and I couldn't shake the feeling the longer I read. M was an interesting partner choice for Llen and it was funny to watch the interactions between the two of them! 

We get introduced to Karen and how she met Pitohui and started to get in to the game. Standard really. Then we swiftly head in to the Squad Jam competition. There's plenty of action and a good, swift pace. There's some brilliant tactics and each scene is drawn with excellent detail, as are the guns and the bullet lines and so on. 

There's fun action and battles, but there's also a couple of mysteries too. I have my suspicions about Pitohui and who she really is but there's a piece that doesn't quite fit and I'm curious to see how it's going to play out. Either way, this is an explosive first volume that sucks you back in to the world of GGO and expands on what we already know, showing us more of it as well as introducing us to new, interesting characters! There's even a tiny, tiny cameo!