Accel World - First Impressions

I may be in the minority for this, but I absolutely love Haruyuki's character design.



I have to admit, when I first saw the promo photos of this anime, I was a bit skeptical of how he looks.  He's chubby, short, and completely different from most protagonists.  However, as the episode went on, I absolutely fell in love with him, both his real life form and his avatar as a pig.  He's too adorable!

As the anime goes, the first episode exceeded my expectations.  They first introduce Haruyuki as the bullied, fat kid in school.  And not only is he bullied, he doesn't seem to have very high self esteem either, as evidenced by his pig avatar in the virtual world.  However, circumstances lead to a meeting with Kuroyukihime, the most popular girl in the school.

Kuroyukihime offers Haruyuki a chance at redemption in the form of a program called Brain Burst.  It allows the users to essentially slow down time by speeding themselves up into virtual reality by use of the social cameras (at least, this was my interpretation of it).  With the help of the program and Kuroyukihime, Haruyuki is able to get back at his bullies.

They did a fantastic job at establishing this future world where everyone is linked together by the Neuro Link.  The animation was superb, and the characters themselves were very refreshing.  Haruyuki, in particular, has really piqued my interest.  I'm not sure what it is about him, but I enjoyed watching him be completely honest with himself about his insecurities.  He knows where his strengths lie, and currently, they're not in the real world.  His best friend, Chiyuri, obviously cares a lot about him, but he doesn't want her pity.  He also idolizes Takumu, another friend (whom I read somewhere is Chiyuri's boyfriend, but it's not made clear yet whether or not that's true), to the point of running away when he finds out that Takumu knows that he's been bullied.  I have high hopes for this anime, so hopefully it'll be as good as I hope!