Accel World - 02

The second episode continues where the first one left off, which was basically Haruyuki getting his butt kicked by Ash Roller.

We get more information about how the Brain Burst program works.  The most important thing I took away from it was that in order to keep using Brain Burst, the players, or Burst Linkers, must fight to accumulate Burst Points.  Burst Points are required to accelerate, and if a Burst Linker loses all their points, they can no longer accelerate and use Brain Burst.  The second most interesting thing I took away from the first half was that the program accesses a person's subconsciousness on its own.  It analyzes a person's inferiority complex, finds out what the person's hopes and fears are, and then creates a dueling avatar for them based on the person's identity.  Related to that, the third most interesting I found during the first half was that Kuroyukihime sealed her dueling avatar away because it is an ugly manifestation of her own bad thoughts.  She obviously doesn't want to dwell on it since she brushed it off fairly quickly, but I'm willing to bet that it will play a fairly important role later on in the story, especially since she wants Haruyuki to help her with a problem.

The second half of the episode mainly showed Haruyuki trying to beat Ash Roller to redeem the points he had lost from his first fight, and almost failing in a hilarious attempt to headbutt motorcyle with his special attack.  As with protagonists of this nature - the weak ones who gradually grow strong - Haruyuki almost loses hope and gives up until he remembers Kuroyukihime's words of advice: "Being strong doesn't mean you'll always have to be victorious."  He's able to win in a fairly humorous manner - by taking advantage of Ash Roller's old motorcycle that only uses the rear wheel to drive.

The anime is enjoyable so far, but I'm most intrigued by Kuroyukihime's interest in Haruyuki - it can't only be the fact that he was a good squash player that she approached him.  At this point, we have no idea what she wants him to help her with or what her motivations are by helping him with his bully problem, so it'll be interesting to watch that unfold.  And then there's her teasing.  It's almost as if Kuroyukihime is trying to toughen Haruyuki up.  Lastly, there's Chiyuri, who is obviously displeased that Haruyuki is spending time with Kuroyukihime.  Merely concerned, or jealous?