4 Star

Death Gun turns it up a notch.

A-1 Pictures takes Reki Kawahara (Accel World) light novels of Sword Art Online and turns them into a virtual living world. That virtual world has been turned upside down as players that are killed in the game by the character Death Gun’s gun, an automatic pistol Type 54 Black Star, die in the real world.

Kirito has had a run in with the mysterious character that he suspects is Death Gun, who asks Kirito if he is the real deal, which he believes is a reference to him surviving SAO even though he is disguised as a female avatar.

Kirito has entered BoB 3 in the belief that Death Gun will make a show of the televised event to show off his powers. He keeps pestering Sinon for more information about the battle royal that is about to take place, she is still miffed with him for not telling her that he was really a boy. Her hackles are up and she wants nothing more than for them to meet on the battle field, defeat him and forget him. Eventually the deadly sniper relents and tells him all about the thirty combatants and the map they will be playing on, a huge beautifully drawn virtual world with forest, mountains, desert and a derelict city.

The battle begins and the combatants are approximately a kilometre apart spread out all over the map. With a satellite passing overhead every fifteen minutes players can find their next target on their virtual map.

But when Death Gun turns up and takes out a player things get real, as Sinon and Kirito begin a shaky alliance and Death Gun disappears off the map just after he kills.

With a killer on the loose the pair must work out how this is all happening and how to put an end to this madman as it brings back memories of the killers tattoo of the Laughing Coffin red players from SAO.