Despite the defeat of Quinella—the pontifex of the Axiom Church—things have not seemed to calm down yet. Upon contacting the real world, Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya finds out that the Ocean Turtle—a mega-float controlled by Rath—was raided. Due to a sudden short-circuit caused by the raiders, Kirito's fluctlight is damaged, leaving him comatose. Feeling insecure about the people at the Axiom Church, Alice brings the unconscious Kirito back to their hometown—Rulid Village, disregarding her banishment due to an unabsolved crime. Now, Alice is living an ordinary and peaceful life close by the village, wishing for Kirito to wake up.
However, tragedy strikes when Alice notices that the Dark Territory has already started to invade the Human Empire. Reassuming her previous alias, Alice Synthesis Thirty, she promises to defeat the Dark Territory in order to defend the world that Kirito and Eugeo worked so hard to protect.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Pipe
The world of SAO's lit is already so jam-packed with Kirito and Asuna providing enjoyable moments that it's unimaginable we'd need any more of them. How many of the anime fans hate SAO and its story? The weird surprise of Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld it gives the possibility to a more creative story and to other characters to shine, leaving zombie Kirito as a secondary character. I know this already happened on the "Mother's Rosario" arc when other characters were allowed to take the lead. However, this time I think the author handled it better, and for that reason, Alice's growthis delightful, and the story is more enjoyable than the usual SAO's plot. Without any fear of mistake, SAO Alicization is the best arc of the series so far, and I hope to see the sequel in a few months because I am eager for more SAO.
The story is a prelude of the war that we will see in the sequel, and it has a nice pace. The plot introduce the characters and the reasons behind the fight. However, from my perspective, the villains are not appropriately developed, and some characters need a bit more details that I hope to see in the next sequel. We do not have the usual information about them, and that could be seen as a terrible outcome. Also, at the begging, following the events from Alacization, we have a Kirito that ended in a catatonic state. I thought that without him, the story would fail. Still, now I can say it is better. The other characters are now the protagonists, such as Alice. Her will to fight or all the conflicts surrounding her and the need to see all to possibilities and her reasons to wear the armor again. Furthermore, she proved that she could be the main lead of SAO's series. I liked the part when she decided to fight again in the first episodes. Also, if we notice, Kiriko is used as a motivational character, as we can see in some events. Even if he does not fight or talk, he stills as an essential character of the whole series. Additionally, the entrance of Asuna is excellent. Still, she looked vastly overpowered. The ending was interesting if you ask me.
I am not giving any further details about the plot; I want to avoid any spoiler that could destroy the readers' enjoyment. Even if you hate SAO or find it annoying, I am sure you can enjoy this arc. The bad part is that you need to know the characters or the previous arc to understand the whole plot.
The art and sound impressed me. It is excellent and gorgeous. I was not expecting that quality, and it helped the story to be entertaining. All the fights and the camera movements combined with a good score and sound mix made a great series that hope it continues with the same level in the sequel.
Finally, SAO is not a loved series. However, the LN is now the best LN of the decade in Japan; we need to give the series some credit and stop burying it because we cannot stand the plot in some parts. The fans loved it, and I love it. I know there are some silly parts that we want to avoid, but Alicization is the best arc from those novels. I am thrilled that they animated it.
-Pharos-
"THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE" Isekai has always been one of the most iconic genres in terms of popularity among anime. However, and unsurprisingly, not many of its shows are actually held at the same regard as those from other genres. The question for this truth ahead came into existence long ago, but still, yet to be answered. Is it because Isekai shows are always labelled with concepts of “trashy, childish and impractical series”, or are they too familiar to viewers in recent years and therefore are not capable of differenciating themselves from others? Several shows are introduced every year, each portrays an aspect of the genre in itsown way, but still retains the similarity of someone being transferred to another imaginary world with several designated purposes. Of course, this notion is not anomalous by now, but when it comes to the year of 2012, not all of us then had already been informed of “What is anime?” to say nothing of the term “Isekai”.
However, little do we know. Since the advent of SAO in that same year, Isekai genre has started a steady development in all aspects, and then somehow soared recently with SAO itself took a partial role of setting the ball rolling for this. Despite being the most popular and beloved anime in 2012, SAO anyhow gradually received one-upping hatred from its own viewers, which has casted plenty of questions with hardly any reasonable answers related to this incredible 180-degree turn.
I have never been such a fan of SAO, but I do not hate it either. This is partly because of the whole novel notions and ideas Reki Kawahara intending to deliver throughout this franchise. An exceptional VR world of Aincrad that blew us away with its magnificent looks and feels, the creative and innovative concept of introducing future technology (which is yet to be a daydream at the present) right in year 2012 as well as the hidden message that, on behalf of game addicts, expressed their inquiry about “What does real world mean?”. Such hilarious and foolish this type of question is. Howbeit, being dedicated enough to scrutinize this from its core in order to figure out the most reasonable answer is not a simple task. Deprivation of dedication is what thwarting us.
So, what brings about this lack among Isekai genre, or to be more specific, among SAO franchise?
One of the biggest problem SAO presented from its own beginning is that, it just followed one same pattern throughout the whole series, when we see an overpowered protagonist having to save the day and defeat an antagonist, who is unsurprisingly stronger than him. Such simply predictable the plot is, from which a sense of boredom may result, and likewise turn a beloved series into a total disaster just in one episode. I’m not saying that SAO 1 didn’t acquire numerous incredible potentials which were just as promising as it should have been when its first trailer was released. Indeed, this franchise was one of the most invested ones among Isekai genre with fascinating characters, spectacular animations, breathtaking scenes and full epic soundtracks. The pacing was somewhat reasonable and matched the plot fairly precise, thereby grabbed the viewers’ attention and made them follow the path of their hyperactive hero until the very end. Having said that, the show hardly introduced any breakthrough twists and turns with lackluster details, which really blurred the presence of some utmost fight scenes that ever existed in anime. These, together with unnecessary fan-service scenes, possibly served as rationales behind the hatred given to this franchise and turned it into a whole series designated for children thereafter.
Unfortunately, SAO 2 followed that same path of failures.
Numerous arguments have been made around this downturn and the most controversial one is “The fall of Isekai genre”. This is partly due to the rapid explosion of Isekai shows, in number not quality, during the next few years, which caused viewers to suffer a blasé sense about anime as well as their desperate need for a fresh alternative mainstream. This was probably one of the darkest ages among the anime history, but it practically left a huge question mark onto Isekai producers, whether they should reform the whole appearance and comply with the changing majority, or follow the same pattern that once succeeded as to gain back their position in everyone’s eyes?
This Gordian Knot has surrounded the genre for nearly a decade and is yet to be untied, with immediate submergences of almost every Isekai shows released after the year of 2013 till this day. Having said that, several ones which did not suffer from this seemingly inevitable obstacle, “RE: Zero” for instance, have actually proposed a solution for which the whole genre has always wanted, and thereby make the grand escape all away from this contradict reality.
Few have successfully managed to handle this, however.
And it may come even more amiss to many of you that amongst these, SAO is the franchise which I believe to have completed the most compelling transformation.
Before we enter the main part of this review, I just want to make out some point. I was first intended to encapsulate this latest season of SAO in a short and concise review, but the further and deeper look I gave onto the story, the more I realised the injustice of criticising it without touching on the whole journey it took to get to this very momment. SAO: War of Underworld (WoU), without a doubt, is one of the best long-lasting Isekai series in the anime world by far and the anticipation given keeps one-upping day by day, which is unexpected for a franchise exposed to that amount of love and hatred. And, believe or not, the time has come for SAO to rise from the ashes, stronger than ever.
The storyline, perharps, is the aspect should be introductorily considered for this. It is quite straightfoward with decent amount of information and frames displayed on each episode, therefore gives viewers a sense of being captivated with the flow of the show and somehow gets them curious about what is coming next. This, however, hardly appeared in any earlier seasons of the franchise. SAO 1 and 2 did have some great storytelling at first but then declined slowly afterwards due to the appearance of some “filler” episodes and fan-service scenes, which had no point to make with the entire story.
Another point worthed noting is that, the show has incredibly expanded from the very beginning, no matter how many new ideas and concepts coming out each season, it still manages to retain its unique “VR world versus real world”. The whole franchise has heavily relied on this premise, with the introduction of future technologies, from the Nerve Gear to The Seed, to its prequel AmuSphere and lastly SoulTranslator, which was the basis for the whole Underworld to operate. The way they are presented plainly matched the storyline, and therefore did not make viewers feel overwhelmed for such a lot of novel concepts to adhere to.
The pacing of this season is what also gain it a plus mark. 12 episodes, when they end, just feel like that same amount, no more no less, but are stil able to convey the whole meaning of the story with scarcely misunderstandable details. Additionally, the season is far less dependent on random and meaningless comedic moments, none in fact, which offers a more fluent and cohesive plot ever than what used to exist in two first seasons.
Animations and visuals are still astonishing as always, breathtaking sceneries of the Underworld together with the absolute contrast of ones belong to Dark Territory somehow stuck into my mind the scenerio of our real world future if we continue to destroy our planet. Aside from these, SAO WoU undoubtedly possesses winsome original soundtracks which are highly memerable and play an immense role on inculcating the series itself into its viewers. What’s more, alluring character designs as well as highly genuine expressions on their faces absolutely got viewers interested further into their development, but we will get to that in a bit.
Let us take a deeper look into the content. The main story is still surrounding our protagoinst Kirito as he entered the Underworld created by RATH in order to seek for an AI named Alice and take her with him to the end point of Underworld then log two of them out. This has contrastly grown however, with Kirito having his Fluctlight damaged and is now incapable of moving or communicating with others. Several altercations have been made around this twist, but mostly emphasizes on the incentive this will give to other characters of the show to take the spotlight, and the studio incredibly make use of this.
We have Alice now having to make a difficult decision of proceeding to protect Underworld and its inhabitants as an Integrity Knight or to take a step down and protect Kirito as a more-than-close friend. The dilemma given to such a special AI like her initially seems to be overwhelmed, but as her own character has been strikingly well-established, she somehow manages to equally contribute to both side of the coin.
Furthermore, we get to see our supportive characters having been exposed to us for a decent amount of time throughout the season, and when it ends, they really leave an impression on us of not ceasing as “supporting” but really being an essential part of the entire story as well as making it lively and captivating. This absolutely reminded me on the second season of AoT where we got to see some important characters later on (Krista, Reiner, Bertold, Ymir) being put to more than enough amount of screen times and secure their spot throughout the story. The improvement in this aspect really shines as a spotlight itself of the whole season, which assures that the show is now independent on the only one protagonist to carry it along, because the rests all can.
Whilst the story plus the character design of this season simply outweighed its former in many facets, one of the biggest issues with it, and surprisingly has not changed since the first one, is the world building. I’m not saying this season’s world building has partly surpassed the prequels, but we need to concentrate deeper on the actual premise of it. What I mean by that is Underwold, unlike orther VR worlds introduced throughout the franchise, is created and operated on the basis of what is inside its designer’s mind. Trees, mountains, fields and rivers all exsist in the same way their creators want them to be, or in other words, they somehow mimic that exact same trees or mountains appeared in the creators’ memory. As for its inhabitants, they depict real world’s people but in another point in history, around the mid 15th, 16th century. The dwellers live the lives of humankind and are obligated to obey the rules given, and consequently pave the way for a whole society to flourish.
However, can this exact same scenerio applied to those come from the Dark Territory? This is one real big issue that SAO so far has not given any clues. The Underwold’s inhabitants must follow the given rules notwithstanding any contexts and in fact are utterly unable to break them. As a result, this raises more questions about the existence of Dark Territory. Who constructed it, why would ones do that and especially how could it be done if RATH had taken control of Underworld since its very first beginning? Another question that should be raised during the season but it has somewhat to do with our real world is that why wouldn’t an AI question the fact that they are the production of human’s hands and are roaming in an imaginary world but just simply accepted it in the same way that Bercouli did? Or, if that’s on the table, why are they being created, what purposes do their creators want them to serve? Or something else to those effects.
Furthermore, the origin of this region was succintly mentioned in the light novel, which should have also been presented in the anime from the very first. This actually cast a doubt onto the reliability of the show’s world building in the eyes of viewers, and even though A-1 Picture actually completed a great job on giving viewers insights into SoulTranslator, the basis technology behind the operation of Underworld, this is just superficial in comparison to the urgency of comprehending what is truly happening at the momment.
Taking everything into consideration, SAO WoU has fully evolved into something entirely new which we have never predicted when we first watched it, and thereby changes its name from a whole childish Isekai show to one that deserves to be celebrated by all walks of anime fans and manages to distinguish itself from other series among the genre. The show is not flawless technically, but as it dares to stand out right in front of the viewers and affirmes its position in the anime world line, we should probably give it another shot. SAO now is no more a long-lasting series that we all want it to end as soon as possible, but the one that worthed our time waiting every week with definite hype, excitement and anticipation, which may be a bit uncommon among Isekai genre. However, because it has somehow been able to not only overcome the challenges given to the entire genre but also keep itself up a notch, this may be the case.
It’s unsurprising by now that SAO is truely worth watching and deserves the wait for an epic finale.
Stark700
Remember when Kirito, the main protagonist of Sword Art Online jumped into the virtual world and made a name for himself as the ‘Black Swordsman’? Since 2012, his name would become iconic in the SAO anime series' franchise. Anyone who have heard of Sword Art Online would be able to name him as a character, even those has never seen the series before. Now, we are in a timeline, an arc detailing events that doesn’t have Kirito carrying the season. Instead, meet Alice Zuberg. Anyone already familiar with SAO should know the franchise has no shortage of powerful female main characters. From Asuna to Yuki, theyare able to hold their own against skilled opponents and often times coming out dominant in a fight. In the case of Alice, she is also in a league of her own in particular with her swordsmanship. With unique talents such as Sacred Arts and Incarnation, Alice is more than capable of taking care of herself. The real question remains of who would take care of Kirito? This season puts him in a role that audience may not be accustomed to. Seeing Kirito in a vegetable state creates a situation where another character has to carry the season. Alice would be the main protagonist to take this task and it doesn’t come without risks. In fact, she even faces troubles of her own when trying to discover her purpose in the world.
And to take on the world is no easy task. The antagonists this season introduces a new level of challenge such as Gabriel Miller, the chief tactical officer of the Glowgen Defense Systems. SAO has been a subject of controversy with its rogue gallery. The addition of Gabriel further adds context with the character being portrayed as an intellectual psychopath. Gabriel himself is somewhat of a complex character known for crimes involving genocide, experimentation, and abuse of power. Tyrant is a suitable word to describe such a character as he is a man filled with sins. As what he stands for, Gabriel is a testament of the worst side of humanity. On a lesser scale, we are also introduced to members of the Order of the Dark Knights. Some of its more prominent members such as Vixur and Lipia displays impressive abilities but are generally lackluster characters that makes little impact in the main story. War of the Underworld seems to be driven by not just survival but conquest in a virtual world for supremacy. On the technical front, episode 6 serves as a good old fashioned battle covered with the brutality of what humans are capable of. A main problem with that episode does make less of an impact revolving around the death of certain characters. Compared to the first season, War of the Underworld feels lacks emotional connection outside of Alice and Kirito. Even for Asuna, who is in the real world, still holds the same feelings we’ve seen so many towards to the black swordsman. Keeping things back, we do get a unique episode about a young Integrity Knight named Renly in episode 7. It’s strange that sometimes in the SAO world, we get a character that isn’t prominent to a story arc but plays a role to show the themes of the franchise. In Renly, we witness a character who is able to overcome some of his fear in a moment of desperation. It’s one of the more human moments I recall this season.
In respect of Alice being the major protagonist this season, I give a lot of credit for her character presence. She helps Kirito in whatever ways she can from the start and if it wasn’t for her, his circumstances would be much different. Fate would also designate her encounter with Asuna. When you have two incredibly powerful female characters meeting together for the first time (both associated with Kirito), there’s bound to be a conflict. And their meeting is nothing less than bickering and a clash of swords. Mind you, Asuna has the advantage of being in a relationship with Kirito for much longer. On the other hand, Alice is also an important person in Kirito’s life now and shouldn’t be undervalued, even compared to Asuna herself. Luckily, the two are able to form a truce despite their differences. Comparing both characters, it’s not hard to find a common ground about them. But if you’re thinking this season will have them fight over a vegetable, then think again.
Alicization is a complex arc. There’s no doubt about that as we learn the secrets, conspiracies, and dark motives of certain individuals. Kirito isn’t the main protagonist this time and Eugeo is noticeably absent. I’m sure some people wanted to see how him back since he was a breath of fresh air. But now, we have Alice Zuberg, the chivalrous Integrity Knight who is seeking her own purpose in the SAO world while trying to protect what she treasures. This season chose to run a span of 12 episodes because the fact is, there’s much more it needs to show. And when Spring 2020 comes, it’ll have to prove itself if it can carry the torch.
Syureria
War taking place in the underworld has begin. As we know, Kirito is currently paralyzed by an attack that occurred in the previous season. Now Kirito is cared for and lives with Alice, after they defeated the leader of the axiom church, Quinella, who we know as "administrator". Their lives initially proceeded as usual, but all that changed when residents of the "dark territories" rebelled and attacked the underworld. At this point Kirito as the main character could not do anything, he was required to accept the bitter truth that what they had protected so far would be destroyed soon. This seasonis full of tensions and dramatic moments, wars that are inevitable, full of bloody battles, the slaughter of a human being, it all happens here and will soon reach the climax.
Witnessing this season, proving that soon Alicization will reach the top of the story. The story goes slowly but all is neatly arranged, starting with the introduction of each character. Alice is a girl who used to be Kirito's childhood friend, but she had to be separated from Kirito because she had broken a rule created by the axiom church. The entry of several characters who act as antagonists and protagonists in this season uses an instant way to get a strength to side with the course of the story that will reach the top. Unlike Kirito who had to start from scratch.
As in previous seasons, you will see many scenes of action and bloody battles this season, but what distinguishes this season from the past is their goal. If in the previous season Kirito entered the underworld with the aim of recovering himself in the real world, because in the real world Kirito is now on the verge of death due to attacks from members of "Laughin Coffin" and to defeat the main senator namely administrator. Whereas in this season, the inhabitants of the dark territory led by Gabriel (They call it the Demon King Vector), he is a US military soldier assigned to take Alice's soul to create an AI (Artificial Intelligence) that can make artificial humans as a source of war military.
Sword Art Online is a series that exists for some reason, a minority of outsiders love to hate it even though it is one of the most successful media franchises in Japan. They only focus on the domestic market even though it is different from foreign market conditions. They do not hesitate to spend a lot of budget for a successful franchise in their market.
With that much budget, it's no wonder, they can make art like that. Explosions, sword friction effects, character designs, etc. seem very realistic and very detailed for a sword fighting effect. OP / ED staying up can help promote artists and help sales of BD versions. It all became the main point of Sword Art Online to become the biggest and most popular franchise in the domestic market.
As a fan of this franchise, I say this season is a season full of action scenes. That made him realize that this season was full of dramatic and tense tragedies. The great seconds of the fight over their respective goals have now begin.
-Mullerio-
"SAO is finally a good show" - general audiences after this season So far SAO is a bad series not that no one could enjoy it, its just badly written. I still somewhat enjoyed it for its silly moments and had my fair share of fun watching it. Sword Art Online Alicization - War of Underworld tho is by many people regarded as the Season were SAO finally gets good. Well i disagree a whole lot with that statement and here is why. Its time to beat a dead horse i guess. I will maybe write some things some say are spoilers so here isa warning.
This Season trys some new things disregarding its all to familiar protagonist Kirito and choosing Alice as its new one. While i would give the author credit for at least trying he ultimately made many of the same mistakes and that is the reason why he in my eyes failed at truly changing the series for the better.
At the end of the last Season the big bad Pontifex was defeated and Kirito fell in some kind of coma. Now the "dark territory" is set to attack and the Integrity Knights are trying to build up some kind of defense against them.
Alice is our new main character and she has some real writing issues in my humble opinion.She makes some really dumb decisions to protect Kirito wich she does above all else, after seeing some dudes arguing to kill Kirito cause he killed their god she decides to leave. Instead of staying by the side of the people that 1. have influence and 2. know about Kirito and the bad things the Pontifex did she decides to go back to her home city. Why not ask some other Integrity knights to help her hide why go alone? This is just and example of how stupid and impulsive it gets.
Furthermore her biggest character trait is her love for Kirito, i know she questions some things after being treated like trash but this is never explored in any way. The reason for almost everything she does is that she wants to protect him, wich can be fine in a Adventure type setting but not if the reason she is the main character is that the series wants to distance itself from Kirito. Thus Kirito seems yet again as the main reason for almost everything a big chunk of the cast does anything.
Every other cast member is not really noteworthy tbh.
The new big bad that wants to take Alice Fluctlight comes from the outside world. He gets access to the emperor "account" of the dark territory, he does that in a spectacular easy way given that project Alicization is supposed to be the next new still steamy way of war. The amount of security is basically non existent. His and the character of his bro are both complete garbage they are the typical bad guys with no development or even exposition to why they do the things they do in the way they do it. I mean there is literally nothing. We get 2 names and a profit orientated goal....thats it. In the Underworld the worldbuilding gets expanded in a horrendous way, we get a big introduction of maybe all the races that live there. This introduction is the typical "giv em some text for the minimum of information", i mean come the fuck on thats so god damn lazy. All the races we got have the most generic underdeveloped leaders ever, we again get name and 1 over exaggerated personality trait. Ok....1 of them that gets some more spotlight in the later episodes but he never had any kind of character arc he just snapped and in the span of some minutes changes sides.
On the side of the Human empire we have some more spotlight on the characters but again everything feels lazy and rushed. Every Integrity Knight either is a tool for info dumping us, in the last episode some characters where in a pickle and one of the Integrity Knights appeared out of nowhere and gave them the solution that we as a watcher couldnt answer because we never got the amount of worldbuilding required to answer that question. As for the Integrity Knights themselves we got every typical character present the quiet but strong one, the anxious but overcoming it one, the charismatic leader one, the 2 lolis, the overly annoying apprentice one. Every character gets the development that is to be expected after seeing them for the first time most of them overcome their issues in the most predictable and anti climactic way possible.
We also got some characters from the first season that return now and that in probably the most fun but ultimately worst episode of SAO, i am of course talking about episode 5 and its only purpose to show Kiritos Harem wich he build throughout the first Season. Each and every Girl he helped in some kind of way comes to cry at his chair and thats 99% of the episode.
Almost every scene that is not in the Underworld is there to give explanation about the absurd story, its just characterless characters reading some scientific stuff that explains "everything". Present the information in a way anyone could care about and it maybe be decent. But this is for sure not the way my lovely A1 team.
One last little point about the story is that this is supposed to be a war right? I highly doubt that there is only one war front each when the only 2 known empires are at war. The tactics are also questionable if the big daddy emperor is such a great allmighty being why not directly fight then? Why not surround the enemy if you are so much stronger? Why not investigate on the Integrity Knights powers and then search for a solution against those powers?
Thats about all my really major issues, of course there are some more things on the terrible worldbuilding etc. But that would be a waste of time since it should be clear that the Underworld is not the best explored world there is.
The Sound is good but nothing groundbreaking, that is to be expected since SAO is A1s baby and they probably spent a lot of god damn money on it. The overall soundtrack is also not bad but also nothing outstanding, Lisa did the OP if ya like her voice you'll probably enjoy it. The animation/art section is the one that ones again shows how god damn lazy this show is, the overall animation feels smooth most of the time but oh my lord jesus fucking chris EVERY and i mean EVERY soldier from every army looks 100% the same, are they clones mhhhhhh i highly doubt it. The shot composition is as basic and generic as it gets, not a single shot tells us anything about the world or characters, the everything thats not animated in the foreground is done in a lazy (copy and paste soldiers) and generic way that shows that the show once again goes full "lets make our animation look good on a superficial way but with 0 depth or thought put into it".
In the end this Season changes little about the series be it for worse or for better it still is somewhat entertaining and good to laugh at.....maybe not as entertaining as the last Season since edge lord Kirito is cosplaying the sleeping beauty.If you enjoy and legitimately think its good....you do you i guess. Go hate or debate all you want and maybe just maybe we can agree to disagree.
MyTurn
To be honest I've always been a fan of SAO. The amount of hate the series receives always annoyed me but I'm happy to see this season getting more positive reviews. Story (9) - The story follows the progression of technology, more specifically virtual reality. One thing I enjoy about this is how in depth it goes especially in this season. It feels more like another world than a game with the main character now being Alice in a position where all she knew was a lie yet decides to fight alongside the other integrity knights from the forces of the Dark Territory to protect thethings she still cares for as well as our main character Kirito who fought to help free the integrity knights from the pontifex who had them under control. The story follows an advanced AI nearly identical to a human thought process fighting the enemies of the dark territory from threatening what she now holds dear and demonstrates an amazing concept of how an AI that has a soul becomes more like a human beginning to think for itself.
Art (10) - Well you can tell they went all out with the art this season. The CGI is done great and while making this arc fairly dark and grim, the colors are vibrant and beautiful which gives you stunning fight scenes.
Sound (10) - The OP and the ED are simply amazing. They fit the anime perfectly to me and its LiSa, I mean she doesn't seem to make a bad song.
Character (9) - We get a pretty good backstory to most our characters this season which is nice. I find myself liking almost all the integrity knights now knowing their backstory compared to Alicization where they are trying to kill our main characters so if you can flop my opinion on them like that I believe that's a positive. With the focus of the story and this season being 12 episodes, character development is done fairly well, Alice especially for obvious reasons as she is the MC. The characters express emotion well so it makes situations feel more serious or tense. My only complaint would our main villain this season. Not enough backstory for me to really understand his actions besides the fact that he's just insane, I'd like something more creative.
Enjoyment (9) - As I said Iv'e always enjoyed SAO but this season as many have already said, is the best season of all the previous ones imo.
Overall (9) - SAO has always appealed to me in a way other animes don't. So my ratings obviously wont be accurate for those who never cared for the show in the first place. I truly believe the anime gets more hate than it deserves but I'm glad that SAO is getting more positive reviews this time around. Overall this anime isn't for those who critically analyze everything looking for something to dislike because its popular. Its simply an all around great series that can appeal to a variety of people for its interesting concept and its variety of genre exposure that it delivers very well.
Epic_Kirito
As 2019 comes to an end and we prepare ourselves to welcome in a new decade, I write this review as a testament to where I feel one of my favorite anime franchises of this decade now stands. Sword Art Online has always been a popular light novel and anime franchise that dominated the 2010's. However, despite its success and long-standing popularity, there's no denying that there's always been that certain vocal minority that always feels the need to criticize Sword Art Online on a 24/7 basis. Whether it be normal viewers who have or haven't watched the series or some anime reviewers that always feelthe need to make their opinions feel like fact, Sword Art Online could never catch a break.
Despite all this, there's a reason Sword Art Online has never faded into obscurity and oblivion and has always managed to stand strong as one of the defining anime franchises of the 2010's. And Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld is arguably the biggest season yet, encompassing how Sword Art Online has continued to grow not only as a successful franchise, but one that still retains legions of millions of fans that are growing to this day for what it has to offer.
Story: 10/10
For some people, they either say SAO in terms of story hits it out of the ball park or misses and gets a strike. But for this season, I believe SAO hit a home run. At the very least, I can argue it's been improving its swing and shows no signs of stopping. Comparing the first half of Alicization to its second half (aka War of Underworld in this context), I would say the second half not only builds upon what the first half introduced, but also manages to conceive an engaging and consistent story that goes above all other previous seasons. If one were to say the first half of Alicization faltered in its later episodes, I could only hope they stayed around for War of Underworld to see how actually great it is. When Alicization transitioned to War of Underworld, SAO essentially went from being the standard shonen fantasy adventure that Kirito embarks on to a story of tragedy that does not pull back on the deaths and grief war brings even in a virtual world.
Basically, I would say War of Underworld's story is a vast improvement on SAO's storytelling. I would even go as far as to say it's like experiencing the story of a Fate series anime. The ufotable adaptations, mind you. Not a lot of people might say that, but I know I did.
It also helps that War of Underworld has some of the best action in SAO yet, featuring tons of battles that keep the viewer invested while also giving development to much of the Integrity Knights and even some depth to the inhabitants of the Dark Territory.
I will delve into the characters of War of Underworld later, but overall, the story of War of Underworld is perhaps the best of SAO yet.
Art: 10/10
No matter what you think about SAO, one cannot deny that SAO has always performed well visually. While the first half of Alicization was good in animation too, I have to admit the Blu-ray/DVD version of the first half of Alicization has better animation quality compared to the TV version. But come War of Underworld, I believe the animators won't have to do much editing for the Blu-ray/DVD version of War of Underworld. Because War of Underworld's art and animation is already great to begin with. And we're talking about the TV version!
I always felt SAO had revolutionized its art and animation ever since Ordinal Scale, and War of Underworld manages to present nigh-flawless art and animation that leaves little to no room for error. From eye-astonishing fight scenes to the always gorgeous backgrounds, SAO always delivers on the art and animation while also improving on it as each installment releases.
On a side note, the occasional CGI rendering of background characters fighting in the war may be off-putting to those used to traditional animation, but at this point, I don't mind it, because a lot of other anime use it too and the CGI here doesn't take away from the splendid art and animation of SAO.
Sound: 10/10
Yuki Kajiura is a composer legend and no one can tell me otherwise. While there's mostly some carryover of soundtracks from previous seasons including the first half of Alicization, there is still some new soundtracks to listen to that are just splendid for the ears to experience.
But the biggest appeal in sound are the opening and ending songs. Haruka Tomatsu, the Japanese voice actress of Asuna, sings an opening song for SAO once again with Resolution, which not only is awesome to listen to on its own, but also fits the ambitious resolve the Human Empire has to protect their homeland from the Dark Territory and the latest antagonist yet.
As for the ending song, just when it seemed LiSA was done for the year with Gurenge, the opening of Demon Slayer, LiSA sings her last SAO song of the 2010's with Unlasting. While Unlasting may not be enough to make me shed a tear like Shirushi from the Mother's Rosario arc did, Unlasting is absolutely heavenly to listen to, as its melancholic and somber tone suits the grief and despair that Alice Zuberg is going through now that she's in a scenario where the Kirito she fought with is out of commission and longs for him to fight alongside her again for the world he saved alongside her and Eugeo.
Character: 10/10
And now I shall talk about the characters. First things first, it's important to repeat that Kirito is in a coma. So for those who think he's still going to be an overpowered protagonist in War of Underworld, you thought wrong. While his consciousness still desires to protect those he loves, he is absolutely unable to move or fight, at most only being able to react to those close with him. It's just heartbreaking that no matter how one viewed Kirito, he's essentially been reduced to a vegetable on a wheelchair.
That said, I've always felt the greatest aspect of Kirito's character was not what actions he took to help others, but how his actions inspired others close to him and allowed them to help back in his time of need. This is most exhibited in Alice Zuberg. With Eugeo tragically out of the picture and Kirito in a comatose status, Alice takes the spotlight as the main heroine of this season. In War of Underworld, I truly got to see the strength of Alice's resolve. How she wanted to protect the world that Kirito and Eugeo saved was presented well in the anime in my eyes.
But other than Alice, the Human Empire and even the Dark Territory got plenty of character development too. Bercouli finally takes the stand as the highest authority in the Human Empire and absolutely shows why he's a force to be reckoned with. In addition, Fanatio manages to overcome her self-consciousness over her gender and finally embraces it while also proving she's a capable solider on the battlefield, male or female. Even Deusolbert gets some time to shine as a noble warrior going all out Archer of Inferno from Fate/Grand Order (except that he's on the good side) on the Dark Territory soldiers. However, the most notable of them all would have to be Eldrie, who made a most selfless and meaningful sacrifice that would forever set the tone for what was to come in War of Underworld.
But what's even better than the Integrity Knights introduced from the first half of Alicization are the new ones introduced in War of Underworld: Renly and Scheta. When I was first introduced to Renly, I didn't really like him at first since he was a coward. Regardless, I held onto the hope that he would grow out of his cowardice and learn to overcome his fears. Not only did he manage to do so, but in just less than half of an episode, he gets a flashback that explains in full detail why he became fearful of his fighting abilities. To get that kind of treatment even though he was just introduced in this season is amazing. It's even more amazing how despite that, it still gave Renly a ton of character development that you wouldn't expect from one who was just introduced in the latest season. Scheta is no slouch in that department either, as not only does she get the flashback treatment, but her distinct stoic and aloof personality makes her stand out from all the other Integrity Knights and female characters. Not to mention her interactions with arguably one of the best Dark Territory characters: Iskahn, Champion of the Pugilists.
The Dark Territory was already a setting filled with a diverse cast of people and armies. But what really makes the Dark Territory interesting is how the people there aren't all generic evil villains. Some, if not, all of them have a human side to them, proving that they're just as human as the Human Empire. In fact, two of the leading members of the Dark Knights weren't evil at all and only wanted peace with the Human Empire.
Sure, the goblins don't have enough intelligence to have a truly human side to them, but the rest of them aren't fighting out of pure bloodlust or for the fun of it. They're doing it because they're being forced to and are helpless to defy their Emperor Vector. They wanted to invade the Human Empire, but come Emperor Vector, he twists that goal and forces them to die in vain just for his own personal gain. These events form the backbone for why one feels sorry for an anthropomorphic pig whose entire ogre army is being sacrificed for an attack that fails in vain, an anthropomorphic wolf that just wants his people to return to the abundant grasslands where they can live in peace and harmony again, and the leader of a tribe of pugilists who are being treated like puppets by the hands of Emperor Vector. Which is why Iskahn stands out so much as a Dark Territory character.
Practically SAO's answer to Fire Force (and arguably Zuko and Azula packed into one feisty redhead), Iskahn is perhaps the most human of the Dark Territory inhabitants, wanting to fight honorably with Scheta and even questioning the authority of Emperor Vector. Seriously, I want more characters like Iskahn.
As for the Glowgen Defense System, they're pretty decent. They may not be as interesting as Quinella, but they're miles better than Sugou. The banter between Critter and Vassago made for some of the most witty and amusing villain conversations I had ever seen in SAO. And me personally, while Gabriel Miller may not dethrone Quinella as my favorite SAO villain, I feel Gabriel Miller is essentially a better Sugou. Here, while he does sport the occasional creepy face, it's more tolerable in my eyes and his villain motives aren't defined by generic sexual pleasure or wanting to take over the world. To sum up, his philosophy can be defined as a consistent lust for soul-eating. One that goes all the way back to his childhood. For better or worse, it's clear Gabriel Miller is not messing around. He knows what he wants and he knows how to get it.
I would go more into detail about Asuna and the other side characters, but I feel Asuna, Sinon, and Leafa will shine more in the second cour. As for the side characters, Lisbeth truly took the spotlight this cour. Klein, Agil, and Silica aside, Lisbeth made her mark in SAO history with her speech. In the midst of the War of the Underworld crisis and difficulty persuading her fellow ALO peers to come help in a time of need, Lisbeth demonstrated why she's just as important a character as the rest of the SAO cast, telling the players of ALO that the lives they live in the virtual world are just as real in the real world and that no matter what world they're in, all humans, real or digital, are undoubtedly real.
For a side character to make a speech like that is powerful. You have my respect, Lisbeth.
Enjoyment: 10/10
It doesn't matter what any anime elitist or snobby YouTube anime reviewer tells me. I've stayed an SAO fan for as long as I can remember. Even though I don't read the light novels, for me, the anime has always been enjoyable. War of Underworld did not disappoint and managed to deliver on all fronts. I won't force anyone to submit to my opinions, but at the very least, I want to express my own opinions. Of all the SAO seasons so far, War of Underworld truly set the bar for what the story of SAO holds. If I could enjoy War of Underworld on all fronts, I wholeheartedly can't wait to see what the final cour holds in store. A-1 Pictures, don't fail me now.
Overall: 10/10
Towards the end of this decade, I know most people wouldn't define SAO as their anime of the decade in the 2010's. While SAO may not enjoy the same unanimous critical acclaim as titles like Attack on Titan, One Punch Man, etc., I'm proud to stake my claim that SAO has managed to stand tall with them even among its polarized reception.
From kickstarting Yoshitsugu Matsuoka's seiyuu career since his star-making role as Kirito to heavily influencing the anime industry to release more light novel anime adaptations and isekai anime like Re: Zero, Konosuba, etc., there's no denying Sword Art Online has always managed to remain an important part of anime in the 2010's no matter what one thinks of it.
And for me personally, compared to other franchises like Tokyo Ghoul that are popular but haven't had as much fortune in succeeding this decade, I would say Sword Art Online truly made its mark on the 2010's and closed it off with a bang with arguably the best season to date.
So Sword Art Online, through all your ups and downs, thank you for all the enjoyment you have brought to me this decade in the 2010's and I look forward to what the final cour of Alicization holds and what the future of the Sword Art Online franchise will be.
Superyio123
Story: I thought that the story developed quite nicely and is probably one of the better seasons/arcs of the SAO series. If people are put off by the fact that the MC is always overpowered then this will probably be the most enjoyable arc since our MC Kirito is pretty much in a vegetative state the entire time. With our MC is out of the way, we get to focus on the development and growth of Alice. What was nice was that there was no major filler content throughout the entire season and the pacing was actually quite well done and significant events are revealed ata pleasant pace. The show wasn’t that predictable either and I was honestly hype for the last few episodes. One thing I disliked about the ending was that it was quite ambiguous and such a cliffhanger that if I didn’t know that there was a second season coming then I would have been quite disappointed with how things ended.
Art:
As expected from the SAO series produced by A-1 Pictures, the art does not disappoint at all. The art is on par with the previous SAO seasons as well and the animation is great in the fight scenes. In particular, I really enjoy the fluidity of the animation by A-1 Pictures and SAO is the few series that I seem to actually notice the high quality of animation and actually appreciate them during the fight scenes. Character designs were good as well and you will have no problem differentiating between characters. I did notice that they used CGI here and there but they are not distracting and are only used when necessary such as when there are hundreds of soldiers on the battlefield. Overall, the art was satisfactory and the animation was great.
Sound:
Gosh, the soundtrack in this anime was so awesome and I was so hyped just from hearing the soundtracks. I have to commend the sounds in this anime, and although I didn’t vibe with the OP I freaking LOVE the ED and the soundtracks. The music sets the perfect tone and ambiance and even if the battle scene was not great, the music will give you the illusion of a great majestic battle taking place. The sound effects were great too, and I especially loved the effect when Asuna appeared like an angel. After I finished the show I found myself repeatedly listening to the soundtracks because they were that good. If anything, I would say that the music and sound effects were one of the highlights of the show.
Character:
The main focus of this season is Alice and personally I thought that they did a great job with character development and incorporating Kirito’s part even when he was in the state that he was and without him being overwhelmingly OP. We can see that Alice has clearly changed from the previous season, we see her pain from the “loss” of Kirito and as well as her resolve and determination to move on and protect her comrades. It was great to see her thinking and making decisions on her own for her own sake and also for the sake of others. Other characters were great too and there are quite a few instances where I was touched by the character’s backstory and sacrifices. There were even moments where the enemy also showed a humane side and made it quite emotional. Even though at some parts I felt that it was a bit too rushed and forced, I was still touched and emotional which makes me think that the directors did a pretty good job with the other character’s portrayal. In the end, I quite enjoyed the characters of this season.
Enjoyment:
With all technicalities aside, I have to say that I quite enjoyed this season of SAO. I didn’t really like the previous season leading up to this one but I really did enjoy this one. While watching this show I was able to feel a variety of different emotions and it was a really nice experience overall. I probably won’t be rewatching but that’s just because I typically don’t like to rewatch shows anyways, but I’m definitely hooked from this season and looking forward to next. I think anyone can find some type of enjoyment/entertainment from this season so give this show a shot!
Horn_dawg_2019
Ok, so that's SAO too annoying when were gonna have to wait for the next sequel: So: Story: Pros: The same plot and it involve where he 1st sequel end and as sual it involves them characters going back in to the VMMOPG world only this time the guy was push into the sidelines as a cripple and it's them girls who does the ass kicking. Cons: The same plot where only this time were the characters with god tier capabilities were starting to keep adding, also the plot of them character having sympathy for a buch of NPC that were nothing more than algorithms inside a mainframe was just too overrated that it starts to become annoying when the real threat were them mecrs whom were out to steal a very special girl inside the STL...and yes that's the Goddess of Light who goes by the name "Alice."
Verdict: 7 over 10.
Art:
Pros: Good customs, and some eyecandies and there was that brief Asuna's panty flash .
Cons: I was just the usual illustration from all SAO franchise .
Verdict: 7 over 10.
Sound:
Pros: the same set of seiyuus from all SAO franchise.
Cons: The same set of seiyuus from all SAO franchise.
Verdict: 5 over 10.
Character:
Pros: Here we get to see Alice being the main protagonist, in fact in this sequel it was them women turn to shine , also the addition of a main antagonist who is a grown up does spice up this sequel.
Cons: The problem was we never get to see an epic fight between them girls Asuna and Alice versus the Emperor of the Dark Territory, also with the addition of Shion basically makes this sequel as to having too many god-tier characters that it was starting to become a one sided affair as they kick the asses of them US gamer hordes, so basically even with Kirito out of the way it would still be the usual since he was just merely replaced by Alice.
Verdict: 5 over 10
Enjoyment:
Pros: I still have the same enjoyment that I had when I first watched the first SAO anime.
Cons: I also have the same level of disgust when I've watched the very first SAO anime.
Verdict: 5 over 10.
Overall:
Verdict 5 over 10.
Basically what this is was just a repeat of the very first SAO anime, and quite frankly I'm wondering as to when will studio A-1 Picture and Original Creator, will pull the plug of this franchise. Cu'z quite frankly as this anime progress and keep repeating the same setting , it was getting way too overrated as to forget that they're in a virtual world and those NPC's were nothing more that algorithms, in fact those people in that Turtle Island would have been better off deleting those program in their STL that letting them mercs get that so called "Alice."
System's Call: Delete the entire program and make a new one.
AgentBishop
SAO have the worst characters you can imagine, and this is not a breaking news to anyone, Alicization suffers from the same mistakes first two season suffered, mainly Kirito, Asuna and poor direction and character development. this Arc is full of cliche SAO crap, "Yelling makes attack smarter", "no hero dies", "one dimentional villains and heros", "plot holes", "girls want only kirito". Alice is literally the copy and pasted Saber from Fate Series, i mean it, but i'm gonna let this one slip. Let's talk about the plot, so the villains are after Alice, but why? Asuna says because she broke the rules ergo she is a trueAI, let's talk about how fucking stupid it is that japan's military is looking for an AI that can breaks the rules!
Why would they want a solider that can break the rules they fucking gave her?
It makes absolutely no sense, let's say for some reason they want that, why didn't they just stop the project the moment Alice broke the rules? isn't there an alert or something that can notify the programmers? (if they can't for some unknown reason then it just shows how retarded it is that programmers weren't prepared for this)
Also it is pointed out that time is passing faster in Alicization, why? because we said so, if time is relative then why not speed up this stupid Super Secret project that a high school girl could find out about?
The warriors from Dark territory look disgusting, their design is abhorrent, it just hurt you eyes.
The Art isn't anything noteworthy it's bad, soundtracks are garbage as well, i didn't enjoy neither the opening nor the ending song
secondary characters are as developed as middle eastern countries, not a single interesting character, a character is supposed to have a background which we can relate to, people just show up and die and get resurrected to die again to show up again in the end as plot twist! this is what SAO always does, it assumes it's audience is brain-dead which isn't completely false!
The only character i had a little respect for was Alice because she wasn't after Kirito, that was the only reason i respected her a little but don't get me wrong, she is a garbage character, she is the most generic warrior i've seen, nothing about her is memorable, i'm gonna forget about her after this review probably
It is a bad anime, wasted my goddamn time again
Resting_Bonfire
Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld I knew this would happen, but I just didn't want to accept it. After the Alicization season finally delivered an acceptable level of quality, I was hoping the anime would continue to improve. But unfortunately, I wasn't aware that there would be 2 consecutive seasons that would present nothing but endless fights. I liked the fact that the war between the two worlds was depicted quite cruelly, however, all the hype from the first season of the arc has been ruined. Wasn't it said that the Dark Continent was incredibly powerful? Why does it present itself as anabsurd ridiculous spectacle? Half the force of the human empire is already absolute overkill. If the current main antagonists didn't interfere from the outside world, there would be no danger at all in this supposedly "Last War." Thus, Kirito's entire argument with the Knights and the Administrator is completely meaningless. If no one had come to this world, the human kingdom would have won this war WITHOUT any difficulty.
As for the visual presentation and aesthetics, I must say that this is one of the best war arcs I have ever seen in an anime. You can see the ambitions and motivations of both sides, as well as their losses. It's not a simple good and evil which I expected. At least the first part of it, the second develops into a ... theater.
I still think that this anime is well worth watching. Of course, one's expectations should not be set too high, it is very simple and does not offer any twists. Likewise, the quality of the author leaves much to be desired, especially in the War of Underworld arc, which has very little content. And despite that, they manage to create one questionable and illogical scene after another. Especially concerning Alice, is not only a living plot armor but makes the war escalate more and more.
Unfortunately, it's also the better season, Part 2 of War of Underworld being massively worse than this one.
Regarding all of this, SAO would have been significantly better off if this anime had been a true isekai. But since the humans in this world are merely AI, this whole war is shown to be all the more meaningless.
[Conclusion 4]
Thank God the majority of the season was kept afloat by very dynamic combat, animation, and music. I finished watching it very quickly as it impressed me visually. That being said, it turned out to be an underwhelming result. I'm disappointed, but you couldn't have seen it coming any other way.
DigiCat
SAO review 4/4 This season’s very battle heavy while still continuing the psycological aspect explored in season 3, introducing us to some of the most psychotic and sadistic villains, and showing how constant battles and death can break a you, but also how having the right people around you supporting you can put you back toghether stronger than ever, i think what i like most about SAO is how they used these virtual settings to show such real emotions and life experiances, not one moment ever felt fake or forced no matter how fantastical the world or powers got 🗡 (this review is for both part 1and part 2 of SAO War Of Underworld)
Favorite OP: ANIMA
Favorite ED: Unlasting
PyraXadon
When I said that SAO was best when Kirito wasn't involved, I didn't mean cripple the fucker and keep him as a background character. Didn't mean for that advice to be taken so extremely. Story: Following the fall of the Axiom Church, Kazuto Kirigaya has been put out of commission thanks to a bolt of lightning hitting him during some altercations happening in the facility at the time. With new invaders taking some partial reigns to the Underworld, war rises as the border between the Human Empire and the Dark Territory begin to crumble and fade. Thus sparking 'The War of the Underworld'. The story of 'War ofUnderworld' is really about side characters and the surrounding battle that serves as the setting. Thanks to Kazuto being out of commission, the show's screentime is devoted to building up the ins and outs of the Underworld (especially the Dark Territory's side) and setting up the stakes for the arc now that there's an opposing force in the real world that's actively causing mayhem and destroying whatever balance was achieved prior to the intervention. However that comes with the need to explain and introduce the audience to these things, and that's where I think War of Underworld really starts to stretch itself thin. So much of the screentime is devoted to giving backstories and little character moments to various knights and members of the Dark Territory. The end result of that creates a lot of clutter where each facet of the battle is looked at and analyzed, but ultimately doesn't really move the story forward. There're only around two major events in War of Underworld, both of which sporting multiple perspectives for multiple characters at the same time to get a scope of the entire battle. It's nice for character development, but the story itself isn't very streamlined.
I also don't think the show...is as smart as it thinks it is. Alicization is the arc in SAO that asks what the idea of the 'soul' is, now that AI technology has gotten to the point of being autonomous and equal to that of a human. Part of the reason I liked Alicization was because the Underworld was such an interesting setting given how it's its own society created only by the machinations of its denizens' fluctlights and artificial intelligence, naturally flowing into the series through inference since its existence is hauntingly real despite it being a running simulation. War of Underworld however really likes to shove that concept down your throat and constantly remind you that these Fluctlights are real people, doing so at such a rapid pace that even characters that've never seen or met these people believe and empathize with their war and their plight. The ideology is made worse thanks to this arc's antagonist, who manages to be a record holder in the series being made instantly worse as an antagonist over the course of a single episode almost immediately he was introduced into the series.
The end result is a show that's more setup than story. Given the fact that A-1 split Alicization in half, again, what we're left with are the rising details of the story without so much as reaching any amount of major climax. Even without that, the story felt like it squandered its potential, even going so far as to reveal some details in the overall scope of the series that would've been great to see, but are things they'll ultimately never talk about. The first episode of War of Underworld is such a great, somber thing to watch, and I was really hoping we would get more of that kind of emotional tug and yearning, but that kind of stuff just didn't really happen, and I'm all the more sad because of it.
Characters:
Noted as being equal to that of a vegetable, Kazuto Kirigaya (I really hate calling him Kirito) achieves a record low for the series, having not only the least amount of screentime, but also the least amount of speaking lines in all of his appearances throughout the arcs of the series. I for one am not really against this change of pace, since it allowed the rest of the cast to shine instead of having him be the forefront, and at least let the impact he had in the Human Empire sit and simmer throughout the rest of the cast. While I don't really like how at some point he will most likely rise up and kick ass again (as well as somehow get four girls to sleep near him without so much as moving a muscle), him taking the backseat let the rest of the cast be interesting and impactful rather than being either background characters or increasing the number of women around him, even though that one happens anyway.
Alice, given that she is the arc's resident female, transitions from being her own character into the series's coveted trophy that everyone fights over, which is not...that bad, somehow. Ordinarily I despise character transitions like this since it completely slashes away any interesting parts about the character in favor of turning them into the object of affections that everyone involved wants. It's gross and it feels like a detriment to the character. Alice however circumvents this problem by still being an active part of the series as a knight in the war with significant screentime and contribution to the overall setup of the story. While she definitely has less of a punch due to her breakout moment being at the tail end of Alicization, it's nice to have another 'companion' character be on a similar level to Sinon and do things on her own merit rather than because of Kirito, though that still kind of happens anyway.
And then for antagonists, there's Gabriel Miller. First introduced as the leader of a merc group who's cold, calculating, and manipulative, Miller's character quickly devolves after a quick backstory scene to be nothing more than a psychopath who's obsessed with souls. I don't get it; you had such a good setup, way better than every other antagonist in this series, and you ruined it. While his version of crazy is certainly an interesting angle, it all feels hollow, forced, and just made to go along with the tone of the series. Also I feel like what he's doing is going against his contract but fuck, what do I know?
Aside from MAYBE Asuna since she does end up becoming somewhat relevant towards the end, the rest of the cast fills in the roles on both the sides of the Human Empire, detailing little color stories for the knights and giving time to showcase the races and people of the Dark Territory, even though most of them end up as casualties at the end of the day. I attribute them more as parts of the setting rather than actual characters, and help flavor up the world before most of them end up being eviscerated or cut down in one sense or another.
Aesthetics:
Like Alicization, War of the Underworld looks a lot like Ordinal Scale and really goes all out with the particle effects this time. Due to the nature of fantasy battle, especially one where the swords of the Integrity Knights become various weapons of different styles and attack patterns, the art and animation of War of the Underworld is nothing short of a spectacle that has a lot of visual flair and boom effects. There's drastically less swordplay since everything's pretty much just explosions, but they're nice explosions at least. However because of the setting of the story, the colors of the setting lean towards a much darker color scheme as there isn't much brightness in the show, and day is nearly non-existent for the show past episode two.
On the note of animation, the usage of CG armies comes into play a substantial number of times throughout the series and it becomes very noticeable. There're even scenes where the same animation loop is repeated several times over in one landscape shot, and copy/pasted over and over again at different intervals. To A-1's credit, large armies are a nightmare to hand draw, so there's at least an excuse there, though that doesn't detract from how there are scenes where the hordes of goblins and giants are drawn out instead of modeled and pasted in.
I'm sorry to say that having Asuna('s VA) sing the opening is nowhere near as good as having LiSa do one instead. "Resolution" is without a doubt a good opening and still has the high energy SAO feel that all of their openings have, but compared to Adamas or Resister (much less Crossing Field), there's not enough punch in Resolution for me to put it on the same pedestal.
But at least we still have LiSa. "unlasting" is a big departure from the rest of the work that she's done for the series, being a much more somber and yearning song that is pretty on-par with the rest of the EDs for the series. Its slow start and steady tempo makes for a great closer for each episode, especially since the tone of the series lends itself to boding well to ending on a slower song to close off the episode. Made even better since numerous episodes have it as the background with the credits off to the side with the show finishing its current section of the story.
Personal Enjoyment:
Despite all of my grievances and complaints about War of Underworld...I still kinda liked it. There's something about SAO that makes the episodes feel really fast. While the content sometimes isn't all that good and story beats can be questionable at best, the overall tone and tension of the series was written well enough for me to at least have the desire to know what happens next. Episodes feel drastically shorter than they actually are, and I don't know why. Having Kazuto not be at the forefront of the series for once actually felt like a good narrative choice, and having Alice be the 'protagonist' this time served to develop the Underworld more now that things in the world are seemingly changing.
That being said, the pitfalls of SAO are still ever-present and I really don't like it. Every antagonist has in some sense been some kind of petty, creepy, and weird psychopath, and Miller is no different. The story also feels strangely similar to other arcs, boasting a at least mildly interesting concept before shitting itself in the last couple minutes with some asspulls and deus ex machinas to cap off this section of the overall story. I've been watching this series for like seven years; I'd expect some kind of change to have occurred during that time.
While War of Underworld isn't the worst thing that the series has concocted (looking at you, Fairy Dance), it's comparatively less interesting both in-story and in execution to its Alicization predecessor. It's that one awkward middle part that doesn't feel great to watch on its own, and the most it does is give series relevance to the expansive cast since the Underworld has an entire other half to it that wasn't given the time of day. Still, I'm a little disappointment because as much of a spectacle War of Underworld was with its fights, effects, and several choice scenes, the season as a whole doesn't really have anything to it that lets it stand on its own ground. Made even worse since it seemed like A-1 cut the thing in half, forcing this half of the series to have to stand up on its own.
Also this season feels like it was meant to be a throwback to the entire story told before it. Was that intentional? Because if it was, then where was Mother's Rosario in all that?
M1c3f
*Spoilers ahead* Actually the best season of SAO as of now. Why? Let me tell you why: Seeing Kirito as a soggy slowly rotting sack of potatoes. 10/10 Turning down the exhausting harem complex of the series with just the right amount of "Kirito don't you dare to fucking die (sort of)" between the female characters. Extremely fun to watch action scenes on a massive, Lord of the Rings or Narnia like scale. Animation and Sound are on point. The focus truly lies on action and visually and sound wise impactful scenes which is the main reason this season is actually quite good. Even though it ain't much but itshonest work: A little bit of backstory for the side characters that take up most of the actual battle time of this season which is great seeing other characters turn up the heat other than Kirito.
A somewhat good twist in the story line which is minor but cohesively connected to the characters backstory and development. A rare occurrence in SAO but surely a welcome one. That is when the monster factions characters slowly realize that they are being exploited and turn their differences aside to fight together with the human faction.
68_plus1
Nothing of significance happens this season, so as a message to other SAO fans out there, skip this one. The premise of this season follows the defeat of the pontifex from the season prior. Kirito's victory, despite losing people important to him, unfortunately left him in a coma due to some kind of short circuit. So instead of following the legacy of Kirito, the badass who manages to overcome every obstacle in his way, we're forced to follow a relatively new and bland character, Alice. From this alone, it should be easy to predict how good the anime is. Story 4/10 - The season prior introducesa new world of the Underworld in which a war is brewing between light and dark. However, this wasn't Kirito's focus in the previous season. As a viewer, I became disinterested in the war due to its irrelevance and instead focused solely on the overthrowing of the pontifex's tyrannical rule. That's why this season seemed completely useless to me. Kirito should have been pulled out of that world and life would go on and some other series or game would become the next focus of SAO. Instead the story of Alice is crammed down our throats as she, at first, only does mundane tasks such as feeding Kirito and taking him on walks. Not only have we lost Kirito mentally, but we're also forced to watch him in this state for the whole season, which is very disheartening. The story of the underworld is completely useless if not for its tie to the technological developments in the real world. Even if the war of the Underworld was relevant for bigger reasons, the story itself is boring. All 4/10 points for story go to the real life plot points.
Art 10/10 - The art of SAO is beautiful. Perhaps all of my enjoyment from the show is watching the fancy animations of the random large-scale moves by the integrity knights. It is what I expect out of a 2019 anime yet also always amazes me how far animation has come.
Sound 9/10 - SAO has always had a beautiful soundtrack. The brilliancy of the composers still remains heard in this season with another fire ED. The soundtrack during the anime is very good but I don't like the opening compared to other seasons of SAO. There are also callbacks to pieces in the original SAO but in a sad music box tone because Kirito is all screwed up. It's very well done.
Character 3/10 - Asuna and Kirito are characters that seem the most realistic to me out of most anime characters. Sure, people rant on and on about how OP Kirito is but it's more about their personality and interactions that makes SAO so enjoyable for me. Unfortunately, this season threw all of that out the window. The characters in the real world are cool, including the antagonists. Most of the characters in the Underworld are bland and pointless apart from a few Integrity Knights such as Bercouli Synthesis One and Sortiliena Serlut. Although not pointless, none are as bland as Alice. It's ironic because Alice is supposed to be the "best" soul in the Underworld, yet she seems completely robotic and fictional as a person. Her connection is that she grew up a bit with Kirito and Eugeo. That's all that makes her character seem like she should be cared about in any way. She acts as an antagonist for part of the previous season because of mind control antics, but given that a large portion of her life was in these mind control conditions, she still acts robotic and bland. Alice is a character that lacks character. Eugeo would have been a much better and more entertaining fit. This choice of following Alice is the downfall of this season and the biggest reason why it lacks enjoyment.
Enjoyment 5/10 - The art carried this category. Ooooo fancy lights swirling around. Explosions! Eye candy sparkly moves and cool fight scenes. When I stop for a moment to actually think about the importance of these scenes or try to follow the plot I instantly lose enjoyment. You know an anime isn't good when you have to only focus on pretty visuals to have any kind of enjoyment. Or maybe it's enough to satisfy art people out there. Either way this leads me to my overall score.
Overall 4/10 - Bad. Beautiful art and sound cannot overshadow the faults in the story and lack of good characters. I've rated every other SAO a 10/10 (a masterpiece on MAL) yet rated this season a 4. I got to a point where I was considering dropping SAO completely. I can't fathom any positive ratings of this anime, was the art really that pretty? I would give it a 1/10 due to my disappointment in such a brilliant series but I will continue to have hope in this series and in Kirito for his recovery. This season is like being served literal garbage at a restaurant and eating it because hopefully the desert will be good. All of my hope goes to the creators of this series in serving a desert more tasty than ever before.
Eoussama
Imagine a talented handyman, he can raise up a dried-up wasteland into a garden, he can craft all sorts of fun stuff that come in handy in your daily life, he can build houses that eventually dwarf the tallest skyscrapers, now, imagine the skyscraping house gathered a lot of following, becoming way too mainstream and spoken of all over the world, but not every conversation is that of laughs and praise, day by day, controversies are brought, the long-sought masterpiece is mocked, and the talented handyman crumbles. Sometime later, the handyman sets off on the other project that builds upon the first one, this time, withnew spins and twist that shuts off every word of hate, this new magnificent craft is related to the other one? Maybe we were too harsh on him, maybe we shouldn't have said all of those negative things about his work, come to think of it, his original work was always good, but this one tops it off and showing his true potential.
That analogy is everything but SAO. The first project is the original series, people decided to hate on it, and to fatten the hate and ignorance, even more, the second season received the same if not a worse treatment, Alicization, in this case, is the second ambitious project that corrects all of the previous entries' faults, that is, until Mr. handyman, Reki Kawahara himself decides to add pieces of pineapples atop for some reason, and everything he built up fell off in an instant like it never even mattered.
Why pineapples? That is very random, yes, just like whatever happened in this season, it's stupid, it's random and very unnecessary.
Here is why...
- Story (6/10):
It's undeniable the effort and dissection thought-out structure that Alicization started off with, very intriguing spin on the whole VR practices that had gone repetitive on the previous entries until it ended off with a satisfying conclusion that's very proud with the cliffhanger it concluded on, leaving us wanting and begging for a continuation, something that really put a lot of pressure on the continuation, it has to be at least as good or else, what does it even matter.
Something I really want to admire this season for bravely doing, and somewhat nailing was the shift from focusing on Kirito as the main motivator for the plot's progression to other lesser characters.
Now, for the frustrating part. What happened to common sense and careful thinking?
Now, SAO has always had some very visible plot holes that honestly do not affect the way the plot runs and is set up as, there are a few things here and there, but this season upped that up a great deal. A great but frustrating example was the whole Soul Translator gear and the exclusivity to the Underworld that makes you wonder if the writer even cares any more. I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't go on more detail of how exactly that hurt the credibility of this story, but man, did that single-handedly drop this plot from an 8/10 to a rediculous 6/10.
Honestly, despicable.
- Art (8.5/10):
Lately, A1-Picture has been stepping up their game with SAO, and it shows clearly in the couple last seasons. You thought the last season was phenomenally animated, this one is straight-up MAD sakuga compilations at this point, big and hype fights every episode, something that really calls out the talent of the animation team.
- Sound (9/10):
I praised the OST for the first time in Alicization. Did they improve even more or what? Maybe because this one relied on a lot of battle and combat to sellout the plot, that is, a lot of impact shocks, piercings and magic chants to compose, they definitely stick out the most.
Unlike the previous entries, the opening was okay, however, the ending though, definitely the best in the series from what goes from visuals and song. LISA is such a talented individual.
- Character (8/10):
Maybe the selling point of this show. The Kirito boycott if you will.
No, but seriously, to take out the main character of the entire franchise and still have a solid plot that's round-out very well (until the last two episodes that is) goes to show how amazing the side supporting characters are. Not only the human knights but also the Dark Territory soldiers. Every fluctlight individual sold his or her role perfectly, having to empathize with both sides can only be explained by the great character development and good personified writing if anything. It goes to question, would be born on the wrong piece of land make you the bad guy? Are the humans the heroes here because we, the viewers are humans ourselves, and though, it's easier to relate to what's familiar?
- Enjoyment (7.5/10):
My journey with SAO started with that of curiosity, why is this series hated so much, and why is it, despite that, so popular. I have come to compose my own relationship with SAO, a hate and love relationship that's primarily driven from my disappointment. I wanted the franchise to be good because it really had the potential to be amazingly good.
When I first watched Alicization I had a great deal of happiness because finally, this series is being set on the perfect track, but then to see the much-awaited for sequel destroy all of that really hurt the experience, it's not that I hated the season from the get-go, I actually enjoyed it, although not as much as I enjoyed Alicization, it wasn't until the last two episodes when I just couldn't deal with the stupid twists, they really ruined the mood and let me in such severe disappointment.
With that out of the way, this season, or war if you will have some great moments for all sorts of characters from both sides of the conflict. We get to see a lot of their abilities, attitudes, aspirations, it was a great shift from a solo character-focused series to a group of people, each with different goals in life.
- Overall (7.8/10):
I mean, if you're considering watching this, you've already made it through the best, the bad, and the stupid of SAO, 12 more episodes to seal off the series (for now) isn't going to be a bad investment, but it's by no means perfect. It leaves out a lot to be desired, doesn't live up to the hype. Definitely the same SAO though, just more action and stripped out politics.
RebelPanda
War of the Underworld is exactly what people mean when they say “Look pretty and do as little as possible.” There is sakuga in every episode, the artwork is vibrant, and the fight choreography is better than ever. As for the writing, it is hasn’t improved much over Sword Art Online’s previous seasons. Where the narrative shines is its premise: The underworld is a hellish land cloaked in a warm aura radiating from the blood-red sky. Flatter than an ocean, it is a wasteland populated with no vegetation as far as the eye can see. Divided by a valley of stone are humans on one sideand monsters in the Dark Territory on the other.
In real life where the A.L.I.C.E. simulation is operated, a group of terrorists invade the game; they overthrow an empire of monsters then march them into a war to kill the good guys and Kirito—who is in a vegetative state for the duration of this season. The terrorists enter the game as generals of the monster army, it all plays out like a shlocky imitation of Matrix 3. Once again, the script is overwritten as hell. There are so many buzzwords and names that you’ll need flashcards to keep track of them. Before the titular War begins, every single character who isn’t a CGI soldier gets a close-up with a name tag. About twenty of them were introduced before anyone drew a sword. We only needed the name tags because the setting is so underwritten. With the bare minimum world-building, there is suddenly an all-out war and we’re expected to follow along. There are only two people on either side you have a reason to care about. Alice and a wheel-chair bound potato, and the two bad guys they’re fighting against.
Any moments of self-sacrifice or emotional death ring hollow. Every tearjerker moment felt 100% like emotional manipulation, but I can’t say they made me feel nothing. When the music cuts out, the scene fades to washed-out colors, and all that’s left is a close-up of someone with tears streaming down their faces, it is almost moving. Almost. A cowardly knight got a sad flashback that explained his personality, it should have been sad, but he was so irrelevant that it evoked no emotion. The moment at least made him less one dimensional. However, it’s immediately undercut because he suddenly becomes a fearless badass. And that’s the best character development we’ve got. A few of the knights got half-episodes like that guy; I’ll admit, these moments of introspection paired with an electric guitar riff and breathtaking sakuga were awesome.
A majority of the screen time is dedicated to battles, strategizing on either side, and knights valiantly fighting alone. The best animation comes out during the solo knight battles. The animation is nearly movie quality during these moments. There’s a fair share of CGI during footsoldier combat for filler between the impressive fights. There is at least one spectacular display of sakuga every episode, which is unheard of in a TV anime. This commitment to a visual spectator is what made A-1 Pictures split this season into two cours, a wise decision on their part. It's not every day I find myself praising this problematic studio; with the recent release of Kaguya-sama: Love is War, now this, it’s safe to say they’re on a roll. The directing and writing of this series, unfortunately, falls far below Kaguya-sama. Logic defying fighting, plot holes, mediocre editing, the roller coaster pacing, and an overreliance on name tags. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen this many tags on characters, locations, factions, and times.
One guy throws a punch, another catches it before he hits him—two seconds pass then we get close-ups of their shocked expressions. This probably seems like I’m nitpicking, but when everything in the show is off by a second or two, it makes the action feel slow and disconnected. Both OP/ED in the prior Alicization themes were much better than these ones. The songs are average, both visually and audibly. Lisa and Eir Aoi did much better work on the last season. I’ll also say, the voice acting was great amidst all of the action. The Engrish interspersed in the real-world characters’ dialogue was hilarious.
A vegetative Kirito is hilariously wheeled into the battle in his wheelchair. Right from the first episode, it’s hinted he will wake up when the time is right. Essentially he is a plot device waiting for when Alice is in a pinch. He hangs behind the army, with a constant creepy smirk on his face, while Alice awkwardly hovers above on her dragon as if it’s a damn helicopter. That dragon can kill a horde of monsters like it’s nothing. She is just as overpowered as Kirito. Alice could have been a good character, unfortunately, she is just as flawless as Asuna. Neither of them develops over the course of the season. And being TOO nice isn’t a flaw!! Rather than the main character, she is an extension of Kirito. Just like every other 14-year-old looking girl in this show, she is in love with Kirito. She is motivated by her desire to protect him first, everyone else comes second. While Alice has her own reason having no personality, it doesn't make for a good protagonist. At one point, another knight showed up, a female knight mind you, who wanted to see Kirito so she could “try some things to wake him up” *wink wink nudge nudge. If Alice hadn’t stopped the bitch, she would have given him a good old handy while he was too mentally incapacitated to consent. Alice wouldn’t want another woman putting the moves on her man, obviously. The whole confrontation is disgusting on multiple levels, but it just goes to show Alice’s main purpose in the show is to look pretty and protect her future husband (little does she know he’s engaged).
After not too long, Alice is swept under the rug in favor of a few knights and generals. The rest of her appearances are brief and surface level. In one of her moments alone with the audience, she monologues about the unfairness of the war. Monsters and men have the same souls, and they should not be fighting, so she says; meanwhile, CGI goblins lethargically wave their swords two at even uglier CGI humans in the background. Their swords don’t even come within 4 feet of hitting each other. The “modeled in ten minutes with Blender” aesthetic really adds depth to Alice’s philosophies. To compensate for Alice’s personality (or lack-there-of) more ladies find their way to Kirito as if he’s a magnet. The thing is, Kirito didn’t need to be such a waste of air in this season. He is a prisoner of his own mind, this was a great chance to give us insight into his thoughts. Unfortunately, this was another case of wasted potential by this adaptation.
During the first half of the show, there is a bit too much time spent in the real world (similar to the most frustrating parts of Assassin’s Creed). Everyone in the real world is there to info dump the plot of this season, no characterization at all. I didn’t know one of these guy’s names aside from Asuna. Oh yeah, she is still hovering around Kirito like a fly on shit, telling us how she “won't forgive you!” if anything bad happens to her boyfriend. God, what does a man gotta do to get a female equivalent of a fruit fly bodyguard? Kirito’s rejected women's club also shows up a few times in person to remind us they are still in love. Even the little winged rat Kirito calls his daughter shows up. The two girls who were nearly molested by the villainous guys from last season made an appearance too. Not for any special reason, just to remind us they still existed and they’re still in love. Being trapped in a new game, Kirito’s harem couldn’t come. Even as a potato, our main god himself still gets all the ladies. If this is your thing, no shade, just take this paragraph with a grain of salt. One last thing to add; when every female character (who knows the protagonist firsthand) only talks about their love of a potato, aside from surface-level observations and info-dumping, I consider them poorly written characters.
As for the villains of this season, there are slim pickings. The first bad guy is a comically evil fat dude who calls Alice a witch for trying to evacuate her family’s village. He wants everyone to stay and defend the village because that’s where all his money is. He even says “but I can’t lose my money-I mean I don’t want the village to be destroyed!” The whole altercation is laughably stupid. Of course, Alice gets them to leave, cue the monster stampede. After that episode, we never hear from him again. Then the true antagonist makes his appearance. The blonde-haired terrorist bastard. This guy is so bad I wished for the first one to come back. The leader of the terrorists is a psychopath who has been killing people since he was a child. The murders of an adorable little girl a beautiful woman in lingerie are shown with creepy detail. In a show about kids fighting off anthropomorphic animals and goblins, gross exploitation for shock factor feels so out of place. You could argue this is ‘character development’ because we need to know the bad guy is Very Evil, even though he’s barely in the show. I’d say his personality was conveyed sufficiently by displaying a woman’s severed head the foot of his throne. Not to mention, the main ‘antagonist’ is barely in the show. Another evil general I want to mention is a woman wearing only ribbons and a cape like a dominatrix. She is Very Evil too. When she kills people she gropes herself and moans. Very depraved. Very necessary character development.
Quinella—the antagonist of the previous season—appears as a ‘devil on your shoulder’ type of villain. In dreamlike flashbacks, she speaks to the knight’s inner insecurities and desires. Her voice is accompanied by an ominous flute as well as a piano, both playing a low methodical tune. Quinella's scenes are enrapturing. She drew the knights, and me, into her eerie world. These moments were some of the best in the show. Sakuga aside, there were a few other highlights in this season.
Sword Art Online has never looked better than War of the Underworld; the sakuga is amazing. As for the writing, it is still lackluster at best. A few slightly relevant knights got a modicum of character development. More time should have been spent developing, you know, Alice or Asuna. It’s worth noting that I’ve been told this adaptation butchered the pacing of the source material. If the premise/characters do interest you I would recommend seeking out the novel. A bevy of flaws aside, War of the Underworld surprised me.
Does it live up to the hype? No.
Is it the best season Sword Art Online? In my opinion, yes.
Mistrals
In a series plagued with issues, War of the Underworld feels like no exception. However, much like most of Sword Art Online, I would argue there's enough compelling ideas and production quality to carry through and be an enjoyable time. However... take this for what you will, but, I think this is the least remarkable season of SAO, both in terms of negatives and positives. Essentially removing the protagonist for a season is a bold choice. It paid off in spades the last time SAO did it (Mother's Rosario), but this time... meh. Problem is, the only particularly compelling new character in Alicization was Eugeo, whogot tossed aside in favour of the newest member of Kirito's harem, Alice.
In the last season, Alice started off as generic tsundere but at least had some decent character growth, and the premise of her character having no memories of her former life had some potential to work with (the old Alice/Alice Zuberg essentially being dead). This is more or less glossed over, as we're presented with Alice being close to her sister Selka now in a static relationship and barely interacting with anyone else from the village. There's some vague pretense of subplots of her self-worth, or her desire to fight, or the morality of the war, but none of these things get remotely touched on and Alice just stays static throughout this entire season. She's strong, fights for the side of good, cares for her friends, and has fallen badly for Kirito (because of course she has).
In other words, she's not a very interesting character, and the beginning of the show isn't very interesting because of this. And there lies the biggest issue with this arc. Without either protagonist from last season being around, the only characters left to work with in the Underworld are entirely new or very simple characters from last season (Asuna eventually shows up, at least). The show feels the need to flash a minute of exposition on the names of every Integrity Knight or enemy leader before the start of the titular war because it knows half of these characters haven't really existed. This is like, halfway through the season for reference, at that. Surprisingly, from this point forward every one of them serves some noteworthy purpose (although admittedly, the villains are mostly there to antagonize for a few minutes before dying). The show is able to pick here, being able to tell a lot of short stories about these characters and their battles, backstories, motivations etc while having entertaining action and eye candy visuals, but there's still only so much you can do with whomever fighting for 5-10 minutes, and it has to find ways to invest us in all of them in that time. I was pleasantly surprised with how much they were able to get out of this, but it still feels pretty shallow.
In terms of villains... I mean come on, Sword Art Online has never been good at writing particularly deep or nuanced villains (remember Kayaba's thrilling motivations?). If there's one thing it can do, it's create creepy bastards you just want to punch, and usually excessively creepy ones at that. We don't quite delve into rape scenes (emphasis on don't quite), at least.
We do eat souls. No, really, the main villain's thing is he eats souls. Preferably innocent ones. And he wants to eat Alice's soul, but he's also contracted by the NSA to bring them back Alice so who knows where that's going. Hysterical laughter occurred over this guy multiple times; he's frankly too edgy to take seriously.
The plot generally works, although it's mostly just very straightforward. However, there were a few moments I couldn't take seriously this season (Mostly aforementioned primary antagonist and his soul fetish).
For starters, the show doesn't play any pretense around the fact that Kirito's going to show up and save the day whenever they really need it, and even discusses this multiple times. I can't tell if they're acknowledging the absurdity of the Kirito harem at this point with the part where Asuna and his 3 Underworld girls gather to swap stories about him, but it's certainly a reminder. And of course, Kirito manages to... cure an Integrity Knight's PTSD by clenching his fist while comatose, because of course he does.
There's also the part where Asuna has cell service and Kikuoka and the rest have the ability to make phone calls and yet this isn't useful to deal with the hijackers/contact the fleet around the Ocean Turtle because... ???
Then there's the last two episodes. Sigh. I won't spoil things, but it mostly breaks the tension built throughout the war by drastically changing the situation while also making little sense on a number of levels. Wouldn't be Sword Art Online if we didn't pull some deus ex machina at the ending of every arc (exception of Mother's Rosario). And yes, I know this is technically halfway through an arc, but the problem remains the same.
I only have one major complaint about the production quality. Sword Art Online's always been pretty high quality there, and the same visual improvements Alicization showed are found here. Yuki Kajiura is among the best in the business, so the OST is still very good... except for one thing.
The directing is... off. I noticed it somewhat in Alicization, but it really stood out to me here. There are a lot of moments where the tone abruptly changes or feels off because a sad or happy song is randomly played immediately after an intense moment. There's one point where it builds up the start of the war to be all dark and intense for a few minutes, and just as the tension is sinking in and the fight begins, we get the upbeat OP.
While there's nothing wrong with any of the songs (in fact they're quite good and generally convey emotions well), there were several points the show just feels jarring because of this. There's also a couple god-awfully obnoxious sound effects (I'm looking at you last two episodes).
Overall, I'd say if you still have it in your heart to enjoy SAO, this season is passable. I went in with low expectations, and had a good time (although at points it definitely felt like laughing at the show). Nothing particularly standout about it, and it certainly still has flaws, but once the ball gets rolling it mostly stays rolling.
Okay, and Lisbeth makes a speech that descends into 'gamers rise up' and it's hysterical. No, really.
MTheSestrim
SAO Alicization - War of the Underworld. To be brief - utter trash. It continues the boring, contrived plot of the previous season, but with a twist - Kirito is kind of... not there mentally. Literally. He's lost all the personality he never had. It's not a particularly noticeable difference, though it does affect the general writing. There's a bigger focus on characters here and, ugh... SAO is not very well-known for its well-written characters. I could not give a single shit for anyone, as per usual, so this big battle arc was just boring as all hell. There were some fun enough to watchover the top battle moments, the animation has improved over last season, which had some weaker spots. The music is decent enough. Everything else is just, well, shit. It was torture to watch this series showcase how badly it can execute excruating anime tropes, this time outdoing itself with one very special case of Engrish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCMTyCUHy8U).
