Sword Art Online: Alicization

well, i actually enjoyed this anime, from the first episode to the last But don't let my high rating deceive you, there are a lot of problems here which I'll get to but this is SAO which means there are stupid dogshits to be found in this anime, but i feel compelled to point out this is the best SAO arc. it is much deeper, characters are developed and are fairly decent and the animations during fights are interesting Positive Side: so kirito gets stabbed and somehow he is in a new world which he already has been in before! (it’s confusing) anyway in this world a certain woman discovers a way to run some commands (kinda like magic) to heal people and she is highly ambitious so she uses her chance to call herself an agent of God, long story short she creates a religion with her will as law, you might be like: (WOW what an original fucking idea!) but no i swear there is originality to be found here, the story is honestly decent and not full of loopholes, to be honest she is the only character that makes this anime unique, she is a really terrifying villain, it is a dark world filled with horror and anguish, i expected something like this from the first season of SAO, it has some genuinely emotional scenes, and villains aren’t villains for the sake of being villains there are actual backstories and motivation behind almost all the characters. it was pretty emotional to see characters remember their past and what church has done to them. i don’t know about you but i couldn’t stop watching this anime, i just had to see the next episode The soundtracks are beautiful. Negative Side: kirito is Yelling in the Main base of bad guys for help!!!! is this guy stupid? kirito goes into a fight with a really strong antagonist and after he defeats her, he almost becomes unconscious so you think he is gonna use his last strength optimally? save your breath, he just used it on her to save her! but it turns out she is too injured and this is not enough, so there are only two magical knives for emergencies like this and guess who Kirito uses that knife on? that’s right HER! after that there is an “Operator” whose job is to take people up and down, how do we know this? she tells us, does kirito believes her? (remember that he just survived from two little cute sister who turned out to be murderers!) so did he believe her? OBVIOUSLY, it depends on her cuteness according to kirito’s logic! of course, he believes her, he goes into the elevator which might be a fucking trap but his justification is there is no other way so we have to go into this box which might be a fucking trap without any backup plan! i fucking hate it when in anime heroes never choose between moral dilemmas and they are always like: “I’m gonna save everyone”. for once i want them to fail miserably and see reality but of course this is SAO so Fuck logic and reasoning because love will solve all problems and if your enemy is strong just yell harder, magic will happen i promise you that! it’s always the same thing, there is always that side character who says: “Nobody ever could do this,in the last 1000 years everyone who tried has died brutally” and then kirito will say: “you can’t know if you don’t try” and he goes into fight and just like in dragon ball z, his sword gets upgraded whenever the plot needs it to. this anime has the talent to destroy any serous moment, for example, kirito’s partner is having an emotional moment with a certain opponent guess what happens? a Clown enters! I’m neither being sarcastic or metaphoric! an actual clown enters the scene! do you remember that women who created the religion? you know the main bad guy, well i said she is an interesting villain you know why? because she didn’t smirk every fucking time she does something, well this all goes down into toilet in the last couple of episodes, she starts laughing maniacally, one of the reasons she was highly attractive was because she was a cold manipulative smart and calculating villain but now she is suddenly like “Yay i can torture you” kind of a villain they completely ruined her character, she was the only character who was truly decent in this anime so they had to fucking ruin her i guess, look I'm not particularly a fan of fanservice but this is SAO so a little fanservice i’d argue isn’t that bad, but she is fucking naked all the fucking time at the end! this isn’t fanservice anymore this is porn so what else is stupid here, let me think…loading…. OH WAIT i almost forgot, kirito had an emotional moment with a fucking spider! and we were supposed to get emotional

Well, to be my first review, I thought it had to be on an Anime I've had heard so many different opinions around. I will not go into any great details like sounds, characters or any technical stuff. Because frankly, I am here to enjoy the Anime not to watch it, for then analyze how poorly it can perform compared to some other work. To be able to sink to such a level, I can personally say you're not there to enjoy the Anime but to trash it completely, which is a great shame to all of those actual Anime fans out there who enjoys the content rather then the quality. Every Anime is an unoriginal piece of work, no matter how you twist or bend on it. Therefore, I have decided to refrain from doing so and properly enjoy the actual shown content, storyline, the arc and where the story is headed. To be totally honest, the split opinions regarding this Anime, the previous "movie" and Second season and first, sadly pull a heavy toll on this one. This one is rather unique compared to the first season, the second season and the "modernized reality world" movie. Every Season has had its different twists on the era. Futuristic, Medieval and real-time with a bit of modern technology. To pity this Anime series because of what "fans" claim as a "total failure of a Season 1" is sadly how low the split community can become. I've seen some pretty harsh judgment on the previous seasons and I've seen people explicitly hating this Anime and season because they believe it's on the same level as Season 1 or 2, while this ascends above both of them in times of storyline and events. I will not comment on art or Characters, as stated in the beginning. If you're against the original concept behind the Anime. There is no need to force yourself to like it, the Anime resolves around 1 concept, and if you hate it that much to make fake alt users too hate on it, you might as well stop calling yourself a worthy Anime watcher, you're nothing but someone to pity for have sunken so incredibly low. I've been a fan since I first saw Season 1 in 2018. I'm no hardcore fan or a continuous binge-watcher. So I can safely assure my opinion is as neutral as it can get, where the odds are weighting the most is up to the reader to decide. I felt like expressing some of the unspoken facts about why this Anime shouldn't even be taken lightly compared to previous Seasons. Well, that pretty much concludes my review. My overall rating is 9, for the following reasons. It gave me a decent storyline, that was practically interesting and not distorted in all kinds of arcs, pretty much straightforward. It also left me wanting more, for over 150+ days now, I can't wait to use some time every weekend to watch a new release :D

Oh god is this boring. For a series that was viewed for bad character development and relied on good art and better fight scenes this is less exciting then watching paint dry. Its pretty that's the most praise I will ever give it. Its an action anime right? Then why are most fight scenes of people standing still and just swinging their swords twice. Yelling and good music can only go so far when all I see on screen is a guy holding a sword NOT MOVING for almost an entire minute. This should of been a revival of Kirito with a new interesting story but instead it becomes a lackluster friend adventure due to terrible fight scenes and never ending cringy dialog.

Ok, I am a person who usually defended SAO when people claimed that the story, characters and everything else was poor after the first 12 episodes of 1st season. I sort of enjoyed the story behind gun gale and movies (well, it didn't blow my mind or anything, but it was decent for some anime&popcorn evenings) But this series?! Oh my [insert something vulgar] ! From the very beginning of this season I kept telling myself that this show can eventually get better. That something will change. Guess what, apart from 2 maybe 3 scenes throughout the 24 episodes the story development is getting even more boring. 70% of a time Eugeo appears as a dumb sidekick whom I could only compare to the Mud from the game called Gothic. The things that happen to the characters are in my opinion poorly explained, and the whole tower rush is so prolonged and silly, that i had to drink a lot of coffee not to fall asleep while watching it. In my opinion this is the worst SAO show so far, but judging by its rating, I guess it also found some enthusiasts, so maybe I am just getting to old :/ Anyway, if you didn't like the show after first few episodes, don't fool yourself. It doesn't get better :(

As an avid reader of SAO novels, I can hardly find the right words to describe my disappointment for this season. In mandarin we have a saying for anime call 窮得只剩錢, which could translate to all you have is money. This is exactly what I saw this season. The visuals and the animation in the OP showed us what the production group have and could achieve. Alicization's art style and details is definitely something that is worth applauding for. It had been the best in the series and one of the best this season. But the story and character development are jokes. Whoever pacing the story must have not read the novel before, cutting things out and expecting viewers to understand. If you are not telling much about the big ass spider in the first place, why bother introduce it later? The anime also turned Eugeo from a likable character into a teenager with boner power.

With every main stream anime comes the hate. The hate will be spread and sometimes the hate wins. Watching Alicization was like watching something conpletely different than the other seasons. Watching anime isn't for reviewing or sharing, but its dor the enjoyment. Instead of picking out the negatives and comparing it to other anime, why not just sit back and try to enjoy it. Don't like it? Stop watching it maybe it's not your type. Sword Art Online embodies this. As an anime that gets an adaptation straight from the light novels theres going to be a few problems. But SAO may not be that dedicated anime fan show. It can be that show that introduces people into anime. Overpowered charcters that always win is not always a bad thing. This has a young target audience and all we have are sweaty reviewers trying to hate on it.

After three series with Kirito, I might be done. The most painful thing about Alicization is that it started off somewhat strong with an interesting idea, but then dissolved into a lot of the same problems I've had in the past: - The villains are poorly written and their motivations are always clear but never well explained. - If there is a male villain, there seems to be this tendency for the author to go far overboard with their villainy. I don't know if the author has ever noticed subtleties in good villainous characters. - Female characters will show strength at times, and then suddenly abandon it to suddenly become an emotional, vulnerable puddle for Kirito to "fix". A-1 Pictures did an amazing job visually. It's gorgeous, for the most part. I'm not sure if they were involved in the decisions behind episode 10, but my opinion of them would drop if they were the ones to decide to include such a depraved plot device rather than change it for something (almost anything, really) better. I was skipping up to 3 minutes of an episode due to so much useless and boring exposition that offered little to bite into. That's the worst thing: this season has many moments that leave me outright disinterested. Kirito didn't see any development we haven't seen before, so this leaves a lot of focus on some of the new characters and the plot. When I say "focus", it's more a lack of focus. When your plot includes graphic assault of multiple characters, at least have the decency to keep those characters around to develop them more. Instead, it's all focus on the plot and "technology". It's insulting to the audience and the characters to have these moments that are supposed to absolutely huge and devastating emotionally, only to realize they were simply there to get Characters A and B to Location D. The author of this series continues to learn very little about what issues there have been previously. The future of SAO looks grim, full of exposition and very little care for character development or plot-pacing. If you like SAO as it is and always has been, the future looks plenty bright for staying the course, keep the status quo, etc.

Summary of why it is terrible - SAO Alicization is almost like a series of tiny arcs, nothing gets developed and nothing meaningful ever happens. I feel absolutely no attachment to the characters, and its unbelievably boring to watch hollow events occur over and over again. Get rid of the exposition and constant plot moving and develop some characters, then we may have a decent show. I am fully aware the market is kids and people who just want to consume mindless media, yet i find this to be so poor it annoys me. Characters - 2 - The characters are never developed, they act as puppets to move a totally nonsensical plot with an unbelievable world that does not reflect the concept explained. Even Eugeo, a character that was developed a little bit, is a complete foil to Kirito. Eugeo is a re skinned version of Kirito with absolutely no redeeming qualities, kill this bland character. I may have changed my mind if Eugeo did not instantly recover from his rape experience, there was absolutely no merit in this scene apart from satisfying the plot. I also believe this is the worse version of Kirito from any of the seasons, mainly due to his creepy apathy to the situation. Kirito does not seem to second guess his circumstances he just gets on with it, I want Kirito to become depressed and fight. But no, we get some blonde fuck who swans about with Kirito for 15 fucking episodes doing absolutely fuck all, i get so annoyed at this. Story 2 - Tiny shit arcs with absolutely no development what so ever. As usual the writer brings us a semi decent concept executed horribly. Animation/Art - 7 - The only redeeming quality is some of the key animation in the fight scenes and the world art. The character designs are terrible, particularly Eugeo. Sound - 4 - Sound effects can be good at times, however the music is completely unmemorable. Enjoyment - 1 - Pathetic is an overstatement, i was bored from start to when I dropped it. This is mainly due to waiting for shit to actually happen the entire way through, with not a single event interesting me in the slightest. Overall - 3 - Honestly the only redeeming quality of this show is its ridiculous budget and production. I hate how this shit light novel is funded so heavily, the writing is extremely poor and i honestly believe it just gets worse and worse by the season. Overall this is the worse experience i have ever had with a series of SAO, however this may be due to the fact i am no longer 12 years old. thanks for reading lul.

Tl; dr: all the budget went for the pilot episode (or call it season preview or whatever) which is relatively nice. But that's the only really nice thing in this season. ===== Sincerely, Kawahara was one shitty writer long time ago when he published SAO, but somehow it was made into relatively good anime series. It hadn't had any pacing, story was nonexistent, it was all about just waifus and there wasn't much plot, yet somehow they was able to produce an enjoyable thing. They're basically rewritten the entire thing, adding some logical links that should be there (but was never actually thought by the author), paced it and directed it into one good show. Why, for the love of god, why couldn't they make at least something not horrible when they had one of the latest Kawahara's stories? Kawahara honed his writing skill for decades, finally making something with good setting, with story, plot and pacing all included, with characters instead of placeholders this time and with reason instead of waifu hunt. All they needed to do this time is to just not fuck up. Yet they fucked up royally. Honestly, I had very little hope after the season II and that shitty spinoff. Yet, when I saw the budget, some hope was resurrected inside me. Sadly, only to be raped and slain mercilessly. ===== I don't want to go deep into details on this one, I'll just point few moments and I promise that these are the best moments and everything else is just boring and doesn't worth your time. Moment #1: So we have this relatively decently directed PVM scene where one of two main characters got seriously injured and at this point combat scene just stops so they can have their moment of yaoi. This moment is minute long! The fucking whole minute (that is more than enough to rip those kids to shreds during their sudden homosexual stroke) bad guys just stand still and watch them talking to each other. Martial arts choreography is already shitty at this moment. Moment #2: 10 minutes long rape scene with two girls tied up. Bad guys spent 10 minutes demonstrably spreading girls legs, yet we haven't saw a single pantsu nor a single nipple. Why was that scene had to take 10 minutes instead of one second? Probably for that we can be sure that this series is far beyond point of no return. Death scene later in that episode contained a lot of ad-libbing bullshit. Probably to double confirm passing the point of no return. Moment #3: Not really a moment, but rather a long standing tendency: there's a lot of info dumps where there was none in the novel (including some accidental major plot distortions just because someone was too lazy to either actually read the novel or to just ask the author), while also some big and meaningful chunks of story are just skipped. Those info dumps wouldn't be needed if only we had the story. But, I guess, it's much easier to draw just a talking heads than to draw an anime. Sadly, when in the novel we have a story about a character and then we have a plot twist so we can feel emotions, in here we are just being told the end result without any reason given for us to care. Moment #4: A lot of screen time for naked woman who looks and moves surprisingly similar to Yuuki Asuna while having nothing to do with her. Firstly, it's one very cheap trick to beg for higher ratings. Secondly, she looks and moves like Asuna probably because character design was too expensive. Lastly, not a single nipple nor anything was shown despite exposing completely naked female person for more screen time than I can count. What was the point of her being naked? If not service, then why couldn't we have this scene shown in just ten minutes instead of SIX FUCKING EPISODES, so we can have at least a few episodes for some story (which is available in abundance in the novel, but I guess we are not worthy to see it animated)? Moment #5: Amount of minor plot fuck-ups hides the fact that there actually is very good, detailed, structured and well developed interesting multilayered plot in this story. It actually feels like someone deliberately sabotaged it. I can't believe such amount and such magnitude of fuck-ups is even possible. ===== Written by me on ninth of April, 2019. Licensed under CC-BY-ND-SA 4.0.

I don't really get the hate Alicization is getting, if you didn't like this then you must have hated season 2 because this is much better. This season started being rated over an 8 but now is around 7.5, so I'm guessing most people thought the 1st half of the show is better than the 2nd and I agree mostly. There are some boring moments and it kinda drags on for a while but the action is intense and the animation is beautiful. the ending is also beautiful and gives a good cliffhanger for the next season. I thought this anime was well done and worth watching the 24 episodes. Sword Art Online sometimes has a little too much dialog and not enough action but I think Alicization is a good mix of both, could probably still use a little more action for my taste. I've been giving out a lot of 8s lately because that's just where I am with most new anime I've been watching, there's a lot of good shows airing but nothing that I would say is a masterpiece including this so another 8 here.

Alicization. SAO III. Whatever you want. It's actually not that bad. Story: This season of SAO is more focused on developing and fleshing out certain parts in the story, rather than having a condensed and rushed version of the source material. This helps it in the long run, allowing for scenes to actually have impact on the story and characters to be developed. However, what this show lacks is that certain aspects of the story that were introduced at the beginning of the show or middle don't seem to carry the relevancy they could have had when getting to the end of the show. For example, our favorite Umu girl, Cardinal, is introduced in the middle of the show, but by the end, becomes irrelevant with her powers by the end. I'm trying not to spoil, but you get the idea. The story itself in this show is much better told than the first 2 seasons, however. I will say that the end of episodes do keep you on the edge, which is always nice assuming that you're invested. Art: The art in this season is a major upgrade from the previous seasons. Shading is done way better, and scenes pop out in color. The battle scenes in the first half to the final of the show are really nicely done (even if Admin feels much different), and everyone's special abilities pop out in how different they are. With the art, I have no actual qualms. Sound: What can I say? Music is nice, character voice acting is well done. Clown boi is creepy like he should be, Eugeo's voice drops as he becomes more and more confident in himself, etc. Everything works as it should. Character: Oh boy, this is where it gets a little rough. I do like the improvement that they did in character development, since everyone gets a little something. Kirito uses his intuitive mind and his experience to get through the Underworld skillfully in a way that doesn't seem like complete BS, which always helps the story not feel rushed. Eugeo's character arc is pretty much throughout the entire show, where he slowly gains confidence in himself, then realizes that what he's fighting for isn't for himself. Out of everyone in the show, Eugeo becomes the most likable by the end, even with that one part that I can't talk about. Even still, certain developments in the story are explained with backstory that gives us an actual reason as to why characters do what they do, and that can't be said for certain parts of previous seasons. Aside from the main cast, the side characters do get some development, but not much. In fact, I wish that they would have delved deeper into some of the characters with the time they had. The trainees, Tiese and Ronnie, I would say, are the only exception. They had their arc with Lord Raios, but they also were given backstories that shape their character development, and don't remain static characters. With certain others, such as Kirito and Eugeo's mentors, could have been developed further. With the relationship between the 4, I feel that the setup would have prompted more development between the mentors, but that is one part that's lacking from the show. Sortiliena is an interesting character with an interesting backstory, but that's wasted on progressing the training montage with Kirito and his fights. Speaking of that, the guy he fights with doesn't really get much character for the first "villain" of the show. However, overall, with the main characters, this season is definitely the best we've gotten, although I feel the first season did the minor characters better. Enjoyment: Despite the stigma against SAO, this season was solid and held its ground. It had shaky moments, but those were smaller parts within episodes that could easily be remedied by good ol' plot development. Even if side characters could have been developed more, that didn't affect the overall story. In all, I feel that this is a nice season of a show in general, but a great step in the right direction for SAO. It's like Ordinal Scale all over again. Overall: Did this season live up to the expectations? Yes and no. The show did well in story when compared to the other seasons, and is a good contender when compared against the best out of all SAO, Ordinal Scale. However, it did lack certain developments of characters that could have been fleshed out even more. Does it deserve the hate that's automatically given due to the name, like GGO Alternative? No, absolutely not. However, what you give this series as a whole, judging by the content alone, is entirely up to you. If you've watched one season of SAO, I recommend this season. If you haven't touched SAO, then this season is still a good watch, but based on the base material needed to understand this season, it'd be a decision that I can't justify nor retract a claim for watching or not. Overall verdict? It's pretty good.

WHY I LIKED: ⬤ Mesmerizing high-budget visuals ⬤ Asuna-Free + Yui-Free SAO (Not a necessity but definitely feels comforting) ⬤ Nerfed Kirito (for the most part...) ⬤ SAO finally manages to build up a world properly before jumping to next arc ⬤ Smooth and creative swordplay (for the first half..) ⬤ Gorier and darker. (Lots of pain, blood and dismemberments) ⬤ OP for the first half is amazing. I am still listening to it from time to time. WHY I DISLIKED: ⬤ Most of what I said above was for the first half. ⬤ Lots of bromance and very little room for choreography. ⬤ The plot left the server as soon as they set foot on the stairs. The show becomes Bruce Lee's Game of death for next ~10 episodes. Same setting over and over, made up bosses with very little to no background ⬤ Same old SAO. Towards the end all we have left is a nerfed Villain and plain characters with empty motivational speeches. Per usual Kirito is waiting for someone to suffer fatal injuries, so he can send condolences, soak up their power, steal the spotlight, grunt and moan as he wishes until the Villain dies SUMMARY: Its a good thing SAO is learning from mistakes but the change is too little and the show wasnt beyond my expectations. Aside from improved visuals, nothing is notable. Well I cannot blame them so easily, the plot to start with was a wreck. Except for Cardinal none of supporting characters is worth mentioning or remembering. Again, I might sound too desperate and bashing. I remind you that I evaluated SAO: Alicization based on SAO and 2019 standards. Just like Kazuma said to Darkness: "...all I could see in you were your boobs. You are boobs. Boobs"; "...all I could see in this show was pile of graphics. The show is pile of graphics." Under these circumstances I cant see myself giving an average SAO more than a relieving [[7/10]] ! Story: 5/10 Art: 9/10 Sound: 7/10 Character: 4/10 Enjoyment: 6/10 Overall: 7/10

Sword Art Online Alicization Compared to many other anime, this one is one of the most difficult to rate. I'm always sure that the author has absolutely no idea what he wants to do and just chews through all the ideas without context, as long as something comes out of it. And the Alicization season is no exception. However, I think this arc (including Underworld) is the best of all Sword Art Online, even though it has practically nothing to do with the original anime and is more a mixture of Soma (The Game) and Matrix. However, the author has finally managed to bring interesting ideas to the forefront and ruin them a little less. Especially the characters he has fleshed out a lot more here. I will regret this sentence, but if this arc had been an independent anime that had NOTHING to do with Sword Art Online. Then it definitely would have become much more popular. Unfortunately, SAO has already ruined its image and you can practically only watch this series with skepticism without expecting any great results. So what happens in this season? If you have played the horror game Soma, you will be able to interpret yourself a bit more into this theme. Since the "human consciousness" and the true form of a "human being" comes here quite in the crossfire. Divine Kirito-kun ends up in a virtual world, which is connected to his subconscious, because of an extremely stupid plot. In this world, however, there are no NPCs but evolved versions of human brains that had been imprinted over generations. AI is most similar to humans, as these were copied along with the brain function and could reproduce themselves in a virtual world. This irritated me at the beginning, as Sword Art Online suddenly throws out a new level of science fiction technology without having introduced it before, but the writing here has never been good. Kirito's adventure begins in this world where he makes new friends, forms relationships, and tries to free himself. Having all the characters be practically lifelike copies of people, unaware that there is a true reality outside of them, gives them much more personality. Especially the new protagonist Eugeo who is the best character in the series. He had more buildup and personality than all of them combined so far. So the story practically plays out like a relatively decent Isekai fantasy title, in which the protagonist slowly develops and wants to become a knight or something else. Unfortunately, it only lasts until about episode 11, from then on everything escalates pretty quickly and turns into a somewhat cliché shounen. I liked the aspects of the world, the abilities you could develop and especially the power system was very plausible. Those who have a stronger will simply become stronger. For example, opponents with a massive ego or god complex were incomparably powerful. Others who saw themselves as mediocre would never be able to break through their limitations. Thus, this was the first season in which Kirito's power became significant. Unfortunately, as I said, this season very quickly turned into a boss rush shounen, where suddenly one boss after another is introduced until you get to the final boss. And the scene leading up to it was very questionable. The author panicked trying to make it as brutal, obscene, and shocking as possible so that you get the alternation between "nice school life" and "cruel reality" shoved in your face. I'm referring to the scene with the 2 nobles and the 2 girls, which was Satisfying at the end, but still unnecessarily overdone. [Animations 9] The animations this season were top-notch most of the time. Rich in detail, dynamic, and immensely fluid delivery of fights and action. Unfortunately, there were some scenes where it wavered a bit more, this is understandable with 24 episodes. The backgrounds were mostly fine, except you could see the landscape and sky, in these scenes, you would have loved to take a screenshot, as this has been a pure work of art. [Characters 5] Sword Art Online is often accused of having bad characters and honestly, I disagree, they are simply average but not a disappointment. Now aside from Kirito, in this season he became an extra very quickly and honestly he was no longer a protagonist. Eugeo took over the entire role and I wonder what Kirito was doing half the season anyway. He only had glamorous appearances in fights; otherwise, he wasn't even present. At the same time, the new protagonist had a complete guide and build-up from A to Z. The antagonist this season was reasonably okay, cliché but the possessed atmosphere and at least personality. [Conclusion 5] I enjoyed this season more than I expected to when I started. Though is not an anime I would ever watch again, but slightly better than the average you usually see. Sword Art Online has a massive amount of flaws, so, understandably, it has such a bad reputation. However, I would never go far enough to say that it should not be watched. It's simply average, that's all there is to it. The only problem is that it's so long and that its average quality will discourage viewers in the long run. [Enjoyment 6]

Okay, I've had some beef with sword art online in the past and I had no intention of watching Alicization considering how ass I thought the first two seasons were. I mean it was good up until season 1 episode 14. There were too many fillers and boring moments when they went on stupid quests in SAO 2 and I could never care because there was no suspense of them dying. And in SAO 1 is was cool, and then Kirito jumped into a relationship and all the sudden had a kid? but its all good because Alicization was lit. I don't know why I liked it more. Asuna and the other's were hardly shown and it mainly focused on kirito, but it made it run a lot more fluidly by not going all over the place with everything. Story---8/10. It was very good. Kirito getting trapped in another world--shocker, who woulda thunk. It was cool how we got to see him interact with entirely different people who had no ties with the buddies he picked up along the other games. Art--10/10--The animation was fucking godly. Sound--10/10--The music was fire, as expected with SAO. I loved both the op and ending and Netflix was really pissing me off when I'd automatically skip the ending because I couldn't find the remote in time. Characters--8/10. I mean it was the same characters--duh. but I enjoyed the new ones and hated some others. I give this an 8/10 cuz they had to bring some other guys into the show like the dude that was trying to marry Asuna in SAO 2. But I did like Eugeo and Alice a lot. Enjoyment--10/10. It never bored me, not even once. Overall---8/10

Sigh.... Yeah, it has a promising start, but in the end it's just a huge pile of kindergarden drama class, filthy ecchi for horny teenagers, and pain for the brain dialogues... #1 Kirito is a real crybaby, the edgy kind. #2 Asuna doing nothing. #3 Eugou - or what is his name - also a crybaby and one of the worst written idiots. Yeah, that hooker realy talking no jutsued him against his will in 2 minutes, what a horny led! #4 Alice the badass knight, copy of Saber, is also a crybaby when she has to do something important or brave. #5 What a drama... my brain screamed for mercy, but i tortured it. I thought if i watched this far (23 episodes) i will not gave up on this shitty show. At least pain is gain. The one who realy could do something against the "administrator" just gave up on her life instead of find out something in that 200 years she had, retarded genius. Gayish Kirito+Eugou scene, wtf. So this is the huge step up from the first 2 seasons everyone talking about? Nah, this was the worst one. The real pain is the fact that this series could be great, but nope... Let's serve our perverted teenage fanbase, with the all time fav sexual abuse and ecchi scenes, somehow they have to be in every freaking season, omfg...

I have created this account just by doing a review of this anime. I have no words to express disappointment. I started watching anime with Sao and it was very enjoyable despite the mistakes. This season begins well and decays to the half to become insufferable. Here simply despite how old the franchise is, it is equal to any other modern anime. Power ups, the fights are won because they have to be won as the story suits them, Eugeo and Kirito have no progress. The other remainder of the battle are flashbacks and yelling names in English with your hands. You cannot love any secondary character because there simply are not. It's just Kirito and the blonde version. The backstory is wasted, filler chapters to literally speak to the viewer and explain things because otherwise we would not understand anything. There is no worse exposure. There is no desire to see any season that follows this. I don't understand the people who have given 10 to this badly written garbage.

The first thing I will say about SAO is that I really hated the first 2 seasons. They had pretty good potential but instead they decided to throw away the writing and replace with a terribly written harem with weak characters and story arcs that go no where. However with Alicization Im happy to say that most of if not all of that shit is gone. Now theres actual character development and the writing is actually good. The only problems I have is that the fight scenes were kind of weak sometimes. There is also a scene in episode 10 where these 2 men are sexually assulting these 2 girls and while the scene serves a purpose in Eugeos arc, it was a bit over the top. Other than that this is easily the best season which isnt saying much since this is the only good season.

tl;dr The concepts are awesome, as usual coming from the mangaka, but the story directing and character dialog is terrible. Really, he's exploring whole new ideas about immersion into technology and virtual worlds. It's awesome. But that's all there is to it. And shiny fights, and the usual dramatic tear draining music and scenes. But those are generic to any anime that uses them. How the characters behave and talk to each other is ridiculously bad. Like a novice wrote the dialogues. And the slow boring drawn out pace it's presented makes it even worse. The whole show could have been like 3 or 4 episodes without the lame stuff. And it would have been awesome.

I really like this anime, or at least the first half of it. However towards the end, especially the last 3 episode, the series resorted to the worst SAO could unsuprisingly bring. From setting up harem expansion to the pure invincibility of Kirito, only Kirito. That's not much of a spoiler of course, neither should it be when i tell you the only people getting killed are those with decent worlbuilding... Be it for no reason, like a voluntary sacrifice that would achieve nothing anyway, or a death that could not only be prevented, but which kirito, to be honest, was so eager to accept. This series rocked, Just dont watch anything past episode ~20, That's where series shit the bed.

I am disappointed .... really disappointed .... I heard that this arc was japanese fan's favorite, so I was having some hope for it but ... Whether japanese fan have no taste, or the adaptation is really bad. But in any way this is clearly not good. I was a great fan of SAO, I started it when the first season came out and it was really enjoyable, there were always ups and downs in the arcs but it was still fun, until this season. I don't even understant why this season is called "Sword art online" there is no frikking reason for that except to keep the old fans of SAO. This story coul have been the same with other character, no need to use our overpowered Kazuto to be the hero again .... But well, let's focus on the main problem here: the Story. There is so many plot hole in it that I want to call it: Sword art Online: Gruyere. Sure Reki Kawahara never was an impressive writer, but please. Every single thing that appened in this anime is here to be here because it need to be here. The universe is also colapsing on itself because it's clearly unbelivable. Like in the first part of the anime, Kirito is beta testing a new high tech thing that use fluct ligth. but the thing is, he can't remember what happenned when he comes back to the real life. Wow, Rath's people, you're such genius, taking a beta tester but as he can't remmeber a thing you can't use him to crititizise your world. LOL Also they want to create IA that can fight right ? Like to be part of a war right ? SO WHY ARE YOU GIVING THEM F*****G SWORDS AND MAGIC ? GIVE THEM GUNS!!! Wow, again Rath's people , your genius! And well another part that really bothered me on the last episode is : why is Kirito transforming back in his old self from Sao ? He doesn't use the nerve gear anymore so .... Is it the representation of will's power ? Or just Fanservice ? Butt well, I have so many things to say about the plot being shit but it's already kinda har for me to write this review while making me understandable so I'll stop here ...