Sword Art Online: Alicization

I have absolutely know idea why I hear that people don't like this. SAO has been my favourite anime since 2016 and I don't think that will ever change. The entirety of the alicization arc including the war of the underworld is such an outstanding anime. The world, the characters, incredible visual effects and art quality, the perfect voice acting (especially from eugeo), the music, the ideas and the overall execution .Everything about it feels completely different from any other anime i've watched and will watch. This has always been my to go anime when going on 30 hour rides during vacation abroad. I may be biased since i've watched all of it episode by episode since episode 8 in 2018 and have about 200-300 hours watched of SAO alone. I've seen the first 14 episodes of the original sao like 10+ times when I was in high school and alicization about 12+ times in total from start to finish. I will probably always regard this as the best anime and a home to return to. I never get bored of watching the anime (except the first 13 episodes since they lack action) but what I would want most is a final season. 24 episodes that would give us a definitive conclusion that we can be happy with especially with the ending we got after 50 episodes over 3 years.

okay so,i was harsh on the OG sword art (for good reasons).Unlike the OG however, alicization is a full 47 episode arc.it gives the appropriate time to witness and enjoy a well put together story,without skipping out on anything(OG got to floor 70 something out of 100 and cut out almost 30 floors of things that could've captivated and entertained millions of viewers).the new characters were refreshing.the story itself was interesting and enjoyable.i personally think A-1 studios could've done more on this series.Reki kawahara nailed it on this arc(finally!!!) and i'm looking forward to another series from him. while my review may be short, I hope it will inspire a few people to give this anime a chance.

Honestly, this season was a pleasant surprise. i cant say the rest of the alfhiem/aincrad/ggo/ordinal scale arcs though. It seems as if the author of Sword Art Online finally realized his characters are dogshit and he needs to go back to square numero uno, the fundamentals if you will, Kirito. In this arc kirito gets practically mugged by the leader of the "laughing coffin" (retarded name) and injected with that one poison which supposedly prevents you from breathing and kills you in almost an instant. The he narrowly dodged in the previous season with his pathetic attempt to save sinon from a sexual assault. here asuna supposedly fends him off (if not klein came or something?) but whatever happened must have happened quickly since the poison that should kill you in almost an instant didnt kill kirito and instead he was shipped off to a new organization run by Kayaba named RATH and put under a machine called the soul translator meant to be a new generation of ai meant to actually replicate the human soul as an ai. Essentially a highly immersive virtual reality experience which he expresses while inside about how realistic it is. Anyway, this is used on him while hes being treated. not to mention this is on a boat in the middle of nowhere and it takes asuna like half the season to get on the boat since its basically nowhere. The most important part of this is the fact he has none of his powers. in sao/ggo he had some sort of enhancement or pain dampening. essentially huge qol features to help him in the battle. this however, is a highly realistic simulation of pain combat and the physical human body. No qol improvements here. Bottom line is that this is essentially real life and kirito is back to square 1 without any of his epicly overpowered abilities! not to mention he gets put with an entirely new cast in this new world, the underworld. Lets get to it i guess? Art/Animation: 10 Typically i would say nothing new here but considering this is superior animation to ordinal scale in every episode i have to say. The art in this season of sword art online is superb in everyway. the foilage and the shadows look absolutely perfect this season along with the fight scenes, sakuga is dope and honestly even if you hate sao you have to admit these fight scenes are directed beautifully for the most part. Sound: 7 Not much here, sound is pretty good the 3d audio is dope as shit and when something has impact you can hear it has impact. Story: 7.7 Prerequisites: in this sim kirito is in their is the underworld and normal world which are seperated by a single line in a deep cave. within a book called the book of taboos which everyone is forced to study in a church of sorts and anyone who commits a taboo is instantly shunned and executed. once it is exposed they commited a taboo. if even a fingertip passes the line to the underworld that is considered a taboo. and quinella is the person who created this book and rules over the land as a theocratic fascist. Integrity knights are knights that serve directly below quinella and for quinella, typically brainwashed into it. Eh, its alright, since time in this world is sped up kirito spends 2 years in this world while only 2 months have passed in real life. and near the end it gets multiplied by 1 million so they spend 200 years in the underworld in a mere 10 seconds. since they got removed from the simulation in 10 seconds. the goal is to defeat the tyrant who has taken a firm grasp around this world as a god of sorts. living under a theocratic fascist who gives you no choice but to worship her essentially. Kirito meeting our main cast of characters here (eugeo and alice). eugeo being some dude he met under a tree where he spawned and they just chill while he introduces him to everything thats going on while kirito teaches him how to wield a sword (keep in mind hes still learning himself since he knows kendo but without the qol systems he has to wield a real sword for the first time almost). His main goal after becoming aquainted with eugeo is to help him save alice who is supposedly his childhood friend who was taken after stepping foot into the underworld while they were exploring as children. he remembers a third person exploring with them that day. (spoilers: it was kirito even though kirito had never entered the simulation prior to when they met while eugeo was a teenager) he has vague flashbacks of that third person whenever spending time with kirito, weird. Anyway as they progress towards saving alice they move towards the capital. The sterotypical "american dream" esque place which while made out to be the perfect place for an enteurpener or an honest business man. is actually deeply corrupted, right to the core. after finding out alice is alive and brainwashed into being an integrity knight. having to fight a former friend as foe they eventually befriend her after her and kirito spend some "forced" time with eachother and convince her shes being duped by quinella. and in which their journey progresses to kill quinella. horrible summary but bottom line. its an enjoyable story that works well for what its trying to do with a satisfying conclusion. I do like how kirito is paralyzed for an entire season and some. after the traumatic experience he has physically and literally watching all his friends die (almost). Characters: 7 The characters in sao alice arent the best written. That is an undeniable fact. but dont mistake this for "bad" character writing. these characters are GOOD? but they arent amazing. I like kirito's development this arc since while hes still le epic self insert character. watching him feel that pain of getting slashed in the stomach feels great for some reason. Overall decent cast. Enjoyment: 10 This was amazingly fun to watch and every episode there was something left to know. sure this show/season isnt the best. but its still great in its own right. very enjoyable overall. Conclusion: 9 The show isnt the best written but it serves its purposes and the cast is better than the post-aincrad cast (asuna klein sinon silica etc etc). This is definitely a step up for the franchise and i expect more of this and hopefully with more development on everyones part (especially the kirisuna relationship which is corny and sucks).

Alicization and War of Underworld combined is the best out of SAO IMO. It was confusing at first in episode 1, felt super cheesy and almost skipped it but I'm glad I didn't. It is not a prequel, it's just setting some background information for the rest of the show moving forward. Probably the best season of SAO out of all with 0 filler episodes unlike SAO 1 and 2 where Aincrad felt super filler. Just push through episode 1 and I'll guarantee you the rest of the series is worth watching. Honestly a shame they made the villain super hot LMAO!