The final load test... The war between the Human Empire and the Dark Territory has engulfed Underworld
entirely. The battle has shifted course with the Dark Territory army led by Gabriel, who seeks to
capture Alice, the Priestess of Light, against Asuna and the Human Empire forces fighting to save
Underworld.
As Kirito's consciousness remains buried in a deep sleep, Gabriel, standing in as the Dark God Vecta,
has recruited thousands of American players to log in to Underworld to annihilate the Human Empire
forces. Meanwhile, Asuna, Sinon, and Leafa have joined the battle utilizing three super-accounts of
the deities of the Underworld. As the Goddess of Creation Stacia Asuna fights alongside the Human
Empire forces to take on the American players in a vicious combat. Sinon, who has gained the
super-account for the Sun Goddess Solus, is in pursuit of Gabriel, who has abducted Alice, while Leafa
arrives to Underworld with the super-account Earth Goddess Terraria.
But that is not all...
The impassioned speech by Lisbeth has convinced many ALO players to join the fight with the Human
Empire despite the risks. With this great war, not only Underworld's continued existence, but the
bottom-up artificial intelligence, the ultimate AI, and even the future of mankind is at stake.
Though he has yet to awaken, only one man holds the fate of this world: the Black Swordsman.
(Source: Official Website)
# __~~~MiNiSoTaN's Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld Part 2 Review~~~__ ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/lcCxhcZ.jpg)~~~ ~~~__Introduction:__~~~Hello. My name is Neill or "MiNi." This will be my in depth review of the anime adaptation of Reki Kawahara's Light Novel Series: Sword Art Online. This review will solely be about the final part of the Alicization War of Underworld Part 2. With all my reviews I will score the anime discussed based upon 5 categories that include: Story, Characters, Art, Music, and Personal Enjoyment. Each category will be given a score between 0 and 10. The ending score will be what I determine the show deserves overall. Keep in mind I will be talking about spoilers that occurred during the anime along with possible spoilers of the manga. Now, without further ado, let's get into this. ~~~ __STORY (3/10):__~~~ ~~~img320(https://i.imgur.com/eSG6Jrh.jpg)~~~ Alicization was a much needed breath for the Sword Art Online series. During the first two seasons there was a reoccurring pattern of world building, new characters, solving conflict, destroying said world, and repeating it all over again. For 2 seasons this is all the characters did for each arc. It was getting extremely repetitive and quite boring in fact. Sword Art Online lost its charm, that is acquired when it first premiered and needed something new. That is exactly what Alicization did. Alicization took Kirito, the only character really worth anything, and put him in a completely new isolated environment. There weren't 10+ girls drooling over him, there was no serial stalker trying to kill him, it was just him on his own. And it worked perfectly. We see Kirito start from square one learning alongside Eugeo trying to become better swordsmen. He wasn't a god right at the beginning he had to train and work for everything. War of Underwold took a step back from Kirito and focused more on Alice and the battles with the Imperial Knights which I was actually fine with and thought the story was flowing together nicely. There were end goals in place there were characters I cared about, there was a singular world we were sticking to with a easy to follow story. This was the best SAO we had ever seen and I was so excited for the conclusion to this arc. This season threw that all away. I was so extremely disappointed by how Part 2 of War of Underworld was handled. Calling this hodgepodge of a plot a story is an insult to the word. There is no clear direction anywhere throughout this season. What was once a straight line of development became a irate circular mess. I have no idea how it derailed into this wreck. At least with War of Underworld Part 1 we had some sort of end goal to look forward to. Gabriel Miller wanted to basically eat the souls of different people in the Underworld cause they tasted good. It wasn't a very unique or exciting villain, but I thought his design looked cool at least. What we were left with in War of Underworld Part 2 were unnecessary scenes of sexual assault, painfully cringy dialogue, and insertions of needless characters just for nostalgia sake. It would have been so much cooler to have Kirito save Underworld on his own than bringing back every single character with a minor appearance since episode 1. I mean seriously they even shove in Yuuki during one episode to try and help Asuna, but in all reality in was in very poor taste. They even go as far as literally humanizing the grunt red knights that have been slaughtering the people of Underworld. They have like 3 people take their helmets off and try to shove them down our throats to make them seem live they've changed to being the "good guys". The "power of friendship" also makes its way into the show a lot too. Whether it's to literally recharge machine energy or to have someone get back up from fighting after they've been knocked down 100 times, the plot armor is extremely sturdy in this season. There's just too many coincidences for anything to seem even somewhat believable. This is suppose to be portrayed in a near future type of setting, but with all the technology they have it seems as though they're hundreds of year ahead of us. Even in the simulated world of Alicization if you die in there, you die in real life. Were we not moving past that after season one? It was never brought back up after the Aincrad arc, why suddenly is it back here now? It also shows that literal dead people can talk to you inside a simulation and fight with you. Thew amount of udder bullshit in this show is laughable. Having all these characters come back and fight in Underworld wouldn't have been such a bad idea if they could have actually done something. Seriously, the same formula is repeated for each introduction. Character comes back, wipes out some enemies, someone cries, they get hit and are out for the rest of the battle, repeat. Sword Art Online has some sort of Stockholm Syndrome with these overused and mundane patterns, it's like it can never come up with a real idea. Regardless, literally with every human that owns a computer on earth coming to help Underworld they can't do anything and Kirito has to save the day. But before that he has to contemplate suicide for losing his friends in a dungeon 4 YEARS AGO. Somehow he finds the courage through Eugeo's ghost and overpowers the villain and wins. The story of the season was awful; rarely was I contempt with the the pacing, structure, plot, or really anything going on. Extremely disappointed and upset that this show that was seeing a revival in quality seemingly drop to rock bottom. ~~~ __Characters (4/10):__~~~ ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/LScFhC5.jpg)~~~ __Kazuto Kirigaya__ Kirito is really the only interesting chracter throughout all of SAO. Eugeo was pretty cool during Alicization but that's about the only exception. He doesn't make his appearance until midway through the season. I'll say once he does appear the show's quality increases minutely just because we're finally done with the uninteresting battles and everyone getting beat around. Kirito is the only character that can actually accomplish anything. __Asuna Yuuki__ If there were a definition for a female simp, it'd be Asuna. She snuck in to a secret military base just to see her bf, and when that wasn't enough she went inside a virtual reality just so she could make out with him. I wish I had a girlfriend as dedicated as Asuna. Granted just about every girl in this show would do the exact same thing for Kirito, but Asuna did it first so I guess she's the best? I don't know. All she really does in this season is cry to be honest. Yeah she swings her sword a little, but she just cries every time she sees someone she knows. It gets kind of annoying. She does decide to save Alice instead of herself which is kind of cool, but other than that, not much of a personality seen. __Alice Zuberg__ Alice basically just a blonde Asuna clone that cries just a little bit less and doesn't get wrecked in one move. She also may or may not have done some questionable things in bed with Kirito while he was in his vegetable state, but we'll look past that. Besides Kirito she's the only one to get things done in the show, granted the're not huge accomplishments, but at least she goes to try and fight Gabriel Miller which is more than most of the other characters can say. __Vassago Casals__ Why is this guy still in the show. More importantly why is he even in Underworld. Literally no one cares about him to be a main antagonist for this season, he shouldn't even be that powerful. We learn that he hates Kirito cause he's Japanese. His whole motivation for his evilness is cause he's racist... great. Legitimately an awful villain. Complete waste of time. __Gabriel Miller__ His villain idea is kinda cool. A lot more compelling than Vassago that's for sure. He just wants to like eat and taste human souls which is a little creepy but none the less somewhat original. His transformation during episode 8 was also pretty cool, I thought that was a cool design. He's the "real" antagonist throughout the Alicization arc, I don't think they implemented him in that well however. ~~~__ART (9/10)__~~~ ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/WLRk0D9.png)~~~ Sword Art Online continues to be a the pinnacle of Art and Animation in the anime industry. Each year they continue to impress with how crisp and clean everything looks. Everything is so fluid and natural it looks amazing. I was extremely impressed with how well the fight between Kirito and Gabriel Miller looked. There was so much going on but A-1 Pictures delivered on not only that, but the rest of the season as well. Everything from the explosions to the powerful spells and moves everyone did looked incredible. I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy the animation as much as I did going into this. If you want to watch SAO solely for the visuals, you won't be disappointed. ~~~__MUSIC (8/10)__~~~ ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/oH3dNWE.jpg)~~~ The music and Sound design again is another area where War of Underworld Part 2 impressed me more than I was expecting. The opening theme ANIMA by ReoNa is the best theme SAO has ever seen. I know the show has an iconic first season opening, but this beats it by a landslide. ReoNa has such a unique and angelic voice that moves with authority and comfort it's incredible how talented she is. The ending I will... by Eir Aoi is great as well. It's about as cliche as you can get with a typical ending theme, but it still sounds amazing. No complaints in the the music department from me. The sound design within the show was exceptional. The clanging of sounds will never get old. It just sounds and feels so satisfying. I was always looking forwards to hearing the different sounds within the show. The explosions were also a highlight. Something about theme had this futuristic type of feel that blared right into your ear drums. There really isn't too much else to say other than it's great. Sound effects and music all around get my seal of approval. ~~~__PERSONAL ENJOYMENT (5/10)__~~~ ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/D0bhIRY.jpg)~~~ If you've read this far you can definitely tell I was disgruntled with how this arc ended. It fell flat on just about everything. I really though we were entering into a Sword Art Online renaissance but it was a dream short lived. The visual and audio elements exceeded expectations, but when those are the only highlights of a season, it doesn't sit well once the ride is over. I explained in detail only some of my grievances with the show, because trust me, I have more but I can spare it for this review. I never expect the characters in Sword Art Online to be ground breaking, but I would have liked to see something more than the surface level we were treated to in the first few seasons. Overall, this season was a bust through and through. I'm hoping they can learn from their mistakes for the next arc, wherever it takes Kirito and Co. I believe SAO has the potential of being great, it has shown us, but it hasn't been able to keep its consistency. ~~~ __Final Thoughts and Score:__~~~ Thank you all for reading, make sure to follow my page for more anime reviews! __Favorite Episodes__ Episode 2 "The War of Underworld" Episode 8 "The Night-Sky Blade" __Official Scores__ Story: (3/10) Characters: (4/10) Art: (9/10) Music: (8/10) Personal Enjoyment: (5/10) # __~~~FINAL SCORE: (4/10) BAD~~~__ @MiNiSoTaN ~~~Did you really read the review, or are you just looking at the score?~~~
__~~~Histoire 8/10~~~__ On va se consacrer sur les deux parties de la guerre de Underworld. Le concept de Alicization est vraiment correct pour moi on rentre dans un univers beaucoup plus mature et nous tends plus a la compassion envers Eugueo par exemple ou surtout Kazuto pendant son ''sommeil''. L'univers est beaucoup plus sans pitié ou on voit véritablement une scène de guerre et non des fleurs et des pâquerettes et c'est vraiment sympa ce qui donne une bonne dynamique a l'anime. Cependant je reste dans une notation très gentil car je trouve que il y a des défaut en réalité comme les pouvoirs overpowered de Kirito et compagnie qui peut etre explique je l'avoue mais qui peux faire grincer des dents. Le point qui ma braiment souler c'est en effet ~!abuser de la mort de Eugueo pour tout le temps le faire revenir en back up pour aider Kirito on peut meme pas le pleurer il a beaucoup trop de temps d’écran.. C'est dommages car j’étais vraiment choqué de sa mort et ça m’avais beaucoup plus !~ Par la en continuant dans les défauts, ~!pourquoi après 200 ans de vie passé dans le Fluctlight Kirito n'est pas assagis comme jamais ????? on a pas trop eu l'occasion de le voir s'exprimer mais la seul fois sa reste bancale le mec a quand même eu 2 vie humaines et je sens aucun accomplissement!~ bref c mon point de vue pour le coup ici.. Pour finir le pouvoir de l'amitié par pitié stop..... Asuna qui se bat contre PoH et qui a des pouvoirs venues de je ne sais ou. Bref je garde le 8 car franchement j'ai beaucoup apprécié la phase de la guerre qui étais très active et vraiment réussis en terme de Histoire pur on verra ce que la suite peu nous réservé mais je ne suis pas le plus Hype car j'ai peur que sa tourne en rond mais SaO a su revenir en force et valide pour moi son entrée en scène telle que des combats comme Bercouli contre Vektor ou encore Eiji contre PoH qui étaient ouf avec une animation incroyable et une bonne dose de tristesse pour les personnages avec tout les liens tissé c'est vraiment sympa __~~~Personnage 7/10~~~__ Bref point assez vide car Honntement je souligne et acclame le fait que les relations entre personnages soit tres bien tissé et donne un grand sourire comme par exemple Iskahn et Scheta qui louent de vrai lien mais je reste sur ma faim dessus ducouo on est accompagné par le fameux Harem mais on se demande si Kirito est vraiment avec Asuna ou quoi xD mais bref ça me dérange un peux mais je laisse de coté Les grands vilains sont assez vides basiques même cliché mais bons ils incarnaient vraiment la haine et ne sortent pas de nul parts donc on ferme les yeux __~~~Art 8,5/10~~~__ Alors la chapeau il mont bien impressionné surtout avec le combat Dieu Vektor VS Bercouli pendant le coup final qui étaient très beau a voir, voir meme magnifique merci A1 ! __~~~Song 7/10~~~__ Du Sao classique par contre ce qui me fait mettre 7 on retrouve des songs qui étaient présent dans les films de Kara no Kyoukai et ça c lourd __~~~Enjoyment 7,5/10~~~__ J'ai passé un bon moment globalement et je suis content de cette nouvelle version si je peux dire de Sao beaucoup plus gore froid ! mais je suis resté un peux sur ma faim on verra la suite même si je ne suis pas friands ~~~__Overall__ ~~~ ~~~__7,6__~~~
_Shorter, less fleshed out review since I'm a bit frustrated with this season._ This season was such a hit or miss it ruined the entire Alicization arc for me. The animation of the characters was amazing, they were all designed well and had good facial/fighting animations. On the other hand, the background animations in the underworld weren't that great, especially the CGI on the background extras. They stuck out so much. The intro and outro music was amazing, although that's nothing really new from Sword Art Online. I especially liked the animation of the outro, it helped convey the feeling of the arc. All the rest of the music was great as well, but there is one track that get used again and again and again and again... you get the point, when Kirito shows up to do something COOL and AMAZING AND __OH MY GOD STOP THE TRACK FROM PLAYING__. It drove me insane at points. The characters are starting to piss me off too. Outside of Kirito and to an extent Asuna, all the characters feel fake, and thrown together just to support the main. All their emotions feel fake, and it annoyed the hell out of me. It's worse than the previous seasons. There's more motivational speeches, more crying, more flash backs, it's absurd. On the mains side, it is much better though, but I can't quite place how much. You have Kirito, suffering from a sort of PTSD, but I don't think it's portrayed well enough in his outward facing character to justify some of the well made "inside" moments. Then you have Asuna who just wants to be there for him, which is understandable, but I'm not sure if she was ever written well enough to show she wanted to help. The story was a interesting idea, but executed poorly, as is the Sword Art Online method. Much of the power system was never explained, and I had to go to Reddit to figure out what the hell was going on. There's some pretty good summaries in the comments there, I'd recommend it if you're actually interested. Or click the spoiler below. There were some great driving motives for the side characters, really only the "evil" ones. Focusing on the main "evil" guy, his motives and beliefs were honestly among the best I've seen in a character. It just goes to show that evil characters *can* have interesting motives outside of material wealth if authors want them to. ~!https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/iekoy8/sword_art_online_alicization_explaining_the/ They sort of just imagine what they want to happen so much that it actually happens. The fluctlight system is somewhat of a lucid dream that's propagated between the people, and because of this, if one person believes something so much, it's propagated to the other people. It's pretty dumb as a power system but unique *enough* as a concept.!~ Also WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ENDING? Can this series get any ridiculous? I hope the Progressive movie will do well enough that they try a bit harder on the series, but who knows seeing as how they're making it a movie rather than a multi-season show...
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