Sword Art Online: Alicization

I tried to like this. I really, really did. I was even sticking out for it upon its announcement because for all of the problems earlier iterations of SAO had, there was always a sense that, if the finer details were checked over and looked at in complete retrospect of what came before, it could be deservedly fun, inspiring or genuinely meaningful. A series deserving of the immeasurable hype phenomenon it generated. Escapism, blurring between actions of reality and fiction was always a thematic that separated the series from the many isekais this decade that followed in its footsteps, and something that held my interest ... in how it would be handled, but aside from arguably the Mother’s Rosario arc, this wasn’t given enough space in the narrative between all the superfluous anime tropes that seem to be there to draw the most general audience possible. Look no further than the original Aincrad arc, praised most by anime-only fans for its concepts, but forcibly rushed to completion when its author chose to submit a word limited contest draft as the first novel, compared to refining the fully story he wanted to make.

Sword Art Online’s biggest problem is itself.

Its writer, Reki Kawahara, keeps getting in his own way, and when he doesn’t, the anime eschews his vision. What he wants to get across is almost always clear, and there are effortful attempts to act on those ideas, but with the anime’s focus on moving the plot forward rather than making details feel elaborately set, it ends up bringing down the entire experience to make watching the series weekly for the most part, feel like a slog of boring exposition attempting to cover up poor pacing of external events. If something from earlier is justified, it can feel annoyingly retroactive. Kirito himself is less a factor than in previous arcs, he is still partially to blame in the indistinct coverage of how this season adds to the themes of the franchise.

General spoilers for the season below:

The main premise of this arc is that Kirito, while on a date with his girlfriend Asuna, is caught off guard and stabbed to near death by one of the three Death Guns from the previous season. While in a coma, he ends up in the digital world of Rath, a system used for a military experimentation project where he must do..............................nothing in particular at no real urgency. There is a plot, and there is a goal, but for once they feel entirely separate from the tension.

But I’ll get to that later. SAO, being as popular as it is, has mostly being met with snark and derision from people calling it the “worst ever” or otherwise exaggerating the flaws of it, so I think it’s fair to start off with the positives of this season, because contrary to what haters will tell you, they do exist.

1. Production value and music. These have been consistent strengths of the SAO series throughout the years and generally, they still hold up here. The character models take on the new polished style from the Ordinal Scale Movie, and while not having as much animation (I’ll get to that), the look is maintained very well across all 24 episodes of the show. If you compare to the original two seasons, there is a definite improvement, and while the architecture present isn’t particularly unique or standout, it is well presented. Likewise, Yuki Kajura’s music, while not her best soundtrack, still does what it can to set the mood for the quieter scenes and the action scenes, with a great new remix of Swordland to go along with it. Special mention to some of the opening moments of Episode 2, and the fight in Episode 16. Of the music outside of the show, the first OP and the second ED are the best ones and do have a good amount of catchiness and energy to them.

2. Alice Schuberg, the arc’s new female lead. While it takes 16 episodes in to actually really explore her as a character, and she looks a lot like Saber from the Fate series, the time we do have from then on with her sets her as probably the most consistent female lead in SAO so far. As of yet, she’s hasn’t been subjected to an endless supply of ass shots, her growth hasn’t been stunted by time skips, nor is her growth entirely for Kirito’s sake. Her arc of rejecting the corrupt system she’s been brainwashed under, wanting to reconnect with her old life and opening up on her feelings is adequately handled and leads to some of the stronger character moments this season. She also has one of the coolest weapons in terms of both design and animation; a space bending sword acting as moving protection with golden butterflies as weapons. It’s been put to effective use in the fights so far and has potential to be used further as the story moves along.

3. Measuring Kirito’s power. Compared to say, the Phantom Bullet arc, some of the worst aspects of his character are toned down. He doesn’t start the series overpowered from the get-go, has actual struggles in several fights and even takes a few Ls in a couple of them. It gives a couple of the fights in the season more tension than previous ones. The existence of Eugeo also helps for his sake since the show is better able to balance the battles between the two of them rather than giving Kirito the entire spotlight. It doesn’t mean there isn’t still an annoying amount of contrived solutions to conflicts, but that’s more on the writing than him specifically.

4. Actually building the villain. The arc’s villain, a Knight Templar dictator calling herself Quinella, has an established backstory and a defined reason for ruling the way she does. We know why she is the villain, we see the clear consequences of her actions on the world and she isn’t as laughable to be taken seriously compared to say, Sugou from ALFheim. She’s a product of an as of now unknown evil seed, but nonetheless she’s established properly. However, showing her attractive naked body on screen doesn’t work at all to be alienating for a series that in the past used naked bodies during bath scenes as fanservice. There are some fun intensity moments with her in the climax, even if the battle is a mere two minutes long.

Unfortunately, that’s the positives out of the way. Now for everything else that really breaks this arc and saddens me given the inherent potential of a SAO story.

The biggest problem that persists throughout the entire show is the immeasurable focus on exposition over every other element. Characters will abandon the idea of development, fighting, talking, world building, or anything else for the opportunity to talk in technical terms about topics that, while somewhat relevant, are not as important as what else could be focused on. Eugeo, the new male lead, has got family issues? No, that's not important. We need to talk about the villain’s plan and “Fluctlights” (the series’ pretentious name for digital souls in an indistinct coverage of AI vs humans) again. Knowing how that works is way more important that a main character's backstory. The exposition often brings the narrative to a screeching halt, especially in scenes where the heroes stop fighting the villain and exposition for a few minutes while the villain just stands around waiting for them.

Exposition is something inherent in building a setting and establishing the plot. I understand the use for it. There are several shows that have still been entertaining despite or because of their exposition. But SAO Alicization’s exposition is not only incredibly frequent but boring and lacking in character. It’s frequent enough to where Episode 1 spends 10 minutes just expositioning off vague terms about the setting, while half of Episode 12 and nearly all of Episode 13 are nothing but this flat delivery of the plot. Other episodes tend to tag nearly every fight with exposition that’s 8 times longer than the fight itself. While the old director was no exemplar by any means, he at least knew how to make fights seem varied and exciting visually with a lot of movement. Here, Yuki Kajiura puts in the effort, but this new director who directed some of the worst LN adaptations in recent memory like Mahouka and The Asterisk War, just cannot pull it off. So, when the OP makes you think you’ll be getting this epic fight, it’s usually just maybe two attacks apiece preceded and followed by 5-10 minutes of exposition.

The framing device of the season also presents several issues this time around. The idea that Kirito’s exploration in this new world is happening while his real-world body is comatose could generate tension, but this alongside Kirito’s connection to the real world is poorly substantiated. In learning about this framing device, we, as the audience, know it is just a waiting game for Kirito to heal up and be back to normal. Until the very last episode, his actions in Rath have absolutely no consequences in the real world. None of that “die in the game die in real life” stuff here. He gets really hurt from time to time but we have no idea how his real body is taking it. There’s a two-year timeskip at one point, but unlike in Season 1 where it really was two years, we have no idea how much the time exchange is between the system and the real world which I think hurts the connection to the story. This framing device also separates Kirito from his past connections in this story. I don’t mind the reduced role of his entourage for the moment (even if Asuna, who SHOULD be important, has nothing to do right now), but he barely brings them up over what’s been at least two years. There was one moment Kirito thought of his real-world connections, but that was for a poorly animated fight that ended in a draw and had absolutely no effect going forward. Kirito cries more over the fact that flowers he planted were destroyed (that were contrivedly brought back anyways) than even the chance that he might NEVER see Asuna again being stuck for so long. I want to care, but the show refuses to let me with a framing device that undermines the events and severs past connections.

Other old habits die hard, whether because of Kawhara’s own writing or the adaptation. Not only do we get another ridiculous rapey scene, but there’s a two-year timeskip rather than say, actually seeing Kirito and Eugeo train up to be better swordsman. They set off for the Capital and the next we see them, BOOM, two years pass, and they’ve already had a lot of training done. They could’ve at least done an FMA03 type thing by building character relationships prior to a timeskip but nope, nearly all relationships at the sword academy are shown after and as of now, doesn’t matter to anything since we know so little about them. If this was better in the light novel, good for Kawahara, but perhaps it should’ve been a cause for concern seeing how much got cut for the anime onlys. In this adaptation, the only purpose of the sword academy stuff, aside from telling us Kirito and Eugeo became better swordsmen offscreen, was to build two bullies as irredeemable rapey monsters, and paint two cute girls as victims of this. We don’t know much about them either, aside from one of them having a romance arc with Eugeo that goes absolutely nowhere. There’s also a lot of contrivances to make progress, like with Kirito seeing the “ghost” of Alice in Episode 4 lead him the right way, how Cardinal is introduced into the story specifically to ex Machina Kirito and Eugeo out of a scene, and how Kirito uses a completely unknown attack to one shot a late-game villain that returns him to his Black Swordsman coat for a bit. This attack is never referred to by name and never mentioned again.

And it’s not like this progress has done well for the characters, as Alice aside, they range from passable to horribly flat. Kirito isn’t as overpowered as before, but aside from problems the framing device puts on him, he still has annoying moments, like one case where he retroactively Sherlocked his way to avoid being poisoned, or where he used a device he only had two of on a character he barely knew, rather than to potentially stop the villain and save Alice. The show puts him in the right for this by the way, and there’s not much of an arc for him this season either. Cardinal is actually pretty decent, even if the show’s use of her as an ex Machina isn’t for the best. The sword academy characters are barely developed at all, and among the antagonists, only Bercouli and Deusolbert are passable; the rest are just obnoxious. Fanatio’s only character trait is being ashamed of being a woman, which falls deaf when both the main villain and Alice, whom she knows personally, are also women, as well as there being no indication of gender division in the world. And Chudelkin’s only purpose is to ruin the tone and make rapey faces whenever possible until kill stealing at the end.

Which leads us to the biggest wasted potential so far, Eugeo. There was a lot of potential for his character at the start. Being a guy partner to help balance Kirito out of the spotlight, there was a lot Kawahara could do with what he distinctly did not know about Kirito, his personal relationships with him and Alice as kids, his fighting ability, the idea that he has more innate fighting potential than Kirito, his unawareness of being an AI program and his romantic relationship to Tiese.

Unfortunately, not one of these elements get to shine in this adaptation to let us in on his blank sheet personality. Perhaps improved in the light novel, but the anime should have better stood on its own. Him having more innate potential than Kirito is completely ignored later on, his sword training is told not shown, and anything the show tries to pull regarding his relationships with Kirito/Alice as kids, his family, or Tiese fall completely deaf because they received little to no focus. He didn’t even TALK to Alice in the present day, once. The show would rather go into long tirades of exposition than show a main character’s backstory! Near everything about him was entirely cut short by the show despite having more than enough time to act on all of it. They try their best to make up for it at the end, but it’s a bit too little too late.

It’s hard to say whether I’m more annoyed or disappointed with how Alicization has been executed so far. Sure, some of the problems in the world, characters and framing device can be fixed going forward, but first impressions are everything and this series did not make a good one. The focus on constant exposition over all else, the disconnected framing device, and lackluster character writing drag it down more than needed, but it could’ve been avoided if Kawahara just knew what to focus on or the anime didn’t skim over the better parts, since his ideas are abundantly clear. The SAO franchise can theoretically explore a lot, but it almost deliberately gets written into corners. That’s something I’ve always given SAO over the many works that have almost no effort at all to act on their ideas, and though there’s that chance for the future with new elements coming in to make the second half an improved experience, this season’s quality suggests it won’t be without a wide range of caveats.

In a world where popular light novels gets anime, manga, games, and hell, even live action movies, there’s one title I’m sure no anime fan can ignore. Sword Art Online. Becoming ever more popular and entering a mainstream line of anime adaptations, the franchise has also no doubt sparked decent deal of controversy. But hey, controversy sometimes makes cash right?

It’s not rocket science to realize SAO would eventually get a continuation. It was just a matter of when and after 5 years since the second season, the time is now. Sword Art Online Alicization covers the light novels with an extended amount of material, ... much more than the previous season. It’s so much that in fact, a full 2-cour season of 24 episodes isn’t enough. Luckily, it has been confirmed the series would run more than that and given an additional season for its adaptation. However, the big question people should ask themselves if this is another SAO show to jump into or a cash grab at making more money.

Starting with the prologue, we get a double length episode to give a general background of the new season. Make no mistake though as Alicization is not going to spoonfeed viewers with recapping. The show assumes you are familiar with the first two shows so anyone hoping to watch this needs to have completed the first two seasons. Light novel adaptations tends to suffer a lot from adaptation standards but thankfully, Alicization manages to deliver a faithful start with its character cast and storytelling. Besides Kirito, we are introduced to Eugeo, a new character who serves as his partner and best friend in this arc. Similar to Kirito, he has a kind heart although lacks experience in the beginning compared to him. He also appears somewhat cowardly in the beginning as he is unable to prevent certain events from happening, in particular for failing to help his childhood friend Alice. It’s not until he meets Kirito that he develops a resolve and finds the courage to become a stronger person. That is to say, Alicization features a lot of character bonding especially in the first half of the show. Eugeo begins to grow out of his shell after training and becoming strong enough to fight as a warrior. It really shouldn’t take long to realize that he has great potential, perhaps even someday of surpassing Kirito himself. As for Kirito, his personality remain largely the same in this season. That is, he is a selfless person who isn’t afraid to help others in need. Kirito and Eugeo develops great respect for each other and the latter even finds his resolve. The two sometimes almost feel like brothers.

Outside of the duo, you may have noticed another prominent character being featured in the trailers or key visuals. Alice would be her name and she is Eugeo’s childhood friend. The show makes it clear that she is an important character from her introduction to later on in the story. Alicization also devotes time to developing her character after meeting Kirito. Despite having a rocky start, she develops respect and a growing trust for him. Now, people may have a curiousity if Alice become another ‘harem girl’ similar to some of the previous seasons. SAO is not a harem although it gives off a stench at times. Thankfully, there’s no need to worry. The closest that Alice seems to be with Kirito is when they are at the tower during one of the episodes and nothing more comes out of it. On the other hand, Kirito’s friends from the real world are still concerned about his well-being. In particular, Asuna searches for him through unorthodox methods while discovering some revelations about the technology in the real world. Remember, the world of SAO contains complex technology that defies the law of nature. I’m not even referring the VR system or robotics but rather the capability of influencing people’s lives. This extends to the virtual world where the Administrator managed to use system commands to reverse her own age. Sounds unbelievable, right?

As with previous seasons, Alicization can’t be complete without antagonists and conflicts. One of the major antagonist in the new season is the Administrator, Quinella and her Integrity Knights. She’s an important character as not only is she a threat to the main protagonists but also a catalyst for some of the key events in this season. This includes character manipulation that extends to our new characters such as Eugeo and Alice. I’m not going to lie though, one of the events in this show is rather disturbing to watch considering the way she manipulates others. (I’m looking at you, Eugeo) On even more disturbing matters, we even have characters that commits unforgiveable sins that pushes Eugeo to the edge. It’s the type of event that brings controversy out of its fullest. I’m not going to spoil it but when you get to that particular episode, you’ll feel disgusted too. It’s so disturbing that it even changes Eugeo’s views on the laws of their world and causes him to rebel. Quinella herself also demonstrates a God-like complex with her own dark motives. If I said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times. She is detestable. I doubt anyone with a sane mind would find her character likable.

I can’t be the only one to notice that the animation quality improved more than the previous seasons, right? The Ufotable-like animation is used in parallel with the Sword Art Online movie, Ordinal Scale. Not only did the animation style improve, it also managed to craft an imaginative virtual world to it its fullest. The character designs are also featured in great details compared to previous seasons. In particular, Alice is important to note for her chivalrous look and golden armor. Character expressions are meaningful with an emphasis put on human emotions. Eugeo is a prominent example especially as his personality shifts from a weak survivor to a noble swordsman. While I’m not impressed by how antagonist are portrayed this season, they were able to deliver their dialogues straight with a degree of villainous expressions. Quinella is the biggest culprit with her manipulative personality. Her malevolence simply cannot be overlooked.

The SAO franchise is one of the longer light novel running adaptations that continues to build more into its universe. Truthfully and despite some of the controversy from the past seasons, this one managed to finally jump out of its rabbit hole and deliver what I wanted to see. With another season on the way, I cross my fingers that it will ride on this momentum.

The anime community seems to be split in its opinion on SAO. Half of them ignore everything positive about it and only talk about negetive things. The other half just does the opposite. No other anime has been this controversial for more than 5 years after its original release. Now here is a new season that features mostly different cast from the original. So is it worth watching or not? Here is my analysis:-

**THIS WILL INCLUDE MINOR SPOILERS ABOUT THE OVERALL SETTING **

The story this time is centered not on a game, but around a simulation of civilization. The aim of this simulation is to ... develop highly advanced A.I capable of thoughts and emotions. It brings about some ethical questions about humanity, playing God, and where to draw the line in scientific experiments. This season deals with more of these mature themes than the previous seasons ever did.

The premise is that Kirito finds himself in a medieval world with its own history and lore and journeys with his newfound friend Eugeo to achieve both of their (different) goals. It starts out slow, with a lot of focus on world building. Even though it seems disconnected to the plot of the previous seasons, eventually many plot points from before will make their way into the story. So it is important to watch the last seasons to get a full understanding of the current season.

Eugeo is the focus of these two cours, Kirito just tagging along. He has an innocent, easygoing personality that makes the story work - much like Frodo from Lord of the Rings. He is the embodiment of a common citizen of Underworld. His opinions about himself, others and the society he is in changes throughout the story and the viewers get to experience the same things he does. Alice has not much role in the initial part, but her time for development will come in the 3rd and 4th cours.

Unlike SAO's history, there is pain and blood in the fights. It makes the characters' struggle believable and makes you root for the characters. Later on, the story gets even more darker without resorting to plain bloodshed - in a psychological way. Kirito is not overpowered in this arc. He only has the knowledge of a swordsman and works his way from the bottom up.

The entire story is well thought out and is planned beforehand. There are several questions that arise in the early episodes - the answers are made clear slowly, as the plot progresses. Some of the things happened may seem irrelevant and random, but they make sense eventually.

A large number of new characters are introduced in this season. Most of them influence main characters in various ways. The three main characters undergo some changes throughout the series and get some good character development. But the same cannot be said about the side characters.These characters last only for about 3 episodes and don't make an appearence till the 2nd part of this arc, but the gap is too long.

The review will be incomplete if the villain is not mentioned. It is an ambitious character capable of easily manipulating others for personal gain that ended up turning into a different and dangerous entity due to an accident. Certainly there are better villains in the anime history, but this character is arguably the best villain SAO has seen so far. There is a moral ambiguity for this character.

There are plenty of criticisms that can be offered as well. Some episodes have a lot of talking involved. A lot of exposition is delivered this way. People expecting all out action scenes will be disappointed or bored by these episodes. There is some pseudo-science explanation for the premise. It may not appeal to everyone.

The tower climbing arc is adapted very poorly. The Integrity knights that are supposed to have their own reasons and understandings about the world around them are dumbed down to mere villains of the week. The cliffhangers are conceived in a very poor way. They feel forced and unnecessary because most of the fights are very short.

The anime looks gorgeous with colorful shading - just like Ufotable. But the same can't be said about action sequences. In many action sequences, the frame of animation focuses only on one character. It makes the viewer unable to follow the fights well. The short fights are usually already ended by the time we get invested into them.

The soundtrack is underwhelming compared to the last seasons. Old music is repeatedly used by remixing it. Only few soundtracks are memorable and they don't last long. Some of them sound very similar to Yuki Kajiura's other works. Only new notable music is the Eugeo's theme and the Quinella's theme.

The adaptation of the source material is below average. It is not butchered to Tokyo Ghoul Re's extent, but it is significantly rushed and cuts out a good amount of inner monologues that gives a good understanding of character relations and motivations. Think of the GGO arc that lasted for 14 episodes but now compress it into 8 episodes. That is how much rushed it actually is. Even so, everything that has happened can still be understood with some thought.


Tl;dr - If you liked the previous seasons, it is a must watch.
If you thought that the previous seasons were wasted potential then this is still worth watching as it explores a different theme - in far more detail.
However if you didn't like the original characters of SAO, then better stay away from this season. Chances are that you will not like this season either.

There is still two more cours to come. But that is a different entry in the database. Be informed that the story doesn't end yet.
For me, what is great about this arc are its themes and execution, albeit the poor adaptation.

Overpowered characters.

From invincible action heroes to divinely powered chosen ones,
from arbitrary powerup masters to "willpower over logic" crusaders,
from technobabble technicians to omniscient pseudo-strategists,
from plot-powered self-inserts to absurdly popular harem leads.

Perfect in every conceivable way... except in terms of actually being well-written or compelling. And therein lies the problem with so many of them. Being overpowered is one thing, but they suffer from something far worse: being boring. They simply come across as bland and generic.

And I am not referring to the fact that they crush their opponents with ease. What I am saying is that their personality, motivations and dialogue tend to be ... dull. It is not just about the characters themselves though. It is rather that the way the narratives are written, these characters are not challenged to question their values or develop their wit in any significant way. They are not allowed to truly think.


But don't just take my word for it. Let's hear it from the man himself:

"A human being's greatest power is to think. It's more powerful than any great sword or secret move."
‒ Kirigaya Kazuto

You know what? Kirito is right. This is precisely the main problem here. In Sword Art Online, the narrative too often focuses on swords and secret moves (read: plot-based powerups) over actual thought.

And he must have first-hand experience. After all, Kirito is the patron saint of overpowered characters, and you probably know why. He is the best swordsman in the land by a wide margin. He obtains arbitrary powerups whenever the plot demands it. He has saved the day from random villains. He has won the affection of many girls for poorly established reasons. He knows random technical details that nobody else seems to. He might not be the absolute worst offender on the anime scene, but he is perhaps the most notorious, due to the runaway popularity of the franchise.

But the true measure of a character is not his list of combat achievements but his personality, wit, moral struggle, perhaps even ideology.

Kirito tends to selflessly save the day and help everyone. His antagonists are either comically evil or their motives are vague, incomprehensible, or otherwise poorly established. This is done so that we never have to question Kirito's moral superiority. He is the good guy, the hero, the shining knight. To enforce this, everybody seems to like him to an implausible degree, except for the aforementioned comically evil antagonists. Consider what this does to the narrative. Because most of Kirito's friends and associates adore him, there is little meaningful conflict between them, and meaningful conflict is at the heart of good narratives.

And note that we are supposed to take all of this unironically. We are supposed to relate to a nigh-perfect protagonist who never has to struggle with any moral dilemmas of any kind because he is always placed in a position in which the antagonists are over-the-top evil or their motives are incomprehensible.

And the emphasis is on "placed." We don't usually get to see different sides of Kirito ‒ aside from his role as a heroic savior ‒ precisely because he is always placed in situations in which he is inclined to become a heroic savior. As I mentioned, he is facing sub-par villains, and he is also provided with the convenient opportunity to defeat them. This is precisely why he comes across as bland. At least, he has so far in the franchise.


So what does Alicization do to change this? Maybe a little. The premise is a little less black-and-white than some of the previous iterations and presents some moral ambiguity, but it is still fairly clear which of the characters are intended as antagonistic. The narrative also reverts to old patterns in this respect sometimes. I'll get back to this later.

There is also another notable issue. It seems as though the author sat down and figured, "Hmm, you know what this show needs? More exposition infodumps."

...which the show was never lacking in the first place and which does nothing to resolve the actual problems with the franchise.


1) First, it is time for the glorious infodumps.

To put it bluntly, this show comes with encyclopedic lists of technical details. So have fun with rants about Fluctlights, Stacia Windows, the Gigas Cedar, the High-Norkian Style, and the Light Quantum Gate Crystal. There is no shortage of these infodumps, and soon enough you notice that another episode is gone just like that.

As an example, here is a quote from Kirito himself.

"Where do you think the human soul is located? [...] The brain is more or less a clump of brain cells, right? So where among the brain cells does the soul exist? All cells, including brain cells, are supported by a structural network. Apparently, they're called microtubules. Tubes. In other words, hollow pipes. And there's something sealed inside those hollow pipes. [...] Light. Light. A fluctuating light photon. And that's what comprises the human soul, according to Rath."

...What?

Is that how it works? Given the context of the story, I am going to be generous and assume that "soul" is a metaphor for memories, personality and other mental qualities that comprise a human being. This may be giving the author too much credit. Perhaps he really is referring to souls in a literal sense. Who knows?

Kirito calls these lights Fluctlights. The thing is, they don't seem to contribute anything substantial that would not already be conveyed by memories or other mental qualities. Every reference to Fluctlights could be replaced by words like "memory" or "mind."

e.g. "Artificial Fluctlight" -> "Artificial intelligence"

It would get the relevant meaning across even without the imaginary technology. If your dialogue begins to sound like like an engineering booklet when a simple existing description would have sufficed, you are doing it wrong.

Incidentally, it seems that one of the main points the show is getting at is the fact that people are who they are because of their memories. A fair point but one that has already been overused in speculative fiction. If you want to take that route, you need to beef up your analysis and related dialogue.

Now, don't get me wrong. I can enjoy world-building, but you should not flood the viewer with arbitrary facts for the sake of itself. The details of the world should be constructed so that they support the underlying themes of the narrative. The world-building should actually pay off. For instance, do we need to spend several minutes on the origins of a legendary blade when it has nothing of substance to contribute? In comparison, when the show explains basic facts about their society, the information is actually quite a bit more helpful.


That is not the worst of it though. It is not only about the sheer quantity of the exposition but the way in which it is told. There is a right way and a wrong way to provide this information. You should do it naturally, in a manner that actual people might use.

Listen to this dialogue.

"Who would've thought that after [insert event here], we'd actually [insert event here]? Sometimes I think I'm dreaming."
"Come on now. It's already been a year since [insert event here]."

How convenient. The characters are recapping the events out loud just when the audience needs the info. They go on for a while, listing various facts about their new pastimes and acquaintances. It is all screaming "This is exposition!"

Kirito comes across as a kind of Mr. Exposition sometimes, now more than ever. He is all about providing lists of random facts. He lists descriptions of things to the viewer without thinking deeply into their implications. And, incidentally, the other characters do very much the same, often even more so. Just listing facts all day, every day.

All those lines could have been spent on other things. They could undergo some inner struggle every now and then. There might even be interesting moral conflict. Or how about examining their relationships with other people? But nope. While those other aspects receive some attention, they are usually pushed to the side in favor of further infodumps. Character interaction is really bogged down by this. If you have people acting as though they are reading straight out of an encyclopedia, they become difficult to relate to.


Character backstories are sometimes treated in the same way. On one occasion, an important character is introduced by delivering an 8-minute flashback infodump on their backstory before ever meeting them. They have never even been mentioned before. You can probably see the problem here. Can't we at least wait until the character has been introduced normally?

Also, the 8-minute flashback in question is narrated by another person throughout. Why? As I was saying, the flashback should wait, but if we must go forward with it, at least show it from the perspective of the relevant character. Show, don't tell.


2) Furthermore, too much time and effort is spent on fight scenes that ‒ while visually fine ‒ contribute little to the narrative and are resolved in a fairly arbitrary manner.

When this is taking place, the dialogue also becomes very centered on explaining the flow of the battle and little else. One episode was almost entirely about swords. Swords clashing repeatedly with simple choreography (mostly people pushing their swords against each other), with the majority of the dialogue focused on swords, swordsmanship and all things related to the weapons in question. This is related to section 1) because much of this is yet another subset of unnecessary technobabble and infodumping.

Now, if you are a diehard sword fan, this may be acceptable. (Or not if you don't like their portrayal of swordsmanship, and I can't really blame you.) But what if you are not into swords that much? I mean, the technical details. You'll have to sit through endless infodumping on the subject. Sure, the word "sword" is right there in the name of the franchise, but come on now. Twenty minutes of non-stop ranting about swords is a bit too much. You know, even fight scenes could be used for character development, moral struggle, etc., but that would take a different approach to dialogue and inner thoughts. Or at least try to be wittier about it. Don't just list the sword techniques in a bland manner.

So what determines the winner of a sword fight? Finely tuned tactics? No, of course not. In this world, the best way to power up your sword is... strength of will. Yes. You can pretty much beat anyone if you infuse your sword with your imagination, emotion and various reasons to fight. Along with it, various names of sword styles will be mentioned, but they do not seem to affect the outcome in any consistent way, nor are they used tactically in any way that would generate interest.

As a result, the battles easily devolve into showdowns of plot power. The winner is the one favored by the narrative. This is far from rare in shows that involve action scenes or various powerups, so this should not come as a surprise, but that does not mean that we should let it slide.


3) And now for another fan favorite: over-the-top evil villains.

Here's another quote from Kirito:

"That attitude your father taught you, Tiese, in Eng... no, in sacred terms, it's called 'noble obligation.' Nobles, that is, those with power must use it for the sake of the powerless. Let's see, you could also call it pride. And that pride is more important than any law or regulation. After all, there are things that you shouldn't do, even if it's not forbidden by law. And on the other hand, there might be things you should do, even if they are forbidden by law."

This is a bit better than what we would usually expect of Sword Art Online. It is also relevant to the premise and underlying themes. You see, this time the author has come up with an eerie medieval rural dystopia ruled by a dogmatic church. If this sounds familiar, you may have seen one in any number of JRPGs or fantasy in general. Which isn't necessarily a bad idea if done right.

You could use this line of thought to demonstrate why dystopian dogmatic churches are, well, dystopian and dogmatic. There is also some shady manuevering going on in the real world. Maybe it could be applied to that.

Well, at least in theory. Guess what kind of evil action Kirito is referring to? As is tradition in Sword Art Online, the evil action is... sexually harassing a girl.

Yes. You heard it right. Out of all possible evil deeds out there, the author went with sexually harassing a girl. Again. Or rather beyond mere harassment and in an absurdly over-the-top way as well. If this sounds familiar, you must have been watching Sword Art Online because this keeps happening like clockwork. When the author wants to designate a character as evil or antagonistic, this is his go-to trope. The villains tend to commit sexual harassment or attempted rape, as if they wouldn't be evil enough otherwise.

The author does this because he doesn't want the audience to have the slightest doubt over who is good and who evil here. So the villains just have to go for the same old sexual harassment or attempted rape. It would not have to be this way. There are other morally questionable things in the world, but nope. Can't write about those. Is the author legally obligated to write about sexual harassment and attempted rape, or does he not know that other topics exist?



So what is Alicization supposed to be?

A straight-up heroic fantasy?
A technobabble infodump?
"We are who we are because of our memories."

...Is that really all? This is not enough. Instead of original or inspired, Alicization comes across as bland. Yes, there is a fantasy world out there, arguably fleshed out by the infodumps, but that isn't enough. You also need to do something interesting with the world. The narrative needs more substance.

Remember when I quoted Kirito earlier on the superiority of thought over swords? He said so in the context of applying critical thought to law and morality. Fine. So give him a proper chance to think about it in detail and apply it in an interesting way. Instead, he (and sadly us, the viewers) are subjected to endless lists of arbitrary facts that are meaningless on their own. Or we get to witness action scenes which are resolved by plot power or used as platforms for even more infodumping.

For all the talk about human souls, it is precisely what the narrative is lacking. Where is the humanity?

For those of you who are unaware, SAO is the ISEKAI that brought the genre to immense popularity. While respecting that it is some what of a pioneer, the story tends to drag on unnecessarily and almost constantly views it's audience as unintelligent by walking everyone by the hand through plot points rather than allowing us to infer what is happening through context. It's SAO, so not watching doesn't make sense, but keeping it as a lower priority view for this season is recommended.

While the art is enjoyable and clean, they've left out other potentially visceral aspects. The story and characters are nothing ... new, though aren't they expected to be, and the sound is underwhelming. Not pair the vivid enough visuals with similarly heavy sounds seems like some sort of crime. Episodes keep leaving potential on the table to the point that they cause annoyance. I can see more enthusiastic fans of the genre being irritated during viewing. Passive viewing is simply the most probable way to watch this series, which isn't that surprise, but is a little disappointing.

[Spoilers]

Covers as much ground as it can, but doesn't go in depth with anything it introduces. Lots of pointless content and irrelevant characters. Dreadful, pseudo-intellectual dialogue. Wine is often being drank when these conversations are had. Various things being shown from multiple different perspectives, or rather; realities. Hardly any plot advancement because showing a million different things is prioritized above all else. Good moments are scarce and typically enjoyable only because they suck so bad, but in most cases, the thing is just idiotic in a highly boring way and that's the end of this story. No, I didn't accidentally post my 'Legend of the ... Galactic Heroes' review under wrong entry, but am actually talking about Sword Art Online: Alicization. Show which I was supposed to watch ironically and laugh whenever anything happens, but the problem is that so often nothing happens.

[Setup - Basically sums up episode 1]

The story start off with wood chopping and sandwich making scenes. Fair enough, Kirito trains and the newest harem addition shows how she contains many essential "ideal female" characteristics, such as being able to make sandwiches and knowing how to read because she is smart. Well, I didn't laugh there, but the mary sue factors seemed quite potentially lol-worthy, and that was just the beginning so whatever, I watched more.

So anyway, these three kids (they are kids now and there is 3 of them, and I still don't know who the third is, 2nd: Alice) go in this cave where some dragon used to dwell and they steal some ice from him Iunno what the fuck is happening, but they get lost and eventually end up in this place called dalukuu dellidoly (dark territory in English), and apparently crossing the border there is not simply illegal but super illegal. Just so happens to be this Alice girl is also showing how she is bit of a klutz -- which is another ideal female characteristics if someone doesn't know -- and falls down so her 3 finger tips cross the border and gets sentenced to death/is kidnapped. Lucky for them the 3rd kid awakens his Sharingan this very moment and not all hope is lost.

After this we teleport back into season 2 of Sword Art Online (I guess) because Kirito is now an adult female or a man with ridiculously long hair in this one and there are lolies with guns and evil people wearing masks all around. This part was pretty fun because Kirito and his/hers buddies use light sabers and there is another dude here who has sharingan, I wonder who on earth he might be and how these things are relevant. This is me trying to connect the dots and at the same time my facial expression when watching it ._.

At this point I had almost dropped the series. I was like "holy shit, I swear this episode is at least 50 minutes long and never ends." but then I noticed it is actually a double episode and literally 50 minutes long. That didn't really help, tho, since I was only 20 minutes in.. but I wasn't technically wrong, so I continued.

15 minutes later I came back to reality and realized I had been watching a scene where Kirito and harem have this really important conversation about some LED lights placed in the human soul or something, and lots of smart science stuff about some nerdy shit / someone trying to explain something regarding another thing, but it was basically about time functioning differently inside virtual reality, mind teleportation and finally confirmed this whole thing was actually inspired by Alice in Wonderland, which I had accidentally taken as a meme for years.... Neat.

Well, at least this was followed with some cringe-ass confession scene which was concluded with a terribly animated kiss just to remind viewers that lots of deep love to be found here, after which some random dude attacks Kirito who then wakes up in the alternative kids world which seen in the beginning and is like "oh yeah, this is the nerdy science shit virtual WORLD I just had a 15 minute dialogue about." How convenient, chaotically random and still didn't make me laugh because too boring, and more like offensively bad than lol-worthy. At least his body in real world paralyzed or something which is kinda cool and also happened in season 1, technically.. boy I wonder if he can ever turn back normal..

[Story]

We have NPC's - just like in many/any other video games, and just like in many cyberpunk series: they are becoming self-aware, influenced by feelings and questioning their purpose in life. The vanity, the thought-provoking content and emotional depth create us a narrative that is about as fun to watch as it is intelligent.

So far, the entire main plotline in this alternative world is practically incredibly slowly moving rescue arc that keeps on introducing new content and side tracks with episodic cliffhangers instead of trying to master or advance anything it already has going on. Pretty much half of the damn thing is slice of life or sol-like filler that serves no real purpose in the series, other than to make it more lengthy. And so far, the main plotline in the real world is basically also a slowly moving rescue arc that keeps on introducing new content and side tracks..... Well, I guess point delivered: some similarities exist among the plots. Great.

In terms of directing or whatever we want to call it, scenes change with so little continuity and start playing out so randomly that it becomes highly noticeable: it stands out. This thing hasn't been build on very solid basis or structured in a passable manner. This level of story telling and directing would not be praised were this a new franchise. For example, even though the main storyline seems to be going nowhere, the series still has lots of content and is overall rather creating the illusion of fast pace and eventful story while really nothing happens.

Perhaps my favorite part of the writing so far has been Alice's astral projection just teleporting inside Kirito's brain because I am not sure if that was actually foreshadowing regarding the nerdy technology shite or just her being used as a plot device to allow the story advance. By allowing it to advance, I don't mean it actually advanced because things like chopping trees are prioritized over such things. This is the part that offered at least some lulz. The melodrama is also incredible because after Kirito was attacked he became some type of vegetable in the real world and lots of girls are real worried and crying. Such pathetic, try-hard shit-writing it's hard not to laugh when the thing is essentially worse written than average fanfiction. I just wish this was the main side of the story. Maybe later episodes will turn this thing into some sort of Sword Art Online 0, a story about depressed Asuna. #not_a_reference I dream.

[Characters]

'The Devil is a Part-Timer', anime from 2013, anyone? So this time around Kirito has a nice little side job, making Jesus a Part-Timer, too. Hah! Kirito is being Kirito here. The difference being that this time around he is not the most flawless being from day one, which is kinda cool I guess, especially when considering how the training side of this thing has been among the strongest parts of the series thus far. Still sucks, tho.

His name is Eugeo! The third kid I mean. His role in the series is pretty much solely to tell Kirito some lore, fill him with information regarding the world and say out loud how impossible and things are and how amazing Kirito can be. Occasionally he also does some incredibly stupid decisions and fucks everything uppa. I am not going to spoil how badly, but I did laugh there.

Alice's sister is pretty cute so I guess that's something + that carrying scene [by Kirito, naturally] was flawless in every way. She is especially good when considering most grills from this franchise were never even worth that much. Too bad she ain't a main character. As a whole, the cast surely isn't among reasons to follow this masterpiece, but it's still kinda worth it for the papa swag factor and council of neko-eared harem girls disgusting about issues. It's truly fascinating to see how 5 fanservice figures and Kirito's "daughter" have meetings and make plans. "We totally matter and can do things."

The more episodes there are, the more characters whose names I didn't even bother memorizing there are. That kind of amazing stuff going on here. I don't find mentioning anything about them to be worth of anyone's time, so I won't. Originally I planned also to write a section about the dialogue, but then I remembered I already said in the opening paragraph all that needs to be said about it. [Dreadful, pseudo-intellectual dialogue]. It also does amazing job making me not to like any characters because it is just that nauseating.

[Production]

Not the worst A-1 character design, but those CGI goblins are on another shitness level completely. The animation can be pretty rough and far from fluid. Cheap stuff, but also making me more confident that hiatus/split cours won't occur. The character movements are often awkward as well and again, CGI exists. From its color pallet and backdrops the thing also looks like other SAO series. The voice acting is meeting the same standards with earlier seasons as well. In terms of songs, big names in the making of OP and ED, as usual. BGM-wise, not much of it is present. Dialogue is the main thing that is being heard hear [fuck me, I know], occasionally some uber quiet "menu music" plays at the same time, or alternative terrible emotional song that convey feelings similarly as fart jokes deliver luls. Some based wobsie wob songs are present during action, but they surely could be better -- like everything else in the series...

[Enjoyment]

I am glad I didn't choose a career as a timberman. I am not entirely sure why I am still watching this. I rarely drop anime series these days, but this one is definitely getting closer and closer of getting onto that list.

Here we go, i saw a lot of negative comments about this series' start.
Of all seasons, I think Sword Art Alicization is one of the best series of sao, I didn't like the second part of the the first season (Fairy Dance) and all of the second season too much (the movie was cool though).
Story 9/10 the story takes place in VR and take place just after the movie event (I don't want to write about the story cause i think i will spoiler something).
Art 10/10 aniplex never makes mistakes. The art is very beautiful like the other sao.
Sound 9/10 I think 9/10 because the ... ending song is not good as the opening but i believe the second ending will be cool like all the openings/endings of this series.
Character 9/10 We see few new character as Eugeo,Alice, Ronye and Tiese don't worry we still have kirito,asuna,klein and the others.
Enjoyment 10/10 I was wainting for the series,after I watched the movie I was a bit scared that it could be like the sao II but thanks to aniplex it wasn't ,Alicization is really good like the first part of the first season or even better.
Overall 9.4/10 since i can choose only 9 or 10 i will give it a 10 cause after i watched 10 episodes I really like it and I'm sure it will become better.

Can't wait for the next episode.

Sword Art Online franchise presents a new entry with its Alicization ark and doubles down on familiar writing disasters. With this season SAO reaches new storytelling lows and also seems to lose its last redeeming quality – action scenes.

SCORE: 2 – Very Bad.

STORY: Boring exposition scenes interrupted by obligatory and meaningless fights.
At the beginning I was slightly confused, because SAO:A does not directly follow on its second season. This confusion lasted only a few episodes and worked as a setup for a new “death simulation” for Kirito, without his harem, but with the same amount of plot armor and OPnes.
Terrible writing ... is more apparent in this season than anywhere else in the franchise. This show is too busy creating lengthy exposition dumps about either mundane or unnecessary topics: several episodes long discussion about calling and its meanings, that loses relevance after 1 sword swing; an entire episode to establish something as simple as basic royalty system; or 15 minutes of backstory for 2 characters, who lose within 10 seconds and vanish, just to name a few. As a result, plot progresses at a snail pace.

Not that the actual plot is any good. A lot of techno gibberish, plot holes and questionable motivations. Just a simple “save the girl” premise buried under a convoluted mess of pointless subplots.

At least, people will stop talking about Asuna’s horrible treatment in the first season, as SAO:A manages to top that scene. Genius.

CHARACTERS: Kirito - doubled; harem - disabled.
There is Kirito and then there is lesser Kirito, who is just a slightly inferior version of the original. Support cast consists of crazy dudes and girls, predetermined assault victims or characters who die for nothing. There is really not much to talk about here.

ART & ANIMATION: One step forwards, two steps backwards.
While character models and backgrounds show more craftsmanship than the average anime show, SAO:A seems sterile und unimaginative, be it detailed but boring backgrounds or character designs.

The biggest downgrade happened to action scenes. Sword fights turned into arm wrestling competition, where combatants just press glowing sticks against each other. Gone are the days of fluid sword dancing. Even the most potent fight against goblins in ep4 borrows too much from infamous directorial techniques like unnecessary camera movement or excessive close-ups, executed at 10 cuts per second. I certainly could not enjoy presented action.

SOUND: The most anime sound possible.
This is a MVP production, as Minimal Viable Product. Neither the music, nor the voice act stand out and will leave any memory. Maybe with the exception of this distorted sound on high energy impacts during fights.

Do not waste your time on this garbage. If you are looking for a competent “trapped in a video game world” anime with a clear goal, superb world building, diplomacy, smart use of game mechanics and successful focus on NPCs, try Log Horizon.

As someone who is coming in attached to Sword Art Online because of the Aincrad Arc, who was let down by the Fairy Tale Arc, who felt GGO and the rest of SAO II was satisfactory, Alicization has done nothing but exceed my expectations. From the start, the world that was created around Kirito, Eugeo, and Alice was one that had me mesmerized. This was the world building that I saw glimpses of in the Aincrad arc, that I wish I had seen more of. From the details of the cove, to how the town looked, I was instantly drawn to this world. Although it ... might have seemed kind of filler to individuals, the second half of the first episode, I can assure you, is integral to much later on in the story. Additionally, I understand that many people had problems with the cut-down time lapse of Kirito and Eugeo making their way to the capital, but honestly, plot-wise, this was easily the best choice for them to cut down budget wise. Additionally, say what you will, I believe that Episode 10 was built up to incredibly well from the previous episodes. The two minor antagonists, were essentially built around the character development of the world itself; they were individuals who used the Taboo Index to their advantage in order to carry out their ill desires, their human desires. I believe that the scene (I won't explain in detail) was extremely graphic, but in a way that was critical to the plot unlike Sugou and the Fairy Tale arc. I believe that the producers did an amazing job in truly building up the suspense and violence in such a scene, and that this scene was critical in furthering the plot development regarding Fluctlight behaviour. I would say that scene was more powerful than anything I've watched previously, and as someone who's seen shows like Goblin Slayer, trust me, this scene is messed up. Nonetheless, I believe it was executed extremely well by the show producers, and I can only look forward to see what's coming in store. Additionally, I believe the art animation, although choppy in some areas, is that fantasy vibe that captures Alicization well. You want the epic sword fights that you signed up for from the Aincrad arc? You'll get plenty of it. You want to hear the best soundtracks from the previous seasons come out remade, with a whole added kick? Done. You want to see Kirito start anew in a world where he isn't totally broken, and has to actually learn how to use the system and develop like a normal protagonist would? It's done. Sick of harem and fanservice? It's cut down immensely in this season. You want actual side characters that are constantly developed and not just shadows in the background? Eugeo, and later Alice are clear cut examples of that. Paying attention to every detail in the show rewards the viewer well, and it'll only continue to do so in the future episodes. I'm excited to see what the best arc of Sword Art Online has to bring, and I believe that this arc has redeemed the series from what has been an abysmal past season. If you liked the Aincrad Arc, and put up with everything after, you'll be rewarded for your loyalty to this series with Alicization. A 52 episode season isn't something that we get often in this day and age, and from the looks of the first 10 episodes, I can't help but get excited for the episodes to come.

As a TL;DR, if you absolutely hate SAO, you're still probably going to hate this. Its improved but still has some of it's issues.

If you think parts of SAO were good and others (*cough* ALO) were bad, this season is as good or better than the Aincrad arc.

The story and premise for this season were overall very interesting and helped build an incredibly interesting situation. I have a few issues with the story (mainly the IRL portion), but overall its 8/10, pretty good. As a light novel reader, I understand the anime had to gloss over some things, but overall I think they are ... keeping a good balance of plot development and speed.

The art, sound, and animation are 10/10 as always with A1 Pictures. This anime is beautiful and well made.

Now as to why this particular season is arguably the strongest in SAO. Simply put, it has a lot more content and many characters that even Kirito has to respect. Things are darker, there's blood and gore. There's also many characters that are incredibly influential. As always, characters are rather static but some of them do change and grow; they're important.

That can be seen as both a blessing and a curse. This arc is based off of roughly 10 light novels as opposed to the usual 2. Not every single episode is filled to the brim with action; there's dialogue and character development. Rest assured though, there are plenty of epic fights in this show, especially in the upcoming episodes. People will complain that its too fast or too slow, just know that it has a lot to cover and that there are fast and slow parts.

Overall, As a LN reader so far I'm loving this season. There's plenty or things to look forward to and what's already there is very well executed. If you absolutely hate SAO this probably won't change your mind, but its a good story with fun to watch fights and a plot that explores what its like to be human; definitely an improvement from previous arcs. I'm slightly biased as this is the only series I can stand reading ahead, but I highly suggest you watch this.

This season of Sao so far is on par with the first half of the first season and its fix problem that people have with the previous season such as lacking world-building(I heard from the light reader that the world building is present in some arc).My complaint so far for this season is that the studio who are adapting this arc didn't include some character monologue such as Asuna, and it was her who solve where Kirito is in book 10. I really hate how the studio included anime-original scene during episode 5-6 subplot where they have every girl in kirito harem there having a ... discussion about Rath project and Kirito condition. So far, this season is better than alt-ggo.

pro:world-building and addition of 2 news character name Alice and Eugeo
Con: Didn't give Asuna(best girl) justice in episode 5-6 subplot. When comparing her from the book material to the anime, Asuna from the book is way better than her counterpart in the anime.

Light novel Asuna> Anime Asuna

Idk why, but the art is kinda throwing me off than the ordinal scale movie

I recommended you to go to the Gamerturk youtube channel on youtube who do very well to explain where the anime didn't include.

LISTEN, MAYBE IT'S AN UNPOPULAR OPINION, BUT THIS SEASON IS THE BEST SEASON OF SAO TO DATE.

I get it, people don't like it, but I'm gonna take a minute to explain why I loved it oh so much. Number one: the sound design and art are absolutely gorgeous. I think the storyline for this season gave a lot of opportunity for beautiful art, and this season didn't disappoint. I think I have a thing with lighting effects because every time I see an anime with stunning lighting, I have to bring it up. See: SAO. The sound, also, especially during the last half of this ... season, was so lovely and emotional.

The story. Okay, so I'm assuming this where everyone's hang-ups lie, right? Let me tell you why you may not like this season: it isn't all about Kirito and Asuna anymore. In fact, the main clique from SAO doesn't show up much in this season. It's VERY different compared to the seasons prior.

That, however, is why I loved it. I felt like SAO needed a revamp after the second season, and I think this season proved to me how much better the series could be. The story itself was imminently intriguing. The world that was created for Alice and Eugeo (the world Kirito finds himself in this season) is something that I fell for immediately; in fact, I'd love to see an entire anime just about those three in that world rather than just a season. To me, at least, the story change was very well written because the dynamic it reigned in was something completely unlike anything we've seen before. There is a bit of a time jump in the middle that's a bit weird, but for the most part, the pacing is done really well to explain how these characters get from point A to point B. It doesn't feel like anything's missing.

If you wanna know the main reason I fell in love with this season, though (even though the story was fresh and interesting), it was the characters. The new additions to the cast made this season for me. Especially Eugeo. Because this world is so different, Eugeo came off as a very unique character, and I liked that. The development he went through was some of the most interesting I've seen because of how it was written. You got to see all colors, and that's something I was surprised to see given the fact that he isn't a main member of the overall SAO cast. He become beloved very quickly.

Beyond that, though, I think getting to see Kirito connect this much with someone new (Eugeo) was really valuable for the series. I'm glad that that was written in and shown because it offered some movement and development for Kirito as a character that we haven't gotten in a long time. The previous seasons ended up flat-lining because it felt like repeated material after a while, so that's why I think this season is so special; it shook everything up. It made me get invested in SAO again. Even the parts that don't involved Eugeo and Alice.

The thing I think I'm most excited for going forward is seeing how this has changed Kirito and what all of this means in the real world. Also if anything will connect together in the future. I don't feel like I did a whole lot of explaining during this review, but I will say this: Sword Art Online: Alicization is one of the best things I've seen in anime.

I'm really sad that people give it a bad review because of the other seasons. This one is entirely different and better.

Alicization is clearly the best anime of 2018. The plot is good and you always want the next episode to know the rest. The characters are well written and they may be OP, but it doesn't matter. The story isn't filled by fights but when there's one, it still is good.

The music is amazing, nothing else to say about that.

THE DRAWINGS ARE AWESOME !!! I really liked SNK for the drawings and SAO managed to do even better than them.

Overall, I enjoyed this anime ... more than any other. I hope it will last more than just one season.

(I'm sorry if there are some errors with my english)

so i decided to watch s3 after i watched the movie which i liked...s2 was a disaster and i thought that i never would watch any other sao related movies or series BUT i watched the movie and surprisingly liked it...so i thought about it and decided to watch SAO S3 and give this season a try and its not bad at all :D

STORY 7/10 :the story is a good one tbh...after s2's nonsense this story is actually what sao needs :D kirito is experiencing a new kind of game where he can separate his soul and thoughts from the real world....and in the new ... game world he meets this guy Eugeo...they have a female friend named alice who was kidnapped due to the violation of rules and they decide to save her in a long journey :D

i find the story quit interesting to be honest...but i think it would have turned into a really better story if they would have given it a little more thoughts :D

ART 10/10 :i always loved sao's art..cute and charming *~*

SOUND 10/10 :i actually love the soundtracks....op and ed are great...the inst OSTs are perfect too...i never imagined that i would like the soundtracks of this season :D

CHARACTER 7/10 : so here we go...
kirito is much more stable than before...i mean what was that crapy s2 :/ just delete it already...i hated him after s2...here he became a character that i am a little more interested in :D :D asuna is back to her senses after the movie thats for sure :D
sinon is not a important character here thank god really -_- i don't care about her anymore so please let me keep this i don't care thing for her...please -_-
Eugeo a new character with an innocent personality and fighting spirit...he learns how to use a sword from kirito and he can actually fight like him somehow :D i like him...he is my favorite character in SAO s3 :D
and alice...we don't know so much about her...just that she is kirito and Eugeo's childhood friend in the game with a special healing ability :D

ENJOYMENT 8/10 :i enjoyed the most of sao s3's episodes not all of them but i didn't expect it to be enjoyable at all so 8 is a decent number for this :D

OVERALL 8/10 :so i'm actually enjoying this anime wo0ow...i never would have thought that this would happen...so if you liked SAO'S MOVIE be aware that you will like SAO's s3 too...give it a try :D
and for those who wants to know...the story is something new really...its a different season from S1 & S2 :) those who didn't like those two seasons might like this one idk :))

so here we are watching kirito does his gaming adventure again with a new MALE friend thank god :D Enjoy~~

Reki Kawahara's...Magnum Opus???

Sword Art Online: Alicization gives us another installment of Kirito and the gang but this time Kirito wakes up in a game world like no other. No Asuna, No sword, new world.

If there was a weakest link in Sword Art Online...ironically enough was Kirito but in Sword Art Online: Alicization he FINALLY gets his due and develops, instead of the being Hacking OP Game Jesus he's known for.

Ok, so it seems Reki Kawahara has gone back to his roots with Sword Art Online: Alicization and looked back into his flaws of the Aincrad arc and saw it's immense flaws and decided to give ... Kirito a fighting chance of him actually developing as a character, fleshing out his new game world and what it means to Kirito and his new companion Eugeo voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki. With how Sword Art Online: Alicization was formatted and planned out, the anime really takes it's time with it's pacing being for the most part, moderately slow, slowly drip feeding up exposition about the game world and giving us enough information to us to to speed to the world Kirito is in and to be honest with how the first few episodes introduced everything, LA and the audience would had been easily in the dark, so the exposition at the start is necessary.

With the world building, well since Kirito knows this new game world of Underworld is a game world, he exploits basic features and weirdly enough he has admin privileges (but not to worry he doesn't outright abuse it) let alone the fact that allies and villains use it just as well as he does, so it's even footing either way. The world building through Sword Art Online: Alicization was actually VERY well done, giving us a Chehov's gun payoff that gets mentioned and utilized well throughout the anime, almost like LA is watching someone playing an MMO game in a ways. Of course latter down the line, exposition does somewhat become a problem with episodes dedicated to certain characters backstories and world building lore of sometimes tie simplest things that didn't exactly need that much detail but noted either way.

So characters, well as LA said before Kirito grows as a Gary Stu FINALLY, with him not being an all powerful main protagonist this installment, well he like Reki Kawahara, he doesn't want his mistakes from his past to haunt him and this is through him wanting to protect those close to him Eugeo and Alice voiced by Ai Kayano, both a "childhood friend" in Underworld, so say that Kirito actually develops as a character is a feat and quite honestly one of the best signs that that Reki Kawahara knew Kirito needed more development from the start. Eugeo is something of a companion, "best friend" character towards Kirito, heck he grows from the meek, shy and orderly character to a more confident character through the course of the anime and latter his desires are tested. Alice, the psudeo-namesake of "Alicization", at first gets "put on the bus" thus her screentime was diminished, but once she comes back into focus, well she's quite different to say, but nonetheless like Kirito and Eugeo, grows in a ways more like showing the authority of the higher ups of Underworld is not what she thinks it is...and to say that Alice was LA's favorite character of Sword Art Online: Alicization is a frickin' understatement, a lady of war, a badass and pretty much Shinon 2.0 without the "harem disease" status, she was and IS a fully realized character that isn't just harem bait.

On terms of villains, well they are major step up from the Aincrad and fairy Dance arc villains by a MILE, as they at best are shown as sympathetic characters, sometimes against their will, yes they are obstacles for Kirito and Eugeo, but we learn more about them, through their battles and they just aren't so stock, that you kinda feel sorry for some of them. As for the major villain of Sword Art Online: Alicization, well LA "gets" her intentions and she's malicious and even with her backstory covered and whatnot, she does have a purpose, not ony a threat to Kirito and Eugeo but humankind, because in game terms, she's pretty much a self-aware rogue program out for blood and "shake fist at God" villain, she's an existential nihilist doing only what she does to survive. So depth and not stock evil?...yeah leagues better in many ways.

Sword Art Online: Alicization's animation done by A1-Pictures is almost movie quality to how polished and detailed it is, almost like they got the animators from ordinal Scale and got them to work on Sword Art Online: Alicization and to be honest, the animation done by A1-Pictures was stellar, great and detailed character designs and crazy sword battles. There were some censors but to be honest needed as Sword Art Online: Alicization does get indeed graphic and in one notorious episode where censors (though LA hates them), helped..in a ways. A1-Pictures really outdid themselves really. Exceptional quality and consistency and A1 did it.

Voice acting, well you know LA is just gonna praise the hell out of Ai Kayano as Alice, but to say that Nobunaga Shimazaki as Eugeo and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Kirito also needs to get a mention. The only other voice actors to note are Sakura Tange as Cardinal with her odd but enticing cadence and the major villain of Sword Art Online: Alicization voiced by Maaya Sakamoto who did excellently in portraying the oozing amount of villainess contempt she had.

If there were any flaws LA could see in Sword Art Online: Alicization, well there are of course, but one is that the exposition does not necessary kill but drag the plot, yes the exposition is useful for the plot ahead but still. Sword Art Online: Alicization does feel very much like a game world what with all the exposition layed out, but there are time sin the plot where it was a bit contrived and coincidental at times, yes you can call this plot armour for Kirito and Eugeo, but LA will defend this flaw as Kirito isn't the god he was in the first season as in Sword Art Online: Alicization and Kirito goes through a personal development about the same plot armour being broken and hell he loses, he gets wrecked. But to say around the middle of the anime, it does get a bit coincidental to save the main protagonists...not utterly forced thankfully. Sword Art Online: Alicization has it's problems, but it's strengths definitely outweighs it's weaknessness.

Sword Art Online: Alicization is getting a continuation of it in a second season but for what Sword Art Online: Alicization gave us as of now, it's not only a HUGE step up from Reki Kawahara, but it's definitely on it's way to being amazing. It seems Reki Kawahara goal of righting his wrongs of Sword Art Online is indeed showing and for the first half, it already showed it's potential in being something great, let's just hope the second season follows through and gives us an excellent climax to what's ahead.

First first off, this is like the third time I am posting this because "I didn't watch enough episodes before."

Okay, so first off, let me tell you that I have been an SAO fan for a while, as it will always have a social place in my heart, so if you take my review with a grain of salt that's fine.

STORY - 9

So far, the plot looks enticing, and with A-1 Pictures giving SAO Alicization 4 cours instead of 1 or 2, I don't suspect nearly as many plot jumps to happen as there were in SAO season 1. The working principles of the new ... VR device, the Soul Translator (was in the trailer, not a spoiler), do open up a lot of potholes, however, but so did the concept of the Nervegear. I mean, microwaves?! As we are now 10 episodes in, I see that the story is flowing very nicely, and everything feels well-paced. Episode 10 was a shocker, and it's bumped my story grade up to 9.


ART - 10

The animation in the entirety of the SAO series as well as other animations by A-1 is always very good. Originally, I thought A-1 could only hold the first episode's animation quality for one or two episodes, but boy, was I wrong. This season is rivaling even Ordinal Scale's quality! On a WEEKLY basis, mind you! Maybe they can keep this up for a year (or longer, if the cours are split), and maybe they can't, but even still, I don't expect anything to look worse than an 8/10 by the end.


SOUND - 9

Likewise with the animations, the music in SAO is top notch. Somewhere in the middle of the first episode, it did sound kind of funny when Kirito waved his photon sword in front of the camera (almost like a fart, maybe it's just me), but other than that, I didn't notice any anomalies. As for the soundtrack, it does not disappoint, and fits relatively well with the scenes shown, even if a lot of the soundtrack is reused from previous seasons. After episode one, the soundtrack has been staying solid as well, and so have the sound effects.


CHARACTER - 8

Okay, so to a lot of people, the characters were the worst point of SAO, so I will try and be impartial here. During the first episode, I did not know which characters would get more time in the spotlight, but it still seemed as though Kirito was OP as always in VR, and Asuna was all over him. No, seriously. I nearly died laughing when she showed Sinon the thing about the heartrate, mainly because of her expression at that point. Bit creepy, but the reasoning behind it is cute, I guess. After three more episodes, I can already tell this will top even the Aincrad arc. For one, Kirito is not unbearably OP, and we get to see his struggles. To not spoil anything, I will just tell you to watch the series yourself. As of episode 10, I can say that characters are developing well, and everything is going great! Antagonists are EXTREMELY hate-able!


ENJOYMENT - 10

Like I said, SAO has always had a special place in my heart, and the first ten episodes have not changed that. If they have, they have made me like it even more! This season is sure to be great, and these first ten episodes (the first one being 47 minutes) definitely did not disappoint. I found myself waiting every week, wanting to know what would happen next. Even if you dislike SAO, I am literally urging you to try this new season out to, at the very least, neutralize negative feelings towards it.


OVERALL - 9

TL;DR - Definitely worth a watch, even if you are not an SAO fan. If you have not watched the previous seasons, you will definitely be lost for some parts, so watch them first.

This Sword Art Online name is no stranger to our ears, starting from video games and even animation. SAO itself now has two franchises, namely SAO produced by A1-pictures / original and "Gun Gale Online" produced by studio 3hz. After six The year since the first release of the anime this series has taken many people's attention not only in Japan but throughout the world and their popularity can be said to be the same as Naruto or One Piece. The fifth project from A1-Pictures studio adapted the advanced chapter "Alicization" in all chapters Online sword art such as progressive and others, this is the ... longest of all the chapters and from the news I heard the alicization series was appointed as an anime which will have 52 episodes / at least 4 seasons.

Story

Tells about Kirigaya Kazuto he is a hero who stopped Sword Art Online game which is a deadly game made by Kayaba Akihiko, after completing the SAO game Kirito lived his life casually he was also with his lover Asuna who was saved by him. But that happiness was not always Kirito to meet a former member of Player Killer from Sword Art Online he wanted to avenge the death of those who were in the player killer organization by killing Kirito, but Kirito was saved but he had to struggle to maintain the performance of his brain by entering the "Alicization" program designed by the STL company there Kirito became a village person who had two friends.

The storyline in this series is very long and moves very slowly, it makes some viewers bored with some very predictable clip-parts, in the first episode they are very good at packing several clips into a story that can be said to be a masterpiece but not always it happens right in the middle they lost it all.

Art

Unlimited Budget Works is not just a name for ufotable studios. A1-pictures are also not inferior to ufotable studios, they crossed the line within themselves to devote all their abilities to this project and the results they could compete with very stunning graphic designs. Their CGI but A1-pictures can match them, regardless of how much money they use to make this series, which is clearly not a small amount of money left in this series, there are some CGI effects that we rarely encounter in other series and I'm sure they are working very hard to For the design of the characters I gave a negative value to this series, basically they designed the same characters by changing a number of looks like their colors and hairstyles to create new characters.

Sound

For the part of their voice that is very good seen from the quality of their voices in stark contrast to the characters they play to match it they must adjust the character they want to play especially the voice actor / seiyuu must fit in the role of character age, age is an important right in quality the voice of the voice must be made as closely as possible to the age of the character they are playing like Kirito who is seventeen years old while the age of the voice actor himself is not like that especially the voice actor also acts as another character in other series as well. This series has at least 4 seasons which means has four different opening and closing themes, the first theme "Adamaz" which was performed by LiSA was very good as always she was very passionate in singing high-pitched songs, in this series we came to the two voices we will discuss later.

Character

In this series we have two new characters, Eugeo and Alice, they are childhood friends of Kirito in the world who are being developed by the STL company. For the voices themselves the studio has been thinking carefully about this which was designated to fill the voice of Eugeo's character and Alice is Shimazaki Nobunaga and Kayano Ai. I rarely hear Shinmazaki Nobunaga's name so I will jump to discuss this one voice, but for Kayano Ai you must have heard her voice in some interesting anime series from Kayano Ai that she can adjust the sound quota with The characters they will play. Back in the discussion of characters in this series who played protagonists are still the same, namely Kirito and Asuna, while for playing antagonists it has not been shown but for the time being I assume that the one who set up the "integrity knight" is an antagonist.

Enjoyment

As a fan of manga and novels I really like the adaptation of the Sword Art Online series. They are very solid in adapting this series. The presentation of the action scenes they offer is very cool and full of surprises too. After the release of ordinal scale films I thought they had stopped to adapt the Sword Art Online series. because they have made a lot of profits in this business, but after I got the news that A1-pictures will adapt the advanced series Sword Art Online, which is alicization. For the continuation of this series, it is still in the working stage, hopefully in the future they can improve their performance in adapting this series.

Now, this is my first and probably only review on this site, but I thought I would give it a try. What's the worst that can happen, right? I'm not very good at reviewing things, so please take this with a grain of salt.

Sword Art Online needs no introduction at this point, as it has become one of the most popular and yet one of the most controversial anime that has come out in recent years. I have silently criticized Sword Art Online's first season with poor story and characters, but have always found merit in the show's production quality, which prevented me from entirely ... hating it. The second season was a little bit better with easily my favorite story arc and character of the series, but still had some problems with it, namely the Excalibur Arc, which only served as a filler and really had no direction to it, and the Mother's Rosario Arc, which at that time, was my favorite thing to come out of Sword Art Online at the time. Now, we're finally at the Alicization Arc, which I can safely say is the best thing to come out of Sword Art Online.

Story - 8/10
Reki Kawahara, after all of these years of pretty poor writing, has finally learned how to write a proper story with some pretty decent worldbuilding, and an actually interesting fantasy world to go along with it. Alicization takes place in a place called the Underworld, a fantasy world kind of similar to other fantasy worlds that we've seen in the past years, with goblins, knights, and dragons, but has some game-like mechanics to it. It delves deep into how each mechanic works, and the history of this world, and how things are the way they are. Pacing for this is actually pretty decent when the series first started, but kind of got rushed during the last arc, Alicization United. I think that it would have definitely benefitted more by having 26 episodes than 24, but. In this fantasy world, Kirito meets a boy named Eugeo, an NPC of that world whose purpose is to cut down a giant tree; there, his adventures in the Underworld start. In this world, Eugeo tells Kirito a girl named Alice, who was his childhood friend and was taken away when he was younger after she broke a law, or the Taboo Index as they call it there. In the Alicization Beginning Arc, the first arc, not very much happens, as this really serves to build the world even further, which is a bit disappointing, as there were entire episodes dedicated to infodumps. However, in the last two arcs of the series, we get a clear goal that Kirito and Eugeo must meet, and I can't get into that without treading into spoiler territory. And yes, they even included some sort of rape scene that for some reason, Reki Kawahara likes to put, but it's in a way that's important to the plot and sets up the future events of the story. Another thing that I would like to point out is that this series tends to get much more violent than the past series, as there's a lot of blood that was shed during this series. Overall. it's a pretty solid story, but it's not anything groundbreaking, and you won't be missing too much by not watching this, but it's definitely an improvement of what we saw in the last two seasons.

Art & Animation - 9/10
Alicization uses the same art style as the Ordinal Scale movie and if you've, watched that movie, then you'll know how amazing both the art and animation are. It's a bit more complex than the original series art, and there are some still great moments of fight choreography. Background art is also amazing with highly detailed backgrounds, but it's obviously not as pretty as some films that come out in recent memory, but it's still nothing to scoff at. It loses a point because, in the second half of the show, the animation quality seemed to dip, and it really shows if you see a fight scene from there. One thing that I want to mention is the special effects, which are actually really good, though they are only particle effects most of the time, they still look really good, and adds to the complexity of some of the fight scenes that happen.

Sound - 9/10
The sound department has also always been a positive aspect of the Sword Art Online franchise, and in this season, it's no different. All of the openings and endings are catchy as hell, especially the first opening, "ADAMAS" by LiSA, which has easily become my favorite opening of the series and just an explosion of hype, and one of my favorite anime songs in general. The OST, however, is not really that praiseworthy, as I couldn't find anything that notable besides the main OST song "Swordland", but other than that, there's nothing that I could point out. As for voice acting, I think it's pretty good. Some notable ones are that Matsuoka Yoshitsugu returns as Kirito, who's never been a bad voice actor and Ai Kayano plays Alice, and to be honest, I couldn't really see another person but her play that role.

Characters - 7/10
The main cast of the Underworld, Kirito, Eugeo, and Alice are all fairly good characters. Kirito has been nerfed a bit, so he's basically not a god anymore and some sort of wish-fulfilling device that we've seen him be earlier in the series, but is still pretty strong. Eugeo, an NPC, and serves as Kirito's partner for this arc and finally Alice, the heroine. One thing that I liked was that Eugeo was actually a competent character, a person who could hold his own without the help of Kirito and could be said to be his equal, at least in this world, as shown in the later episodes during Alicization Rising. Alice as well is also a fairly solid character, and like Eugeo, she's also pretty strong and can hold her own weight. Out of the trio, Eugeo is the one to get the most development, as he goes from a weak lumberjack to a competent and strong swordsman, and all of it doesn't feel forced, it feels a bit more natural, as compared to the first season. As for the rest of the main Sword Art Online cast, they just pushed aside, and really don't serve a purpose besides Asuna, and even then, she's just kind of there just to be there. Plus, Yui, the Deus Ex Machina machine is still there, which I don't like, but at least she's not in the Underworld.

Overall - 8/10
Like I previously mentioned earlier, this is the best thing to come out of Sword Art Online, Kawahara has improved his writing skills, and it really shows, but his story and characters still need a bit of work. Though it was a pretty fun ride from beginning to end, there were a lot of moments that were boring, especially during the first arc and the ending felt a bit rushed. Animation and sound have always been on point, and this season is no different. I'll be eagerly waiting for the next part of this story.

This is by FAR the best SAO season to date.

This new SAO finally brings new characters who aren't extremely bland, evil, annoying, redundant, and/or useless. We are finally greeted with kirito's new virtual world and faces new challenges that of course include saving someone from a higher power as we've seen countless times. The difference is that this higher power finally is genuinely interesting and the notion of their existence brings up much higher level intellectual subjects such as societal evolution and the theory of knowledge. This new experiment that is being done in the anime is extremely interesting for any computer science and/or philosophy ... student and definitely get a 8/10 for the story.

The Art and Sound are typical of any other SAO season and gets a 9/10 and 9/10 respectively. The new fantasy world is well drawn and vibrant, and sounds are just right in the OP and END.

Character and Enjoyment get and 7/10 and 9/10 respectively. The new characters have finally pumped fresh blood into this series, and most of them are fine/good. However, the old and redundant characters are still taking a backseat in what seems like a feline meeting that happens every 1 or 2 episodes. This new SAO is as enjoyable as the good episodes of the first season, it drifts from its old concepts of the VRMMO world which refreshes the entire show well in my perspective.


Overall, SAO: Alicization gets an 8.5/10, would recommend to all of the SAO and MMO fans, also does well for tech fans too.

Sword Art Online has been the most maligned anime that the world has ever seen, sometimes criticized with reason, sometimes being criticized by the sake of criticizing it, sometimes criticizing it just to follow the current. But in the Alicization, most of the critique is surprisingly more subdued due to the significant upgrades of the problems that affected the earlier arcs. I will include some spoilers, so go with caution.

Story (10/10):
For the first time since ever, Kirito is a mere mortal, he shows that he's a mortal human after all; no more destroying bullets at a 5 meter range. The fact that he gets almost ... assassinated in the real world proves that. Now into a strange world, much different to the classic MMORPG Kirito used to play, he meets a young Eugeo and a young Alice in a remote village, and both saw how Alice violated the Taboo Index and gets kidnapped by the Integrity Knights.

Also for a very first time in SAO, Kirito's main companion is a boy, Eugeo, which significantly alters the concept of the "Kirito's harem" plot and the Kirito OP thought, both guys devise plans to progress in the seemingly perfect Realm of the Humanity, never overstepping into each other, rather complementing each other.

The latter inclusion of Alice is an anti-thesis of the classic Kirito girl, somehow strong girl, but always dependant on Kirito, She shows that she can stand up to Kirito, even helping him, showing his errors, and entangling a very similar chemistry like the Kirisuna duo. This rare trio between Kirito, Eugeo and Alice is by far the biggest selling point in the anime, because each other complements so well the other two.

Asuna is almost barred from the story after the Ocean Turtle part, save a few cameos in the final part, but this is not needed at all due to the extremely strong story and characters that gives SAO Alicization its earned praise. This is in spite of my personal valoration that Asuna is the biggest reason that SAO managed to be a very popular and decent anime.

Also worth mentioning that the Alicization departs from the traditional SAO rule of high violence, zero blood, the Underworld shows the extreme closeness that it has with the real world, depicting blood as a normal.

The background concepts are the most insightful parts of the Alicization arc, an almost perfect world created by the Interior Ministry of Japan, philosophical elements like war morals, regulation of morals, social cohesion, secret government projects, etc. are entangled in our psyche and how questioning or not can make a difference depending on your own set of ethical codes.

That's what the Underworld's nature shows, the blending created in order to establish a never questioned totally hierarchical order explains in how authoritarianism executes its evilness, better explained in the philosophical dialogues of the Administrator in how she should be above everything and because he loves so much their subjects and the peace, she enforces a crypto-tyranny to do so. Does she reminds you to someone who has usurped the presidency in an oil country in the Americas?

In fact, SAO Alicization is not only a big leap for the classic SAO concept of Kirito saving every girl in danger, it's the quasi-questioning of the entire concept of the social relationships, enforcement of moral values, and societal structures that currently rule our real world.

Art (9/10):
SAO Alicization takes the animation of Ordinal Scale, which was the finest of the finest of A-1 Pictures, but it was basically unsustainable over the course of 2 cours (580 mins worth of the OS animation), this shows midway the course with weird models and weird falls. That of course reflected on the decision to split the cours in order to not continue degrading the animation. In spite of that, the Alicization animation is generally consistent and of the highest order.

The characters are pretty well made, and also the shades and tones are completely detailed, better shown in the rampant bleedings in several scenes. Liked how Eugeo and Alice have the more typical European phenotypes and Kirito has the more Japanese ones. The backgrounds are otherworldly, with a very high level of details to the point of watching each one of the tree leafs moving smoothly, also a big improvement from the first 2 seasons.

Sound (10/10):
You know that SAO wouldn't be SAO without a Lisa song, Adamas is the classic Lisa song that opens the new world of the Alicization, Eir Aoi's Iris is a much more relaxed tune that calms you after the constant latent tension of the Beginning, Running and Turning of SAO Alicization. Asca's Resister is much darker than the usual SAO openings and consisten with the darker parts of what is the Rising, Dividing and Uniting arc, Forget-me-not from ReoNa is also more relaxing, but with darker overtones.

The background sounds are of course of the highest quality, Yuki Kajiura is still one of the finest composers in modern anime, aging like the wine, she always complements the mood and never oversteps nor overshadows the scenes, rather gives the tunes a superb significance in each of the movements made by the story.

The seiyuus are perfectly in synchro with each other, the inclusion of Ai Kayano as Alice follows a tried and tested formula with Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Kirito) of the cold and closed girl with the charming and open boy, like the Mashiro Shiina-Sorata Kanda in Pet na Kanojo, Utaha Kasumigaoka-Tomoya Aki of Saekano, Shiro-Sora in No Game no Life.

Nobunaga Shimazaki as Eugeo is completely on song to the personality, which blends perfectly his performance of the seemingly cold Shidou Itsuka of Date a Live with the specifications required of Eugeo. Of the other performances, Sakura Tange (Sakura-chan of Cardcaptor Sakura) changes massively her cute voice to seiyuu Cardinal, Maaya Sakamoyo who also worked on CCS performs the seductive evil Quinella.

Characters (10/10):
By many detractors, the SAO characters were one of the weakest points, but in Alicization, they're now one of the strongest parts. I'll only mention Kirito, Eugeo, Alice, Cardinal and Quinella.

Kirito is not anymore the OP character that gets all the chicks, now he gets all the boys (Eugeo). Jokes asides, now Kirito's mortality is on play, now he cannot get through due to his MC powers, he feels that he needs help and he just does that. Putting all his adquired knowledge over the time to solve the problems are now his motto, displaying a constant maturity and seriousness required in almost all the circumstances, long gone are the classical Kirito playfulness.

Eugeo is the biggest reason that the Alicization is without doubt the best arc of SAO, he is not an inferior to Kirito, rather his equal, always loyal to him until latter into the season, and there is where his mental vulnerability is shown magnificiently in falling to the temptation of the Pontifex. His interactions with Kirito is the classic one between a fluid and a rigid person, is also legendary.

Alice is not your typical SAO girl who act tough but is always in constant need to be saved by Kirito. Instead, she can stand up to him, helping him to get over simple tasks like cooking dumplings or using her head to climb to the top of the Tower. Alice is also very closed-minded due to her upbringing as a Integrity Knight, but also sees in Kirito what she couldn't do. Her importance is vaguely mentioned at the very end of this arc.

Quinella, or the very hot Administrator who is always naked, is the prototypical tyrant who doesn't display any sort of overt cruelty to their subjects unless forced, like a small-country dictator, she also wants to punch over her weight to challenge their masters that can erase her with just a click.

Cardinal is the rival of the Administrator, who after a fight she had to recluse herself in the Library of the Underworld in order to devise a plan to defeat her, after a long struggle, she managed to find Kirito and Eugeo, and latter Alice to finish that mission.

Enjoyment (10/10):
To the SAO haters, the Alicization arc won't change any mind, and this review is not targeted to them. I personally had struggled to defend the many decisions that Sword Art took in earlier seasons, but SAO Alicization made that more easy for me.

The leaps from a very popular MMO anime with a charismatic MC, to a more deeply moral and psychological anime still rooted on his origins raised my enjoyment to the highest levels, in not only as they've corrected many of the earlier faults, but it's an always evolving anime that keeps generating green paper to A-1 and Reki Kawahara, despite the constant and at this point tiring and annoying hate.

Not only that, SAO Alicization perfected the morals and philosophical questions presented with the classic flair of Aincrad that included several battles with swords, this time without Asuna, but with Eugeo and Alice. So Sword Art Online Alicization has clearly remembered and insisted that it's an anime about, well, Sword Arts.

In my book, SAO Alicization won't be into my Top-25 of favourites, but will be up there in animes that significantly progressed over their courses. That itself is my biggest satisfaction and pleasure, and it truly earned the rating I'm giving to it.

Final score: 10/10.