Despite the defeat of Quinella—the pontifex of the Axiom Church—things have not seemed to calm down yet. Upon contacting the real world, Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya finds out that the Ocean Turtle—a mega-float controlled by Rath—was raided. Due to a sudden short-circuit caused by the raiders, Kirito's fluctlight is damaged, leaving him comatose. Feeling insecure about the people at the Axiom Church, Alice brings the unconscious Kirito back to their hometown—Rulid Village, disregarding her banishment due to an unabsolved crime. Now, Alice is living an ordinary and peaceful life close by the village, wishing for Kirito to wake up.
However, tragedy strikes when Alice notices that the Dark Territory has already started to invade the Human Empire. Reassuming her previous alias, Alice Synthesis Thirty, she promises to defeat the Dark Territory in order to defend the world that Kirito and Eugeo worked so hard to protect.
The world of SAO's lit is already so jam-packed with Kirito and Asuna providing enjoyable moments that it's unimaginable we'd need any more of them. How many of the anime fans hate SAO and its story? The weird surprise of Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld it gives the possibility to a more creative story and to other characters to shine, leaving zombie Kirito as a secondary character. I know this already happened on the "Mother's Rosario" arc when other characters were allowed to take the lead. However, this time I think the author handled it better, and for that reason, Alice's growth
is delightful, and the story is more enjoyable than the usual SAO's plot. Without any fear of mistake, SAO Alicization is the best arc of the series so far, and I hope to see the sequel in a few months because I am eager for more SAO.
The story is a prelude of the war that we will see in the sequel, and it has a nice pace. The plot introduce the characters and the reasons behind the fight. However, from my perspective, the villains are not appropriately developed, and some characters need a bit more details that I hope to see in the next sequel. We do not have the usual information about them, and that could be seen as a terrible outcome. Also, at the begging, following the events from Alacization, we have a Kirito that ended in a catatonic state. I thought that without him, the story would fail. Still, now I can say it is better. The other characters are now the protagonists, such as Alice. Her will to fight or all the conflicts surrounding her and the need to see all to possibilities and her reasons to wear the armor again. Furthermore, she proved that she could be the main lead of SAO's series. I liked the part when she decided to fight again in the first episodes. Also, if we notice, Kiriko is used as a motivational character, as we can see in some events. Even if he does not fight or talk, he stills as an essential character of the whole series. Additionally, the entrance of Asuna is excellent. Still, she looked vastly overpowered. The ending was interesting if you ask me.
I am not giving any further details about the plot; I want to avoid any spoiler that could destroy the readers' enjoyment. Even if you hate SAO or find it annoying, I am sure you can enjoy this arc. The bad part is that you need to know the characters or the previous arc to understand the whole plot.
The art and sound impressed me. It is excellent and gorgeous. I was not expecting that quality, and it helped the story to be entertaining. All the fights and the camera movements combined with a good score and sound mix made a great series that hope it continues with the same level in the sequel.
Finally, SAO is not a loved series. However, the LN is now the best LN of the decade in Japan; we need to give the series some credit and stop burying it because we cannot stand the plot in some parts. The fans loved it, and I love it. I know there are some silly parts that we want to avoid, but Alicization is the best arc from those novels. I am thrilled that they animated it.
Isekai has always been one of the most iconic genres in terms of popularity among anime. However, and unsurprisingly, not many of its shows are actually held at the same regard as those from other genres.
The question for this truth ahead came into existence long ago, but still, yet to be answered. Is it because Isekai shows are always labelled with concepts of “trashy, childish and impractical series”, or are they too familiar to viewers in recent years and therefore are not capable of differenciating themselves from others?
Several shows are introduced every year, each portrays an aspect of the genre in its
own way, but still retains the similarity of someone being transferred to another imaginary world with several designated purposes. Of course, this notion is not anomalous by now, but when it comes to the year of 2012, not all of us then had already been informed of “What is anime?” to say nothing of the term “Isekai”.
However, little do we know. Since the advent of SAO in that same year, Isekai genre has started a steady development in all aspects, and then somehow soared recently with SAO itself took a partial role of setting the ball rolling for this. Despite being the most popular and beloved anime in 2012, SAO anyhow gradually received one-upping hatred from its own viewers, which has casted plenty of questions with hardly any reasonable answers related to this incredible 180-degree turn.
I have never been such a fan of SAO, but I do not hate it either. This is partly because of the whole novel notions and ideas Reki Kawahara intending to deliver throughout this franchise. An exceptional VR world of Aincrad that blew us away with its magnificent looks and feels, the creative and innovative concept of introducing future technology (which is yet to be a daydream at the present) right in year 2012 as well as the hidden message that, on behalf of game addicts, expressed their inquiry about “What does real world mean?”. Such hilarious and foolish this type of question is. Howbeit, being dedicated enough to scrutinize this from its core in order to figure out the most reasonable answer is not a simple task. Deprivation of dedication is what thwarting us.
So, what brings about this lack among Isekai genre, or to be more specific, among SAO franchise?
One of the biggest problem SAO presented from its own beginning is that, it just followed one same pattern throughout the whole series, when we see an overpowered protagonist having to save the day and defeat an antagonist, who is unsurprisingly stronger than him. Such simply predictable the plot is, from which a sense of boredom may result, and likewise turn a beloved series into a total disaster just in one episode. I’m not saying that SAO 1 didn’t acquire numerous incredible potentials which were just as promising as it should have been when its first trailer was released. Indeed, this franchise was one of the most invested ones among Isekai genre with fascinating characters, spectacular animations, breathtaking scenes and full epic soundtracks. The pacing was somewhat reasonable and matched the plot fairly precise, thereby grabbed the viewers’ attention and made them follow the path of their hyperactive hero until the very end. Having said that, the show hardly introduced any breakthrough twists and turns with lackluster details, which really blurred the presence of some utmost fight scenes that ever existed in anime. These, together with unnecessary fan-service scenes, possibly served as rationales behind the hatred given to this franchise and turned it into a whole series designated for children thereafter.
Unfortunately, SAO 2 followed that same path of failures.
Numerous arguments have been made around this downturn and the most controversial one is “The fall of Isekai genre”. This is partly due to the rapid explosion of Isekai shows, in number not quality, during the next few years, which caused viewers to suffer a blasé sense about anime as well as their desperate need for a fresh alternative mainstream. This was probably one of the darkest ages among the anime history, but it practically left a huge question mark onto Isekai producers, whether they should reform the whole appearance and comply with the changing majority, or follow the same pattern that once succeeded as to gain back their position in everyone’s eyes?
This Gordian Knot has surrounded the genre for nearly a decade and is yet to be untied, with immediate submergences of almost every Isekai shows released after the year of 2013 till this day. Having said that, several ones which did not suffer from this seemingly inevitable obstacle, “RE: Zero” for instance, have actually proposed a solution for which the whole genre has always wanted, and thereby make the grand escape all away from this contradict reality.
Few have successfully managed to handle this, however.
And it may come even more amiss to many of you that amongst these, SAO is the franchise which I believe to have completed the most compelling transformation.
Before we enter the main part of this review, I just want to make out some point. I was first intended to encapsulate this latest season of SAO in a short and concise review, but the further and deeper look I gave onto the story, the more I realised the injustice of criticising it without touching on the whole journey it took to get to this very momment. SAO: War of Underworld (WoU), without a doubt, is one of the best long-lasting Isekai series in the anime world by far and the anticipation given keeps one-upping day by day, which is unexpected for a franchise exposed to that amount of love and hatred. And, believe or not, the time has come for SAO to rise from the ashes, stronger than ever.
The storyline, perharps, is the aspect should be introductorily considered for this. It is quite straightfoward with decent amount of information and frames displayed on each episode, therefore gives viewers a sense of being captivated with the flow of the show and somehow gets them curious about what is coming next. This, however, hardly appeared in any earlier seasons of the franchise. SAO 1 and 2 did have some great storytelling at first but then declined slowly afterwards due to the appearance of some “filler” episodes and fan-service scenes, which had no point to make with the entire story.
Another point worthed noting is that, the show has incredibly expanded from the very beginning, no matter how many new ideas and concepts coming out each season, it still manages to retain its unique “VR world versus real world”. The whole franchise has heavily relied on this premise, with the introduction of future technologies, from the Nerve Gear to The Seed, to its prequel AmuSphere and lastly SoulTranslator, which was the basis for the whole Underworld to operate. The way they are presented plainly matched the storyline, and therefore did not make viewers feel overwhelmed for such a lot of novel concepts to adhere to.
The pacing of this season is what also gain it a plus mark. 12 episodes, when they end, just feel like that same amount, no more no less, but are stil able to convey the whole meaning of the story with scarcely misunderstandable details. Additionally, the season is far less dependent on random and meaningless comedic moments, none in fact, which offers a more fluent and cohesive plot ever than what used to exist in two first seasons.
Animations and visuals are still astonishing as always, breathtaking sceneries of the Underworld together with the absolute contrast of ones belong to Dark Territory somehow stuck into my mind the scenerio of our real world future if we continue to destroy our planet. Aside from these, SAO WoU undoubtedly possesses winsome original soundtracks which are highly memerable and play an immense role on inculcating the series itself into its viewers. What’s more, alluring character designs as well as highly genuine expressions on their faces absolutely got viewers interested further into their development, but we will get to that in a bit.
Let us take a deeper look into the content. The main story is still surrounding our protagoinst Kirito as he entered the Underworld created by RATH in order to seek for an AI named Alice and take her with him to the end point of Underworld then log two of them out. This has contrastly grown however, with Kirito having his Fluctlight damaged and is now incapable of moving or communicating with others. Several altercations have been made around this twist, but mostly emphasizes on the incentive this will give to other characters of the show to take the spotlight, and the studio incredibly make use of this.
We have Alice now having to make a difficult decision of proceeding to protect Underworld and its inhabitants as an Integrity Knight or to take a step down and protect Kirito as a more-than-close friend. The dilemma given to such a special AI like her initially seems to be overwhelmed, but as her own character has been strikingly well-established, she somehow manages to equally contribute to both side of the coin.
Furthermore, we get to see our supportive characters having been exposed to us for a decent amount of time throughout the season, and when it ends, they really leave an impression on us of not ceasing as “supporting” but really being an essential part of the entire story as well as making it lively and captivating. This absolutely reminded me on the second season of AoT where we got to see some important characters later on (Krista, Reiner, Bertold, Ymir) being put to more than enough amount of screen times and secure their spot throughout the story. The improvement in this aspect really shines as a spotlight itself of the whole season, which assures that the show is now independent on the only one protagonist to carry it along, because the rests all can.
Whilst the story plus the character design of this season simply outweighed its former in many facets, one of the biggest issues with it, and surprisingly has not changed since the first one, is the world building. I’m not saying this season’s world building has partly surpassed the prequels, but we need to concentrate deeper on the actual premise of it. What I mean by that is Underwold, unlike orther VR worlds introduced throughout the franchise, is created and operated on the basis of what is inside its designer’s mind. Trees, mountains, fields and rivers all exsist in the same way their creators want them to be, or in other words, they somehow mimic that exact same trees or mountains appeared in the creators’ memory. As for its inhabitants, they depict real world’s people but in another point in history, around the mid 15th, 16th century. The dwellers live the lives of humankind and are obligated to obey the rules given, and consequently pave the way for a whole society to flourish.
However, can this exact same scenerio applied to those come from the Dark Territory? This is one real big issue that SAO so far has not given any clues. The Underwold’s inhabitants must follow the given rules notwithstanding any contexts and in fact are utterly unable to break them. As a result, this raises more questions about the existence of Dark Territory. Who constructed it, why would ones do that and especially how could it be done if RATH had taken control of Underworld since its very first beginning? Another question that should be raised during the season but it has somewhat to do with our real world is that why wouldn’t an AI question the fact that they are the production of human’s hands and are roaming in an imaginary world but just simply accepted it in the same way that Bercouli did? Or, if that’s on the table, why are they being created, what purposes do their creators want them to serve? Or something else to those effects.
Furthermore, the origin of this region was succintly mentioned in the light novel, which should have also been presented in the anime from the very first. This actually cast a doubt onto the reliability of the show’s world building in the eyes of viewers, and even though A-1 Picture actually completed a great job on giving viewers insights into SoulTranslator, the basis technology behind the operation of Underworld, this is just superficial in comparison to the urgency of comprehending what is truly happening at the momment.
Taking everything into consideration, SAO WoU has fully evolved into something entirely new which we have never predicted when we first watched it, and thereby changes its name from a whole childish Isekai show to one that deserves to be celebrated by all walks of anime fans and manages to distinguish itself from other series among the genre. The show is not flawless technically, but as it dares to stand out right in front of the viewers and affirmes its position in the anime world line, we should probably give it another shot. SAO now is no more a long-lasting series that we all want it to end as soon as possible, but the one that worthed our time waiting every week with definite hype, excitement and anticipation, which may be a bit uncommon among Isekai genre. However, because it has somehow been able to not only overcome the challenges given to the entire genre but also keep itself up a notch, this may be the case.
It’s unsurprising by now that SAO is truely worth watching and deserves the wait for an epic finale.
War of the Underworld is exactly what people mean when they say “Look pretty and do as little as possible.”
There is sakuga in every episode, the artwork is vibrant, and the fight choreography is better than ever. As for the writing, it is hasn’t improved much over Sword Art Online’s previous seasons. Where the narrative shines is its premise: The underworld is a hellish land cloaked in a warm aura radiating from the blood-red sky. Flatter than an ocean, it is a wasteland populated with no vegetation as far as the eye can see. Divided by a valley of stone are humans on one side
and monsters in the Dark Territory on the other.
In real life where the A.L.I.C.E. simulation is operated, a group of terrorists invade the game; they overthrow an empire of monsters then march them into a war to kill the good guys and Kirito—who is in a vegetative state for the duration of this season. The terrorists enter the game as generals of the monster army, it all plays out like a shlocky imitation of Matrix 3. Once again, the script is overwritten as hell. There are so many buzzwords and names that you’ll need flashcards to keep track of them. Before the titular War begins, every single character who isn’t a CGI soldier gets a close-up with a name tag. About twenty of them were introduced before anyone drew a sword. We only needed the name tags because the setting is so underwritten. With the bare minimum world-building, there is suddenly an all-out war and we’re expected to follow along. There are only two people on either side you have a reason to care about. Alice and a wheel-chair bound potato, and the two bad guys they’re fighting against.
Any moments of self-sacrifice or emotional death ring hollow. Every tearjerker moment felt 100% like emotional manipulation, but I can’t say they made me feel nothing. When the music cuts out, the scene fades to washed-out colors, and all that’s left is a close-up of someone with tears streaming down their faces, it is almost moving. Almost. A cowardly knight got a sad flashback that explained his personality, it should have been sad, but he was so irrelevant that it evoked no emotion. The moment at least made him less one dimensional. However, it’s immediately undercut because he suddenly becomes a fearless badass. And that’s the best character development we’ve got. A few of the knights got half-episodes like that guy; I’ll admit, these moments of introspection paired with an electric guitar riff and breathtaking sakuga were awesome.
A majority of the screen time is dedicated to battles, strategizing on either side, and knights valiantly fighting alone. The best animation comes out during the solo knight battles. The animation is nearly movie quality during these moments. There’s a fair share of CGI during footsoldier combat for filler between the impressive fights. There is at least one spectacular display of sakuga every episode, which is unheard of in a TV anime. This commitment to a visual spectator is what made A-1 Pictures split this season into two cours, a wise decision on their part. It's not every day I find myself praising this problematic studio; with the recent release of Kaguya-sama: Love is War, now this, it’s safe to say they’re on a roll. The directing and writing of this series, unfortunately, falls far below Kaguya-sama. Logic defying fighting, plot holes, mediocre editing, the roller coaster pacing, and an overreliance on name tags. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen this many tags on characters, locations, factions, and times.
One guy throws a punch, another catches it before he hits him—two seconds pass then we get close-ups of their shocked expressions. This probably seems like I’m nitpicking, but when everything in the show is off by a second or two, it makes the action feel slow and disconnected. Both OP/ED in the prior Alicization themes were much better than these ones. The songs are average, both visually and audibly. Lisa and Eir Aoi did much better work on the last season. I’ll also say, the voice acting was great amidst all of the action. The Engrish interspersed in the real-world characters’ dialogue was hilarious.
A vegetative Kirito is hilariously wheeled into the battle in his wheelchair. Right from the first episode, it’s hinted he will wake up when the time is right. Essentially he is a plot device waiting for when Alice is in a pinch. He hangs behind the army, with a constant creepy smirk on his face, while Alice awkwardly hovers above on her dragon as if it’s a damn helicopter. That dragon can kill a horde of monsters like it’s nothing. She is just as overpowered as Kirito. Alice could have been a good character, unfortunately, she is just as flawless as Asuna. Neither of them develops over the course of the season. And being TOO nice isn’t a flaw!! Rather than the main character, she is an extension of Kirito. Just like every other 14-year-old looking girl in this show, she is in love with Kirito. She is motivated by her desire to protect him first, everyone else comes second. While Alice has her own reason having no personality, it doesn't make for a good protagonist. At one point, another knight showed up, a female knight mind you, who wanted to see Kirito so she could “try some things to wake him up” *wink wink nudge nudge. If Alice hadn’t stopped the bitch, she would have given him a good old handy while he was too mentally incapacitated to consent. Alice wouldn’t want another woman putting the moves on her man, obviously. The whole confrontation is disgusting on multiple levels, but it just goes to show Alice’s main purpose in the show is to look pretty and protect her future husband (little does she know he’s engaged).
After not too long, Alice is swept under the rug in favor of a few knights and generals. The rest of her appearances are brief and surface level. In one of her moments alone with the audience, she monologues about the unfairness of the war. Monsters and men have the same souls, and they should not be fighting, so she says; meanwhile, CGI goblins lethargically wave their swords two at even uglier CGI humans in the background. Their swords don’t even come within 4 feet of hitting each other. The “modeled in ten minutes with Blender” aesthetic really adds depth to Alice’s philosophies. To compensate for Alice’s personality (or lack-there-of) more ladies find their way to Kirito as if he’s a magnet. The thing is, Kirito didn’t need to be such a waste of air in this season. He is a prisoner of his own mind, this was a great chance to give us insight into his thoughts. Unfortunately, this was another case of wasted potential by this adaptation.
During the first half of the show, there is a bit too much time spent in the real world (similar to the most frustrating parts of Assassin’s Creed). Everyone in the real world is there to info dump the plot of this season, no characterization at all. I didn’t know one of these guy’s names aside from Asuna. Oh yeah, she is still hovering around Kirito like a fly on shit, telling us how she “won't forgive you!” if anything bad happens to her boyfriend. God, what does a man gotta do to get a female equivalent of a fruit fly bodyguard? Kirito’s rejected women's club also shows up a few times in person to remind us they are still in love. Even the little winged rat Kirito calls his daughter shows up. The two girls who were nearly molested by the villainous guys from last season made an appearance too. Not for any special reason, just to remind us they still existed and they’re still in love. Being trapped in a new game, Kirito’s harem couldn’t come. Even as a potato, our main god himself still gets all the ladies. If this is your thing, no shade, just take this paragraph with a grain of salt. One last thing to add; when every female character (who knows the protagonist firsthand) only talks about their love of a potato, aside from surface-level observations and info-dumping, I consider them poorly written characters.
As for the villains of this season, there are slim pickings. The first bad guy is a comically evil fat dude who calls Alice a witch for trying to evacuate her family’s village. He wants everyone to stay and defend the village because that’s where all his money is. He even says “but I can’t lose my money-I mean I don’t want the village to be destroyed!” The whole altercation is laughably stupid. Of course, Alice gets them to leave, cue the monster stampede. After that episode, we never hear from him again. Then the true antagonist makes his appearance. The blonde-haired terrorist bastard. This guy is so bad I wished for the first one to come back. The leader of the terrorists is a psychopath who has been killing people since he was a child. The murders of an adorable little girl a beautiful woman in lingerie are shown with creepy detail. In a show about kids fighting off anthropomorphic animals and goblins, gross exploitation for shock factor feels so out of place. You could argue this is ‘character development’ because we need to know the bad guy is Very Evil, even though he’s barely in the show. I’d say his personality was conveyed sufficiently by displaying a woman’s severed head the foot of his throne. Not to mention, the main ‘antagonist’ is barely in the show. Another evil general I want to mention is a woman wearing only ribbons and a cape like a dominatrix. She is Very Evil too. When she kills people she gropes herself and moans. Very depraved. Very necessary character development.
Quinella—the antagonist of the previous season—appears as a ‘devil on your shoulder’ type of villain. In dreamlike flashbacks, she speaks to the knight’s inner insecurities and desires. Her voice is accompanied by an ominous flute as well as a piano, both playing a low methodical tune. Quinella's scenes are enrapturing. She drew the knights, and me, into her eerie world. These moments were some of the best in the show. Sakuga aside, there were a few other highlights in this season.
Sword Art Online has never looked better than War of the Underworld; the sakuga is amazing. As for the writing, it is still lackluster at best. A few slightly relevant knights got a modicum of character development. More time should have been spent developing, you know, Alice or Asuna. It’s worth noting that I’ve been told this adaptation butchered the pacing of the source material. If the premise/characters do interest you I would recommend seeking out the novel. A bevy of flaws aside, War of the Underworld surprised me.
Does it live up to the hype? No.
Is it the best season Sword Art Online? In my opinion, yes.
Sword Art Online finally delivered. After years of mediocrity that’s polarized opinions: one faction in support of the apparently “different take” of Sword Art Online while the other pointing out the definite flaws in the series, one of the most popular anime franchises has lived up to the hype. I was a part of the latter faction for much of the time since the series blasted its way to popularity in 2012. And there were reasons for this: the series started off okay in the first half of Sword Art Online, but then fell off as it used sexualization to evoke tension and rushed through
stuff quicker than its viewers could comprehend, in the second half of the season. The second season didn’t improve much on any of these aspects. In fact, it may have gotten worse.
Sword Art Online: Alicization did start off promisingly, building up characters and the new world that Kirito was thrown into, but the same old issues plagued this season towards its end as well. There goes another season, and there goes another opportunity for Sword Art Online to improve itself. I was on the verge of giving up on the series as whole, but decided to give Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld a try.
And to my pleasant surprise, this season did not disappoint. From start to finish, it had me excited for each episode, and finally there was some polished character development. It added on to the world that SAO Alicization had developed and enhanced the existing elements in supreme fashion. The issues afflicting the series as a whole were minimized, if not totally eliminated in case of some.
The story continues where Alicization left off with Kirito being paralyzed following the events that had occurred. Tripped by guilt and inspired by Kirito, Alice makes it her duty to protect him and find every way possible to restore him to a conscious state. To this end, she’s abandoned her post as an integrity knight, and started living in a remote place with Kirito. On the other side of the world though, things begin to get heated up as an unknown organization is targeting Rath’s ship in order to gain access to Project Alicization.
Because Kirito has been paralyzed, he’s not an active presence in the season. The main character of this season is most definitely Alice, and she carries the mantle of being the central character quite exceptionally. She’s developed a soft side, which we didn’t see too much of in the last season. And what lets her change is the fact that she’d been able to defeat the seal of the left eye. That’s the same thing that prevents Integrity Knights from going against the Pontifex.
But with the Pontifex defeated, the other Integrity Knights too, have elements added to their characters. They aren’t the stale fighting robots that they were in the last season, and it’s been shown how circumstances have changed them. Having to fight the Dark Territory as a whole, they show different sides to their characters. The great thing about the way the characters have been handled this season is that all of their development is done in a realistic manner which makes their development actually believable and not just a switch in personality.
The art quality is superb as is the animation. The fights have a lot of flair to them, and the effects have been done to perfection. As always, another new season of Sword Art Online brings more great soundtracks. One thing that’s always been good and never a cause for complaint throughout the many seasons and movies of Sword Art Online has been the soundtrack. Well, I guess the composer is Yuki Kajiura after all, and anything other than the best OST would be a disappointment when there’s her name involved.
Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld just felt right. Finally, everything clicked for SAO this time, from story to characters to execution. Sword Art Online never had production issues, but managed to astonishingly fail in all of the other facets. This season just shows the immense amount of potential the idea has. There’s so much freedom in the way the story can be handled, and at times in the earlier seasons, Sword Art Online took this liberty to the extremes, never finding that sweet spot. War of the Underworld, though, found it and showed us the heights it can achieve. Let’s just hope this was a turning point, and the numerous following seasons maintain, or even exceed this quality. Because they definitely can.