Review of Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld Part 2

Yes. This is a rant, but an honest one. I watched the Aincrad arc in 2016 an ever since I've been a fan of the series. I am one of those fans that acknowledges the series to be shit but still loves it. The Phantom Bullet and Mother’s Rosario arcs had me whither from the series a bit but Project Alicization brought my love back to life and on full steam. The first season of Project Alicization had all those SAO problems we are used to but was really damn capturing and emotional. I really recommend the first part if you ever felt inclined to watchit.

Now for this second season... I felt betrayed. Lots of emotinal loads that come out of the blue and don't really grab you. They don't even allow you time to engage in them and mourn the dead before brushing it off and throwing another "epic" scene in your face. Lots of Deus ex Machina table-turnign last-minute circustances that would've made you pull your hair out if they made you care more about the stakes, but that get sovelved yet again by another Deus ex Machina bullshit after 6 seconds only to be followed by the same shenanigans six times in succession. That in one battle. Not that Deus ex Machina is new in SAO, but this time they really went off the rails. The battles are really well animated, but it doesn't feel like the stakes are high or that anyone's motivations or reactions to shit are well oriented or make any sense given the context. Lots of serious, world-changing consequences get brushed off or not addressed at all. Things happen too quickly. You go from one thing to another too fast. Yet, at the grand scale of things, if you stop to recount, nothing really happens at all. The whole season could've been two episodes.

If you're just like me and want to check this box off your list, go just ahead and watch it. It is not unbearable. But I can't help looking at this season and felling like Vito Corleone saying "Look how they massacred my boy."