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

And so after just under 2 years, the final season of the Alicization arc of Sword Art Online has come to the end. Thus ends a rather long saga of fights, character drama and adding more waifus to Kirito’s harem. Thus ends a saga I am very conflicted about. It was hard to establish a final opinion on how I feel about this SAO arc. There are definitely bright moments when it comes to Alicization but there are also plenty of criticisms that bring the show down for me. To be frank, Sword Art Online Alicization is a saga of two halfs, where the Warof the Underworld seasons are tightly paced and have well choreographed fights and events that make each episode gripping and engaging to watch is bogged down by a slow and boring first season of confusing character moments and drama and reliance on over exposition. Of course the main reason for this is a problem that has existed since the beginning of SAO, Kirito.

Kirito still remains a problem and it felt like it has only gotten worse with Alicization, both narrative wise and character wise. It became glaringly obvious when he was taken out of the picture (well, as close as you can get with Kirito), Alicization was enjoyable because the world didn’t feel like it was centred around Kirito and felt like it could move without Kirito’s input, if you know what I mean. Kirito still has that generic, nice guy attitude with plot armour as thick as Arya Stark in the last season of Game of Thrones. Now granted, Kirito’s actions at the beginning of Alicization does make sense as he is a foreign element of a world that’s going through the motion and he shakes thing up. But honestly, it should have stayed like that. As time goes on, more and more focus is on Kirito and how he is important to everyone to be their saviour, despite how capable everyone else is. This season has been the most glaring about this as one major plot element that this show has been building feels shafted as the attention is on Kirito again. And this isn’t the only times something like this has happened in Alicization. A core plot element in Alice’s character development is not established by her childhood friend Eugeo who wants to bring her home, instead, it’s Kirito who does it, not Eugeo. There’s also some real bulls**t by the end of season 2 of War of the Underworld concerning Kirito and it feels like it happens just because he is the the saviour that everyone needs. Kirito is still a problem and I refuse to be numbed into acceptance that this a problem I can overlook.

So what about the rest of the story and characters. Well as I eluded to earlier, the first season is slowly paced and it makes it really boring to watch. Yet, this also applies to seasons two and three but both are executed differently. The slow pace of season one works at a disadvantage due to having to establish this new world and its characters but because it takes its time with it, It feels bogged down and the show’s world building suffers as it is mostly exposition dumps anyway to make it really boring to watch. Seasons two and three however, the slower pace works to its advantage because it helps establish how big this battle that encompasses seasons two and three is. From multiple perspectives and multiple twists and turns, the slower pace really keeps you on your toes and makes you want to watch the next episode to see what happens next. That also attributes to the shows choreography and photography to make the action that more engaging and makes the story more engaging as well because of it until the final few episodes of the final season.

Character wise, it’s very meh. The two new important newcomers, Eugeo and Alice have their own arcs that get shunted to the side when Kirito gets more involved. Eugeo is the one new standout character I kind of like, mainly due to his chemistry with Kirito as they have a sort of bro bond between each other. But even then, his personality isn’t that interesting as he is similar to Kirito as a nice guy with great sword skills, except more timid and his character arc comes to rather disappointing end, mainly due to Kirito. Alice is interesting because her arc is figuring out what she is fighting for and for who. An identity crisis somewhat. Now Kirito showing her the way (without spoiling) does make sense to give her proper purpose, but it really should have been Eugeo do to that to complete Eugeo’s character arc. Instead, it’s Kirito and she quickly devolves into another part of Kirito’s ever expanding harem by the end.

The rest of the cast like Asuna is very meh and every other returning character acts like they always have been so your enjoyment may vary. To me it’s like, “Yeah, they exist. They do their thing.” Some do get a spotlight here and there so it is rather nice to see them get their own character moment. The villains of this series are where the character department of this series has its most glaring problem. Mainly because they range from comical to just simply bland evil. The main two villains of this arc, Quinella and Gabriel are simply poor villains. Quinella at least has some intrigue to her character as a woman seeking ultimate power and control, even beyond the confines where she lives. She serves a purpose as being the main bad guy but she isn’t really captivating as an antagonist. Pretty much because she is a non factor until just over halfway season one and even then, doesn't take into effect until the final few episodes. But at least she has some sort of intrigue unlike Gabriel who is straight up evil just because. He doesn't really get much attention until the very end, but even then, he just straight up acts like a douchebag instead of being this dangerous mercenary. He isn’t interesting and doesn’t really add much to the plot as he really just serves as a placeholder act as the main antagonist.

SAO has always brought a high standard of quality when it comes to its animation and sound and Alicization is no different. A-1 Pictures really brought their A game these past three seasons to make the animation looks gorgeous and make the fights fun to watch. The art style looks more shinier now when compared to previous seasons to give it that extra bit of colour to it. Then you got all the added particle effects, the increase use a sakuga and the sounds of clashing swords and you really have a series that makes the fights more engaging. And the sounds really make it because it’s not just the constant clash of swords, it’s the little things like how the swords make a crackling noise when they grind against each other or how the pitch changes depending on where on the sword they clash. It makes you feel immersed as well as a treat for the eyes as the action ramps up. Add on the soundtrack that compliments it, then you have a series that is extremely polished, technical wise. Side note, my favourite new ost from Alicization is the main villain’s theme in War of the Underworld. Gives that extra vibe of just fear and great strength coming from them, even if the characters themselves are lacklustre.

Then there are the openings. SAO has always had great openings, with perhaps the exception of SAO season one’s second opening. Alicization is no different. Both seasons one’s openings are good, both song wise and visual wise. But it’s seasons 2 and 3’s openings are the ones that have grabbed my attention. Both "Resolution" by Haruka Tomatsu and "ANIMA" by ReoNa just clicked for me and it is mainly because the songs are so good as I’ve listened to them countless times now. But I would give the nod to ANIMA mainly because visually, it is better than Resolution. But of course, SAO has always been about style when it comes to their openings with the occasional spoiler and here, it is no different. So ANIMA really takes the cake and in my opinion, best opening of the season by some margin.

The endings, especially season’s one endings are pretty forgettable and I couldn’t care less with the exception of season’s 2 ending which I did like, mainly because I really liked the visuals and Lisa always does a good job with her songs.

SAO has always been one of those shows that I’m like, “Well I’ve gotten this far, might as well see this through to the end.” By all accounts, you could say this has been SAO’s best arc to date as it’s certainly the best visually, has the most engaging story I guess and the moment to moment scenes are pretty engaging. But there are plenty of problems with Alicization from small niggles like how these characters shake off having their limbs cut off pretty well and having unnecessary cameos that serve little purpose. To big problems like the show’s world building kind of falling flat by the end and Kirito himself; which he still remains my biggest gripe with SAO as a whole. Or the fact that SAO has learned jack s**t about female characters getting sexually harassed. Sigh, it’s really hard to judge if SAO is improving or going through the motion because it feels like as it soon as it takes one step forward, it takes a step back.

In my opinion, SAO Alicization was fine. It’s been watchable, much like every other piece of SAO to date (except for SAO alternative because I haven’t watched it yet to formulate an opinion). It ain’t entirely bad as it has some redeeming qualities, but it has been far from being a great series either. I will say that Alicization has been the most engaging overall, yet I must acknowledge that season one of Alicization was such a snooze fest. So really, War of the Underworld kind of saved Alicization as a whole from me giving this series more hate than it would have actually deserved. Will I continue to watch SAO? Of course. Despite my gripes, SAO hasn’t been truly boring even though I was this close with Season one of Alicization. I like to keep up with SAO because it’s interesting to dissect whether or not SAO is getting better or it’s getting worse. But like I said earlier, at the moment, it’s just fine.