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

I finally got to this show that used to be pretty good in its S1 of (Alicization), then dropped in story quality in its S2 and finally we are here... ...wherever this mess that is S3 is supposed to be. The show has a very high budget. There is no denying this. I wish A1 put as much budget into Apocrypha when they animated that and gave that show more characterization while we are at it. Sadly, they put the budget into this show. I suppose for that, there is no denying the art is mostly very good. There are definitely some action scenes that looked... off.I'll take some points off for each of those, but otherwise the score is pretty decent as far as visuals are concerned --- Art: 7

The sound is also nothing to scoff at. Kajiura did her part. A veteran composer with a very distinct style that puts the majority of her peers in her own field of work to shame --- Sound: 9

A huge problem I see with mainstream anime seems to be, unfortunately, the parts of an anime that matters the most.

One of the things Alicization set up very nicely in its first season was the worldbuilding and the characters. In fact, the initial cast of a no-IRL memory Kirito, Eugeo, and Alice were golden as main characters. Their bonds were built up almost perfectly through the course of that story.

However, by the time we get to S3 of Alicization, we have a dead Eugeo, a crippled Kirito and Alice stuck toggling the roles of knight and nurse. The old cast from previous SAO seasons have a lot more involvement but their inclusion does not integrate smoothly with the Alicization-specific cast. In fact, none of them develop here and all they do is take up screen time doing shounen-esque friendship bullocks while shouting their Harem leader's name. The emphasis on Asuna's romantic relationship with Kirito even comes across as out of place in the plot where their romance does not connect with the overall theme, nor continue the characterization started in the previous Alicization seasons. They summarily detract from the characterization potential of this show greatly by taking up time that should be given to the Alicization-specific characters.

The only development in this season truly only happens around Bercouli, Alice and the ex-Laughing Coffin villain. Unfortunately, the final boss, so to speak, is entirely flat as a character with no motivations to relate with whatsoever to the very end. As for the ex-LC guy, his backstory comes across as not only un-sympathetic, but a misery of his own making, and thus leaves his motivations unrelatable, and purely evil without the morally greyness that popularized villains of so many other works. Bercouli and Alice's developments are sadly very minor.

As such, this section scores the lowest --- Characterization: 3

Given that rather than making Alicization it's own original story, it is written as a continuation of SAO, I forgive how the story resolves past S1. Heck, for most of S2 it wasn't terrible. S3 simply has... glaring issues.

The first is that the involvement of Kirito's IRL/cross game harem not only took up screen time unnecessarily and detracted from character development opportunities for the Alicization cast, they were often repetitive in their crying of their Harem leader's name during a scene. This stretches out scenes into unnecessary lengths and slows down story progression, ironically, through the actions scenes they were in. In short, they slowed down the plot at what is effectively supposed to be the climax of the Alicization story arc, and not in a way that is productive for explaining vital plot information, or demonstrating thematic principles.

There are also some unexplained technical aspects that don't really require much expertise to spot. For example, it was established that the project was supposed to be at least somewhat secret. Yet, somehow many, many "players" worldwide managed to log into it, without special equipment and from their homes to create an out-of-place hardship for the main cast. Where would they even get the accounts to access this? Why did Kirito need to be at a special facility with special equipment if all this could be done from home? How did so many people even become convinced that logging onto this unknown "game" thing was worth their time when this should be an effectively unknown thing?

Lastly, while the ethical touches were very nice at the end, and unlocked the potential for this show to break past an 8 on the overall score had there not been flaws aforementioned, the ending also could be described as random. Whereas shows like Darling in the FranXX could be said to have meant to eventually introduce a space arc but ran out of screen time and rushed, here, we have a case of Macross and MuvLuv being introduced but there was no transition, it just happened at the end. Somehow mecha/fighter jets in space is a thing and so are space mouth monsters. No warning.

Story: 5

Now, as I generally do not factor enjoyment into the overall score since I can only speak of my own and can in no way state the enjoyment of everyone else, I will just state the overall now, as averaged from the story and characters and bumped up or down based on the art and sound quality.

Overall: 5

If the overall verdict is what you came to read, dear reader, then you can stop reading here, as the rest will just be my own personal thoughts on the show, or, I guess the Enjoyment section.

I greatly enjoyed the first season of Alicization. Unfortunately, even early on in the two War of Underworld seasons, the story and character development went down substantially. As a concept, I believe Alicization had the potential to reach masterpiece tiers. It is a premise that inherently includes ethical questions revolving the advancement of technology and AI. The issue with Alicization is it comes as a part of the overall greater SAO story. With fan pressure, the staff and writer no doubt needed to incorporate the old cast. Yet, Alicization would have made a masterpiece had it been an original, new title -- one where a new main character volunteers for the testing project, meets Eugeo and Alice and fight off the invading militarymen, reveal their project to the world and call the ethical questions into front and center -- notably without the distractions that are Asuna and the rest of Kirito's harem who truly had little to no place in the story. As such, though unfortunate, I barely enjoyed the third season.

Enjoyment: 3