Review of Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld Part 2
Review for all three parts of the show, warning, long-ish read ahead Fast verdict : one of the worst shows i watched in 600~ titles, NOT recommended ***spoilers ahead*** Okay, let's start with the good, since there's barely any of it: The art. Yeah, its great, sakuga is often seen too, a lot of budget was thrown toward this looking good... And yet even on this point i can and will mention that absolutely PATHETIC cgi is used at times so i cannot give full score even here.Now then, what else... ... Nothing really. I'm at a loss here. The only other thing of note i can mention is that if you're at least a somewhat experienced anime watcher, this show, especially season 2 and ESPECIALLY 3, is an unbelievable feat in what i'd call the impossible - shit limit breaking.
What IS shit limit breaking? Its when you think "Wow, this part is horribly written and executed... In fact its one of the worst i ever seen. Surely it can't get worse?", and... It does. It does, and does so over and over, and it DOESN'T STOP for TWO WHOLE SEASONS!
Now that i've got the most notable things to mention out of the way, let's base what i said a little, and remind you again, dear reader, this is a review of all three parts. Now then, i'll split and quickly sum up the three seasons, and see if you can spot the problem here. Ill help a bit, just in case. Well maybe more than a bit...
***
The first (long (24 ep)) season actually starts off in a somewhat promising way, if somewhat stupid, because loopholes and logical problems from previous parts make things rather difficult, for example the ever present question of why members of laughing coffin are still on the loose when the government should have gotten the data on its members long, long ago. It starts with one too, who, after proclaiming he's the last (for the THOUSANDTH time!), idiotically enough, tries killing MC with some fancy ass drug who he no doubt had to go through some trouble to get instead of just stabbing the guy or using the millions of other far easier and surefire methods to easily kill a person. That's already quite weird, what was the point of it? Is it the same untraceable drug used in sao2 to stay hidden? Then that makes no sense since he did it in front of a witness (Asuna) and out in public too...
Whatever the reasoning for this nonsense is, the bad guy's caught, but MC's heart stops for over five minutes, and he ends up in ER. Turns out, his brain is badly damaged, but, a certain project he took part in can help him. He apparently grew up in there (well, his emotional avatar did) when testing it, a new life from zero, with two friends, but he (and they) had their memory of it wiped. They are NPC's. With a SOUL..?
That project also apparently allows for your soul and mind to enter. Yes, SOULS. Somehow..? Does it make any difference to the plot? Not really. Is it explained at all? Nope. Does it make ANY FUCKING SENSE? You guessed it - that's a 'no, fuck off' too. Well, putting that aside as well, like a couple of tens of things already, Kirito's returned there, remembering who he is in real life, as an adult now, but not knowing that he's in the project and without the ability to log out or contact the outside world. The reasoning behind it, is that the time is sped up in the digi world, and now, they SOMEHOW can LET him keep the memories he makes when he exits, unlike first time, and help his brain repair itself..?
He is thus a new character, with a low level like that of other npc's, and, he's trapped in that world for now, so, we pretty much get a reset, with a new world to explore, new rules, characters, etc. So, decent enough of a start form zero, right? Well, actually, yes. After a brief recollection of his past that he and his friend who he's now with again had another friend that they don't remember, and the constant nagging feeling their other friend is gone, he finally remembers, kind of, and reminds his friend too.
He tries free his friend of the burden of tree cutter, while they recall, re-connect, and the world history and system rules are shamelessly expo-dumped on you in illogical, unneeded abundance while they fruitlessly cut said massive tree. Some grinding and one unexpected combat encounter later, they level up and are now able to use a certain relic sword, which they use to cut the tree, free his friend from that job, and embark on a quest to become swordsmen and set Alice (their third, forgotten childhood friend) free.
This is where the half decent part ends. Now, the real world comes around much more, and, they start even more half irrelevant and overly inflated exposition dumps about how the soul system works (not that it makes much sense or explains anything! quite impressive actually how much events they can add which don't contribute much, if anything!), what happened to Kirito - the facility is secret, so, no one was told where he is now, no one can visit, but OBVIOUSLY the gang easily hacks it up and infiltrates Asuna to get in there. And the staff obviously starts slowly telling her, and us everything instead of kicking her out.
So aside the whole soul shit, which they make a big deal out of at first, and forget all about later, they reveal that this whole thing is about time accelerated AI learning from zero, with the goal of the AI learning everything on its own, in a human body, which would make its thinking human like. The goal? To create TRUE AI. Not just any AI tho - because, we have Yui, but guess she doesn't count and no one knows too, and not AI like the thousands of NPC's in this new world act pretty FULLY like actual people and could easily pass a such... Nono, special, MAGICAL true AI!
True AI can break rules. As to why, aside making war worse and possibly bringing fourth skynet, that's a whole other question, but there's the premise. Meanwhile, more exposition is dumped about the other world and its rules still, and we're approaching half point here... Now the villains show up too. Inside the system its an AI who a traitor gave administrator rights to. Outside its a terrorist group, lead by yet ANOTHER laughing coffin tard (and he has another laughing coffin underling with him too... they're all over the fucking place, i swear, what happened to being 'the last'?), who, get this, can SEE and EAT SOULS somehow.
It apparently started when he killed his childhood friend at the soft age of 6~, by scrambling her brains up through the ear with a knitting needle or something. Maybe its explained in the novel by him being either delusional or whatever (although they also said they made souls in the AI project and can translate human souls inside it, so go figure, might as well be serious with this shit), but he has said power in game too! Speaking of logic here, he should have spent the rest of his life in a correctional facility or psycho ward after a murder at such a young age, but we see no consequences of this, nor a legal system note that'd keep watch on him later in life (not over the murder and not over being a member of laughing coffin).
Also, logically, he should have had this 'gift' while sao was taking place too, and, since it gave him great power later on in this show due to the 'imagination system', it should have given it power in sao too, no? Nope. Grade school character writing, they exist in a vacuum after all, spawning only when its time, along with their backstory! No, seriously, with a power like that, and the 'imagination system' shit present both in this and sao back then, what stopped him from taking over THAT world and killing everyone back then??? Never find out on the next episode of WHAT THE FUCK SAO and other fun tales.
Kirito trains his way through sword school and comes across some ass hats that try rape the new npc waifus, his ol' pal Eugio or whatever his name kills them despite them being protected by 'the system', breaking his limiter and popping his eye (where the limiter is, physically, because code works that way lol). Then they meet the ex administrator program, who's obviously a loli and obviously starts to love MC somehow, dumps more exposition, most of it pointless, about how the new admin bitch took power, and they proceed to fight their way to her and Alice through her brainwashed knights (why is brainwashing a system and a possibility in the first place again? ah, right, the IMAGINATION system truly has no bounds!), Alice being one of the brainwashed ones too.
The admin is OBVIOUSLY fighting naked. Also is very slutty and fanservicy. And evil. Except in later seasons she's shown as NOT evil, because she's been corrupted by the power that she was given. Or something. Yes, yes, just accept it. Just like, yet again, Kayaba or whatever (you know, the asshole who killed like 4k people back in SAO) is shown as a not too bad a guy now. Oh, and the researcher that's one of the top spots in this project is also Kayaba's ex girlfriend. For some reason. Small world eh...
For some reason Alice is the chosen one, despite her memories being wiped, and NOT REALLY breaking the limiter, she just broke some rule by mistake, unlike say Eugio just did a while ago. Why was even breaking a rule SLIGHTLY = by mistake registered as an achievement as opposed to doing it by a far margin and deliberately with Eugio? Whoever programmed this world did a really shitty job it seems. And so, for this bullshit experiment to end, she needs to be delivered to a log out station... Located in the evil lands separated by impassable mountains and millions of enemies, because this place was build with logic and love and shit, yeah! Not the stuff a simple mortal like me would do which is to just log out and save any NPC that breaks rules...
All of that Kirito is told after their standoff with administrator that he loses to as his friend dies... Who doesn't DIE-die, but instead, along with ex-admin loli give their lives and 'power' (whatever that even means in this shitty-verse) for him to win, along with Alice who took MC's side after Eugio was brainwashed too (a while before)... What. And... Since he won, he was synched and contacted by the outside world (which was enabled, FOR SOME REASON) and told all about what he needs to do with Alice, and then the terrorists blew some shit up... The time jumped to overdrive again and crippled him further, turning his active mind/soul INSIDE the 'game' simulation thingy into a vegetable too! Woo-hoo! Double veggie status achieved!
So, we got a season that explained the project, the world rules, developed two main side characters, wiped the memory from one of them, KILLED the other, and MC who just got the show's objective and... Immediately went into semi vegetable coma! Isn't that grand? What was the point of all that again?! Hmm... I don't think even they know at this point...
***
Season two of this or some shit, cuz the titling makes no sense
So turns out the administrator bitch wasn't that bad, because she was corrupted and was actually that mean to prepare for war with the evil half of the world behind the mountains. Let's totally forget she was a crazy, power-hungry, sadistic, brainwashing, slutty psycho exhibitionist, and she was that way OUT OF HER OWN WILL!
And so, we get the war. No, literally. Some shit happens in the outside world, but barely, and this WHOLE SEASON, is the boring Alice (memory wipe doesn't make you too interesting you know)and other non main characters you couldn't care less about going into that war that the overlord started (overlord being the main bad guy who logged in, cuz the overlord is a PURPOUSELEY MADE USER, for SOME reason, guessing said reasoning is 'in case a bad guy needs to hack in and ruin our servers lol'), and Alice, and a whole bunch of forgettable supporting 'main' characters that get like 5-10 minutes each go at it, each breaking their limiter, because its so rare and awesome you see (if its that easy why didn't the devs make more war scenarios but peace instead??), yes, super rare, so rare you get to see it like 30 times over, awesum!
Oh and baddie succs some souls up, EVILILY!!! And that's it, season over. Amazing, i know. Nothing like 40 characters you don't know showing up for 10~ minutes, for half to either die in a fake tear jerkier moment because you don't know them and couldn't care less about, or be pretty much forgotten both in this and the next season. "Its shit, 11/10 -ign"
***
And finally, this, last and WORST season. HOW could it POSSIBLY get worse than a whole season of new, forgettable characters fighting among hordes of generic, stiffly moving CGI mobs you ask? I know, i was surprised too. Hence the 'shit limit breaking' term i made up.
So, MC is still a veggie. Fight gets desperate. Finally, Asuna decides to log her ass in. And she does, helping the 'light' side, despite the dark ones shown as ones you should have sympathy to as well. She has 3 charges of OPWARE magic earth rifter, but each use fucks her mind over, and she gets a headache, tho technically she shouldn't be linked to her mind and real body so go frigging figure how it works. She tells Alice what she must do (reach the altar), then she, Alice, and other new NPC waifus proceed to visit and drool all over mr. vegetable (because drooling mindless morons are sexy you know!) before setting off to do the grand duty.
The baddies then proceed to SOMEHOW open access to the FUCKING CLOSED SERVER, which, technically, SHOULDN'T EVEN HAVE any connection available to it to begin with, being a frigging secluded and offline island in the middle of the ocean, not to mention probably (well, logically, not that it means anything in this show) HAVING NO FUCKING SOFTWARE INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT ONLINE MULTIPLAYER INSTALLED ON SAID SERVER! Well it shouldn't at least, because i'll remind you they built this world for a specific reason and i doubt installing a net package was one of the requirements for a CLOSED SERVER AI test?? Whatever the bullshit reasoning this is based on, American (and other) players flood the server and start fighting, told the good guys are actually hackers invading one of THEIR new game experimental servers (solid gaming logic there, YES, calling in lvl 1 players TO FIGHT OFF HACKERS, yes yes, ALL GAMERS KNOW that's how its done, and its super possible and easy too, not like admins and cyber security guys are the ones who do it and deal with net security, or the ones running the server who CAN FUCKING DISCONNECT IT! big smarts~)
They also easily believe it since they have base gear and level 1 characters with base access, since high level characters are few and limited as a safety measure. These LEVEL ONE TRASH MOB players proceed to OBLITERATE both sides of the conflict, including the elite, and the GOD LEVEL ADMIN MADE characters Asuna and the main cast logs into, because, remember the system that was explained and grinded into us for 24 episodes before in s1? The one where "low level objects can't really damage high level ones at all"? Yeah, FUCK THAT, enough lvl1 mobs will destroy anything! Oh, and system call spells where a thing used often and for some reason interesting and important, remember? I don't either, nor do the makers of the show~
But two can play that game! So near defeat, all of the Kirito friend band also logs in with god tier characters that they converted to this server, because apparently its just another game server with standard rules now! And so, barely, but they save Asuna and the remnants of the 'good' and bad armies. Oh, and also, Kirito's sister who, unlike the others who know what's going on, can, and DO attack the baddies, says she "can't act rashly until she understands the situation" and attack the clearly evil bitch who attacks HER for no reason, and proceeds to tentacle rape-suck the life out of her, until there's enough rapeservice and she recovers with the power of her god tier char, and finally decides to kill her and regroup with the others. Cuz it ain't sao without random rape i guess.
After a short rest its decided Alice will r̶u̶s̶h̶ ̶B̶ .. I mean go to the shrine almost alone, despite it being exactly what the baddie wants, while the others hold the reds (the enemy players that logged in are literally unironically RED) and miniboss. The baddie npc army also forgets all about their previous motivations which they didn't even have and join up with the good guys... Alice sets off, gets confronted by main baddie, good guy general stays, exceeds his limiter too, but dies holding him off. Baddie catches up to her again, but Shinon comes to the rescue from the battlegrounds, cuz she has the power of flight, and faces off with him, losing immediately.
They both use guns by the way, summoning them at will, because again, remember all them system rules we where fed for 24 episodes in s1? FUCK IT. Through the power of friendship and shit, while falling from the sky, she shoots the main baddie's arm off before laying about uselessly, not dead but decommissioned. Meanwhile on the miniboss side, Asuna, the brainwashed synthesis knight elites, and their god tier irl friends pretty much lost before even facing the boss. Yes, TO THE TRASH LVL 1 MOB FREE ACCOUNTS. Veggie Kirito is also there. When they're all tired, Asuna and the others do a last ditch effort to face the baddie, but he cuts them down and laughs.
The reds obviously don't find it at all odd the enemy's fighting desperately to protect a cripple! Well actually they do, when Asuna tries talking to them, and while about 3 of them listen, the rest are easily persuaded by mr. miniboss because he says 'lol dey hac' and 'you have level 1 trash chars, and they OP, omg, they DEFINITELY HACCC!'. Then proceeds to beat up a cripple and the reds shrug and slaughter on. Which brings me to ask... WHY did he even take the time to persuade them? Because literally A MOMENT later he uses some plot voodo magic skill to brainwash them all into mindless berserks with the power of EEEEVVVVIIILLLL! And they start fighting the good guys, but mostly each other.
Because that's SOMEHOW beneficial to him..? Also i'll remind you again, in case you missed what i just said... This dude just fucking BRAINWASHED LIVING PEOPLE ACROSS HALF THE PLANET INTO MINDLESS BERSERKS. Because that's how things work, yeah! No limitations over the net, no program safeguards, no improved after SAO so there's no reverse feedback netgear, nope. The players who listened are magically not brainwashed tho..? And they watch in horror and talk of how evil the baddie is and are never seen again after pretending to be important characters and sucking up enough screen time...
Meanwhile IRL some smartass moron remembers he can copy pasta into Kirito's veggie avatar the memories of other people logged in and heal him, with their collective memories of him replacing his own. And so he does. And bam, Kirito's back lol! He fights off the baddie. By the way, the baddie miniboss actually LOVES him, in some weird twisted way. Yeah... And Kirito wins. Dead boi Eugio helps, obviously, somehow, he still ded. Oh, what about the reds? No worries, i'ma just log em' out real quick, i'm Kirito! Yeah, that simple. HOW? Who the FUCK knows or cares at this point? Definitely not the writers. Do the admins have that power outside? Nope. But he does. Cuz reasons.
Just like that, this particular conflict ended. Time to go save new and totally important waifu Alice. Off we march. Main soul SUCC baddie already has no arm. Does he give a fuck? No, obviously. He proceeds to rape (just figuratively, sadly) MC with the infinite power of the souls he sucked and/or plot convenience, the power of infinite power of imagination that now apparently runs this world (tho Kirito couldn't really use it against miss exhibition admin before, no limit break NPC's could use it properly too, and none of the reds or his friends could either (he also shoots some system call magic, because they remembered it exists... and its obviously useless and is yet again forgotten, now for good... i REALLY don't get what was the point of the system call magic is now, it never made much of an impact, was slow, awkward, and boring to watch, yet used up tons of time being explained... WHY??). He can't either apparently, or, not nearly as well as the baddie can, maybe he spent more time fantasizing about his crus?). Then, get this, in a final struggle, the baddie starts to SUCK HIS SOUL and/or memories out while locking swords with him! How? What? WHY? But its apparently also a thing! He doesn't even need to kill to do that now, unlike before when he could suck souls of enemies he killed... Irl too..? Wtf
But our boi may not be op (LOL, tho would be better if he was by this point honestly, make a good fight at least, but no, we don't get one, just locked swords and shouting+flashbacks), but, he has his best dead friend by his side (somehow), and, the general power of friendship! He also makes a genki ball of memories that his friends magically send to him and shit! How that works? We don't know. Can't he log the baddie out? No. Can't he imagine something stronger? No. Can't log out himself with all his friends? No. How'd he log out the reds before? Who knows. So he just stuffs the baddie full of copy pasta memories from his friends till he explodes. And dies irl. Dies so hard his soul is knocked out of his body and is dragged to hell by that little girl he killed... Why by her? Iunno, guess she was a really bad girl despite being 6yo to end up in hell lol.. ... Iunno man
And thus the day is saved! Well not quite, the baddies pull a fast one and jam the shit project into overdrive so it's gonna speed up to x2000 real time or something. And Kirito doesn't make it. Asuna stays along, and their minds and/or souls will be stuck there for 200 years. Couldn't he logout without the console before the acceleration like he did for the reds? No, obviously... As in 'plot conveniently' kind of obvious, because not i nor the people who actually liked this shit show somehow got what the fuck was going on in the past five episodes or so... And no, no amount of explaining it from the novel will clarify, set straight, nor change the fact its horrible shit writing of unreasonable and impossible proportion.
The baddies also set a bomb, but one beloved mass murderer (not that people seem to remember that last fact) to the rescue later (kayaba in a robot body), and the day's saved for good!
Kirito wakes up from the dream all broken and weak after the few months he spent in a coma in the speed-up, tells them to wipe his and Asuna's head clean of 200 years of memories, because its too much for him to handle lol, starting at the speed-up. Because apparently they can..? And they apparently do. So, they know soul computing now, can make AI, wipe memories, add or copy-paste them, make androids and android bodies, but can't keep your muscles from atrophy while in a coma or fucking log out out or make reasonable decisions, programmng, and proper net protocols? Right. Selective plot convenient shit right there.
Later, Kirito is still mentally broken from it all and no one's there for him, not his gf, not his family, well, maybe incest sister, just a bit. But hey, he recovers fast. Alice is now a real girl in a metal body, but also depressed, as expected of a pinnocio. She mails her nude (for some reason) self to Kirito (guess clothes don't travel in mail, only nude androids?), and he, OBVIOUSLY instantly washes all her trouble away via 2 minute talk+ hug + headpat.
Surprise surprise, suddenly his adoptive parents show up out of FUCKING NOWHERE, for a serious talk about his future and a scolding for shit he had no control over. Yes, after 24 episodes of SAO, 24 episodes of gun gale, 24 of Alicization, 12 of s2 and 10 of s3, a total of probably A FEW YEARS of in show time, we FINALLY get to see his fucking adoptive parents who seem to have jack all to do with his education, raising, mentoring, etc. Without an introduction. And they're just there for 2-3 minutes of 'wise scolding', despite having no moral right due to not even being in his life it seems... And that's it. NICE PARENTING! The show would have you believe its right in its fucked up Japanese and possibly post modern fashion.
And how does it end? With them getting a remote message through Alice (is she on wifi radio mode? no hacking danger or anything, just an android girl body walking free with constant intrenet access!), and follow the distress code back to rath and their shitty experiment world they seemingly can't manage at all... To find... Spaceship knights fighting space worms... What the fuck. No really, what the actual fuck. And so Kirito the space dual weilder (cuz standing open in space and swinging swords around is how things work, yes!) slays the space demon worms or whatever and the show ends. ... .... ...... What?
I really have no words for this.
Well actually, as you see i do, but there's SO FUCKING MUCH, and it requires SO MUCH FUCKING CURSING, i barely even began, even with this giant wall of text!
So yeah, overall, no fucking idea how this got any score over 6 at best, i can barely give it 2 just for the art, i'd give 3 but i'm deducting a point for cgi and the fact the art is actually OVERdone, making it clear too much budget was thrown into it to look good, while the rest of the show's aspects got near no thought, planning and proper directing or explanation (the lore and world rules that got forgotten and dumped on us but got talked about way too much though, for some reason!). Oh and have i mentioned how fucking annoying the main theme playing in each fight for FIVE FUCKING SEASONS is? Because by god, it fucking is, binge one or two seasons, let alone all five, and you start getting how the guy in groundhog day felt each morning.
Final rank: 2/10 for s3, last season(s2), as shit as it was is 2.6/10, and part 1 (jeez the names in this are confusing) is 4/10, just because in the start it actually seemed as if they still tried...
Overall rank for this trash and its three seasons is rounded up to 3/10, and i definitely don't recommend anyone to watch it for whatever reason. Unless they're a completionist reviewer, or, just a masochist. Or well, like trash i guess, either normally, or in the sense they enjoy watching dumpsterfires like this one, and boy is it a grand one!
What would i change about this to make it at least half decent? cut 60% of the characters, exposition dumps, world building and system rules, because, again, most those characters either play no relevance, aren't seen over a minute, and all the history barely contributes anything, definitely no need for it to take as long as it did, as for the rules... They barely fucking hold in the FIRST season, not to mention second and third where they're more disposable than toilet paper!
TLDR - shit of unimaginable proportion, too much budget and weirdly easy to please fans. I'm sorry, but i cannot put this any other way, nor claim its just my opinion, because really, i TRIED to enjoy it, but the plot holes, abysmal writing and time distribution just destroyed it as a story, and as an anime. Good looking trash. With glitters. Oh, and i'm not just shitting on it just cuz, because i definitely DID enjoy the first half of season 1 (the original sword art online that is , not Alicization, to the point i re-watched it three times over the years), despite everyone's hate boner for it.