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

SAO: War of the Underworld: Season 2 (try saying that ten times in a row) picks up where the first season ended. Now, I don't usually give my views on SAO as a property, but I feel as though the multitude of "it was so complex!" reviews needed addressing. This shit is not complex. At all. Alicization presented some entry-level philosophical about the nature of fully-conscious AI up until it was time to take down the lulz-worthy villain of the arc. Once that was said and done, War of the Underworld put aside the first-year philosophy study in favour of rich characterization and competent writing.On the backhand, we got strategy meetings and the "real-worlder" dynamic once Asuna logged in. Unfortunately, what salvageable characters and stories that emerged post-Kirito (because SAO without Kirito is actually really good) is almost-immediately shoved aside for mediocre, two-bit villains that really should not have been main arc bosses.

The one redeeming factor is that, despite Kirito saving the day, the author and/or anime staff realized what we all already knew, which is that the less Kirito we have, the better the series actually is. Until we have to have Kirito. Fuck Kirito.

So, a spoiler of sorts for the last two episodes...

As it turns out, the main tech dude from Rath (let's be honest, if he's not next arc's villain, someone fucked up) saved Kirito's memory after time accelerated in the Underworld by a factor of 200 years passing in something like 20 minutes. The time-frame which proceeds from this is a bit wonky, though. We know that Rath had fairly basic robot bodies ready to go, but dialogue from Alicization suggested they were hardly capable of even climbing the stairs, let alone articulating full sentences. Putting aside Akihiko Kayaba's mysterious ability to force ghost himself into any machine, this actually brings up a ton of questions the series seems reluctant to answer.

The question is, how long were Asuna and Kirito hospitalized following their 200 years of larping? Alice has, by the time Kirito is a day away from being discharged, been given a fully-functional android body and you have to assume her more "Human" features were sculpted from silicone. We have to assume it's a 3-week process, but that still doesn't explain how they managed to refine the design so Alice could climb stairs. One would have to guess, at best, it took about 3-4 months to get the body fully functional, but that doesn't gel with how far along everything is in the series.

Kirito was in a coma for about a week in the Underworld. In that time, something like 2-3 years passed, and this is before time acceleration. Again, we have to assume the Rath engineers had been working on those androids for a couple years, at least, which is impressive already. Most arm engineers would be impressed by how quickly they even got those bodies together, let alone made them mostly functional. So, we have to assume Alice's android body needed another couple of months to work out all the quirks, but that runs up against how long Asuna and Kirito were in the Underworld, and subsequently in the hospital. Also, how did Rath manage a press release so quickly, if the process took maybe 2-3 weeks at best? Wouldn't there be government intervention to delay the reveal of something this big? Why go public about a secret project to develop a general-use AI when one could easily poll the general public about the concept and get their feedback, to see that the public would be split and pretty reluctant to meet the embodiment of their fears?

Hell, that's a Tucker Carlson open right there. "Could you imagine AI replacing your wife and children? Wives, what if that AI decided you weren't good enough for your husband? How would you stop them? Would you even be able to? What if your Amazon Alexis convinced your husband to leave you for her? Well, in Japan, such a thing could be very real very soon."

If you made it this far, then you've come to understand what the biggest issue with this season is, and SAO in general. Despite the fact that the premise itself should be the most exciting thing this season, it's more boring than the discussion to be had on how government engineers did in three weeks what it would take their non-anime counterparts months to accomplish.

Only watch this season to complete the Alicization arc, and then let go. Yes, there is more to come. No, it won't be worth it to wait.