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

I don't have it in me to write three different sections on the Alicization arc, so this review is going to cover the whole thing from start to finish. The Sword Art Online series has been a mixed bag for me, and that trend continues with the Alicization arc. Ordinal Scale was a decent build up to it, but did Alicization really live up to the hype the movie brought up? Let's DIVE right into it! The story of Sword Art Online: Alicization is by far the most complex of them all. For each main arc, there are a few general requirements they all must have. 1. Anew virtual reality world.
2. A new deuteragonist.
3. A new antagonist.

What's interesting about Alicization is that it fulfills the second and third requirements twice. Compared to previous arcs, Alicization is long with a grand total of forty-seven episodes! It's even organized into two different halves, with the second half being subtitled War of Underworld.

Part One

Alicization takes place in a virtual reality called Underworld. What's different about Underworld compared to previous virtual worlds is that it is NOT a video game! Underworld is created as part of the Project Alicization that's being worked on by the company Rath. The purpose of the project is to create a perfect artificial intelligence that can use unmanned weapons to defend Japan. One of the employees, Seijiro Kikuoka has enlisted Kirito to assist in the project as a tester by diving into Underworld through a Soul Translator. There is a catch: Kirito's memories of the real world do not carry over to the Underworld and vice versa. Well... that is the case initially.

However, things take a turn for the worst when the last remaining member of the Death Gun plot, Johnny Black attacks Kirito by injecting a lethal drug into him. The drug has damaged Kirito's brain and the only way to heal it is through the Soul Translator. That means Kirito is going to be staying in Underworld for quite a while. This time, he does retain his memories of the real world. Soon, he meets Eugeo, who is tasked to chop down the Demon Tree. Kirito helps Eugeo out and in just a few episodes, the Demon Tree goes down. The village celebrates and offers the two a choice on what they want to do next. They decided to become swordsmen and the two attend an academy to train. There is one goal in their mind: To rescue Eugeo's childhood friend Alice, who was arrested by Integrity Knights for accidentally walking into the Dark Territory. However, the Administrator Quinella isn't going to let the boys take Alice back so easily. Plus, there are rules to be followed in Underworld and the moment somebody violates even one of them, their fate is sealed.

Part Two: War of Underworld

After intense boss battles against several Integrity Knights, Kirito was able to convince Alice, who has become an Integrity Knight herself, to join his campaign to end Quinella's totalitarian reign. He has successfully defeated Quinella, but Eugeo did not survive the fight. Unfortunately, another problem comes up immediately. Rath is under attack by the Glowgen Defense Systems wanting to steal Alice. They cause a power surge that completely decimates Kirito, and now he's completely in a state of catatonia for the majority of the second half of the arc. Alice has no choice, but to take care of him as well as prepare for the upcoming war with the Dark Territory as the gate that divides the two halves of Underworld is weakening. As soon as the gate goes down, the creatures of the Dark Territory will invade the Human Empire.

The two leading men of the invaders, Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer and Vassago Casals / Prince of Hell enter Underworld using two accounts that let them take on the identities of the Dark Emperor Vecta and a Dark Knight respectively. Subtilizer encourages the creatures of the Dark Territory to slaughter mankind. Meanwhile, the Integrity Knights are nervous while preparing for the upcoming war due to their recent loss of Quinella. Will the Human Empire be able to prevail?

Part Three: War of Underworld Second Season

While the Human Empire seems to be managing just fine with help from Asuna, who has entered Underworld, a member of the Glowgen Defense Systems grants access to Underworld to gamers in other parts of the world advertising the virtual reality as a demo. The foreign gamers entered Underworld and without a care in the world, begin to slaughter inhabitants of the Human Empire and the Dark Territory. When things start to look hopeless, all of Kirito and Asuna's friends arrive along with several players from Alfheim Online through account converting in order to save the inhabitants of Underworld. This is the closest Kirito's friends have ever gotten to do something big in the whole series. It wasn't easy for them to recruit all those players to join them because of the risks they're going to have to take. They're going to have to hold out as much as they can until the members of Rath manage to restore Kirito back to his old self.

If you ask me which of these three parts I liked the most, I'd say the first part was the most engaging. This might be a hot take, but I really wish this arc was just the first part because War of Underworld was honestly frustrating to watch. Let me get into the characters to show you what I mean.

The Human Empire of Underworld functions under a corrupt government established by Quinella. Some people who are taken as prisoners for breaking the law are chosen to become Integrity Knights at the cost of their memories. What's pretty messed up is that the rules are completely arbitrary. Warning! I'm about to say something really unpleasant about Underworld. For whatever reason, murder is a criminal offense... but sexual assault isn't. Kirito and Eugeo actually got arrested for murdering a guy to save their underclasswomen from you-know-what! I take back what I said last paragraph. The entire Alicization arc is utterly ridiculous! It's so stupid. The legal system is so rigged. Oh well, at least Quinella was an interesting villain since she's the first and only female antagonist in all of Sword Art Online. How she came to be the ruler of the humans is very interesting.

The reason why I really am annoyed by the War of Underworld half of the arc is because of the antagonists Subtilizer and the Prince of Hell. I'll start with the latter. The Prince of Hell was the leader of the murderer guild Laughing Coffin all the way back in the first arc of the series. I don't like this. We already had a former Laughing Coffin member antagonist back in the Phantom Bullet arc. I never even liked the guild since the beginning. Death Gun was a well written antagonist with the concept of creating an illusion that an avatar in a gun MMO has the power to actually kill players in real life by shooting them in game. I don't know what the writer was thinking with the Prince of Hell. All of a sudden, he can magically brainwash the gamers invading Underworld to obey his command. Like, where did he even get that ability. No such skill even existed within his Sword Art Online avatar back in Aincrad. There is literally no explanation as to why he has the power to brainwash people in a virtual reality that's not even meant to be a game. At this point, the writer is just making him a big bad just because he can.

Subtilizer is nowhere near any better. He's some expert Gun Gale Online player who managed to win a tournament unarmed. He's also a creep, explicitly saying he wants to devour other people's souls and that's what he intends to do to everybody in Underworld. Just like the Prince of Hell, he somehow can transform himself into a hideous monstrosity with no form of explanation of how or where or when he got this ability. They're unlikable compared to past male villains. Akihiko just wanted to see his dream world come to life and have others to join him in it. Sugo may have been a psycho for Asuna, but at least he had a motive to be the successor of her family's company. The Death Gun plot was made as a revenge scheme against a top player who fed poor advice. Subtilizer only became obsessed with souls after murdering a friend during his childhood and the Prince of Hell just hates Japanese people over the lack of attention he gets from his Japanese father. These two are total scum and they drag the whole arc down completely for me.

Now that I let me anger out on some bad antagonists, I guess I can talk about the characters of Underworld. There are a lot of inhabitants in this virtual reality. If it's one favor the gaming invaders did for this world, it's that their invasion forced the Human Empire and the Dark Territory to actually join forces. It's impressive that all it takes is a common enemy for the two peoples to become allies with each other.

My favorite character interaction has to be between Suguha / Leafa and the orc Lilpilin. Upon entering Underworld, Leafa acts friendly towards Lilpilin, even saying that since he is talking to her, that makes him "human." When a dark mage attacks them, they worked together to defeat her.

Now it's time to talk about the deuteragonists. It's truly astonishing that we finally got a male secondary lead character... and they decided to kill him off. Eugeo was a great partner and friend to Kirito during their journey to save Alice from Quinella. Speaking of which, it's not Sword Art Online without having a female lead character. Alice takes charge in leading the human army in War of Underworld while Kirito was in his catatonic state. As an Integrity Knight, she takes her job very seriously, even going as far as to save her home village when it was under attack by goblins regardless of still being branded a criminal among the villagers. She is also the main center of attention in the battle between Rath and the Glowgen Defense Systems. Both organizations seek to bring her out of Underworld. Obviously, the latter company wishes to use her for evil.

I've been mixed with the story and characters so far. If there are any major positives, they would have to be the animation and the music. A-1 Pictures really knocked it out of the park with the animation compared to past arcs and short stories of the Sword Art Online series. Every major fight scene was a sight to behold, and the opening and ending sequences were very fluid. Previous seasons have kept things simple. It's not that they're bad. The studio really put a lot of extra effort into the Alicization arc. As for the music, all eight songs used throughout the whole arc are very good. Even on days when I got time to binge some episodes, I never skip them. You know an anime's soundtrack does not fail if I'm not skipping them.

Since Ordinal Scale was created before the anime adaptation of Alicization, they decided to put some references to the movie in it. There is a scene where Kirito's friends use the Augma and one where Eiji and Yuna appear. Those aren't in the original light novel since the novels were published before Ordinal Scale was made. I don't read the light novels, so I really like it when I do research and learn about little things like this.

One thing very weird about Alicization is that its second half is also split into two. The War of Underworld half is an instance of a twenty-three-episode anime being split where there is a long wait between the twelfth and thirteen episodes. I generally don't like it when a split like this happens because usually the split occurs on a cliffhanger. At least each half of War of Underworld comes with a courtesy of providing seasonal viewers a recap episode one week beforehand. Oh, I just remembered one more crazy thing about the first half. For some reason, they decide to make a recap episode in between episodes eighteen and nineteen. It's so unnecessary and wastes the audience's time. I know it's supposed to be Kirito explaining things to Alice, but it shouldn't even be a recap episode in the first place. Of course, now that it's been out for over five years, those of you who have yet to watch this arc can just skip the recaps.

Was Alicization worth the excitement? Well... I did say that it is a mixed bag to me all the way in the beginning of the review, so in a way, it sort of is. I'd give the whole arc a 6/10. Love the animation quality, the soundtrack, and the references to Ordinal Scale. However, I'm not a fan of the two antagonists of the second half. They really make me sometimes wish the arc was just the first half, but then again, the Human Empire's rules were so arbitrary that I find the first half to be hardly any better than the second. This is not worth typing three different sections for.