If you had told me a few years back that I'd be getting into any type of anime show, I'd tell you that you were crazy. I held this negative attitude against anime. From what I'd heard about it, it just all sounded absolutely bizarre to me. But thanks to a good friend, I actually got introduced to anime, specifically through the show "Sword Art Online". What I found through this show was something that is just as intelligent as pretty much any American show. Even though the show is flawed, I have a great affection for it. This will be shown through my reviews of both the TV series as well as the movie that came out this year.
Arc 1: Aincrad
Rating: 5/5 Stars
The first arc of Sword Art Online is, in my opinion, pitch perfect. I loved every moment of this arc. Here's the basic plot: there is a new virtual reality game called Sword Art Online (abbreviated SAO) that is getting a lot of buzz. Main character Kazuto Kirigaya is one of the beta testers for this game. The creator of the game Kayaba appears in the reality, however, and reveals that everyone is trapped in this reality. The only way to leave is to beat the bosses on all 100 floors of the steel castle Aincrad. There's another huge twist: if you die in the game, you die in real life. This makes for a weighty premise where people are now literally fighting for their lives in what was supposed to be a fun game.
There are several reasons why this arc of SAO is the best. One is the characters. Kazuto, who takes on the name Kirito in the virtual world, is at his most compelling here. He is intriguing to watch as this loner who at first refuses to let people in; he instead goes through killing bosses on his own. I like him even more once he met Asuna, who he falls in love with eventually. Asuna is undoubtedly the best character of the whole TV series. She is a tough heroine who can fight just as well as Kirito. These two characters' chemistry is incredible, and when this arc becomes solely focused on them getting closer to each other is when this show is at its best. The action scenes here are also absolutely amazing, feeling exciting with all the creative characters they have to fight against.
There are also some absolutely despicable villains in this part of the show), including the frightening Laughing Coffin Guild. This arc has some of my favorite episodes of the whole show, including the touching episode where Kirito and Asuna become parents to Yui (an adorable character who gratefully stays along for the rest of the show). My favorite episode is probably "Murder in a Safe Zone" where Kirito and Asuna are trying to figure out how a player could be killed in the safe zone. Another thing that this arc does so well is making you feel the weight of every character's mortality. You become worried for even the main characters. Those that do die are often very likeable characters, and their deaths are immensely felt. I didn't have a single problem with this arc, as the tone, characters, story, thematic arcs, and action are all nailed perfectly.
Arc 2: Fairy Dance
Rating 3.5/5 Stars
The first arc of this show set up an inevitably tough standard to hold up against. Because of this, some of the other story arcs in this show are good, while others are certainly weaker. Fairy Dance is one of the better arcs of the series, even though it is undeniably flawed. Kirito has survived Aincrad and we finally get to see the real world again. Here Kirito discovers that Asuna is in a coma. He meets her father, who tells him that his associate Sugo plans to marry Asuna while she is still in a coma state. While dealing with all of this, Kirito sees a screenshot of Asuna in another game called Alfheim. We also get to meet Kirito's sister Suguha.
There are plenty of commendable things about this story arc. For one, I find the game world of Alfheim to be as interesting as Aincrad. Everyone's avatars in this world are fairies, which makes for some great character designs. There's a sense of mysticism to this game world that reminds of Lord of the Rings, which isn't a bad thing by any means. Kirito remains an interesting character, someone who we can sympathize for in his quest to save Asuna. We get to learn a lot more about him through his relatable relationship with his sister. Getting to see who he is in the real world is a nice change, and it makes his character feel more like one we can attach to. Suguha is the best character of this arc, and she only becomes more interesting when we discover that her avatar in Alfheim is Leafa, who she would rather be than herself. The action is superb, with some cool magic elements being introduced. The villain Oberon is well done, as the creators did a great job of making him incredibly despicable and disgusting. Once you realize who he is in the real world, it only makes his character more disturbing.
There are a few weak points in this series. Asuna is a sadly wasted character in this series. She is in Alfheim, but her originally tough and independent character is reduced to a damsel in distress. I'm not sure why the show creators chose to do this, as it seems to work against all the themes that were established in Aincrad. She is still a likeable character for sure, but she is hardly ever interacting with Kirito. Instead we get uncomfortable interactions between her and Oberon, which give off rape vibes that I'm not sure were necessary. While a great character, the creators for some reason decided to make Suguhu in love with Kirito. In fact, it seems every girl that interacts with Kirito falls in love with him, which is just dumb. The audience knows that Kirito only loves Asuna, so why do they need to have all these girls' one trait being in love with Kirito? Also, while I loved Kirito in this arc, there was starting to be a noticeable problem of him being overpowered. I never once felt that he was in any danger in this arc, which reduced some of the tension of the series. But still, this arc is overall great fun to watch, and I would definitely watch it again.
Arc 3: Phantom Bullet
Rating: 3/5 Stars
The third arc is the start of season 2 of Sword Art Online, which, sadly, is noticeably weaker than season 1. This arc takes place in the virtual world Gun Gale. The plot revolves around a character named Death Gun apparently killing characters in game, even though one cannot die in game. Kirito decides, somewhat grudgingly, to go into Gun Gale to figure out just how Death Gun is doing this, as he also suspects that this character could be from the original Sword Art Online.
Let's talk about the good parts of this arc, because they are still very much present. New character Sinon is the best character of this arc. She is what ultimately made me want to continue watching this arc no matter what flaws it had.. We discover that in the real world, as a child she shot a robber who was going to kill her mother, but we discover that while she did kill the robber, she also mistakenly killed her mom. This tragedy makes us feel great sympathy for Sinon, and want to root for her to get over this tragedy that wasn't her fault. Her character's transformation throughout this series is truly dynamic and interesting to watch. I also find the story interesting. This whole arc is essentially a mystery of trying to figure out who Death Gun is, and the series does a good job of keeping you guessing. I figured out who it was before it was revealed, but that was because I was able to put it together by how cleverly the series was revealing snippets of information.
Now for some of the negatives. Unfortunately, one of them was Kirito, which was surprising. But, I just was not very impressed by him. His overpowered nature was incredibly apparent in this arc, so I felt no weight to any moment that his life was supposedly in "danger". He would always find a way to kill someone; it didn't matter how close he was to losing. His character was also just too bland in this arc; we didn't learn much about him. Asuna is once again criminally underutilized. This was the first time watching the show that I realized what I was missing: the compelling exploration of Kirito and Asuna's relationship. I don't really care too much about how he interacts with Sinon or his sister or any other girl in the show. They are interesting characters, but Kirito doesn't have much chemistry with them. Asuna does hardly anything in this arc; in fact she only appears in a few episodes. The creators have this wonderful character, and it's frustrating they aren't using her to their full advantage. A final negative is I just didn't find Gun Gale compelling. A shooting game- don't we already have way too many of those in the real world? Aincrad and Alfheim brought innovations into their respective game genres. This game brings nothing new to the table in regards to tackling the shooting game genre. This season was weaker compared to its predecessors, but thankfully Sinon and the often interesting story line saves it from falling into mediocrity.
Arc 4: Calibur
Rating: 2/5 Stars
Let's talk about the small amount of positives present in this arc. The most apparent one is all of the action sequences. There is not much in the way of character development here, but the action in this arc is some of the best the series has to offer. All of the fights are pretty cool, especially the final one against Thrym. We get to see all of these characters we've grown to like fighting as a team, which is a nice concept. Another highlight of this arc is Klein. He's the only character who gets any real semblance of character development, which made me happy, as I enjoyed him in the Aincrad arc. He almost reminds me of Brock in Pokemon, as he's this hopeless romantic who falls for any girl he encounters. He's great, and offers some much needed comedic relief.
That's about it for the positives. There are way too many bad things about this segment. One of the worst is lack of character development. We learn absolutely nothing new about Kirito or Asuna. This arc could've been chance to further develop characters we don't know as well, especially Silico and Lisbeth. But no, they hardly do anything here. I suppose Leafa is the only other character that we sort of get to know more, but what we do get to know is not interesting. She wants to save this animal population in Alfheim from going extinct by the hands of Thrym. That's about the extent of her character in this arc. Why does she care so much about virtual video game animals? I don't know, and I don't think the show creators knew either. There continues to be the clear problem that we feel no weight to the characters fighting these bosses. None of them are going to die, and they are only going searching for a sword, so what's the point in caring? This arc was just a disappointment. Thank goodness it was mercifully short.
Arc 5: Mother's Rosario
Rating: 4/5 Stars
By this point, I had been a bit discouraged by season 2 of SAO. Phantom Bullet was only alright, and I straight up disliked most of Calibur. But Mother's Rosario, the final arc of season 2, thankfully puts the season out on a good note. This one focuses almost solely on Asuna as she meets a guild called the Sleeping Knights. There we get to know about Yukki, who along with her friends desires to go on one more quest in Alfheim before they all go their seperate ways. Yukki recruits Asuna to go along with them, and along the way, Asuna learns more about Yukki.
The main thing this arc has going for it is great characters and some powerful themes. This arc has Asuna rather than Kirito as the main character, which is a refreshing change. I'm guessing the creators had heard fans complaining about what they had done to Asuna's character in previous seasons, and so they brought her back to how she was in Aincrad. Because of that, I could easily attach and relate to Asuna, especially as we even get to learn about her strained relationship with her mother in the real world. Asuna becomes just as dynamic as Kirito, and this is accomplished in only seven episodes. Even though Kirito is rarely in this season, there is one super cool scene with him where he takes on a whole army of people by himself. It was an awesome thing to behold. Yukki is an absolutely delightful character, one that I loved. She's easily one of my favorite characters in the whole SAO series. Her optimistic nature about practically everything is inspiring. The audience soon comes to a tragic discovery that Yukki in real life has AIDS, and is on life support. The reason her and her friends are doing one last quest is because Yukki will be dying soon. In fact, all of the characters in this guild are in various hospitals. This is one of the toughest things SAO has tackled, and it does so in a very mature way. This plot point also hones home this arc's powerful theme about living to the fullest, and it comes across as meaningful rather than cliched. One can see Asuna is changed by those around her, and it makes for something powerful. I even teared up near the end of this series. Yukki actually dies, which was heartbreaking, but the way the death is addressed is graceful. I felt as though Yukki's character was properly honored, and her death was not just a cheap emotional device.
There are a few weak things about this arc. Asuna and Yukki are the only characters that really have any development in this season. While I liked that the creators took so much time to make these two characters interesting, that put other characters to the side. The rest of the Sleeping Knights guild are not compelling, and I even forgot pretty much all of their names. I think if this arc had more episodes then it could've developed them more. The action scenes are for the most part not as good as they could be in this season either. Other than that, this arc was a huge improvement from the previous two, and it really leaves Season 2 out on a positive note. Most importantly, it left me excited for the movie.
The Ordinal Scale
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
This movie was highly anticipated by all fans of the TV series. I'm guessing that a lot of them were really hoping it would be better than the overall disappointing season 2 and perhaps even go back to being as good as the first arc of season 1. In the year 2026, the Augma is released, which introduces augmented reality (virtual things being a part of the real world). The most popular game of this nature is Ordinal Scale. Asuna, Leafa, and Silica all really enjoy this game and encourage Kirito to play it. He does so reluctantly and realizes that he is not as strong as he was in virtual reality because he does not have much physical strength in the real world. One night, Asuna, Kirito and Klein fight a boss, and the second best player Eiji joins them. An AI named Yuna is also there, and as she sings, she gives extra points to players. At one point in the fight, Eiji whispers "Switch" to Asuna, which Asuna recognizes as a term from SAO. In another fight, Eiji purposefully injures Asuna, and she realizes she is losing her memories of SAO, specifically how she met Kirito and Yui.
The story of this movie is pretty complex, but it is done in a way that is easy to follow. The theme of loss is once again tackled, and it is done very well here. There are different types of loss addressed: the loss of a loved one, the loss of memory, the loss of power. I liked how the creators attacked loss from different perspectives; it makes for a multi-faceted movie. The characters in this movie are at their most enjoyable since Aincrad. I was able to truly attach to Kirito for the first time since Alfheim. He feels more like how he was in season 1 of SAO, someone who likes being a loner but also values his friendships with others. I'm glad Kirito remained the character to follow in this movie, as we got to connect to him struggling to understand augmented reality. Asuna is superbly done here as well. We are treated to seeing her as an tough fighter once again. Promises of this were shown in the final arc of Season 2, but they are full-on present in the movie. At the end of the movie, I briefly thought that they were going to reduce Asuna as a damsel who Kirito had to save, but they thankfully didn't. We also get to learn more about Klein, Lisbeth, and Silica, which is something I've wanted to see for a while. The new characters in this movie are great as well. Yuna is quite the enigma, but as we get to know more about her, she becomes entirely sympathetic. Even the villains Eiji and Yuna's father are not entirely evil, which is a nice change from how totally nonredeemable the villains usually are in SAO. I saw them as characters who are flawed and because of that, take drastic measures to get what they want. You do feel sorry for both of them once you see how much they're hurting. Finally, the ending of this movie is incredible. It's an all-out fight scene that is nothing short of fantastic. You get to see all the characters in the respective avatars they are known for. Especially pleasing is seeing Kirito in his classic avatar from Aincrad!
There are very few negatives about this season. I suppose the main one is how the movie sometimes feels a little repetitive. There is not much feeling of wonder when the characters go into augmented reality, and the transformation from real world to augmented world is done so many times that it loses some of its intrigue. I also think that the villains, especially Yuna's father, could've been a bit better developed. But otherwise, this movie is excellent and brings SAO back to its best since Aincrad. It's certainly recommended!
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