So when I planned on seeing Sword Art Online II, I was hoping for an experience similar to the one I got before, but maybe fixing some of the problems that existed in the past show.
To describe it really would be: very disappointing first two thirds, but the last part was surprisingly well done.
Story (4/10)
The series is in three arcs, Phantom Bullet, Calibern, and Mother's Rosario. Since it comes first and takes up the most time, let's discuss Phantom Bullet first.
In an MMO called Gun Gale Online
(think Call of Duty + Valkyrie Chronicles), a player who calls himself Death Gun kills the current top dog in the rankings IRL through the game, and given his past experience with defeating the final boss in Aincrad and saving 300+ players from captivity in ALFheim, Kirito is called once again to find out how Death Gun kills and stop him. One action movie retirement cliche later, he goes into the game, meets a local player named Sinon, and the quest begins.
One aspect to note immediately from the first series was the pros and cons of the pacing. While the first series was all over the place in both arcs, it lead to several unexpected story directions in a multitude of different locations. In this series, Phantom Bullet's story structure is more coherent, but this also makes it very predictable. There's a tournament, a Battle Royale scenario, and then the arc ends. It's not helped by the fact that the end tournament has Kirito and new character Sinon stuck in a cave for what feels like three episodes. For the most part it goes in pretty much the way you'd expect it to, with Kirito defeating Death Gun in the final battle, so while predictable, what you see is what you get. Meaning that if you were expecting more expansion from the world of GGO in this particular series, don't get your hopes up.
Asuna, the female lead of the first series, is basically sidelined for this arc, which is very disappointing as much of the heart of the first series is removed, and given what Kirito goes through in this arc, more of it was needed.
Fortunately, Sinon's inclusion does something to make up for that. She has a backstory that makes sense to motivate her character, a cool and collected attitude, a nice design that reminds of Yoko from Gurren Lagann
(even the voice is the same in the English dub), and the contrast between herself in the game and in real life does add to the theme of escapism present throughout the series. More on that later.
Sadly, Kirito is brought up to speed with her WAY too quickly. While I could buy Kirito being able to adjust quickly in ALFheim Online because that game was very similar to Sword Art Online, GGO is a very different style of game, but Kirito wins a contest no one else prior could in the game and breezes his way through the first tournament in no time once he arrives.
That's not the biggest problem with Kirito in this arc though. That would the backstory the arc fabricated out of nowhere in an attempt to connect him with Sinon. There seems to be an attempt to connect the two similar to Sonic and Blaze from Sonic Rush, but Sonic didn't get a fabricated backstory for it. Not only is the "backstory" an extremely forced way to connect the two characters, but it makes no sense as to why the Moonlight Black Cats backstory from the first season wasn't used. The audience already knows it happened, it would be a similar yet different scenario from Sinon's, and Kirito FELT like he killed them. This is even more apparent when Kirito flashes back to the event when trying to figure out who Death Gun actually is. So instead, the writer did something worse than a retcon by trying to remind us of events that never happened on screen and were never addressed in the previous series. Wow.
Although there is a twist involving Death Gun I liked as it reminded me of Mystery of the Batwoman, the mystery itself is probably my least favorite kind. Not when the one is extremely obvious but the character is built up (ERASED, Batman Arkham Knight), one where we had basically no idea who the one was and it was foreshadowed next to none. The reveal is very underwhelming, and the climax following the reveal is worse. They repeat something a lot of people hated about the first season, and while I didn't mind it as much there because there was gradual buildup to the event and the character, here it just comes out of nowhere to put a seemingly nice character straight into black on the moral scale.
At least the arc ends on a nice note with Kirito giving Sinon closure for her traumatic event through a very sweet scene. So overall, the arc was very disappointing, bland and dull compared to the more wide range of possibilities and setpieces from the first season.
Caliburn, an arc which lasts three episodes, is mostly pretty harmless. Kirito and his friend group go on an in game sidequest to get a shiny sword, therefore making Kirito even stronger. While the "tension" is basically none, they were smart to let the action take center stage. All of the characters get a moment to shine, and the arc doesn't really overstay its welcome, so it's basically a time killer with action montage scenes and no real plot or character development.
The last arc, Mother's Rosario, is what saves the series from being outright bad though. It features Asuna, who was basically locked out in the series's first half, not feeling the same confidence she previously had in the virtual world IRL, and after meeting and battling Absolute Sword, who turns out to be a spunky girl named Yuuki, she decides to help her on her Guild's quest to make a name for themselves, and in turn, gain a sense of leadership and confidence from those in the group.
Asuna's conflict here regarding her family issues adds another aspect to link her with Kirito in the first season, a family they felt they couldn't fit into, and it gives a reason why she was coy to jumping into Sword Art Online in the first place prior. The attempt to show escapism is clear through both her scenerio and the one for Sinon, going into the virtual world to not face their real problems and feel like different people. In turn, the difference makes their character development worth something.
While the Phantom Bullet Arc forced the emotional connection between Sinon and Kirito through a sequence never shown in the Aincrad arc, the connection between Asuna and Yuuki is very deep and well-developed in my opinion. Yuuki sees a lot of her sister in Asuna, Asuna sees a strong girl in spite of her misfortune. But Yuuki herself isn’t strong on the inside. So we see through the time these girls spend together a bond that builds both of them up and does a really good job of getting the viewer emotionally invested. Don't be afraid to fight for what you want, have fun while you still can, be grateful for the life you've been given, and try to approach life with a glass half full.
Although some may call a dramatic twist that happens in the arc "forced drama" or "forced sympathy", I disagree on account of the fact that the connection between Asuna and Yuuki was built up prior to this twist, and the twist does provide great justification for the whole quest in itself. It's not a perfect arc, it could've had a lot more time to develop without Calibern and Kirito still has to get Asuna out of a tense situation, but overall it was surprisingly good in a season that was mostly disappointing prior to end it on a pretty note.
Animation (8/10)
One part of Sword Art Online that has been rather consistent even with the inconsistent quality of the writing is the animation. Fight scenes are very smooth looking and have special moments of Sakuga, the character designs have more polish added to them from the first season, GunGale Online looks like a game world even if the worldbuilding there wasn't very good, and it overall just looks very well done. Sure, the character designs look a bit similar to one another by their face, but they are still polished and colorful.
Sound (6/10)
The soundtrack of SAO II is mostly comprised of remixes from the first season, with a few unique tracks here and there. The remixes of Swordland and Luminous Sword definitely add to the scenes they're played in, and Ignite is a pretty nice sounding song for the OP. She Has to Confront Her Fears is my favorite of the new tracks, while Courage is okay. So overall just okay.
Characters (5/10)
The cast in the series do an okay job when they have their moments, but for the most part everything is periphery to Kirito. Characters like Leafa, Lisbeth, Yui, Silica, Klein or Agil mainly serve as Kirito's possy before doing too much else. Still, there are some nice moments in there amidst their demoted to extra status.
As for Kirito himself, the fabricated backstory I mentioned earlier does hurt his character in the first arc, as it did far less to shape his character than the Moonlight Black Cats story in the first series. I don't hate him for being "wish fullfillment" or "self insert", but he basically played very typical hero the whole way through with much less character development or growth period than before. Makes me wonder if Season 3 will add to that or not, as having gone through his trust period in the first series, there isn't much I can think of now left to use him for.
Sinon was a nice addition to the GGO arc as a whole to make it better than it would've been without her. She had a fairly developed character, and in spite of breaking down twice around Kirito, she still was vital for him to complete his mission in GGO.
Death Gun was rather disappointing though. Most of his villainy came from presence, and it's ruined by the identity and the end sequence with him.
Asuna's development here was honestly something that made me like and understand her more, while Yuuki's earnest energy and relationship to Asuna made her likable quickly. It's just a shame Yuuki didn't have more than about 5 episodes of screentime.
It's also a shame that Kirito and Asuna's relationship, something that felt earned at the end of the last series, barely gets any focus period. It's either Kirito OR Asuna in this series rather than putting the two together. Their moments are cute but the lack of moving it to the next level is very disappointing.
Enjoyment (6/10)
Although I wouldn't say this was an awful series overall thanks to Mother's Rosario at the end, it was still a disappointing one because half the series is based on an arc filled with problems only slightly alleviated thanks to Sinon. Still, it's a series that kept me fairly engaged visually the whole way through. I have no idea what'll come out of the series next, but it'll certainly be something worth talking about for one reason or another.
Overall (5/10)
