“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.”
“The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.”
— Oscar Wilde
SAO is, at heart, a love story. It encompasses all kinds of love -- romantic, familial, platonic, fraternal, compassionate -- and it is romantic in every sense of the word. “What is romanticism, after all, but a bold cry about how life should be, not about how it is?”, and SAO embodies this sentiment through
...
its positive outlook on humankind and the blossoming ambiguity between the real and the virtual, as well as the power of all forms of love in changing the world for the better. But that does not mean it depicts life as all sunshine and rainbows. Memento mori -- death always lies in the shadow of life, and Alicization is especially rife with such death and destruction.
“But at last he knew that he was going to die. He had just strength to fly up to the Prince’s shoulder once more. “Good-bye, dear Prince!” he murmured, “will you let me kiss your hand?”
“I am glad that you are going to Egypt at last, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “you have stayed too long here; but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you.”
“It is not to Egypt that I am going,” said the Swallow. “I am going to the House of Death. Death is the brother of Sleep, is he not?”
And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet.
At that moment a curious crack sounded inside the statue, as if something had broken. The fact is that the leaden heart had snapped right in two. It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost.”
— Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince”
The relationship between the Happy Prince and the Swallow is beautiful but tragic, and there are major parallels with the deep, inseparable friendship between Kirito and Eugeo. Kirito, like the Happy Prince, devoted and sacrificed himself for the good of everyone, but Eugeo, like the Swallow, devoted and sacrificed himself for none other than Kirito, and his death left Kirito in a comatose state for months, cutting himself off from everything in a vicious mental cycle of self-blame and self-hatred.
“Death is a great price to pay for a red rose, and Life is very dear to all. It is pleasant to sit in the green wood, and to watch the Sun in his chariot of gold, and the Moon in her chariot of pearl. Sweet is the scent of the hawthorn, and sweet are the bluebells that hide in the valley, and the heather that blows on the hill. Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?”
— Oscar Wilde, “The Nightingale and the Rose”
In “The Nightingale and the Rose”, The Nightingale sacrifices her blood and her own life in order to create a single red rose, a “Love that is perfected by Death… that dies not in the tomb.” The most vivid parallel lies with the momentary reforging of the broken Blue Rose Sword into the Red Rose Sword, stained with Eugeo’s heart-blood, as well as through the eternal, everlasting love of the single blue rose, frozen and preserved forever, that forms the essence of the sword.
“Yeah. I see it… Sparkling in the darkness, just like the stars. The stars in the sky I looked up at every night from the foot of the Gigas Cedar. They look just like your sword when it shines. That’s it. Your black sword should be named the Night-Sky Blade… This world, so full of sorrow… Envelop it as gently as the night sky.”
— Eugeo
But Alicization moves beyond the beautiful deaths present in Oscar Wilde’s stories -- the Happy Prince lives onwards, his Night Sky Sword representing his strength, his resilience and panache. In Volume 2 of the SAO light novels, Sachi likens Kirito to a star shining upon her and guiding her in the dark, but by the end of Alicization, Kirito is truly the boundless night sky, of countless stars in the darkness gently shining upon everyone and everything: “But I finally understand. Love isn’t something to be sought. It’s something to give. Alice taught me that” (Eugeo).
“The work of art is the object seen sub specie aeternitatis; and the good life is the world seen sub specie aeternitatis. This is the connection between art and ethics.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
Wilde’s stories and aesthetic philosophies play an important role in Sakura no Uta, but it is merely one of the ladders that is used to expound upon its own artistic ideas, one of them being how a work of art is like a beautiful corpse -- a moment captured in eternity -- but one that is constantly resurrected and reborn through the diverse eyes of different spectators, like the preserved specimens of butterflies coming back to life and taking flight again in the silent forest of sakura. SAO propounds the idea that the body is merely a vessel (Subahibi moment), and what fills that vessel is the soul and everything that it brings along with it: love, values, beauty, ethics, art, and memories, or the more poignant ‘omoide’. Like a work of art, the memory of Eugeo is always living within Kirito, and the memory of Kirito is always living within Asuna, Suguha, Sinon, and everyone he has formed connections with.
“Much on earth is hidden from us, but to make up for that we have been given a precious mystic sense of our living bond with the other world, with the higher heavenly world, and the roots of our thoughts and feelings are not here but in other worlds. That is why the philosophers say that we cannot apprehend the reality of things on earth. God took seeds from different worlds and sowed them on this earth, and His garden grew up and everything came up that could come up, but what grows lives and is alive only through the feeling of its contact with other mysterious worlds. If that feeling grows weak or is destroyed in you, the heavenly growth will die away in you. Then you will be indifferent to life and even grow to hate it. That’s what I think.”
— Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“But there's one thing I know! And I believe it! That reality is right here! This world, as well as the countless virtual worlds connected to it... in no way are they make-believe refuges! For me, this world is the reality where I have a real life, real friends, real encounters and partings, and real smiles and tears! Don't you all feel the same way? Aren't you all doing your best because this world is your alternate reality? And yet, if it's just a game, if you abandon it because it's nothing but a virtual fake, then tell me, what is real to us anyway? All these worlds that we've grown came together just like this World Tree and started to bud. And caused this flower called the Underworld to bloom. I want to protect it. Please! Please... help us."
— Lisbeth
The Brothers Karamazov = SAO, enough said.
“I’m sorry. I can’t tell you now. Because what I want is for Alice to see the Real World with her own eyes and then decide for herself. It’s not a land of the gods in any way, nor is it a utopia. Far from it. Compared to this world, it’s way uglier and dirtier. But that’s not all there is. There are so many people there who want to protect this world and be friends with you all. Just like Kirito.”
— Asuna
"I acknowledge and accept that you Realworlders are our creators. I am grateful to you for creating us. But as another person born in my world once said, "What if the 'Real World' were also a world created by others? What if there were even more creators outside it?" If, one day, your own creators appeared before you and ordered you into slavery, what would you do? Would you grovel on the ground, pledge your loyalty, and beg for mercy? I have already had many interactions with Realworlders. I am all alone in a strange world, but they've encouraged and supported me. They've taught me many things, and taken me to many places. I am very fond of them. And that's not all. I love one of these Realworlders. Whenever I think of this person, whom I'm unable to see now... even this steel chest of mine feels like it's about to burst. I have a right hand that I can extend to the people of the Real World. But I do not have knees that I can kneel on, or a forehead that I can grind into the dirt. That's because I am a human."
— Alice
The Real World is not so different from the Underworld in its good and its bad. Rather, it is an even uglier and dirtier place -- if there is no God, then everything is permitted -- and lacks the beautiful triumph of mind over matter that is the very foundation of the Underworld. Alice’s speech is also pretty funny in the metafictional sense considering that the ‘Real World’, along with the entire SAO universe is indeed “a world created by others”. All fiction is metafiction -- Trompe le Monde.
Alicization, and SAO as a whole, is a prescient exploration of the blurring boundaries between the real and the virtual, human and AI, and as for what I think of the whole thing, the former I discussed in my Ordinal Scale review and the latter is still something I haven’t come to a clear conclusion. Perhaps the answer lies in identity and how much you can identify with something, regardless of whether it is alive or not,
※ ※ ※
I first watched SAO in April of 2019, and it’s been nearly four years since then. Along with Your Lie in April, which I watched a few months later, it was the anime that got me into anime, and I’ve had a lot of fun over the years on my journey of watching a bunch of anime, getting into Japanese media as well as non-Japanese media, and learning Japanese to a decent level. But all good things must come to an end, and now’s as good a time as any for taking a step back from anime and embarking on a new journey.
Merry Christmas, hum along to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and stay cool.
Oh Everything turns to ash to ash
命は彼方を目指す
消えることない罪と痛み 抱き締めて
And everything turns to dust to dust
倒れて土に還るとき
せめて小さな花がほら 咲きますように
forget-me-not
forget-me-not
forget-me-not
Ash to ash, dust to dust
どうか忘れないで
ありがとう。
さよなら。
Alternative Titles
Synonyms: Sword Art Online: Alicization 3rd Season, Sword Art Online III 3rd Season, SAO Alicization 3rd Season, Sword Art Online 3 3rd Season, SAO 3 3rd Season, SAO III 3rd Season, Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld - The Last Season
Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン アリシゼーション War of Underworld
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
11
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Jul 12, 2020 to Sep 20, 2020
Premiered:
Summer 2020
Broadcast:
Sundays at 00:00 (JST)
Licensors:
Aniplex of America
Studios:
A-1 Pictures
Source:
Light novel
Theme:
Video Game
Duration:
24 min. per ep.
Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
Statistics
Ranked:
#19392
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#351
Members:
615,351
Favorites:
3,211
Available AtResources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 127 / 136
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Your Feelings Categories Dec 25, 2023
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.”
“The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.” — Oscar Wilde SAO is, at heart, a love story. It encompasses all kinds of love -- romantic, familial, platonic, fraternal, compassionate -- and it is romantic in every sense of the word. “What is romanticism, after all, but a bold cry about how life should be, not about how it is?”, and SAO embodies this sentiment through ... Sep 20, 2020
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. ... Sep 19, 2020
I have to be straight with you all - I'm just floored by how many people blindly love everything SAO. I absolutely love the Aincrad arc, and Alfheim was pretty enjoyable. S2 was fine, Alicization was pretty good imo. They all have their flaws (and boy are there a lot of them). But this? My God I cannot fathom how anyone is rating this higher than a 5, which is much higher than I'm willing to rate it.
** There are some spoilers in here, so read at your own risk. No major plot spoilers, though! ** Positives of this season: There's finally a real protagonist again ... Dec 5, 2020
Have you ever been too scared to watch an anime when you even had it all aired and downloaded right in front of you but can't watch it? Cause you overhyped it and worried about the series messing it up? Well, that's Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld 2nd Season for me. And oh boy did mess up a considerable amount.
Well as I said previously I was very much excited for the season of SAO as the last of a crowned as the 4th ever 10/10 anime out of the 300 anime I've watched, which is quite a big thing for me. But ... Dec 22, 2022
“Jesus shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead; and his kingdom shall have no end."
-Corinthians 15:23 I used to be an atheist until I watched Sword Art Online: Alicization: War of Underworld Part 2. History has proven Jesus was a real man, but the second coming of Christ was merely a myth to me. I never truly believed Christ would return from the heavens to liberate us… until now. Reki Kawahara has created the final chapter of the Bible. This tale rivals Shakespeare, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and The Odyssea. It is the most spectacular writing I have seen in the entire ... Sep 20, 2020
This. This is a perfect show. Every aspect of this show is executed perfectly. I will go so far as to say this is the greatest anime ever created.
The enjoyment I have felt from watching Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld 2nd Season is inexplicably massive. I enjoyed every second of every minute I have poured into watching Kirito and his boyfriend's boyfriend's girlfriend; it was all way too worth it. From the first tentacle scene to the last Star Wars scene, this show was full of action, comedy, and drama. It always kept me on the edge of my seat, and every ... Apr 11, 2023
Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld 2nd Season
Well, the first part of this war was already a disappointment, but to bring this to a new level is something you didn't see coming. Not sure how many times I joked about what we watched and what happened this season. If anyone has experience with Kingdom Hearts Writing and the Youtube Channel "Just a Pancake", that person will know what I'm getting at. This season is a pure definition of "Random Bullshit Go" "That's not even my Final Final Form" and "Okay I believe you" - these 3 memes represent the entire plot of this ... Aug 16, 2020
Story: Pacing is off, like so off from the light novel. Episode 3456 I can hear the A-1 picture production studio screaming "WE CANNOT FUCKING TAKE IT ANYMORE KIRITO JUST FUCKING WAKE UP WE CANNOT DELAY ANYMORE xD". Just wtf. All of Kirito's teammate is either apparently feeding or baiting. Asuna baits, Klein feeds, Sinon feeds, Leafa baits (during the pig scene). Hell A-1 picture even included Eiji to feed thinking that not enough feeding is given. The light novel is much, much more in-depth in why they feed/bait, to the point where their demise is justified. 3/10
Art: Bro, Kirito's flashback (direct copy-paste from S1 ... Sep 21, 2020
The art is pretty, and I don't have anything else that was good about this season.
Story: The story is bland, predictable and full of typical shounen moments. Characters suddenly getting a powerup after remembering the past, villains staying alive just for convenient writing purposes and everyone believing the villain without any proof whatsoeverwith the excuse of 'racism' are not anything to be surprised about in this season. One thing I can say is that this season did not have any plot holes, as that would require it to have an actual plot. Art: The one thing SAO did have going for it is it's art, as ... Sep 19, 2020
horrible writing... unless making a great plot in Alicization, just to bring back the dead repeatedly to save the day, and 20 episodes from 1st half to 2nd half being a single episode on repeat, with probably the worst ending episodes so far in SAO
It is pathetic how poor this season was, even in comparison to previous I cannot give anything other than 3/10 for it, because it's just a 2 episode 2 part season, but the first episode being recapped for half a year's worth of time to then finish it off with the laziest I've seen so far Feb 4, 2021
*Spoiler free in regard to the actual plot/story*
Based on how this season starts, continues and ends, on a superficial level, it actually is a complete rip off. It feels like they blatantly used every single aspect of a show that already many people have watched and it's just as sad. But no comparisons shall be made right? (psst, its season 8 of a REALLY big show) It starts off as garbage and turns into a complete dumpster fire the best thing being the visually stunning sight of that huge mountain of flames coming of of it. This makes me very sad because the first part of Alicization ... Aug 8, 2020
I've never made a MAL account until now, but I decided to do so because of how inconceivably stupid this season of SAO is. Be warned that this review is incredibly long and filled with spoilers since I get really deep into the story's inconsistencies and just generally poor writing.
While the art and sound are as usual top notch, the overall story and characters present in this season are filled with so many laughable inconsistencies and make so many poor decisions that I'm not sure if it's due to a poor adaptation of the author's source work or the author's shitty writing. First off, let's go ... Aug 4, 2023
I am definitely lost, why this anime is getting so much hate from some groups. I guess just popular pieces have to face to this.
Entire SAO Alicization is really awesome anime. I won't deny it has here and there some smaller or bigger holes, however it's not a burden for this anime. You can still enjoy it and it won't just shatter your experience in 2 seconds with some total nonsense. I am not some hardcore fan of SAO myself but I liked original concept and I'll try to review, why this anime is good. SAO Alicization continues in path made by first and second ... Jun 27, 2021
(take this review with a biased grain of salt.)
SAO is my favorite light novel series/anime ever. Everyone complains about Kirito being too OP. And Asuna. And basically, I recognize it's a running joke in the anime community. But for me, SAO is perfect. I love OP characters. I love Kiritio and Asuna and their romance together. I love the storylines. All of it. I especially love how everything connects together in each new arc. Of course, nothing beat the original aincrad arc. That is, until the newest season, War of the Underworld. I got fucking goosebumps watching that shit. Pardon the language. But seriously. ... Sep 10, 2020
If you liked the previous Sword Art Online animes before Aliciation, then this season is fine for you. It becomes a generic overpower isekai protagonist doing overpowered things. If you're like me, and started watching Alicization because you heard it fixed a lot of SAO's problems, then you're not going to enjoy this season that much.
The problem is that it throws away so much of the world they built in the previous parts, in exchange for Kirito's harem getting all the screen time being useless against the villians. So this season came down to this: Kirito's harem log in, get a dynamic entrance showing off how ... Sep 19, 2020
Objectively, War of Underworld II is probably the second best cour of SAO after WoU. However, for rather petty reasons I find myself unable to rate it as highly as I did the first cour and Alicization part 1. This really saddens me as one of the biggest SAO stans.
What are those reasons? Well simply put, A-1 have chosen to focus on style over substance for the arc’s conclusion. Yes, the art, animation and OST are all top notch as we’ve come to expect from SAO as of late. But, I can’t help but be disappointed at the quality of the adaptation as ... Oct 10, 2020
At first I never thought that this season can be this much amazing. Well first I thought maybe it will be the end of SAO but I know now that it's not finished yet. The last arc is coming (Unital Ring). I know SAO is hated by some people. Many they never tried to understand it. Well I am not judging them. Everyone has their own liking and disliking. I am just saying that you should not say so many bad things about an anime if you know how hard is to make an anime. I know maybe at first you will think it's very
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Sep 19, 2020
What a Journey. From Alicization Begining back in 2018 to Alicization Lasting it's been a thrilling ride.
This tale ends here. The full story has been told. But Kirito and Asuna and Leafa and Sinon and others will join Alice in the battle beyond this point. When next they gather, swords in hand, it will be for the final, greatest battle of all : the Inter - Intelligence War . But as of this moment, all possibilities are merely bobbing along in flux , flickering beyond a field of fluctuating light. From the beginning to the end, I enjoyed this season so much. It had its up and downs ... Jan 30, 2021
this is amazing, seeing this anime about vr mmorpg i remember that gamers also matter, but what does it mean to be a gamer? be a gamer, be a player, have you ever wondered what it is to be a gamer? Have you ever wondered what video games taught you to take with you? or have you never stopped to think about it? after all, they are hours and hours that we dedicate to them, many hours of our days and our lives. If you are good observers, you will notice that they have many things to teach us, to inspire us. Angry, what did
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May 4, 2021
9 minutes in to the first episode and we get a Leafa groping scene, I honestly was about to drop it right then and there and I said that if that pig did what he was told to do then I would...well I'm still here so let's get on with it. I'll spoil some stuff here and there; If you saw War Part 1, I won't waste your time, I gave it a 6 and you can see that this is two points lower so it's not really worth investing into in my opinion.
To start, they really wrote a way to make every time a ... |