First off, I'm going under the assumption that you've seen the first season (since seriously, who hasn't), so there will be first season spoilers in this.
Secondly, I'm going to be very in-depth so minor spoilers are present. If you absolutely don't want to be spoiled about anything at all, I'd pass on this. If you don't mind small details about the plot, then you'll be fine.
And third, I'm really sorry about the length of this review. I had a lot to say.
Story: 5/10
SAO II is comprised of three arcs: Gun Gale Online, which takes up the first 14 episodes; Caliber, which immediately follows GGO and takes only 3 episodes and is basically filler; and Mother/Mother's Rosario, which is the last 7 episodes.
All in all, I thought this season was off to a really good start with the Gun Gale Online arc, which for me was initially intriguing and suspenseful. But similarly to the first season, the show abruptly falls apart once you get to the next arc, as well as gets worse the more you think about it.
So we start the show with Kirito and Asuna out on a date, which for my shipper trash self is cute to see. Then the show skips a bit forward and we're introduced to the conflict: Some guy calling himself Death Gun has killed two players in a VRMMORPG called Gun Gale Online. When he shoots someone's avatar in the game, their real-life counterparts are discovered dead in their apartments. A government agent asks Kirito to convert to a GGO account and find Death Gun's real identity; the agency will handle the rest.
Right away there's an apparent problem. Why is the government sending a teenager to face down a murderer? I guess because he cleared SAO??? Regardless, he's still a teenager and the motive behind this doesn't make sense unless you disregard logic. But there's a lot of that in this season, so I'll let it slide because what's one more logical fallacy.
It actually almost seems like the show is aware that Kirito is protected by impenetrable plot armor: "Hey, this kid can't die. Let's pit him against a murderer since he can't lose!" It's not as if Kirito is the first invincible character in anime though, so I'll let that one slide too.
Then the second episode abruptly shifts its focus to the costar of the GGO arc, a sniper named Sinon. Here we get to see a little bit of how GGO works (and how much of a stud Sinon is), as well as Sinon's backstory, which composes the third episode. Now, I'm gonna be honest. I actually really like Sinon's backstory. It's not the most realistic as far as backstories go, but it's certainly original and not something you'd expect to see.
In the episode after that, Kirito finally logs into Gun Gale Online and receives his avatar, which looks like a girl. I'll admit I was very confused as to who this random girl was that was taking up so much time in the opening, but once I realized it was Kirito I thought it was pretty amusing. Although, his feminine appearance in this game is only used as a convenient plot device for a short while and is pretty much abandoned after that. What else is new.
Anyway, Kirito and Sinon bump into each other and he asks her to help him since he's new to this game, so she guides him to a gun shop. Long story short, Kirito (amazingly) is really good at this game and wins money to buy pretty much any gun. And, of course, he goes with a sword. It's a beam sword like a lightsaber, but a sword nonetheless. Not that there's anything wrong with choosing a weapon you know well, and with a tournament that Death Gun will undoubtedly appear at drawing near (and therefore not much time to practice), but it still would have been nice to see Kirito branching out a little, since after all this game IS called Gun Gale Online.
Fast forwarding a bit more, Kirito and Sinon enter the annual GGO tournament, called Bullet of Bullets. Here the show starts to fall apart. In the midst of the final round, Kirito and Sinon shelter in a cave, invisible from the scanner that tracks players, and Kirito tells her that he is here to find Death Gun's real life identity to prevent him from killing anyone else. Then follows a very long discussion that if I recall correctly takes up two or three episodes and was pretty boring to sit through. Kirito reveals his suspicions that Death Gun is an SAO survivor and talks about killing two people in SAO himself (which came out of nowhere and relied on repeated use of flashbacks to establish that this did, in fact, happen in the first season but we didn't hear about it until now because it was conveniently added). He says he has been affected by this experience, but it rather backfires since (a) they never mentioned these two people he killed until just now, and (b) this never actually affects him in this game. It's almost like they put it there as another convenient plot device and to create sympathy toward Sinon ("I know how you feel, I've been there too"). Oh wait, it was a convenient plot device. These episodes were important to furthering the plot, but I still think the large amount of dialogue was boring and not logical since they're in the middle of a tournament and have stopped to spend nearly an hour just talking. Which they could probably have done before the tournament even started. But whatever.
Also included in this very long conversation is Sinon's backstory, and discussion of how Death Gun could be pulling off his murders. Kirito and Sinon figure this out, brainiacs that they are, and come up with a plan to defeat Death Gun in the tournament before he kills anyone else. This, of course, works, and despite external circumstances (which I will avoid discussing due to spoilers), all seems well. The resolution of BoB made me laugh (because it was funny, not because it was bad), but things pretty much go to hell after that. Spoilery stuff happens, and basically Kirito miraculously saves the day. There was a lot of screaming, distorted facial expressions, and Kirito being a dork: the whole nine yards. Then we finally reach an epilogue of sorts, Sinon meets Kirito's gang of disposable female characters irl (plus Klein and that other guy whose name I can't bother to remember), things happen, tearful moments ensue, and character arcs come to conclusion. And it seems like an ending. So is the show over now? Unfortunately, no.
I honestly think if they had cut back on the dialogue in those episodes I previously discussed, and gone more in depth into GGO since it was an interesting concept, they could have ended this as a 12- or 13-episode season and had a nice conclusion. The show probably would have earned a higher score from me, too. But nope, same as with SAO, they had to drag it through the mud for a further ten episodes.
I was really worried during the first half of this show, since I wondered how GGO could possibly take up 24 episodes, and if not, what they would do after they finished the GGO arc. I was hoping this show wouldn't crash and burn like the first season, but it was too late for that.
Two weeks later, I tuned in again, extremely nervous with what they'd pull (I skipped the recap, which I'm told was a terrible recap anyway). And almost immediately I was disappointed.
[There will be minor to major spoilers from here on out since I recommend skipping the last ten episodes anyway; if you don't want to read them then just skip to the art section]
We immediately start with Kirito and Suguha discussing some place they found in ALO a while back, presumably before he went to GGO. Then they log in to the game and meet up with their friends. Right away, I was cringing. There was absolutely no mention of what had happened in GGO, character development was basically negated, and everything was right back to the way it was at the beginning of the season. Except now there's a new disposable female character in Kirito's gang, and it's (you guessed it) Sinon, now with an ALO account and cat ears to boot. The supposed costar of this season? She has like three lines for the rest of the show and does only one thing that could be considered useful. And it's in the filler arc anyway, which makes its utility debatable.
Honestly, I actually really like the concept of ALO itself (as a video game) and it seems like something I'd like to play. But both of the ALO arcs in SAO have been basically filler. And this time, there wasn't even an overly convenient plot device at play. It's just an abrupt 180 tone shift from fighting for your survival to a slice of life about friends playing an MMO together.
Anyway, we now move into the Caliber arc, which takes only 3 episodes and is easily forgettable and very filler (though I'm told it was basically the same way in the light novels). There's this random quest, which if Kirito and his gang don't complete, will ~delete ALO~ (the horror!). Like, honestly, what kind of programmer are you if you make a game that can generate quests that will make the game delete itself if they go unsolved? This whole arc just screams lazy writing at you and essentially accomplishes nothing except showing you how ALO is when Sinon is part of the gang. And with so many characters in this gang, Sinon is shunted off to the side and doesn't really do anything. I thought it was kinda cool to see her using a bow and arrow since sniper rifles aren't a thing in this game, but it was barely explored.
Long story short, the characters miraculously clear the quest and prevent ALO from deleting itself. Yaaaaay. Kirito also gains Excalibur, spelled Excaliber in this story for some sort of pun that I forgot the meaning of. As if he needs the best sword in the game though.
Which brings us to the conclusion of the Caliber arc. It was really cringe-worthy and really forgettable, and only was filler between GGO and Mother's Rosario. Not gonna lie, these episodes were actually painful to watch. I was yelling in my head about every little flaw in the writing (and there were a lot) and feeling like slamming my head against the wall. But I stuck it out because in some sick way I wanted to see how much worse it could get.
And now it's time for the Mother's Rosario arc, which thankfully concludes this show. I was feeling moderately relieved at the beginning of this arc since right off the bat it's clear that Asuna now gets to be the star. Which is awesome since Asuna was basically a side character in the second half of SAO, and didn't appear much in the GGO arc. And this arc wasn't half bad, but there were just too many errors to ignore. Since basically, this arc continues the slice of life about friends playing an MMO theme, except now this time there's emotional manipulation thrown into the mix.
Asuna hears from one of the disposable female characters in Kirito's gang about some mysterious swordsman who is offering a special 11-hit combo to the one who can defeat them in a duel. This person has even beaten Kirito, though this is marked off as Kirito being sexist and going easy since surprise this swordsman is a girl (because we have to make very sure that Kirito is still unbeatable). For some reason, Asuna decides to challenge her, and almost manages to win. But this girl decides that "she's the one" and grabs her and they fly up into the clouds where this mysterious girl says, "Help us!" We find out next episode this girl is named Yuuki and she and her guild of six members want to beat a floor boss in New Eincrad so they can get their names listed on a wall that has the floor number and the names of the people who beat it, up to a maximum of seven names. Yuuki wants to beat a boss with just her guild so they can all have their names listed, which is basically impossible since as Asuna points out they usually have seven guilds of seven members each (49 players total) to beat a boss. Now, when I first watched this I was like "Why is it so important that they beat a floor boss and why are they all crying over this?" As I watched more, their motive actually makes sense and so does their insane amount of determination. I'll avoid saying why due to spoilers, but once you find out who the Sleeping Knights (the name of Yuuki's guild) really are, a lot more things make sense. So if you're watching this and wondering why they're so into it, pass on judgment until you learn their true nature.
Also in this arc is a conflict between Asuna and her mother, which I think had a lot of relatability for this show's target audience of high schoolers. This conflict is mentioned a few times alongside the other conflict of beating a floor boss, and finally comes to a head when Yuuki gives Asuna advice on how to deal with her mom. The resolution of this conflict isn't exactly realistic, but I still think it's a good life lesson.
Anyway, Asuna discovers who Yuuki really is in an episode I'll admit was pretty depressing. But as I said to a friend, sad backstories and emotional manipulation don't mean much when your last ten episodes have no prior plot relevance. Basically these last few episodes were supposed to make you cry. And honestly, you'll cry over this is if you're so attached to this guild of people whose names you can't remember that by the time you learn their story you're feeling hopelessly anguished. I'm normally a huge baby with shows, but this one didn't make me shed a tear. Sorry, better luck next time.
The ending of this tragic tale I could see a mile away. And so could anyone else with half a brain, but that's what happens when you have this sort of thing in a story anyway. What I did like was how the story came full circle in the end. I thought it was nice but overdone since they're repeating what they did in the end of the first season, trying to paint a mass murderer as a morally ambiguous guy. It doesn't work, people. It's just bad writing.
All in all, the Mother Rosario arc was problematic but still reasonably enjoyable for the last few episodes. There was also the plus of seeing Kirito actually lose some fights for once. But if they ever make a third season (which I hope they don't), I'm sure he'll be invincible again.
Score for episodes 1-14: 7/10 (above average and actually quite good at some times)
Score for episodes 15-24: 4/10 (below average with more bad stuff than good)
Which rounds out to the 5/10 I gave it.
And now we FINALLY move on to the other sections, which I promise will be shorter.
[There will be considerably less spoilers now]
Art: 9/10
Still very nice animation going on. It's fluid with some really nice scenery shots in ALO. I also really liked how they used a dull color palette for GGO which reflects the level on which the game is being taken seriously, contrasted with the bright colors of ALO. One of the best-animated scenes was the duel between Yuuki and Asuna, which actually had me impressed even though my enjoyment levels were at an all-time low at that point. Another point of really good animation was the first ED sequence, which had a soft coloring technique, triangles in various shades of blue and green, and some really fluid animations of Sinon dancing like a ballerina. Actually, all the OP's and ED's were really well animated, but this was the one that stood out to me.
The reason this isn't getting a 10 is because of the overly distorted facial expressions (again), as well as blatant anatomical errors. And no, I'm not talking about the eyes being larger than normal. What I mean by anatomical errors is that Sinon's ass clearly shows from the top of her short shorts in GGO. I don't think these people have ever looked at short shorts, because realistically your butt is not so high up that it'll poke out from the top of your shorts. This may sound like I'm being picky, but I'm really not since the animators also make it a point to have as many butt shots of Sinon as they can. Anyway, enough of that.
One last issue I have is that everyone's ALO avatars are basically the same-looking as their real world selves, with the exception of Suguha because that was a convenient plot point. Like yeah okay maybe these people want to look the same in the game but the animators could at least be a little more creative in designing the characters' avatars.
Sound: 8/10
The OST certainly isn't epic tier, but it's still pretty darn good. And in terms of using the OST well, it does okay in some parts and really well in others.
As for openings and endings, there are two openings and three endings (one ED for each arc), and I'll go more in depth in the next paragraphs.
The first OP, Ignite, is definitely a jam and one of my favorite anime openings. Performed by Eir Aoi, who also did the first Kill la Kill OP, it's just all around an awesome song and never failed to get me pumped up for the episode. Seriously, I wonder how Eir Aoi was able to hit those high notes so flawlessly. If you haven't heard the first OP, I'd definitely look it up. Even if you don't like the show you should still appreciate good music.
The second OP is called Courage, and it's still pretty good though it has more of a mild flavor than the first. I don't think it's anything super special, but that might be because I associate it with the negative emotions I felt in the second half.
The first ED is called Startear (Star tear? Start ear???) and is performed by Haruna Luna. It's a really melancholic song and I like it a lot.
The second ED was only played in three episodes, so I have zero memory of it, except that it was performed by LiSA (I'm pretty sure anyway). The sequence was a bunch of stills of Kirito's gang having fun adventures in ALO, so it didn't really add anything to that since I'm not a huge fan of stills.
The third ED is also really good. It's another LiSA song and carries a nostalgic mood to it. The sequence set to it was another softly colored one of Asuna pressing play on all these happy memories she has recorded on her phone, and I think it goes really well with the song.
On the voice acting end, I thought all the voices were fine. Sinon's Japanese VA also voices Celty Sturluson from Durarara, who happens to be a favorite character of mine, so that's part of the reason I initially liked her.
Other than that, there was some weird screaming at some points, but I'm giving them some slack since that coincided with very distorted facial expressions.
Characters: 4/10
While there are some interesting backstories like Sinon's, there's pretty much a lack of character development except for Sinon, and that gets negated once we move into the second half anyway. As I mentioned earlier, with so many characters now in the cast, the show can't seem to keep up with having them all be well-developed and instead resorts to having one of them share the spotlight at a time.
The villain of the GGO arc, Death Gun, had pretty weak motives. But I thought the reveal of who Death Gun is was well done, since it was foreshadowed and basically unexpected. I only predicted who it was because I was having one of my "Hah, that'd be funny if" moments and ended up being dead on.
And as I mentioned before, they attempted to give Kirito some development by saying "Oh, by the way, Kirito's actually killed two people before. Except we only hastily added it in to this season so there's no impact from it." Besides, he killed those people in defense of his own life (and they were murderers too), so it's not as if he killed two people on the street or whatever. Aside from that, Kirito is still Mr. Perfect who beats everyone and solves everything. He had a couple of close calls in GGO, but it's not as if they haven't done that before. His dialogue is still bland and uninspired for the most part.
I actually really liked Sinon when she first appeared, because of her initial presentation as a strong female character and a good backstory to go along with it, but I eventually realized she doesn't have much of a personality. Her development is caused by Kirito and is concluded because of something Kirito does, so it's very little development on her own. And aside from her backstory, her personality is basically nonexistent and I struggle to come up with words to describe her. At the very least she doesn't fall in love with Kirito. Thank god.
As for Asuna, she wasn't present much until the Mother's Rosario arc, which thankfully restored some personality to her since she went from badass female lead to generic tsundere over a few episodes in the first season. She becomes genuinely sweet and caring, though never loses her determination and stubbornness. Though I will say these episodes did make her even more of a Perfect Waifu and I shudder to think of how her otaku fans will react. I myself have a soft spot for Asuna, though I can at least acknowledge that she isn't a super strong character since so much of her character revolves around Kirito.
And with Yuuki, the first thing I have to say is that they should have been more creative with her name, since Asuna's last name is Yuuki as well. They at least make a joke about this in the show, but it's still an uncreative naming choice. Yuuki herself has an interesting backstory, but what really bothers me is that she is literally defined by it and doesn't have a personality aside from it. Ah, Sword Art Online, continuing to make the same mistakes over and over again.
Enjoyment: 7/10
For the first half of the show, I was actually excited for each new episode, partly because of the continued cliffhangers, and partly because I liked where it was going. However, this quickly deteriorated during the second half of the show and each episode made me angrier and angrier. My enjoyment levels rose some when I learned who Yuuki and her guild were, but it was still a drag for each new episode. I only got satisfaction because I was excited at the prospect of writing a review once the show finished and getting to tear it apart.
And now for the final verdict. Drumroll please?
Overall: 6/10
Above average, but not by much. I do score heavily on enjoyment, and as I explained earlier my enjoyment levels plummeted after episode 14.
So, is Sword Art Online II worth watching?
I'd say yes; the first 14 episodes at least. I recommend dropping it after that though, since there isn't much else unless you like Asuna.
It's kind of a shame since early on I was scoring this as an 8 which then dropped rapidly. I was hoping against hope that it wouldn't crash and burn, but since this is SAO it's not surprising that it did.
