- Before I may or may not hurt the feelings of the readers of the review, I'll go ahead and say SAO is neither as good, or as bad as people make it out to be. However, if I were to side with an opinion, I'd probably go with the criticizers. This review will be written with the assumption that the readers have already seen SAO II. I'll use a mostly objective point of view, but with support for my opinions.
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Story: 4/10:
Arc 1 (Phantom Bullet):
- Set inside a new world, Gun Gale Online, the Phantom Bullet arc was disappointing to say the least. After the bitter taste that the previous season left with its second half, I began SAO II with the hope that it would have a strong start like the original did. Honestly, nothing in this arc really appealed to me. The battle royal idea was interesting, but the fact that most of it was spent on borderline romantic intentions between Kirito and Sinon rather than actual action let me down to say the least. Nothing was really memorable about GGO, and a few episodes later I almost completely forgot about it.
Arc 2 (Excalibur):
- Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, the 2nd arc completely fooled me. Dear god this arc was boring. It's honestly safe to say that this was complete filler. I shouldn't have to say much about it, because NOT MUCH HAPPENED IN THE ARC. It's the type of arc that you could completely skip and not lose much. The original arc hardly developed in this sub arc. Oh yeah, it was also just a single quest inside Alfiem Online, arguably the very thing that destroyed season one.
Arc 3 (Mother's Rosario):
- To me, this arc is by far the best of the three. Ironically, I enjoyed the moments spent outside of VR. This arc is IMO one of the things they did right. The story was actually pretty good. Almost enough to be considered emotional.
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Art/Sound:
Not much really to say here. It's pretty much the same as the first season. The art is on par with today's animation, but nothing stellar. Same goes for the soundtrack, except I'd say it's a little better.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Characters:
*Sigh* Along with the issues surrounding the plot, the characters are indeed a weak point of the series. Fanservicey, melodramatic, and underdeveloped are just a few words I could use to describe even our MAIN characters.
- Kirito: Receiving absolutely zero development besides the fact that he's a trap in GGO, Kirito is the same as he was in the original SAO. A perfect, ladyloved Overpowered generic main character, who always saves the day and succeeds no matter what.
- Asuna: Like the first season, Asuna received little screentime aside from her role in the third arc. However, she DOES finally receive a backstory.. (yknow the generic my parents know best for me but i'll prove them wrong in the nick of time kind of backstory). Disappointing right?
- Sinon: Irdk how to feel about this one. While she received a hefty amount of screentime and development in the first arc trying to get comfy with Kirito, she suddenly disappears. I wasn't exactly on board with this, because I wanted to see more of her.
- Yuuki: My favorite main character. Unlike the others, her story felt genuine. It received full development and when her time came I felt something because I became semi-attached. The writers did a pretty good job with this character's development.
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(If you stuck around to this point of the review, congrats.)
Conclusion (enjoyment): Overall I can't really say I hated this show. However, I'm indifferent, leaning on the side of hating it. Where did this show go wrong? Maybe the first season at the beginning of the second arc? Maybe. I had high hopes for season two, since after the mixed reception of the uber popular first season, I figured the writers would really step their game up. Looks like they didn't do such a good job. Regardless, I'll probably still watch the third season, out of obligation.
