Oh Sword Art Online II...the franchise started with so much promise and then it felt like the some executives wanted to milk the crap out of it. If you've played the PSP and Vita games on top of watching SAO II, certainly feels like it too.
The season is split into three distinct arcs. The first arc Phantom Bullet was the longest and by far the worst for several reasons. It wasn't even good for TV show standards and I'll get into that later. The second arc Excalibur was certainly refreshing after 14 grueling episodes but lacked substance. Thankfully, it was short, but it felt more like an OAV. The third arc Mother Rosario really made up for putting up with barely watchable filler.
Story:
Phantom Bullet: 1/10. It's a mystery and sets you up with a quiet, kinda nerdy, tsundere-type recluse girl named Sinon that has this tragic secret, and she's the main character (not Kirito). Problem is that you have zero reason to like Sinon. If the viewer can't like the protagonist or get into their world, the show will be very difficult to swallow and that's one of the things that happen here. They try to develop her character by constantly rehashing her tragic past. By constantly, it's like an annoying fly that keeps buzzing around you and you can't kill it. You know it's there but you don't need 14 episodes to constantly remind you about it if she's not going to actually effectively do anything about it.
When Kirito is re-introduced, it is executed TERRIBLY. He reminisces of his time in SAO several times and this event that you never saw (but insert flashback sequences, again done several times in the series) and rather than just touch upon it, it becomes a very disjointed and rushed flashback that you really can't sympathize for Kirito. Yet, the series feels like they HAVE to remind you about it constantly, paired with Sinon's tragic past. It becomes quite literally an emo-fest. In the 14 episodes, I can only really recall 3 matches. So what happens in the rest of the episodes? Talking, emo flashbacks, more talking, planning, flashbacks, Asuna worried, flashbacks, talking.
In short, the pacing is awful, the story telling is non-existent, there's little actual character development that really gives you actual substance that tells you something new about the character (you know a good amount about Kirito already, what's shown is just an insignificant slice that honestly, gets blown up into something unreasonable), and Sinon, the main protagonist is not portrayed to be likeable at all.
Worst of it? The ending to the arc falls completely flat. You just don't care. There's no twist, there's no big surprise, it's feels like "another day in the office" sort of ending. I personally celebrated when I finished it.
Excalibur : 5/10
Adventures in Alfheim Online. If you're into Nordic lore, this might interest you. Otherwise this short series really could've been made into an OAV. Nothing of significance happens to move the story along, and it really brings out the harem-ness of this show (again, I really don't get along with harem shows). It's neat to see some misadventures in ALO for once without Kirito on some focused mission but it's almost like filler episodes. Again, it's still refreshing to see this after trudging through the first arc.
Mother Rosario : 8/10
This is really what this franchise needed. It puts Asuna in the forefront and puts Kirito on the backburner. I wasn't sure how to feel about this at first because most of the time, these kinds of episodes tend to be dull and filler material. On the contrary, they invested a lot of time in combing through Asuna's personal life, why she dives, how it affects her personal life, and how she as a person can make a difference in other people's lives, including her own. You get some beautiful moments of story telling and cuts right to the chase of Asuna standing up for herself rather than relying on Kirito or someone else. This is an example of how you can do character development well. Still not perfect, but these last episodes saved SAO II for me.
Art : Still great art, action scenes are done well, lighting and backgrounds have got some detail and not cheapened. Problem is that they're still using a lot of recycled art and recycled scenes. Character designs and costume designs are well done, wouldn't expect much less.
Sound : Only until the last few episodes was I actually a fan of the music. The opening and closings for the first arc felt like your generic anime opening. Second and third arc was much better. The closings, again nothing unique but it's nice to have LiSA on the last closing song. Very nice song as well and fitting.
Character : Again, we don't need another harem anime. We don't need a reminder that Kirito is naive and clueless when it comes to women and we don't need to see the girls constantly pouting at him.
The first two arcs have virtually zero substantial character development. You really have little reason to care about Sinon, why they needed 14 episodes to move only inches forward with her is beyond me. However the last arc again fleshes out characters decently well, well enough that I started caring about Asuna and the new character Yuuki.
Enjoyment : If masochism is your thing, you'll love the first two arcs. The last arc was worth it but if you're OK not being a completionist, watch the last two arcs and SAO II will leave a much better taste in your mouth.
Overall : I enjoyed the first series very much, including ALO (despite a lot of naysayers), thus I feel that I can tolerate a lot.
However, the first half of SAO II was by far one of the worst shows I've ever seen, period, ever, period. An episode of Spongebob Squarepants has more substance than the entire first half. If they shortened it to maybe 4-6 episodes, it would've been bearable. That way, all the useless bantering, tragic emo moments (quite literally, 30 seconds of staring at a gun going emo with shots of red blood cells going...somewhere, I still don't know) that keep repeating could've been cut down to just the meat of the mystery story. In fact, Aniplex should've just made the first arc into a short OAV series to at least explain some of the events that happened in the SAO world that they were unable to show due to the limited amount of episodes ordered.
Because I actually was a sucker and watched all 24 episodes of this, my initial overall rating was originally a 3. Because I did watch all 24 episodes, the last arc made me feel like SAO franchise could have a great future if the producers knew what makes for a good story telling experience for anime rather than make an adaptation and string the viewer along for a very long ride just to bring them nowhere. If you choose to watch this, take the first half with a grain of salt. In fact, seriously just skip it all together and use those precious wasted hours in your life for a new hobby...like knitting or LARPing, I don't know.
