*Note: I have excluded sound but I will agree that it is great!*
Characters
There are only really three new and important characters introduced in the second season, them being Sinon, death gun, and Yuuki. I'll start with Sinon. She is easily my favorite character of the entire series and her development (throughout the GGO arch) was fantastic. She is one of the only truly interesting characters from SAO in my opinion, and I found her to be incredibly unique. Her development in the first part is unrivaled by that all the other characters. Sinon drives pretty much the entirety of the show, as Kirito is useless as ever. Death Gun is also a pretty great character, and I consider the concept of his character to be stronger than the execution of his motives. I really liked how they set up the illusion of Death Gun being just a single person, and the way the mystery played out was done well. The boy (no clue what his name is) has in interesting complex and relationship to Shino (aka Sinon). Sadly, Kirito got pretty much no development for the rest of the series. The second part of the season was terrible in terms of development for side characters (literally only Yuuki and Asuna got some development). Yuuki was introduced and I honestly didn't care for her at first, actually I never really cared for her. Although the premise of her character is unique, her personality was quite bland and incredibly common. Her development was pretty good, but it sent the pace into a whirlpool of inconsistency. I liked that Asuna finally got some development, despite the effect it had on the season as a whole. There was much better character development this season, but only for specific characters. All the side girls were ignored throughout the season, which I found stupefying. Even Sinon became a mute member of Kirito's harem-wannabe thing, which somehow undid a lot of the greatness Sinon's character built up in the first half.
Art & Animation
The animation is pretty much on the same, awesome level as the first season. I have no complaints in this area. I would like to talk about the one new aspect that was introduced in the second season: GGO art. I actually love the darkness of GGO and how it contrasts the style of Alfheim (and SAO) completely, yet is somewhat similar to the way real life is depicted throughout the series. All in all, the art was great and saved the anime at times.
Story
Similar to last season, this season suffered horribly from inconsistent pacing. GGO had a medium pace, which I enjoyed most of all. From there, the pace took a sudden rise in the random and completely out of place Excalibur arch, which was a show of the great animation and pretty much nothing else. After that, the pace hit something like a brink wall. All of the sudden the story decided that SAO is a slow slice of life anime with a bit of gaming. Although I would not have minded a spin off, OVA, or separate season of this arch, because this arch made no sense in the context of the season. While I'll admit the character development of Asuna and Yuuki was well done, it doesn't really fit when you put it up against the GGO arch. The GGO arch is easily my favorite of the series. The premise of the story actually makes sense, as it presents the issue, the protagonist's opinion of the issue, the solution in theory, and the resolution of the issue. Although it is not a very unique structure, the details in the arch help to make it new and different from other series. The skipping between real life and the game was well done (in both arches, although especially in GGO arch), and I liked the how the arch came to an end. I also liked that the OP level of Kirito made so much more sense. He struggled with working a gun and actually has to base all of his strategy off his sword skills.This seems much more realistic and opened doors to improve upon Kirito's development. The second half of the season was much more inconsistent in both pacing and character development. First of all, there was pretty much no premise in going to get Excalibur, as that previously (terribly weak) antagonist just kind of asked Kirito to do it without much reasoning at all. Secondly, the execution of the arch was terrible. The entire fighting scene only took about 10 minutes, which is less than one entire episode. It is just stupid to have a super hyped arch in the series if it is just rushed over and butchers the set pace, while simultaneously adds absolutely nothing new or interesting. The transition between the incredibly quick attack arch and the Yuuki arch was not smooth enough and resulted in a bizarre feel from the wack pacing. The Yuuki and Asuna arch was interesting enough in terms of plot and I don't really have too much to add because there really is nothing much to add about it.
Season Overall
I really loved the start of the series, and felt that Sinon, Death Gun, and the GGO setting were interesting additions to the series. Despite these great new aspects, the series ruined itself in the second part of the season. The Yuuki arch was a pacing disaster that had it's moments, but was a train wreck in many ways. The horrific dialogue and lack of character development ruined the potential of the anime. Again, you see all the side characters from SAO. They get to fight a little, but otherwise get no new development. As much as I wanted to really love this season, it failed to pull through in the end.
