This review is a lot bigger than I anticipated (even by my normally long winded reviews), so if you want a brief overview of my critique and thoughts, see the summary below.
Summary:
Sword Art Online 2 (or the second season) makes slight improvements over the first season. There is a noticeable effort to bring back psychological elements and an attempt to add depth to characters. It sometimes succeeds. The problem is it also tends to fall prey to some of the first seasons flaws, making it seem that this season failed to learn from its previous mistakes. However, what is here is still decent and ends on a surprisingly strong note, with a slightly better story and some new cast members being added to the mix. While the keywords in this review are: “slight improvement”, I did at least appreciate the attempt being made. It managed to be slightly better than I expected, but still not coming close to reaching the hype fans of this series are glorifying it to be (with one minor exception being the Rosario Arc at the end). Overall: 7/10.
Background:
After the first season stopped airing, it was clear that this anime was incredibly polarizing and divisive, with debates still to this day whether or not this anime series is garbage or excellent. Personally, I fell somewhere in the middle and tended to see both side’s arguments. So when the trailer (and forgettable filler movie that I don’t plan on reviewing because it was a waste of time) arrived for season 2, many fans were excited and anticipating (especially those who haven’t read any source material) what this season would bring. After it finished airing, most people hadn’t had their opinions swayed one way or another (or at least, that’s the impression I got). Critics still tore it apart for being mindless, generic and cliché while fans still really enjoyed new additions to the story and characters. I was ready to give this another chance after the first season left me disappointed and unfulfilled.
Plot/Story:
Phantom Bullet Arc
The plot (and additionally the setting) in this initial arc and in general is a little more intriguing this time around, attempting to play to the strong suits of the first season. Those were: the fear of death seeping in what’s supposed to be a fun, MMOFPS game, psychological scars showing up frequently, how to deal with loss, that grand scope of exploring new virtual worlds and an escape to try and hide any hurt you have or misgivings with your life through technology like the NerveGear. I admit in that last point that I am stretching it, but to be honest, this season had made some improvements (for the most part) to the overall plot. It had a decent sense of mystery and suspense and while there were some small moments that I thought tried to suspend disbelief too far, its efforts weren’t as in vain as it was the first season.
The second half of this arc does get a little slow plot wise (with Asuna and Kirito’s harem just sitting there and doing little of anything to help things) and a couple episodes in particular (more OVA’s then arcs) are dreadfully boring.
Calibur Arc
Speaking of dreadfully boring… yeah. This arc came and went and had little to no impact on me. Honestly, it showcased all the WORST traits of the first season. Kirito being an ungodly and omnipotent force that trashes everything in his wake, Klein being pigeonholed into comedic relief… and the harem of Kirito’s being dull and one note (sadly including Sinon now…). Sorry, but this arc is like that lame side quest in the game you stumble upon and wish you could escape from as fast as possible. Thankfully, things were about to get much better…
Mother's Rosario
Say what you will about the phantom bullet and calibur arcs… THIS is the arc I will always defend and stand up for. Why? For the first time in a LONG time in this series, I was emotionally invested more than ever before and cared for the characters involved in these short 7 episodes more then I cared about anyone else after 36. I was shocked again watching this series… and unlike last time, the shock was good. VERY good, in fact… I won’t go into detail what happens, but the last four episodes are by FAR the best episodes of the entire show, giving more depth to characters who felt hollow and adding in new characters that were easy to sympathise with. The last two episodes in particular were well done story and character wise, giving me what I always wanted from this show: a reason to care and to get emotionally invested. I would love to go into more detail into what happens, but I want to leave that to the audience to experience for themselves. Laugh if you must, but I am standing my ground here. For the first time, I saw and experienced what fans of this franchise saw from day one.
So overall, I may still be slightly underwhelmed with how the story played out, there were some improvements and the last arc in particular was a pleasant surprise. Overall: 6/10.
Characters (This is going to be a long one… sorry):
This is another aspect that saw some improvements. Our main lead Kirito is still unfortunately stuck in the wish fulfilment rut. However, he does get some obvious PTSD from everything that’s happened thus far. On some level, I appreciate that they gave him something more to his character and showed that the events of the first season weren’t just forgotten completely. I think though that for his character, it’s a little too late. I still appreciated the better intentions this time around.
Where the character aspects of this anime start to shine is with our new heroine. Sinon is a sniper who is very talented at the game GGO (Gun Grave Online). She seems to exhibit the initial character of Asuna more… at first. Much like Kirito, she has dealt with some PTSD due to events in her past and thus give these characters something to relate to and have in common (which is more than I can say for Asuna and Kirito). On the whole, I actually liked her character quite a bit more than the rest of the female characters.
Sadly, she seems to be struck with the “OMG, Kirito is super hawt and now I like him…” illness that plagued the other female cast. I would’ve preferred their relationship to be more platonic (like Hawkeye and Mustang from FMA), being good friends but not another romantic interest. Also, I couldn’t help but to think what Asuna would think seeing her cling onto Kirito this whole time… one last point about her character is that… the fanservice…
I am of the belief that fanservice is much like Icing. I heard something on the topic of fanservice (and I am paraphrasing here): Think of any given anime like a cake. Icing is much like fanservice. Adding some icing can sweeten the cake and that cake more enjoyable then it already was or help make a bad cake better. But overuse this element or solely rely on it and eating that much icing can make anyone get sick or ill and not enjoy what their being served. In hindsight, using cake analogies when describing female characters creates subtext that I REALLY wanted to avoid, but the same can be said for SAO and SAO 2. Her character is overly fanserviced and it was distracting. It’s still a problem that plagues this franchise and reeks of trying to tantalize audiences with cheap gimmicks when her character never needed it in the first place. It can tell people who care about her character (like I did) that they have so little confidence in her character development that they have to show off some uncomfortable ass shots of the high school girl.
The villain this time around is pretty striking from a pure character design basis. Though his name (especially what he calls his weapon of choice) is remarkably silly and hurts the ominous atmosphere and mystery his character brings. The new side characters (including Sinon’s friend) are mostly ok but get more interesting as certain plot developments arise in the second half of the Phantom bullet arc.
There is only two more characters I wanted to talk about: Yuuki. I won’t spoil what happens in the Mother’s Rosario arc, but I thought she was probably the best developed character in the entire series. With the short amount of episodes they gave her, they did a good job giving her a fleshed out character who didn’t join Kirito’s moe harem (thank God…) and for the first time in a very long time in this anime, gave me a reason to truly care and get emotionally invested in the characters. Also, Asuna is significantly better here, but aside from this arc at the end, is on the whole forgettable and a non-presence. Overall: 6/10.
Sound:
The soundtrack this time around was… pretty good. While I might prefer some of the warmer orchestrations and some of the more melancholic tunes of the first seasons, this one feels appropriate for the post-apocolyptic setting on display. The grungy, distorted guitars on tracks like Gunland help amp up the action much like Swordland did for the first season, essentially taking that song and injecting it with steroids. While the soundtrack is mostly dominated with a more electronic feel this time around, tracks like “Thinking Tenderly of You” and “Peace again” are standouts, with beautiful piano compositions and create a more emotional and peaceful atmosphere. The latter actually reminds me of the soundtrack from the 2003 version of FMA. Other tracks like “She Must Overcome Her Fear” are also kinetic pieces that help keep the action exciting and intense (which it is overall). One last aspect of the soundtrack are the more haunting songs. I think this was a great addition as it plays to the strengths of having characters go through traumatic experiences. And what I mean by that is it helps amplify and convey those feelings to the audience. Overall: 6/10.
Animation:
As was the first seasons, the art and animation in SAO 2 is great. The majestic and fantastical settings in the first seasons are swapped for post-apocalyptic and (this might just be me) some heavy cyberpunk locations. Since the emphasis here is more on gunplay then on swords, the animation nicely reflects this change in battle scenes. Gun fights are well done, with a feeling of intensity and stakes rising in the Phantom Bullet arc. The final battle in that arc had some pretty stellar animation, as well as some scenes in the first few episodes. Overall, it still holds up nicely and actually improves as the show goes on. Overall: 7/10.
Enjoyment:
Much like the first season, I still enjoy this series despite all the plotholes, glaring flaws and dull characterization. I did enjoy this a little more than the first because they tried to remedy and fix the issues I had with the first season. It seemed like the story was stronger here and more effort was put in rather than: “Well, how can we make Kirito look more god-like then we already have?” I don’t have much to say here because my thoughts are mostly the same from the first season. Still good popcorn entertainment with a little more sustenance this time around. Overall: 7/10.
Final Thoughts:
As for any last thoughts, I don’t really have much since I have said everything that I wanted to above. I will say though that if it hadn’t been for Mother’s Rosario, I might have felt left down again and disappointed. But much of that final arc significantly helps this anime and redeems some of it for me, making me legitimately glad I watched it. It had some heartfelt and emotionally touching scenes (even cried at the end, but that’s nothing new for me), good and fast paced action with slightly better characterization and backstories. Some scenes are still cringe-worthy and it still has many of the same problems the first season had, but I felt that more effort was being put in this time around. So because of that, I will also be a little more generous with my score this time around. If you enjoyed the first season, you will likely enjoy this as well. Overall: 7/10.
