Story (9) - The story follows the progression of technology, more specifically virtual reality. One thing I enjoy about this is how in depth it goes especially in this season. It feels more like another world than a game with the main character now being Alice in a position where all she knew was a lie yet decides to fight alongside the other integrity knights from the forces of the Dark Territory to protect the things she still cares for as well as our main character Kirito who fought to help free the integrity knights from the pontifex who had them under control. The story follows an advanced AI nearly identical to a human thought process fighting the enemies of the dark territory from threatening what she now holds dear and demonstrates an amazing concept of how an AI that has a soul becomes more like a human beginning to think for itself.
Art (10) - Well you can tell they went all out with the art this season. The CGI is done great and while making this arc fairly dark and grim, the colors are vibrant and beautiful which gives you stunning fight scenes.
Sound (10) - The OP and the ED are simply amazing. They fit the anime perfectly to me and its LiSa, I mean she doesn't seem to make a bad song.
Character (9) - We get a pretty good backstory to most our characters this season which is nice. I find myself liking almost all the integrity knights now knowing their backstory compared to Alicization where they are trying to kill our main characters so if you can flop my opinion on them like that I believe that's a positive. With the focus of the story and this season being 12 episodes, character development is done fairly well, Alice especially for obvious reasons as she is the MC. The characters express emotion well so it makes situations feel more serious or tense. My only complaint would our main villain this season. Not enough backstory for me to really understand his actions besides the fact that he's just insane, I'd like something more creative.
Enjoyment (9) - As I said Iv'e always enjoyed SAO but this season as many have already said, is the best season of all the previous ones imo.
Overall (9) - SAO has always appealed to me in a way other animes don't. So my ratings obviously wont be accurate for those who never cared for the show in the first place. I truly believe the anime gets more hate than it deserves but I'm glad that SAO is getting more positive reviews this time around. Overall this anime isn't for those who critically analyze everything looking for something to dislike because its popular. Its simply an all around great series that can appeal to a variety of people for its interesting concept and its variety of genre exposure that it delivers very well.
