I do love this genre - so I’m a bit biased - but it’s very easy to either overdo the exposition, or to overdo the Lore of such a world. In this case: loads of lore with poorly-paced exposition (not “awful” in the sense that it’s overwhelming or confusing, but just prioritised at only 50%’ish decency), and a lot of “Shounen-moments” that lose their ‘Epic’ touch because the “odds” just don’t feel ‘calibrated’ with the lore...
Regardless: this is a moderately fun show, and the imagination that went into the storyline and the Main Character(s) (and his partner - and those like her who are part of the core system’s-conspiracy) make for a fairly unique combination of ideas that aren’t just ‘hoping to catch a-hook of a popular trend’—for any of this show’s forthcomings, I’d sooner blame the production-team of this show - especially those doing the Storyboard’ing - than the underlying author (or whomever came up with this Sword Art Online V2 schematic) who, for the record, has done a brilliant job of crafting such a multifaceted concept that has both a ‘taste of the “future of Virtual Reality”’ whilst managing to work in a conspiracy that somehow doubles as a very real ‘metaphorical Moral-Dilemma’ of high-end/futuristic AI. With the contextual justification of a potential ‘Real World’ that the “privileged citizens” (ie: the participants, as in: us gamers) have to personally rationalise as either ‘some kind of prepaid-service (for your gaming entertainment)’ or ‘as a second life [to your own] that’s so complicated in ethics, your own morality, and an AI that is so identical to us humans that the only difference between our existences are the ‘Rules of the World’ (as in: game mechanics - or, by this point, “Laws of Nature”...), that it’s hard to differentiate this world - as being “a game” - from reality—making it almost indiscernible from a world of its own’.
An amazing concept that has its flaws but compensates through both imagination and inherent complex-congruity. Really can’t help but be drawn to this show every week - no matter its shortcomings!
Art: 6/10
Sound: 5-6/10
Characters: 8-9/10
Story: 9/10!
Enjoyment: 7-9/10 (hard to call before the season’s end)
Overall: 8/10. Would love to go higher because of the concept(s), but too much has been left out or even rewritten such that the ‘charm’ of the writing has partially been compromised.
Having said that: I’ll definitely be looking for both the Light Novel and the Manga to see how much they scrapped from the original script! :3
Still a great show though. Check it out—and enjoy!
