(I'll save the best for last aka Story)
Art - 9/10
By golly does this show look good or what. Some of the fight scenes, I wasn't sure if I was watching SAO, or Kimetsu No Yaiba, it looks that good. And it's a shame that nobody is talking about it. Absolutely stunning ( I'm thinking of 3 fight scenes in particular ), however, while a few of the fight scenes are out of this world. The rest of the show is just SAO A animation, which is great, but not excellent enough consistently to get it a 10 ( You need some Violet Evergarden or Fire Force levels of consistency to get a 10 in my book ).
Sound - 7/10
The soundtrack doesn't disappoint, as to be expected of the show that made me fall in love with my first ever piece of foreign music (aka Crossing Field ). However, I do find that it seems that a lot of the sound fx are repetitive in the fights and otherwise. For that, it gets a 7.
Character - 8/10
I love the characters, I love SAO, I LOVE KIRITO. So what do you expect from me ( My favorite protagonist is the overpowered kind)? Kirito did his best Subaru from Re: Zero Impression in one episode, I don't know why I felt the need to mention that, but I did. He didn't do nearly as good a job but it worked. All the characters old and new remain consistent to there established traits ( except for Leafa voluntarily getting molested by tentacles, but SAO has to SAO I guess ( I despise fanservice ) ).
Enjoyment - 8/10
I freaking love SAO. This show could be absolute dogshit and I'd still watch it simply because of the nametag. That said I don't let my bias completely blind me. Overall, the plot in this show was so garbage, that even I couldn't ignore it. Generally, practically all shows ( with a 7 or above score from me ) would get a 10 in enjoyment. I just enjoy watching anime a lot, if it was only for enjoyment practically everything would be a 10. So this 8 is especially important coming from someone like me. That should show you how much I despised the story in this season.
Story - 4/10
If you stuck around this long, this is what you are here for. HOO BOY, HOOOO BOYYYY, buckle up bucko, cuz this is finna be a doozy. I said it in the beginning and I'll repeat it here. I love SAO, I LOVEEEE SAO. If it wasn't for the numerous upon numerous videos of people talking shit about this series, I wouldn't even be able to tell you the plotholes in SAO S1 or S2 or anything. But this season. My God, this season, Jesus have mercy, this shit was trash. Absolute dogshit. I don't even know where to begin with my frustrations.
-DEATHS: Okay okay, let's start here. A wise man once said, "People die, when they are killed." True statement right? WRONG, COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY WRONG. I didn't write an SAO A review, but if I did I would have mentioned this. THIS MAN EUGEO HAS DIED SO MANY FREAKING TIMES AND ALWAYS COMES BACK. Like, I don't know if you like SAO or not, but if you do, you probably didn't recognize this. However I did, and I commented to a fellow SAO lover friend of mine about it then and I will comment about it now. Back in SAO A, EUGEO DIED LIKE 6 ( MAYBE I'm exaggerating, but I'm honestly not sure if I am or not ) TIMES, 6 FREAKING TIMES, IN ONE FIGHT. ONE FIGHT WITH THE ADMINISTRATOR. But that wasn't enough, no that wasn't nearly enough. How many Gosh Damn times is this man going to come back in a dream or in spirit to help Kirito out? I'll tell you, EVERY GODDAMN FIGHT, EVERY SINGLE FIGHT KIRITO FIGHTS, WHETHER MENTALLY OR PHYSICALLY THIS MAN COMES BACK. If (awake) Kirito is on the screen, you can rest assured that within every 5 minutes or so Eugeo will make an appearance. Kirito is honestly homosexual, like legit homosexual (MAL please don't take down this comment, I don't mean that offensively in any way). He goes to bed crying at night, thinking about Eugeo. When he awoke from his 200-year slumber, he no longer called Asuna by her name simply calling her "queen" before realizing his mistake and correcting himself to say Asuna ( Which he only did at a later date ) ( I feel so dedicated to this review, I went back to check this, Episode 10 11:40). I say that to say, Kirito is homosexual deal with it. Eugeo is literally immortal and will show up to perform an asspull anytime Kirito needs it. Okay, that by itself is a sin. That by itself is a huge sin in my book. BUT THEN, there is a little known character known as Kayaba Akihiko. Did you think that God is omniscient and omnipresent? Hahaha, YOU FOOL, you obviously don't know of Kayaba Akihiko. If I have to hear this man's name again, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Before there was Eugeo to pull out asspulls, there was a little known guy known as Kayaba Akihiko. Are we sure that Kirito is the protagonist of this story? Cuz honestly, I don't even know anymore. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Would you believe that Kayaba used to be the antagonist? I wouldn't. This man has been killed physically, he has been killed mentally, he has had his memory data wiped from the code across all the games, he has been uploaded to a robot ( WHICH MANAGED TO PULL A HUGE ASSPULL, I will get to that later ) just for that robot to be killed, he has been killed from the internet, he has been killed from your mom's basement. YET, YET, HE WILL ALWAYS COME BACK IN SOME SHAPE FORM OR FASHION TO SAVE KIRITO'S ASS. Before there were cars, Kayaba Akihiko made Kirito a plane, before there were guns Kayaba Akihiko made Kirito a Canon. Before any problem that can actually defeat the protagonist arises, Kayaba Akihiko will pull out some asspull from the grave and fix everything. Need I say more, EVEN AFTER ALL THOSE DEATHS, KAYABA AKIHIKO SOMEHOW SOMEWAY HAS THE IP ADDRESS FOR THE UNDERWORLD AND WILL MANAGE TO SOMEHOW EMAIL IT TO ALICE. Like what the hell, out of anything wouldn't RAFT, you know, the people that invented the underworld, already have the IP address? NOPE, THEY DON'T. BUT GUESS WHO DOES, OMNISCIENT, OMNIPRESENT, KAYABA AKIHIKO. Need I say anymore on the subject of deaths? Now let's move on to the subject of asspulls.
-ASSPULLS: Okay there are a bunch of these, a bunch of these. But I'm going to list 3 that stood out the most to me ( also ones I can copy and paste from my Disqus account lol ). 1st: Sinon's sniper shot not instantly killing the big bad. Look, I like anime but I have other hobbies too. In particular, cars and guns. Sinon's Sniper Rifle is an antimaterial rifle, shooting big boy rounds. I'm assuming that, it's shooting the highest level of big boy 50 BMG round, aka 50 CAL High Explosive Incendiary Armor-Piercing rounds. Keep in mind, a regular 50 CAL BMG shot can blow your arm off, or blow your head off, or leg off. A regular round, without all these added effects. Naw, naw, Let's just have the big bad ( I actually can't remember his name lol ) get a little hole in his hand from stopping one of these rounds. If you don't know crap about guns, you should refrain from using them period. 2nd: Once Again we turn our attention to our lord and savior Kayaba Akihiko. As a goddamn robot, he died, he died. His circuits were fried, he was no longer connected to the wifi. All his parts were disabled. Dead, dead and gone. AS A ROBOT. NAW, hahaha, NAWWWW, YOU THOUGHT I WAS SERIOUS. NAWW, YOU SEE THAT DID HAPPEN. BUT GUESS WHAT, THE POWER OF BONERS CAN MAGICALLY MAKE A ROBOT UNABLE TO HEAR, ABLE TO HEAR AND TO TOP IT OFF, CIRCUITS RUN AGAIN JUST LONG ENOUGH TO ACCOMPLISH THE TASK THAT SAVES EVERYONE. Do you see my point about how I hate his character? You think Kirito is Jesus-kun, hahahhahahha, you uneducated fool. The real god, is Kayaba Akihiko the bringer of all the asspulls. 3rd: 🎶Du Du DuDuDu, BANAMANA, Du Du-Du Du, BANAMANA, Du Du Du-Du-Du Du-Du-Du Du-Du-Du Du-Du-Du Charging My Attack ( TFS REFERENCE) 🎶. Just when you thought, you had seen every asspull known to mankind. Just when you thought, surely it can't get any worst? Kirito pulls out a FUCKING SPIRITBOMB. A spirit bomb from DBZ to win. Not only did everyone know to magically raise there hands in the air and offer there "spirit" or whatever. He then absorbs it ( freaking DBZ Budokai 3 style ) into his sword and unleashes and absolutely gorgeous Starburst Stream? HOHO, You thought that was the end of the bullshit? HELL NAW, NAW JUST TO REMIND YOU WHO BEST BOY IS, EUGEO LITERALLY, I MEAN LITERALLY, LIKE ACTUALLY LITERALLY, COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD TO SAVE KIRITO'S ASS BY BLOCKING AN ATTACK WITH HIS SWORD.
Need I say anymore?
-PLOT HOLES: Alright now, I know the Underworld isn't technically a game. But it was well established in the beginning of SAO A, that there is an hp system, an authority system, and a level system. So tell me, WHY IN THE HELL DID IT GO FROM GAMEWORLD TO REAL LIFE? Like what? These noobs ( I believe they said all the red guys were given LVL 30 standard mob accounts ) are suddenly able to one hit like it's real life. A slash of there weak swords can take the arms of off a god account? That doesn't make any goddamn sense based on the established rules. This whole fight should've been a complete curb stomp by Kirito's Team. THEY SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO TAKE DAMAGE FROM THESE NOOBS. This whole fight, this whole arc, should have played out just like that scene on the bridge from SAO 1 all those years ago. 3 Guys slashing Kirito and his health bar regenerating so fast that the slashes have no effect. That should be the case for every single integrity knight and every single god account that took part in the fighting. Yet these red mobs of complete noobs were somehow able to overpower a multitude of both god accounts and converted LVL 99 accounts. Makes absolutely no sense. There are a multitude of other plot holes, but this comment is getting kind of long so I'll leave it at this massive one
- On To Things That Bothered Me Personally: I don't know about you guys, but I like my girlfriend to love me and me only in a romantic way. At the very least, I want her to make it clear that she's in a relationship. Maybe that's just me though. Because this girl Asuna lets people touch her man so much. Sinon Kissed him ( RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER FACE), Alice laid on top of him and slept next to him, Eugeo stole his heart, like bro what the frick. I don't like fanservice, but except for the fanservice itself, I don't mind harems. However, when the character is clearly in a relationship with another character, I expect that to be the end to the harem shenanigans. The amount of stuff Asuna allows others to get away with doing to Kirito is ridiculous. Let's not mention the fact, that after he finally came out of his comatose state, the only thing she got was a headbutt!? Like really!? I don't even like romance, but I'd expect her to run up anime style and jump on top of him or something. At the very least kiss him, naw hear's a headbutt. But that's okay though, Sinon got her kiss ( sarcasm ).
Overall Rating 7/10
Now I know that Plot Section was long as heck, and I had to purposefully stop myself to keep myself from writing even more in it. But even still SAO is SAO and I freaking love it regardless. The Overall Rating should represent a combination of the Scores. While the plot is horrendous, everything else is good or excellent. Therefore overall it's a 7/10 for me. I will say that personally, outside of SAO S2 PT2 this is my least favorite SAO part simply due to how bad the plot is. It's a shame that such good animation went to waste on this ridiculous plot. Anyway, if you actually read through all of this. Thank You So Much as it took me over an hour to organize my thoughts and type this all out. I don't plan on doing many reviews like this at all, but I appreciate you reading this rare one. Plz, send me friend request as I'm a sad little weeb with hardly any friends on this site. Thanks.
