Sword Art Online: Kuraki Yuuyami no Scherzo is the second movie of the SAO’s progressive series. It covers the 4th volume of the progressive LN (mainly the 5th floor of Aincrad but some events take place on other floors). Overall, I think it’s great. Enjoyable story, fascinating animation, great characters, and epic music.
What I love the most about the progressive series is that they take it slow rather than just skipping all the floors and major events. Just like the first movie, the second movie did this, which is nice. However, since the movie skips the second and third volume of the novels, it started quite slow with a lot of talking as they need to explain the key points from the previous volumes such current relationship between Kirito & Asuna, the guild situation, Argo who is our new character, and at the same time building the plot for the current situation. Although I personally feel like there should be better ways to introduce the above-mentioned things other than just talking, if you’re a fan of the series, you will find all the talks and buildup are actually interesting. The second half of the movie (plot rising, climax, and resolution) is just pure awesome.
Animation is great as we know from the recent seasons of SAO, and I don’t think I need to explain the brilliance of SAO’s battle scenes. The boss battle against the fifth-floor boss was epic and very intense. This combined with Yuki Kajiura’s music and awesome work of the seiyuu makes it even better. The characters are also nice. Rather than focusing fully on Asuna like in the first movie, I feel like they tried to focus more on the relationship between Asuna & kirito. Argo was a breath of fresh air, and the second movie is almost like a redemption arc for Mito. I can’t say much about this since it will be a spoiler, but if you’re a fan of her, you will love it.
I personally feel the first movie was better (from the animation, story, and character perspectives). However, the second movie was great as well, so definitely give it a watch if you’re a fan of the series.
