Sword Art Online

Did I not review the first season of Sword Art Online (SAO)? I need to fix that immediately! I am, however, going to be brief because so much has already been said and written about this anime series already, so there is probably no point in overdoing it. I am simply going to share a few of my impressions, with some minor spoilers of course. I do not doubt that many people have already seen SAO. When SAO first came out, I lapped up every episode, and at first, believed it should clearly be awarded five stars (10/10). Well, during the episode when Kirirto and Asuna decided to get a lake house and Yui showed up, that was the moment when I suddenly lost interest... At that point, I deducted a point (9/10), and even the other suspenseful events were not able to rekindle my initial interest in this show. When Alfheim and Kirito's sister arrived, my enthusiasm again rapidly declined, this time by at least three points, or rather three and a half (5.5/10). In the end, I thought the slightly above average rating was redeemed in this part mainly by the fact that Oberon appeared, a character whom I hated more than anything, as this is obviously a good thing for a bad guy... Summing it up and looking at it as a whole I thought it had a great start and then unfortunately tailed off, and so it had a much weaker conclusion. I am now, therefore, reaching an average of about 7.7/10. That is it really (a bunch of numbers that do not really say anything, even though if you wanted, you could maybe make a graph out of them...). (25/05/2019)

So ended the second season of one of the biggest anime hits of our time. Sword Art Online is simply a cult show and while it has quite a few weaknesses, discussing them with die-hard fans is like teasing a snake with your bare feet. Was the second season better than the first? When I look at it as a whole, I have to answer, unfortunately, no. The first season is set in the world of Gun Gale Online and did not excite me. The setting does not speak to me. There was too much focus on the emotions and feelings of the main male protagonist. At one point, I had to hold my head and wonder about the mental breakdown of Kirito. On the other hand, when it came to the action (which was usually preceded by a thirty-minute strategy meeting and analysis of Kirito and Shinon's feelings), my heart leaped because it was clear that the anime's creators are indeed good at this. Kirito and his lightsaber were once again on an epic level, and he came across as an individual with a lot of Power. Another positive aspect (in my view) was the villain, Death Gun, who was scary and interesting to a degree, and while I could not hate him with the same passion as, say, King Oberon, he still basically did not disappoint. Summing up and comparing it to the first season - I enjoyed GGO a lot less than SAO, even though still more than ALO (the second part of the first season). The second part of the second season brought us two arcs, and I must say that I was much more satisfied with this. Kirito and his friends' journey to finding Excalibur and Asuna in Mother's Rosario was refreshing and more action-packed for me than the previous GGO. However, the show once again lacked a darker atmosphere, and Mother's Rosario also eventually felt quite forced. However, my cynical heart could easily withstand it. Still, I found these two stories much more connected to the original anime series, and their action scenes and interesting fight scenes were quite entertaining. As far as the rating is concerned, it keeps the status of an above-average show for me; just like the first season, it still has weaknesses and parts that prevent me from giving it a full score. Yet despite the second season being weaker than the first one; I still rated it four stars. Plus, I am looking forward to seeing what happens next, and I have hopes for the third season (does anyone doubt what it will be about?). It is supposed to be very dark, action-packed, and interesting, and I will hopefully get to experience the SAO phenomenon in full force and finally fully understand why there is such hype about it, although who knows. 6.5/10. (20/12/2014)

One of my work colleagues loves Sword Art Online and is counting down the days and hours until they release the follow-up to Sword Art Online: Alicization. I took a leisurely look at the last few episodes of this season again today, and figured that since I had already written a few throwaway sentences about the previous seasons, I was not able to leave Alicization without a review from myself. I really liked the beginning, it was almost a bit of a return to its roots, and the whole thing feels more mysterious and interesting than anything in the second season. Kirito got into a new "bromance" which I did not find as exciting as some yaoists did, who were inspired to create a lot of different fan fiction and fan art, however, surprisingly I did not find Eugio irritating at all and I actually got quite used to him. I liked the setting and the blending of the two realities, and I liked the fact that it is again something a little different, if only because Kirito has to cope without all his friends and his harem this time (though it is clear that "Asuna is coming"...). The fight scenes were really good, and as someone who likes good action series (and yes, I prefer sword fighting action series) I quite enjoyed that aspect of it, unlike others. So for me, this was a pretty cool third season and a pretty decent show worth 7.5/10, and in a few days the War of Underworld will start, where hopefully there will be more of our Alice. (01/10/2019)