Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
NightNissan
How many women can one guy have, lmao.
Jokes aside, the third and fourth seasons of Sword Art Online are way better than the first two. The early seasons felt rushed and never really took the time to flesh things out. Alicization, on the other hand, slows things down and puts a strong focus on worldbuilding and character development, which makes a huge difference.
The story feels fresh and could almost work as a standalone anime outside of the SAO franchise. If that were the case, I honestly think people might enjoy it even more.
That said, SAO has always been good at portraying authentic emotions, and this season sometimes pushes that a bit too far. There is one dead character who keeps coming back, with everyone constantly dwelling on their death. It works emotionally at first, but th…
Read at the sourceCaptainSalty
Being a continuation of the previous season, the beginning of the story felt well paced after the very action packed second half of the last season. And gives other characters time to shine since our protagonist is taking a backseat. Which I greatly appreciate giving weight to Kirito's actions at the end of Alicization. The world is forever changed, and seemingly he's doomed them while not being able to help himself. It's a great concept that actually felt like it was followed through, him getting the backseat while the world moves without him. My main issue with this lies in the fact that we don't really advance any already existing character that get screen time and instead (mild spoiler ahead) we get a small episode dedicated to a general who's very unlikeable due to him being afraid to…
Read at the sourcekireikana
absolutely amazing, incredible, fantastic!!this is truly a masterpiece!
sound:
- the background music perfectly captures the essence of a fantasy world, with dense forests, the lively chirping of birds, and the soothing sound of flutes that make your heart feel at peace... (ahhh, how beautiful it would be to live in that world).
- the ost during battle scenes is so dramatic and fitting, all the elements just come together. sadness, burning passion, and the warriors who keep pushing forward.
- the opening song 'resolution' by haruka tomatsu is so cool, i almost never skipped it, LMAO.
- the ending song 'unlasting' by lisa was popular back in the day, slow but full of emotion poured into every episode's end. both the opening and ending songs are just too good to skip.
- the sound effect…
Read at the sourceWhe3333
Spoiler-less, TL;DR, fast, simple, and easy-to-digest review:
War, War never changes..., or does it?
5/10
Animation? Good (++)
While they maintained the animation quality from the previous season (which is top notch in the series btw), there are some... budget cuts. Animation downgraded a bit by relying on sone 2.5 D elements and same animation of multiple soldiers in a huge battlefield. IK its hard to animate this by hand but can you make it not noticeable?
Characters? Ok (+) Same as previous season but with new decent characters, friends and foes. (Plz give more love to Klein like cmon! its not that hard!)
Story? Meh (-)
I feel like the story cannot stand alone. After watching the entire thing to the end, I had to watch the first episode of the next season immediately. This is suppo…
Read at the sourceShirogari
War of Underworld is a pretty reasonable sequel to Alicization.
The story is a continuation of alicization and is interesting to watch with most of the things that happen making sense. Near the end of the season however the anime suddenly implies that you don't need the super fancy soul translator technology to dive into the underworld but claims this could also be achieved using a amusphere which just doesn't make sense.
The characters are mostly the same as the previous season but Kirito is braindead. That's not an insult, he literally is, the power outage during the previous season fried his fluctlight. This means the story is mainly dictated by the other characters and Alice is the new main character. Overall the characters aren't outstanding but they're acceptable for the story.…
Read at the sourceResting_Bonfire
Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld
I knew this would happen, but I just didn't want to accept it. After the Alicization season finally delivered an acceptable level of quality, I was hoping the anime would continue to improve. But unfortunately, I wasn't aware that there would be 2 consecutive seasons that would present nothing but endless fights.
I liked the fact that the war between the two worlds was depicted quite cruelly, however, all the hype from the first season of the arc has been ruined. Wasn't it said that the Dark Continent was incredibly powerful? Why does it present itself as an absurd ridiculous spectacle? Half the force of the human empire is already absolute overkill. If the current main antagonists didn't interfere from the outside world, there would be…
Read at the sourceThund3r1
*No spoilers*
Sword Art Online is an anime known for not being great, but this is by far the worst SAO has ever been. From consistent plot holes and contradictions to entire episode long exposition dumps, this anime hardly does anything right or has any redeeming qualities. There is so much wrong with this anime, even by SAO standards, it is actually a drag to get through.
Story: 1/10
The story has always been the worst part of SAO, but this time its actually irredeemable. There are plot holes everywhere you look and the story contradicts itself multiple times. Also, despite trying to be a war, both sides consistently make the worst tactical decisions possible making it even harder to watch if you're using your brain in any capacity.
Beyond this, characters regularly break the establi…
Read at the sourceRebelPanda
War of the Underworld is exactly what people mean when they say “Look pretty and do as little as possible.”
There is sakuga in every episode, the artwork is vibrant, and the fight choreography is better than ever. As for the writing, it is hasn’t improved much over Sword Art Online’s previous seasons. Where the narrative shines is its premise: The underworld is a hellish land cloaked in a warm aura radiating from the blood-red sky. Flatter than an ocean, it is a wasteland populated with no vegetation as far as the eye can see. Divided by a valley of stone are humans on one side and monsters in the Dark Territory on the other.
In real life where the A.L.I.C.E. simulation is operated, a group of terrorists invade the game; they overthrow an empire of monsters then march them into a war to…
Read at the sourcemeg_lowde
This once again proves how much better SAO can be when Kirito is out of action/not really in it. Sure the plotline itself was pretty basic, but we got to see some fairly interesting battles and more of the other characters - especially the female characters - being in the spotlight (Asuna in particular, but also Alice & co.). This begins the war between the Dark Territory and the Human Realm whilst in the 'real world' the turtle has been hijacked by Americans in order to get Alice and it's a race against time with who can get her out first, the Americans putting some pretty underhanded tactics at play in order to get what they want.
Honestly, Alicization and War of the Underworld in particular took things into a lot darker route than we had previously. Sure, SAO has it's string of despica…
Read at the sourceBanana-Pudding
Of all the Alicization parts, this is probably the best one. We really get to see Alice shine as the MC. I really like her, much better than Kirito anyways. That's not to say I dislike Kirito, but his personality can come off as annoying just by how polite he tries to be. It's like sometimes he has no personality, ya know? Anyways onto this review. I'll keep it short.
Story: So after the very boring first part of Alicization where a bunch of people you don't care about die, this arc concentrates on the invasion of the dark territory. It's.....alright. Nothing special- and they don't try to make it so, which I appreciate, because it's been done a thousand times before. Story is really bland, which is somewhat of a shame because the original SAO was insanely legendary. It is what it is.
Ch…
Read at the sourceOrangeOtakuIII
SAO : Alicization - War of Underworld. First review on MAL, so much to review.
Okay this is an incredibly series in my personal & honest option & here's why it is. The evolution from the very first season is noticeable & how it's progressed is wonderful. We have og characters & new characters that are part of the current season.
Alicization does a great job on it's production value & it can be seen from season 3. The quality of the animation is beautiful and vibrant, character design is top tier, environment is captivating & the sound oh don't get me started on that, it is just great to hear. These are the foundations that set SAO Alicization on it's way.
Okay here is what I appreciate about SAO Alicization. The new characters are incredible & work well with the setting of the project.…
Read at the sourceweeblord36912
Honestly the best season in SAO, combining everything with the previous seasons and no filler episodes! Super emotional and exhilarating, very well done by Aniplex. Lots of blood and gore but this is definitely worth watching. Weird how Quinella didn't seem half bad anymore in this half although she was the main villain in the first half of alicization but doesn't really matter. Definitely would recommend watching. Unlike Season 1 and 2 where they had the fairy tale arc which felt super cheesy and filler IMO, this is full of jam packed action with plot lines within the Underworld and outside of it too,
Read at the sourceDigiCat
SAO review 4/4
This season’s very battle heavy while still continuing the psycological aspect explored in season 3, introducing us to some of the most psychotic and sadistic villains, and showing how constant battles and death can break a you, but also how having the right people around you supporting you can put you back toghether stronger than ever, i think what i like most about SAO is how they used these virtual settings to show such real emotions and life experiances, not one moment ever felt fake or forced no matter how fantastical the world or powers got 🗡
(this review is for both part 1 and part 2 of SAO War Of Underworld)
Favorite OP: ANIMA
Favorite ED: Unlasting
Read at the sourceKejoraSR
SAO has been blasphemed for years by netizens. Yet my friends a pure watcher regardless of what's the SNS said, he still enjoy and recommend it to me. Their fans suggest to at least try the Alicization arc because it's a fresh start with a better writing & not much related with prev arc. I guess, I should give it a try.
(this is general review of SAO Alicization & War of Underworld, because they all a one package story)
So the story is about MC brain damaged by accident (how come a 1 meter umbrella lose by a 1 cm injector? & he called himself the Sword Hero?). To cure it he must dive in a VR game console that can recover his brain in-trade of carrying a mission to stimulate AI there to break a rule by their own, to make a self-aware AI not a robot. Alice the AI did it but then arrested by…
Read at the sourceHyaki66
So unlike a lot of people, I don't have anything against sword art and it's pretty enjoyable to watch but War of Underworld was weird to me, the first like 6 episodes were a great continuation of alicization but after that, the story kinda fell apart and they just added new villans and now plot lines came out of nowhere and it didn't make much sense (slight spoiler warning) but there was once where I audibly said WHAT THE FUCK because they were adding weird ass stuff like players from other countries being controlled by? I'm not really sure but I guess hatred? it doesn't have much context or reason for why the villain is doing what he's doing just that he's mad at people and it makes him seem very like just a character thrown in for the characters to battle. but in all honesty, if you don'…
Read at the sourceM1c3f
*Spoilers ahead*
Actually the best season of SAO as of now. Why? Let me tell you why:
Seeing Kirito as a soggy slowly rotting sack of potatoes. 10/10
Turning down the exhausting harem complex of the series with just the right amount of "Kirito don't you dare to fucking die (sort of)" between the female characters.
Extremely fun to watch action scenes on a massive, Lord of the Rings or Narnia like scale. Animation and Sound are on point. The focus truly lies on action and visually and sound wise impactful scenes which is the main reason this season is actually quite good.
Even though it ain't much but its honest work: A little bit of backstory for the side characters that take up most of the actual battle time of this season which is great seeing other characters turn up the heat ot…
Read at the sourceCurryxSake
[WARNING: There may be spoilers]
SAO Alicization - War of Underworld had great production value. It's visually pleasing both in artwork and animation. The voice performances were great, and I definitely enjoyed the OP and ED. Unfortunately, it's writing was weak and that dragged everything down.
Like most of SAO, it had a lot of exposition. Exposition itself isn't bad, but SAO's was excessive. Most of it could have been done through action whether it be direction or visual language. It's an anime after all, which means that SAO could have taken advantage of its medium. I already know that Kirito was admired, so why did I have to constantly listen to the cast praise him? And when Kirito subconsciously protected Alice from the air dagger, why did I need to hear a long conversation about ho…
Read at the sourceLiapo13
Now SAO has become that anime that people agree to dislike. It has a generic story, a bland main character, and horrible main villians. Most people either continued out of nostalgia or more ways to poke fun of the story. Each season brought a whole new slew of complaints. However, watching this new season mind was blown by the quality of this season, and I believe that it has maybe redeemed itself altogether.
Story 10/10
Sword art online has always been a story based light novel, as the goals were always concrete and we watched these relatively boring characters follow through these things. Each time the buildup, weather it was conquering all 100 levels in a death game, rescuing someone in a ripoff version where they cannot log out, fight a killer in a gun game who had the ability to als…
Read at the sourcegiraffenanime
Took me awhile, but I've finally caught up with the SAO series! Let's get right into the anime basics.
Story; After defeating Quinella (the ruler of the underworld) Alice finds Kirito helpless. Against everyone's words, Alice takes Kirito back to her hometown to take care of him and hoping he'll become his usual self once more. However not everything is calm; The Dark Territory (with a mix of wild races) being lead by real world idiots(AKA, Gabriel) decide to attack the Human Empire that way they can live happy lives in the light. While in the real world, Asuna is trying to save Kirito along with her friends... I loved following along with this story, and am very happy with the ending. I love how they took every aspect from the series (SAO, ALO, GGO and Ordinal Scale) and used it in the s…
Read at the sourceFerDC
uh boy what a dumpster fire. I realize that's not the best way to star this, but it really let me down, I really wanted to like this, I loved alicization and I was ready to love this as well, and the beginning led me to believe that, that would be the case, but it wasn't.
Let's start with the beginning, because the this season had a really good start, kirito wasn't around much and the show choose to focus on other characters, alice had a pretty good arc on the first episodes. The integrity knights had more screen time which make me really happy because I liked them a lot in part 1. Some of them get extra development, the show also added new integrity knights like scheta and renly who were both freaking amazing, and probably some of the best characters in sao. Sure the villain was another v…
Read at the source
