Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
rose_kai
Season 3 of SAO might just be the greatest comeback of any media suicide that season 2 was. It brings back the fantasy of watching season 1 and greatly improves upon the character development that was so rushed during the Aincrad arc. It's essentially a "what-if" sword art online actually started as a true fantasy anime, with a new power system that meshes incredibly well with this new style.
Animation. Upgraded. Emotion. Upgraded. Storytelling. Upgraded. The dynamic created by Kirito and Eugeo is one thing that generic isekais always fail to execute upon when they're too focused on using the female characters at plot devices to upscale the main character. There is, of course, a fair share amount of that in Alicization, because well, its SAO. Duh.
If you can get through season 2 of SAO,…
Read at the sourceRagnaCrimsonFan
(Potential mild spoilers ad, but ive marked the big ones)
I want to real quick give a shoutout to my man Reki Kawahara. I was not familiar with your game. I, like many, watched the first two seasons of Sword Art Online and said "ok. this is cool. but its got some issues." After all, while Kirito (the main character) is of course a great main character, I felt the rest of the cast was a bit weak. Also, the end of the aincrad arc was a little bit ridiculous. I mean, the villain forgetting his motivation for trapping a bunch of people in the game?? What kind of a nonsensical plot point is that! However, as I continued through the series that was sao, expecting more okness, alicization came along. And it BLEW ME OUT OF THE FUCKING WATER!
I have not been this surprised about a series this muc…
Read at the source0004-1
What SAO Should have been from the start, actually soo damn good.
By Far the Goriest season of SAO, with far more blood and brutal fights
Art - 10/10 The animation is STUNNING, its actually soo pleasing to the eyes, although all of SAO has good animation this season is truly top tier visually, even though it is quite bound by location, the locations that the story is set in has peak animation, the colour pallette has alot more blues and oranges than season 2 which had quite a dark orange and black colour pallette which personally just looked okay, the blue and orange pairing being the main colours makes the characters and locations stand out alot more.
Characters - 8/10 DEVELOPMENT??? We have this insane thing SAO hasnt found out about before and that is Character development we get new…
Read at the sourceM1c3f
*Minor spoilers ahead*
Sword Art Online: Alicization is a mountain range of a SAO season. You really want to climb each top but in order to do so you have to fight the mountains themselves and their harsh environment.
Mountaintops are:
- Eugeo a new somewhat leading male character
- Alice is an interesting lead female character that clearly differs from the other
female characters of the show
- Good action scenes
- A decent main villain that has a meta connection to the environment - Kirito not being op (at the start at least)
As mentioned each of these aspects come with their own SAO like flaws that are really well exposed in other reviews. Them being there unfortunately hinders this season to be exceptionally good but as my comparison suggests once you get over and deal with these…
Read at the sourceRendhart
"I will only view this from anime perspective"
"I Believe everyone that saw this review already saw Previous ark / season of SAO"
"If you feel the previous season of this series are average or just okay I absolutely don't recommend you to watch this, except you doesn't have anything left to watch"
first thing first I absolutely don't understand why people say that this is better than previous ark. I do see the attempt to make this ark to become a new experience. but unfortunately they kind of fail to establish the right element in the anime it self. yes, they succeed on downgrading it.
~ Story ~
so it's basically have the same pattern as the first season. main character get trapped, thing's get sentimental (supposed to be), and then the ark ended. but for some reason on this ark it fe…
Read at the sourceAlanNichols
Amazing anime.Ready to review it forever!!!!
I like how characters were deleloped in the new season and they were able to develope a new perspective.
I recommend this anime for viewing to all those who love a high-quality storyline, beautiful battle scenes, beautifully crafted characters and are ready to plunge headlong into the universe which from the first minutes will make you look and not be distracted by anything else.
By the way, this anime helped me figure out myself during the difficult period of my life, so if you need to get distracted from problems for a while, then this is what you need!
Read at the sourceEleiryn
While not perfect, I personally felt that Alicization finally delivered the promise that SAO has often struggled with along the way.
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As with all of the good SAOs, we follow Kirito, though in an interesting departure from the usual, the rest of the old crew is either completely or almost completely out of the plot, as a result of this arc's focus on the world Kirito is stuck in. Unlike usual, he doesn't have any carried-over skills or stats, isn't the chosen one, and isn't casually dodging bullets - all of which does an enormous amount to make each battle feel much more meaningful rather than just wondering how he'll win. Instead, you find yourself wondering if he will win, and how.
This in turn leads us to more of a focus on clever tactics and shenanigans, which does a great job of…
Read at the sourcetlato_but
Sword Art Online has been the most maligned anime that the world has ever seen, sometimes criticized with reason, sometimes being criticized by the sake of criticizing it, sometimes criticizing it just to follow the current. But in the Alicization, most of the critique is surprisingly more subdued due to the significant upgrades of the problems that affected the earlier arcs. I will include some spoilers, so go with caution.
Story (10/10):
For the first time since ever, Kirito is a mere mortal, he shows that he's a mortal human after all; no more destroying bullets at a 5 meter range. The fact that he gets almost assassinated in the real world proves that. Now into a strange world, much different to the classic MMORPG Kirito used to play, he meets a young Eugeo and a young Alice in a remo…
Read at the sourceROPPONGii
Alicization brings forth much novelty and profound continuation to the main theme set forth in the prior seasons. Rezi Kawahara introduces fresh characters with their own stories tell and adventures to explore while wittingly blurring the lines between MMMORPG and reality to a provocative degree. The anime maintains a sturdy pace throughout the beginning though soon after delves into the nitty gritty of the story and demonstrates many interesting aspects that reminds viewers why they fell in love with SAO in the first place. There's so much depth and personality to characters that are explored to the fullest extent, particularly Eugeo whose struggle is genuine and easy to relate with. In Eugeo we see an individual with flaws and fears that are much like ones humans face in the real world,…
Read at the sourcewakawakalypse
Now I know there are plenty of people who hate SAO, and being someone who personally is lukewarm on the series as a whole can understand that. In previous seasons SAO has taken the opportunity to give fans the middle finger during the last third of the first season and hinge the first part of the second season on a MacGuffin that even the worlds worst detective should have figured out. This season however, has no real FU moment in it. Is the plot contrived? Yes it is; are emotional character moments somewhat schmaltzy? Yes they are. But if you like stories that lean towards extravagant and melodramatic, I think this is the best iteration of SAO so far. It does not stand on it's own, so I wouldn't recommend it without watching the others, But overall I found it to be an enjoyable watch. Rat…
Read at the sourceBabyGirl06301
LISTEN, MAYBE IT'S AN UNPOPULAR OPINION, BUT THIS SEASON IS THE BEST SEASON OF SAO TO DATE.
I get it, people don't like it, but I'm gonna take a minute to explain why I loved it oh so much. Number one: the sound design and art are absolutely gorgeous. I think the storyline for this season gave a lot of opportunity for beautiful art, and this season didn't disappoint. I think I have a thing with lighting effects because every time I see an anime with stunning lighting, I have to bring it up. See: SAO. The sound, also, especially during the last half of this season, was so lovely and emotional.
The story. Okay, so I'm assuming this where everyone's hang-ups lie, right? Let me tell you why you may not like this season: it isn't all about Kirito and Asuna anymore. In fact, the main clique fr…
Read at the sourceNoizyFrog
Sword Art Online franchise presents a new entry with its Alicization ark and doubles down on familiar writing disasters. With this season SAO reaches new storytelling lows and also seems to lose its last redeeming quality – action scenes.
SCORE: 2 – Very Bad.
STORY: Boring exposition scenes interrupted by obligatory and meaningless fights.
At the beginning I was slightly confused, because SAO:A does not directly follow on its second season. This confusion lasted only a few episodes and worked as a setup for a new “death simulation” for Kirito, without his harem, but with the same amount of plot armor and OPnes.
Terrible writing is more apparent in this season than anywhere else in the franchise. This show is too busy creating lengthy exposition dumps about either mundane or unnecessa…
Read at the sourceJiangHaoyi1979
Another SAO franchise has ended......the 1st cour that is , cu'z by October another cour will begin, and this time Asuna would be back (I think). So far, this franchise never gets old and it wasn't something that one should be bore of. Ok so this time around Kirito is back in some virtual world in what is now called Full-Dive technology known as "Soul Translator", or STL, pretty much different from the couple of SAO worlds, but only this time, he finds himself being in a virtual world as a necessity to save his life after encountering Johnny Black, successor of Death Gun who succeeds in injecting Kirito with a poison syringe. A poison syringe , really? I would have preferred the scenario,where Kirito and Asuna where going home but they've found out that there is someone following them and…
Read at the sourceBhinoBambino
This is my first review and I wanted to express my thoughts on a series that I've come to appreciate since the release of the very first SAO.
I am not a LN reader (however I plan to do so) yet, I can tell that this season of SAO is at par, if not better, of the original SAO. I am aware that the anime doesn't do the LN justice by just focusing mainly on the action scenes and the harem that Kirito tends to carry every season but, I'm glad to see that this season took a much different approach.
Since the first episode of Alicization, I was totally surprised by the sudden change of world and characters. Characters that I got to care and not follow the same unfortunate route that most characters follow whenever they encounter Kirito. When the anime established the threat towards Kirito, I a…
Read at the sourcetoshtt
There's something about SAO Alicization that differs from the other SAO anime. Usually with SAO the only emotional connection you would feel was between Asuna and Kirito. In Alicization the main difference that makes it better than previous SAO anime is the real connection they show between Kirito and Eugeo. Their bond makes me jealous. I wish I had a best friend like that, who would be with me through it all, to be brothers.
The downside of Alicization is the cliffhanger you get left with. It concludes the main story but at the end there's a slight turn of event which we will have to wait for the second season to see.
Story - 7/10
Overall the story was good. I liked the plot, especially the part with Kirito in the virtual world. There were some episodes in the middle where I started to…
Read at the sourceLegendAqua
Reki Kawahara's...Magnum Opus???
Sword Art Online: Alicization gives us another installment of Kirito and the gang but this time Kirito wakes up in a game world like no other. No Asuna, No sword, new world.
If there was a weakest link in Sword Art Online...ironically enough was Kirito but in Sword Art Online: Alicization he FINALLY gets his due and develops, instead of the being Hacking OP Game Jesus he's known for.
Ok, so it seems Reki Kawahara has gone back to his roots with Sword Art Online: Alicization and looked back into his flaws of the Aincrad arc and saw it's immense flaws and decided to give Kirito a fighting chance of him actually developing as a character, fleshing out his new game world and what it means to Kirito and his new companion Eugeo voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki. Wi…
Read at the sourceforster82
Short Spoiler Free Review:
I have personally always been an SAO and especially an Isekai fanboy, so nonetheless I'm also going to love this new Arc of SAO. But even if you didn't enjoy the previous Arcs of SAO I without a doubt believe you may enjoy this one.
Anyways, I really enjoyed the story, it's a bit different from the other Arcs but it's still really enjoyable. In my opinion, I believe that the first few episodes were the ones story wise, and even though it kind of slowed down in the middle, the ending was just... wow... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) In the end, the entire story was overall pretty good.
I've always enjoyed the Art style of SAO, so this new Arc shouldnt be an exception. You have to admit that SAO has some quality 60 FPS fight scenes and one of the greatest styles out there in the an…
Read at the sourceSunlitSonata
I tried to like this. I really, really did. I was even sticking out for it upon its announcement because for all of the problems earlier iterations of SAO had, there was always a sense that, if the finer details were checked over and looked at in complete retrospect of what came before, it could be deservedly fun, inspiring or genuinely meaningful. A series deserving of the immeasurable hype phenomenon it generated. Escapism, blurring between actions of reality and fiction was always a thematic that separated the series from the many isekais this decade that followed in its footsteps, and something that held my interest in how it would be handled, but aside from arguably the Mother’s Rosario arc, this wasn’t given enough space in the narrative between all the superfluous anime tropes that…
Read at the sourceStark700
In a world where popular light novels gets anime, manga, games, and hell, even live action movies, there’s one title I’m sure no anime fan can ignore. Sword Art Online. Becoming ever more popular and entering a mainstream line of anime adaptations, the franchise has also no doubt sparked decent deal of controversy. But hey, controversy sometimes makes cash right?
It’s not rocket science to realize SAO would eventually get a continuation. It was just a matter of when and after 5 years since the second season, the time is now. Sword Art Online Alicization covers the light novels with an extended amount of material, much more than the previous season. It’s so much that in fact, a full 2-cour season of 24 episodes isn’t enough. Luckily, it has been confirmed the series would run more than th…
Read at the sourceChrome_Falcon
The anime community seems to be split in its opinion on SAO. Half of them ignore everything positive about it and only talk about negetive things. The other half just does the opposite. No other anime has been this controversial for more than 5 years after its original release. Now here is a new season that features mostly different cast from the original. So is it worth watching or not? Here is my analysis:-
**THIS WILL INCLUDE MINOR SPOILERS ABOUT THE OVERALL SETTING **
The story this time is centered not on a game, but around a simulation of civilization. The aim of this simulation is to develop highly advanced A.I capable of thoughts and emotions. It brings about some ethical questions about humanity, playing God, and where to draw the line in scientific experiments. This season deal…
Read at the source