Anime – Sword Art Online – Alicization [Part 1]

Anime Nov 22, 2019

Overview:

From the first episode it was clear the writing direction was going to be different than any of the seasons before. Not much focus is brought to the outside world and I find that is for the best. A few episodes and snippets here and there, but they were mainly to give context about what was going on for why Kirito could remember the outside world. The reason he is trapped inside of this world is quite a bit different than original SAO along with the way he might be able to get out, its not escaping this time around.

The first part of Alicizaton, it is the ground rules and background for what the world is and why Kirito is in there along with how he got involved in the project. The world he is in is considered the next step in VR that is explained in the first couple episodes. Kirito is shown inside of the world prior to his incident as a child with two others. Showing these three as children is the base for when he is inevitably shoved back inside. Kirito’s second return is when it truly begins. More foundation is built upon for the world’s mechanics and the arc of Quinella finally begins. The rest of the season follows suit with the ending having a good fight and concluding on quite the cliffhanger.

Visuals/Music:

All visuals were stunning in comparison to the others, it is in the middle of the previous season and the movies animation. They were able to blend a simplistic character design (simplistic visual feeling, not true simplistic style) together with detailed environments, skyboxes, particle effects and animating the water in a way that it looks very refined. Due to the types of character styling they went with it allowed for the fighting to have a more natural flow to it in comparison to the previous seasons.

Music and sound effects were also as one would expect when bundled with the visuals. OP’s and ED’s were enjoyable to listen to with sound effects not having a full mic rupture type effect on the heavy hitting attacks or moments. There was a bit but when listening closely it did have detail to it, they are probably the closest yet to better and more up to date sound effects, there is still room for improvement but its good enough. The entire OST is great and blends well with the scene giving you a proper emotional feeling when needed, adding to the scenes enjoyment without being abrupt and breaking immersion.

Final Thoughts:

The direction SAO has taken honestly surprised me. I did really like the first season even though it had quite a lot of glaring flaws, especially with most of the second half. Then the second season came along taking the same direction downwards in terms of quality, feeling even more rushed and condensed than the first season. That is not the case whatsoever anymore though. Actual care has finally been put into SAO.

Last thing to note is it wouldn’t be SAO without a bit of dual wielding badassery and we do get a little taste of it at the end… Although the way it came about that he did dual wield was quite heavy emotional wise. The ending ep will have a swirl of emotions followed by a `why you do this` cliffhanger.

Characters (main) – 5/5
Characters (sub) – 3/5
Enjoyment -4/5
Visuals – 5/5
Music – 4.5/5
Story – 3.5/5