Ah, SAO 2. You were much better than I had expected.
I took quite some time to finish this sequel, and I attribute this to somewhat bad pacing. Not horrible, just bad. The first few episodes were quite interesting, but there were definitely some things I hated about SAO 2.
I'll be talking about sao 2 in two seperate arcs, the GGO Arc and the Mother Rosario Arc. Cramming all that into one post doesn't seem like a good idea, anyways.
Story: 7/10
The emotional scenes are really well done, and it was a joy to watch whenever I was given a chance to watch from Sinon's POV. We also get to see how she helped Kirito in his moment of need, and while I wished it had been someone else, she did a pretty swell job of helping him out. The search for the mysterious killer 'Death Gun' was very good in introducing intense scenes and a few nail biting moments. Much like season 1, Sword art online 2 has little to no re-watch value, Most of the action scenes rely on shock factor. The bursts of adrenaline will only come once, and I can guarantee you that with each consecutive replay of a fight scene, you'll be less impressed than you originally were. But for the most part, the GGO Arc was decent. Though you'll be wondering how the heck Kirito's deductions hit so close to home. Maybe he should quit playing games and start working as a detective instead.
Characters: 6/10
Kirito has little to no growth from SAO. He still remains his usual lackluster self, and while he does have a few good moments, I do wonder what others see in him at times. But still, he is a fun and interesting character, and keeps the anime from being 'enjoyable' to 'boring'.
Sinon has brilliant character development, though she did have a cliched tragic backstory, her cool personality was likeable and paired nicely with Kirito. I can only thank my lucky stars that the two had good chemistry because of their 'rivals' dynamic.
Asuna on the other hand. Ugh. I just...ugh. They reduced to her to nothing more than a Kirito fangirl, and had her cheering for him on the sidelines while he was out gallivanting with another girl. I know it sounds bad and many people would defend him with stuff like 'But he was just trying to protect her!' but I don't believe in any of that crap. First of all, Asuna isn't some damsel in distress, is everone forgetting that she was in the death game, Sword art online? Or the fact that she was prominent figure of said game? As a Asuna Fan, I am very saddened to see her acting...so unlike herself in SAO 2. Instead of helping Kirito, or at least doing something to help him, she sits among their group of friends and sighs to herself, praying for 'Kirito-kun'.
I hated how her voice sounded here, so air-headed and lacking of depth. She sounded so 'fake' and the forceful cheer of her voice did not really help matters either. It pained me to watch the scenes she was in, always inwardly cringing at how she sounded. I would have given characters a 7 or a 8, if they had portrayed Asuna properly.
The rest of the cast were pretty much just there for the sake of being there. The story wouldn't have changed regardless of whether they were there or not. They could have been replaced by completely different characters, and sad to say, I couldn't have cared less.
Animation: 8/10
The ending song is one of my favourites.The opening and endings had amazing color schemes, and were honestly quite creative. It goes the same for the rest of the arc too. Gun Gale has a pretty grungy colour palette, but it was not drab or boring at all! The fight scenes especially, it just got my blood pumping so well. Even minor details, like Kirito having to push aside his long bangs, stood out really well and added a nice touch. The quality did drop a little in the last few episodes of this arc though, but that's about it.
All in all the first arc was pretty entertaining.
To be continued in Mother Rosario arc review.
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