Sword Art Online II Review
After watching and reviewing Blame! a few weeks ago, I’ve been itching to dive back into more anime. Unfortunately I hadn’t found anything I’ve wanted to commit to (I still need to watch Cowboy Bebop), until today. A few years ago, when I was dipping my toes into the anime pool, I watched Sword Art Online. Typically, the mere utterance of the series’s name causes mass hysteria among fans, who claim it as the greatest series ever, but I really only remember it reminding me of the book Ready Player One. Anyways, I never really dived in much further than Sword Art Online, but now I find myself inexplicably drawn to it. As I normally do, I thought, “why not throw a review together?” You will find my Sword Art Online II review below.
How This Review Will Work
I have never reviewed something of this size before, but have decided to do it on an episodic basis. This means I will review episode 1, 2, 3, and so on until I have every episode reviewed. I will then round off the review with a conclusion where I reward my overall score. This sounds weird, but I do what I want here. Also I don’t know how in depth I will go in my reviewing, I’m just gonna see what happens. If you don’t like it…
What is Sword Art Online?
As I am jumping into the second part of Sword Art Online, it is probably only right to provide a brief introduction to the series. While I could attempt to describe the story of the first series to you, it’s probably easier for everyone if I just quote a reliable source:
In 2022, a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online (SAO) is released. With the NerveGear, a helmet that stimulates the user’s five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. Both the game and the NerveGear was created by Akihiko Kayaba. (Source)
Reading this summary really doesn’t do much to spoil the series, but provides at least a good background of the main concept in Sword Art Online. The only thing I will add is that there are two worlds, the virtual and real; in both worlds bad things happen and protagonist Kirito must save everyone.
How Sword Art Online II Differs
Sword Art Online II follows the same concept of of the original Sword Art, but introduces a new game to the mix. Called Guns Gale Online (GGO), the new game features guns and lots of them. Like Sword Art Online (the game), something begins to happen to players in the real world and it’s up to Kirito to stop it (I promise this summary will get better as I watch more of the show)!
I recently rewatched the first season of SAO and enjoyed it immensely. Up there with some of my all time favourite anime shows such as Full Metal Alchemist and The Last Airbender. My recollection of SAO2 was that it was enjoyable but didn’t live up to the first season. Now that Enrico is giving the second season a watch I might as well pop on the olde Nervegear and delve back in to see if my impressions were correct the first time around.
I never knew that there were so many Weebs amongst me. Don’t let FilmApe find out.
I like the review format! It ha been probabaly a year and half since I watched sword art online II but I did enjoy it. This way I can basically remember everything I watched and enjoyed without having to spend the time sitting down to finish it again myself.
It may now get you going as much as the first series but I enjoyed it all the same.
I didn’t know you were an anime fan.