SAO: War of the Underworld | Episodes five through eight.

Interesting to say the least. What I found most interesting about episodes five through eight is that for me anyway, I wasn’t really sure what they were fighting for. I think this has to do with the fact that each one of them are fighting this war for their own reasons. Amongst all these reasons for fighting, I don’t think there is any real clear objective.

I guess you can say the ultimate objective is to protect the Underworld from the Dark Territories. But then, in episode eight we find that the major reason why this war started to begin with is because Vector wants the fluctlight/soul of Alice. So then wouldn’t the issue at hand be protecting Alice from Vector?

This almost reminds me of the Fourth Great Ninja War in Naruto. The only reason why the war started was because Obito and Madara were trying to obtain Kurama. In some way the War of the Underworld reminds me of that, obviously not to the same scale, but nonetheless, the comparison is there.

The biggest issue I’ve had so far with these episodes has been it hasn’t really been all to eventful. For the most part, we’re watching the Integrity Knights outright wreck all those who are trying to push beyond their guard. It was always implied that the Integrity Knights were the best of the best, the strongest knights of the realm. Episodes five through eight prove this point, but nothing has really caught me by surprise. I think that’s the problem.

There hasn’t been a surprise factor, there hasn’t been that “wow” moment. Yeah, I know the animations are out of this world and that Alice is insanely powerful, but what else is there?

Furthermore, as the Integrity Knights have been wrecking everyone, the fighting itself has been very minimal in scope. When you have the title “War of the Underworld” you’d expect there to be an all out war, but so far everything has been contained to inside this valley. At best, the ongoing fight has been okay. I definitely did expect better, that being said, it’s still early and there is a part two. So I assume that it’ll pick up eventually.

Also, I would like to mention, I have grown tired of this Kirito harem. I understand that Alice feels indebted to Kirito for everything that he has done for her. I also understand that to some degree Alice feels like she was the cause for whatever happened to Kirito but come on. We all know that Kirito has eyes for one person and one person only! Do not build up this relationship only for Alice to be left out because Kirito’s already got someone.

Anyway, did I expect something better from episodes five, six, seven and eight? Heck yeah. I am just a little disappointed, that’s for sure.