SAO: Alicization – WoU Part 2

The final battle against the Dark Territory drags on, as players from all over the world flood the Underworld’s servers and plunge the Human Empire into utter chaos. Asuna Yuuki and her friends defend their new allies with everything they have, but their numbers are falling. Meanwhile, Alice Zuberg heads toward the World’s End Altar while Gabriel “Vecta” Miller relentlessly pursues her.
Meanwhile, members of Rath strategize a plan in an attempt to restore Kirito’s damaged fluctlight. However, the intruders occupying the main control room have other plans. Surrounded by death and despair, when all hope seems to be lost, one voice reaches out to Kirito—a familiar one saying, “I will always be by your side.”
Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld 2nd Season is the epic conclusion to Akihiko Kayaba’s dream of creating artificial human intelligence. Now it is up to Kirito and his friends to protect this collapsing world from the people that still think it is just a game.

So how do I feel now that I’ve finished Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld 2nd Season? I’ll be completely honest with you, I thought this final season was a mixed bag. If you want to talk about a roller coaster of emotions then look no further than the whole “Alicization” arc.

As this season was a continuation of what came before it. I should’ve really waited until I’ve finished both anime to write on big review, but given how different both parts have been you could also play it out as two different anime.

SAO: Alicization – WoU Part 2 was very confusing in that regard because it wasn’t really a “War of Underworld”. I view part two have having two things, a war to determine who would ultimately get their hands on Alice. The second being a war to kill Kirito. If you were to ask me what SAO: Alicization – WoU Part 2 was truly about, I’d say it was about Kirito. Which is something that wouldn’t catch anyone by surprise because after all, he’s the main character of the whole Sword Art Online franchise.

Objectively, SAO: Alicization – WoU Part 2 was in essence, an anime where everyone waited and begged for Kirito to wake up so he would be able to save them all and the world. The problem with SAO: Alicization – WoU Part 2 was that they focused so much on waking Kirito up that they totally forgot about Alice and all that. I mentioned this in one of my more recent posts, how it felt like they (the anime) pushed everything that had happened in Sword Art Online: Alicization and Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld off to the side while the focused on Kirito and this Laughing Coffin dude from Aincrad.

Like let’s be real here, Vector (Gabriel Miller) wasn’t even someone we saw until the very end when he turned into this being that embodied nothingness. Here I was thinking that Kirito would finally meet his match, maybe Kirito encountered someone a little too strong and a little too powerful. But this is Kirito, the definition of the saying “Anything is possible” and it wasn’t meant to be. I’ll be honest, everything that was happening outside in the real world was meaningless because it didn’t have impact on what happened in the Underworld.

I also will admit that I’ve never been a fan of Eugeo, nor did I ever that he was an important character. I don’t think he was needed to help progress Kirito as a character. So when saw him in little bits throughout the second part, I was confused because to me, Eugeo was just another character who caused more trouble than needed and Kirito always had to come and save his butt. But to Kirito, Eugeo is a source of his strength. It is because of this that I think looking back, Eugeo and Kirito’s relationship wasn’t one that was developed to its full potential. Maybe that’s why Eugeo’s presence during the second part bothered me so much because his importance just wasn’t built up enough.

Furthermore, Alice’s importance as a character seemed to die down as the episodes progressed. Towards the end of the anime, we didn’t see much of her at all. The only time when she was able to jump back into the spotlight was when she was an AI amongst humans in the real world. But even then, it was short lived because she wanted to go home to the Underworld.

Don’t get me started about the ending and how poor it really was. Now in the Underworld, the Integrity Knights are now fighting monsters in outer space with spacecrafts. Like what? How did we get to that? Personally, that doesn’t make any sense to me. Also let’s talk about how Kirito (the Underworld version) is willing to protect and fight for the Underworld even if that means using the weapons onboard of the complex that houses the Underworld servers from the real world. Like what the heck is that?

Towards the end, nothing really started to make sense anymore. Which is why I say this “Alicization” arc, is a roller coaster. It’s a mixed bag with many highs and many lows. In a way, I’m happy that Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld 2nd Season is the final installment in the main series. I don’t know if I could have handled a new SAO which handled intergalactic fighting. I think that’s one step a little too far.