jackson.wunsch - 2014-08-12 18:05:14

After the horrific failure that was the ALO arc, I was worried for the future of this show.  I just barely convinced myself to watch this new season.  But as I got further and further in, I'm starting to enjoy myself more and more.  I will attempt to dodge spoilers and the likeness and keep this review as vague as possible.  ALO left me... Disturbed, to say the least.  But with this new season, I'm thinking they're going to try and dodge around turning the anime into a hentai.  Granted, Kirito's new look is kind of odd, and I don't really understand why they did that, beyond the comedic aspects of it, and there is an obvious amount of fan-service present.  But understanding that these things are pretty minor details, especially in terms of the fan-service bit.  The point is, the plot is fantastic, and refers back to its roots in SAO frequently, it reduces real world conflict to an absolute minimum (or so it seems, thus far), and the sexual undertones, although still present, are far less obvious than in previous episodes.  The show still keeps those weird, lengthy expositions that I was never too fond of, as they were always right on the edge of a fourth wall break, but these only appear once in a while, so it is something I can overlook.  From the last few episodes, fantastic plot twist, trying to intertwine it more with SAO.

This review may quickly become irrelevant, as things may change, but for now, I like what I see.  Good animation, great fight scenes, intriguing plot, minimal fan-service and exposition, and no super creepy sexual undertones (and overtones).

bahringer.torrey - 2014-08-10 01:38:29

I started SAO II ready to just back out of it but this season actually isn't that bad. It has decent pacing and Sinon looks good in her pantsu. Animation and soundtrack are still great just like they were in season one.

xcronin - 2014-08-05 23:45:21

I tried to find flaws, but I literally cannot, after being a huge SAO (season 1) fan I couldn't fault the story as it is too great and the perfect story for a gamer and fantasy story lover, who has always wanted a VR world to play around in!

Animation style is great, they've upped the ante this season quite a bit, noticing improvements on a lot of things including new styles I quite like, it seems noticeably darker and more menacing, works perfectly with the story and new virtual world. Ambient sounds and atmosphere is great as usual, and music isn't too bad at all.

I've enjoyed SAO 2 so far a huge amount and they haven't failed to keep me wanting the next episode instantly after watching the last like before (except before I had every episode to watch, so I watched it all in a day!)

Must watch. 10/10. Watch SAO Season 1 first if you haven't. 

sebastian.simonis - 2014-08-02 22:45:44

So far i have watched two episodes and it has already grabbed my attention. The story is very detailed. I am looking forward to the rest of the episodes. This is a MUST WATCH !. SAO 2 is far more interesting than SAO. I love it 

marlen45 - 2014-07-29 14:21:51

For me it's until now enjoyable and worth watching. I hope that they will keep it like this I don't want to see that stupid fan-service which ruined the first season for me.

pollich.aryanna - 2014-07-21 10:31:16

Note: I have postponed watching this because of all the bull shit that happens,large amounts stupidity that is involved with every scene and lack of logic when it comes to the story and the plot holes. Also this review may never finished due to my unwillingness to view this anime again for quite a few reasons, some stated above. However, there is an emphasis on the word may as I might get bored and decide to finish it.

so far Sword Art Online II has given us one of the worst villain names, at least 15 minutes of a park bench, a quite bad opening to the plot of this season and a boring action sequence. This season could have made us forget about the overrated tragedy that is Sword Art Online. However, it seems that is not the case as the first episode showed us. The second episode tried to add some action to keep viewers enthralled and, in my opinion, failed to do so. Episode 3 was useless boring filler that helps dim the hopes of the series picking up in the 21 episodes remaining. The only reason this season will be successful is due to the mindless fandom it has picked up. Here is a fact for them. Sword Art Online is not even a good anime by any stretch of the imagination, yet alone being one of the greatest. The only redeeming factor is it's animation which is top notch. I hope that Aldnoah Zero's ratings do not get killed by this like Accel World.

Updated:

So episode 4 is out and this episode is basically a bad introduction to gun gale online where kirito or "Jesus san" proves why he/she is better than everyone and rips off star wars and defies the logic behind GUN gale online by using, what is essentially, a sword. 

I'l keep this one short, episode 5, lets re-use fan service situations. Still frames, still frames everywhere. Lets bring back a group from SAO that no one remembers or cares about. I'm really surprised that Disney haven't sued A-1 Pictures yet. 

Episode 6. It's just all plot holes and filler/fan service now. Why is Jesus san the only one who notices "Death Gun"?. And why does Jesus san suddenly get PTS?. And how is that laughing coffin guy nearly as OP as Jesus san even though a simple slap would kill him?. Why is the "Light Sword" so OP?. If it was that good without Jesus san using why doesn't anyone else use it?. And why is Jesus san's second opponent trying to snipe with an SMG?. And finally if Sinon is meant to be as ruthless as she was portrayed before her first fight why did she become soft for Jesus san?. It seems that logic isn't Reki Kawahara's strong point when it comes to writing.

Episode 7. This episode is all filler. No advancements further into the story whatsoever. Let's look on the bright side, everyone's favourite Incestuous cousin is back. We are reminded she still cares about Jesus san, probably in an incestuous way. The new harem bait figured out what Jesus san actually is. This is what Asada Shinon, if you didn't know Asada Shinon is the characters actual name outside of GGO, had to say "He makes me so mad! Because he's a jerk! And a sexual harasser! And a show-off!". That was well put, however, is only a small description of what Jesus san is. Then Asada's friend who will probably be "Death Gun" got friend zoned. And fuck all else happened. 

rreilly - 2014-07-10 02:21:32

This review is temporary, and will change based on the anime at later times if I deem it fit.

Story: 6

Always the weakest point of anything SAO related. There are many forced contrivances in SAO, and SAO II is no exception either. While yes, there are many justifications for why they are asking Kirito you could come up with, and even I've come up with, it's still a bit hard to swallow. Despite that, I'd say the story this time around will be better, as it will be a flowing narrative, and brings back the passion of arc 1 that was missing in arc 2, and cut back on all the derp moments of the original if even only a little bit. It also incorporates a mystery element, one I think is quite good, though your opinion might vary. One thing I'd like to mention in the section is the pacing of the show, while yes the first episode was a bit slow, it did manage to get past most of the set-up on Kirito's end quickly, and I found it to be a breeze to get through, though again experiences might vary. While Sinon was able to be introduced quite quickly with an action-packed episode 2. The pacing gets better as time goes on, as the more intense moments will be better dispersed between slower moments.

Animation: 8

I've never really been good at judging animation. However, SAO II still keeps its great backgrounds, and the fluidity of the animation seems much better than its predecessor. While the great amount of detail in this might suggest a quality drop in later episodes, I don't see that happening seeing as A-1 pictures cut all the funding from most of its other shows to fuel the cash cow. While that's a sad thing to do, at least it'll be enjoyably well animated.

Sound: 8

Not really a great section for me, but here goes. I think the voice acting seems fine, though this is coming from a guy who knows very little about the formalities, mannerisms, and speaking patterns of the Japanese. They seem to convey the correct emotion, and talk in a good tone that matches the age of the characters, and their personalities though. Sinon particularly has a nice voice range to match her needs as a stoic and assertive character when needed. Yuki Kajiura returns, and while I haven't noticed any standout tracks from her yet, she's still producing music that at the very least fits the mood, and aids in the delivery of each line. The opening "IGNITE" is also quite nice, and I actually like it a little bit better than the opening of the original, and the same goes for the ending "Startear."

Characters: 7

Honestly, another pretty weak section for the original SAO, however this series will improve on it. The original SAO has way too many characters, which made it it so none of them got any true development. In this STORY, there are only three characters you'll need to care about, and they're all done okay to exceptional.

1. Kirito - While still mostly Gary Stu, he does face a believable inner conflict, and more of his goals in life are actually defined, something the original SAO was quite poor at. 

2. Sinon - She'ss a breath of fresh air, she's not harem bait, actually aids in advancing the plot, goes through character development, and has her own goals.

3. Death Gun - He's not that interesting of a villain, he's designed nicely, and he can be intimidating, but he's pretty flat overall. However, not all story's require every character to be round, and at least he isn't psychotically evil like Suguo, and didn't forget his goals like Kayaba. All of the characters are better to some degree than their counterpart in the original.

Enjoyment: 10

It's fucking SAO, despite all of it's problems, there's a passion behind it that makes you just want to ignore its flaws. If you're not the kind of person who can put passion in front of reason, this might not be the best anime for you to watch, however, it is a step above the first season, so maybe give it a watch and see if you'll enjoy it.

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ukuphal - 2014-07-07 05:24:41

With the new season of SAO coming out I think I should give my two cents on this new season. I am a guilty pleasure lover of the romance within SAO, but finding everything else deplorable. Within an objective sense for me SAO was not all that bad, but suffers from terrible screenwriting and pacing throughout. Anyways onto the second season.

As some background information, this season of SAO will focus on the taking down of Sleeping Coffin, the PK guild from the first season, and our main characters, Kirito and Sinon, adventures within the Gun Gale Online and their participation within an annual tournament called the Battle of the Bullets (Different Translations but same idea).

The concept does sound really cool, but after reading the light novel and watching the first episode, I can state with confidence: This season will not change any minds, but possibly put SAO into a bigger hole. The reason why is because the Gun Gale Online arc was rushed through. Along with, other than the new character, Sinon, nobody gets any form of character development. NONE. Everyone is exactly the same as they were before. This can be either a bad or good thing depending, but for me this a bad thing. If an anime has a bad story, it can make up with great characters and vice versa, but if anime has both of those things as bad then most likely the anime will be bad and there will be some unhappy people within the anime community.

Sound and Animation quality coming from A-1 pictures means that it will be slightly upgraded from the previous SAO series, and the soundtrack also getting that slight little boost. With the airing of the first episode, I seem to be correct in this idea. So, for anyone who watches this season they should expect fairly decent animation with a lackluster soundtrack with three (at most) good tracks.

As a conclusion, the new season of Sword Art Online will most likely not bring anything new to the table. It should pretty much be an upgraded version of ALO and keep opinions the same from those who have watched it before. There will be exciting moments, but there will also, most likely, be moments where it be absolutely dreadful to watch. Therefore, I recommend that any of those who want to watch SAO2 the best idea would be to marathon it, when its completed. This season of SAO2 should not be incredibly exciting and should not be top-tier on anyone's anime list until things appear to change.

troy.king - 2014-07-07 01:04:18

First episode suggests a deeper story than the first season's "beat the tower" and then "save the girl" setups. I'm hoping for more character development and that they only do the one main arc this season instead of rushing to do 2.

sbins - 2014-07-06 03:11:40

I know it is silly to give a final verdict after only one episode so I won't be doing that here, but after having read the SAO novels I can say that this season is being set up from the get go to be amazing. I was worried they would jump into the action and gloss over the conversations between Asuna, Kikuoka, and Kirito in favor of summarizing the information in later episodes. I would recommend going back and re-watching these scenes because the information is extremely important to the story and carries over throughout the rest of the story arcs. 
So far all I can really say about this so far is that the attention to detail has exceeded my expectations. I'll update this later on I suppose.

Episode 2 did no disappoint and with all of the HD streams out there all I have to say is, wow. The fluidity of the action is awesome! So far I am really liking how nothing is being rushed, the pacing of the first season really made it stand out to me and it looks like this season won't be any different.