Alicization legit felt like an entirely new show with how well the writing, animation, and storytelling pace went man. One of my favorite shows to date just because how good this season was. SAO gets so much flak (which I can get for some scenes) but that doesn't define the ENTIRE SHOW for what it is. Great video man, was definitely a good watch!
Totally forgot about the insane animation jump it had from prior seasons. It's not perfect but like you said overall it's handled so well. Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did, hope to see you back for future videos!
At the end of the day, this is just a matter of “to each their own”. i thoroughly enjoyed all seasons and movies of SAO. The memes and bashing of the show never really reached me or affected my enjoyment of the franchise. Other people's opinions, while they are free to express it however they want, means nothing to ourselves unless you CHOSE to take their words seriously to heart.
SAO fucking haunts me because the original idea for season 1 had SO much potential for several seasons, especially since the events happen over the course of several years?!?! but it got fumbled in the way we just kinda... speed through everything. and the fairy dance arc is like that... we all know. it's an emblem of wasted potential to me because i adore characters like asuna and sinon but i hate how they get kinda sidetracked as pure "protagonist waifus", at least until season 4. what this series could've been, man...
@@gallenberger1 season 4 is what sparked my interest in the series again! i loved mother's rosario and i'd been waiting for an adaptation of alicization for ages so i definitely think it came across in such a cool way
That's honestly not an SAO anime problem... the problem in aincrad was, as you said, how it "speed through"... But that as a matter of fact a problem from the source material... the light novel version of Aincard, which was used for the anime, only contained the events past floor 74 (aka from when we first see kirito's iconic black swordsman outfit untill getting out of SAO) and the first episode as a flash back... everything else in season one came from short stories that where released months/ allmost a year apart... Fairy dance was obviously a mess, even keeping in mind that the anime cut an entire sub-arc worth 7-8 episodes, which actually got referenced in the "caliburn sub-arc" which was put in season 2 between Phantom bullet and Mothers Rosario which when speasking of, where kinda rushed... We where honestly lucky that Alicization and War of Underworld took up so many volumes compared to the prior arcs (first four arcs = 2 Volumes per arc, Alicization + WoU ~12 -13 volumes) and therefore had more content which forced the studio to release longer seasons, aka. 50+ Ep for the entire alicization story (allthough, they did cut a lot of stuff, like the entire Zakkaria storyline in part one of Alicization) Also, if you didn't know... The Aincrad arc started getting a new Manga adaptation called "Re:Aincrad" which is better paced and more fleshed out, containing a lot of LN content which got cut from the original manga and anime, aswell heavily basing the character designs on the anime's first seasons one... as of right now, there are 10 chapters that go up to the Ilfang fight but also inclued the soon to be animated "first day" story line... But, if you're not that much into reading manga, then i can recommend the SAO - Progressive movies... If you haven't heard of them yet, while not perfectly adapting the Progressive light novels (adding movie original characters), which are a floor by floor retelling of the aincrad arc. While not as fleshed out as the SAO Re:Aincrad Manga, in terms of anime format, it is the closest thing of what someone like you wishes from SAO's first arc... Sofar we have 2 Progressvie movies which tell the stories of the first and second floor respectfully...
progressive is coming in to fix that the reason for aincrad's rushedness was because it was written for a competition, then scrapped because it was too long and published instead. Kawahara has realized this and decided to rewrite it for its full potential
Alicization in general had alot of good ideas, enough for me to straight up ignore ALO as a bad dream. For example, this tackled the ethics of AI long before AI became a thing.
Pandemic babies don’t know how big SAO in 2012. It popularized rpg in our region and especially the isekai genre. “Another world” concept in a realistic most possible way.
@@Zivin last 12 years *does* contain stuff like mushoku tensei, rezero, and konosuba though. Those 3 of which I'd consider to be isekai in its purest and best forms. Even some "gimmick" shows are still really good, like reincarnated as a slime for example.
Because they stopped watching SAO because of the previous seasons which i can understand since not many people really like SAO in the previous seasons But im no SAO hater i just understand why they would stop watching and would think he has no trauma
@@milojevicdavid9956 its more of how they build up his character i guess that they hate especially how powerful he is that they give him a nickname of jesus-kun I get what u mean tho with sachi's death since i watch and love SAO but i guess thats not enough for them
@@sechikirigaya2802I still think he’s Jesus kun but at the same time gun gale flat out confirms bro is still haunted by SAO ( the games too I think) My biggest gripe has always been they just make him too op
Well yeah, SAO was never about the isekai/video game aspects. It has always been about digital vs real world. Think of it like The Matrix, but more close to reality and modern day. Even in the first volume of SAO, it was never about stuck in video game, it was about love transcend the digital world. The 1st vol is literally just a love story between Kirito and Asuna and how their relationship make Kirito defies the system. It's the anime that advertise it into an isekai/video game focus anime.
Thank you for the video. It really put to words some of my own thoughts for the show. Seriously, this moment in SAO is by far the most epic sequence of events I've ever seen in an anime and I've seen some awesome ones.
Glad you enjoyed it! The Kirito return episode is one of my all time favorites, and the build/execution of it all was perfect. TheAsuna/PoH fight being a banger is the cherry on top.
SAO's hate was blown out of proportion to the point that it is entirely unreasonable (let's say "it almost is", though I find it really hard to see arguments with any kind of objective foundation behind them). It's good to see someone praising it (or more generally, speaking of it reasonably - I don't mind that people dislike it if they don't give stupid opinions) in a sea full of corrupted opinions. Good video!
0:32 Two examples immediately came to mind! 1: Goku is sidelined often (bit of a meme, but it's usually for a completely justifiable reason), but it is particularly memorable in the Namek saga. He's first sidelined as a direct consequence to his battle against Vegeta (No more sensu beans, so he has to heal from the fight the normal way, through hospital), and then he has to catch-up to his friends in space, which takes time. He _immediately_ makes a difference as soon as he arrives, but then almost immediately gets sidelined _again_ after his fight with Ginyu, and stays in a healing pod for the rest of the season until his fight with Freeza. Happened against in the Cyborgs saga: dude got a nasty heart virus that kept him in a coma for most of the arc, and given that Future Trunks straight-up says he dies from it in the future (and also that he already died at the beginning of the first season), it's not impossible that he will again. So, you know. XD 2: Luffy in the Alabasta arc. He straight-up lost his battle against Crocodile (main villain of that arc), got horribly stabbed, and was left for dead for such a long time that it made it difficult to know when he was gonna show up again. He shows up a bit before the climax of the arc. I still think your point about SAO is fair (the way they sidelined Kirito is one I have zero issues with), but I figured I could actually _try_ to think of examples. To my surprise, I have a bit more knowledge than I thought I did. XD As I typed all of this, Megaman.exe came to mind (he got literally deleted in a fight against Pharaohman.exe, and for a good chunk of that arc, his friends have to assemble pieces of him to restore him back to normal. Good stuff).
This is a good video that has really good explanation and is also good to remember about SAO. I am a huge SAO fan, even through all these new anime coming up that I've watched, SAO will stay as my number one anime.
That's what they are doing with the progressive movies now, taking SAO itself slowly which is love, sure they are still skipping a few floors but I think doing every floor would be excessive
speedran through the anime again recently and skipped ALO and was so happy I did but I can never describe how sad I felt when Eugeo died. Alicization was my first intro to SAO and god dam I have to have cried for a solid hour over him dying. It's honestly two masterfully written shows kinda rolled into one despite the pacing being off in both directions sometimes
Other than the unnecessary tentacle scene with Leafa. SAO Alicization was such an amazing arc, it was very well pase and the references to all the past events was a love letter to the almost 10th of SAO. The ending make me wanted more of SAO for at least 1 week, it truly felt like the end of everything.
I'm so glad someone is finally seeing the beauty of some of the things SAO has been doing. I feel like people are missing out because it became popular to hate. Although some of the hate is deserved, the show is still something special and good
The next season will come when the Unital Ring light novels come to an end. This will also be the mark of the end of this series (aside from Progressive rewriting the first arc) as a whole since Unital Ring was confirmed to be the final arc
Being able to kill the lead if people do not like them, the story out growing them is a great reason not to name the series with a character. Many series name after a character, that character is badly wrote nine of ten times. Having a lead be gone for a season is a great idea, Star Gate did this with Daniel Jackson he cam back as a great newer version(still keeping to who the character was in many ways, but he needed change).
still waiting for season 5...like 4 years later. Also its funny the anime/manga almost accurately predicted the 2020's as we do have vr and it is all the rage but we dont have a mmo rpg vr game nerve head set thing with a crazy dev that decided one day yea let me make a game where if u die in game u die irl and let me lock all my day 1 players in the game. Then pretend to be one of them for sh1ts and giggles.
Alicization was great, it's definitely the best SAO arc for me. Btw, concerning what you said at 2:30, Asuna did use Yuuki's combo before, towards the end of the Ordinal Scale movie which takes place just before Alicization
SAO had an interesting premise at the time of its first season. However, it ended up becoming a detriment to its expectation as an Isekai series, mostly because of focusing on Kirito's perspecive as a Messianic savior and turning the supporting characters as loyal and unquestionable NPCs without any personality or ambition of their own, until Alicization. Plus, the fact that every arc had the same pattern as the Aincrad one, even the point of having pervy antagonists for Kirito to fight. Even if Alicization had its moments, including the usefulness of most of the supporting characters and the wake up call of Kirito, it did not win me the heart of rewatching the series with awesomeness. By that time, it was well dead and buried in my eyes and heart.
To me, SAO is good, but can be better. the entire idea of being trapped in the game and the other concepts like how you talk about Kirito's PTSD, but they could do SO MUCH for the first season, we seen it in the Progressive Movies too, it has so much protiental right there
SAO tackled the exact premises and themes I wanted out of a life-and-death-stakes fantasy video game isekai. It bungled it badly through misplaced fanservice, badly written harem-baiting, and the author clearly not understanding video games from either a design or play standpoint. Man, though, in the places that it works, it *works.*
This arc was so Good.. people just hate on sao or they just say sao carried by the first season. People just keep saying that kirito has no development Thank you for explaining this and shedding some light on it
First season didn't carry imo. It started like it had potential but went to shit as it went. Not really a carry imo. But Alicization was much better. Alfheim was the true garbage though.. absolutely can't stand that arc.
It goes to show that SAO has some way of impacting viewers From popularizing the genre of video game isekai animes To making people think that he's a so called perfect protagonist but is actually afraid and has a huge guilt Take season 2 ggo arc he didnt wanna go to ggo at first because he didnt want what he thinks is a second death game but it felt like he had no choice Despite the amount of hate this anime gets. Cant escape that in a way we relate to the guy, making it that things look ok and we can just live alright but hidden inside we have a huge fear and guilt
If sao season 1 would’ve went haywire and went off of they own damn script do you think it had any chance of being better than it is now? I’m kinda curious as I do wish we had a lot more floors to explore in the sao universe. A whole 100 floor story would be epic, hard to make but hopefully epic
Really liked this vid, and yes it felt like Kirito finally became the complex character we knew he could be. I liked S1 up until they made Asuna a whiny baby for kirito to comfort. But her arc with Yuki brought her back. And Eugeo was my fav Wifu but 2 male leads could not share the spotlight😂 He died for Kirito ch development 😬😭 Great Vid
People's biggest gripes with Sao is that it didn't do what they thought it should. What I find most ridiculous is the fact that people clown on this show for things that they'll actively enjoy in the slop that released in recent times seasonally, Ive seen "Harem-baiting" and other bs term thrown around like it even matters, never have I seen an anime get this much hate for BS Sao was Reki Kawahara's First ever official story that was submitted on a fluke, I find it very unreasonable to expect absolute perfection in plot just because you liked the original idea/concept or is it because these people are "Actually Gamers🤓" Proof is in the pudding, these same people will tell you the abridged series is some Incredible improvement, I can say the same for the AoT abridged btw.
It's insane how even a video *praising* SAO still misses the point so fucking bad 3:17 - This is simply objectively incorrect. Before War of Underworld, we've had multiple arcs that explore Kirito's PTSD surrounding the SAO Incident. This episode is just the deepest dive we've gotten Fairy Dance is in large part a character study of Kirito's changed mindset after the events of Aincrad and how it's changed his perspective on inner strength and how people let their true selves shine through when the veil of consequences is lifted. Phantom Bullet explores his PTSD of killing people, even if it was just self defense. And Ordinal Scales brings up a massive debate on how memories shape the people we become, both the good and the bad. Multiple characters in that film in particular question why Kirito would ever want to keep his memories of SAO, which includes Eiji, Shigemura, and even Klein War of Underworld *is not* the only time we've seen Kirito struggle, both physically and mentally. Nearly ever arc post Aincrad explores and challenges his mindscape in some way or another. He's always been flawed, has always been portrayed as someone who's deeply vulnerable
@twilightwolf6248 Honestly, I never subscribed to this idea I will conced that the anime swapped out some of his silly goober moments in exchange to make him look more badass and cool, but it never neglected to make him vulnerable. I've read the novels as well, that aspect of his character is very much intact. It is unfortunate that the anime's nightmare sequence skipped out the First Day portion tho. I really think they fumbled in not included it, but I still think it works well on its own. The sequence as it is in the anime still explores his trauma from the past few years, still showcases how he feels about the actions he's taken to accomplish his goals. For as much as I love First Day, I don't think Kirito's character hinges on it
I look forward to every season of sao, because I wonder how the abridged will adapt it, this arc in particular because it was actually one of the few arcs I thought was genuinely good
It is genuinely wild to me that Reki improved at writing so much that he was able to do this, but the people legit just added anime only SA scenes for some fucking reason to what could have been an amazing season.
I loved this video its great to see one of my favorite animes getting recognition But when you say we haven't seen the 11 hit skill mothers rosario that asuna uses that's incorrect we've seen it once before in the movie Ordinal scale (which yes is cannon) still no hate just a little correction
im going to be so real the primary connecting factor between all of the best sao parts for me is directly correlated with how much mr white bread with no meat or condiments over here is in the front line of the narrative -- the best parts of SAO tend to be the ones where kirito isnt around
@@abbythings you can like white bread but having white bread be the entire meal for 3 meals a day six months of the year kind of gets grating im a big a fan of white bread as the next person but sometimes simplicity isnt the best
Alicization was amazing. The first couple episodes of Season 3 had Kirito nearly die and become comatose in irl and enter the Underworld. Then Kirito becomes comatose in the Underworld in Season 4.
@@gallenberger1When I watched Season 3, I remember thinking that I had never seen an anime basically kill off their main character before without having the show reboot or spin off into a new series.
The *one* aspect I objected to in this excellent scene was Kirito’s sorrow for killing Sugou. That animal tried to *violate the mother of his child;* that *alone* should already absolve him of *any* guilt for butchering him like the pig that he is. And yet 4 years on he feels *grief* for defending his Wife’s honor? Some executive producer drank too much that day because it does *not* make sense for a Husband & Father consider his duty a *sin.*
What pisses me off about Sao is that it has so much potential but it just flops due to lack of character development and how it sidelines potential good characters like eugeo
Eugeo was a goat till the end bro, they even reuse his character a lot in Kirito’s final battle. They have his voice lines everytime Kirito uses his sword.
This season of SAO is definitely the best. And no, I can't think of another series off hand that sidelines the Mc for such a prolonged time. S1 during the aincrad arch should have the best if it had filled through with going through the whole castle and not breaking down mid way through. It's a shame, though, that despite how good Aliczation is, people still talk cap about it, all the while, supporting shows that use the same generic stories over and over yet call them great.
Appeareantly people really don’t like sao lmao.. he’s had the guilt the whole damn time, and it was shown, he’s never been as one dimensional as people make it out to be. I gave up the 3/4th season because it was too damn long lol. But throughout thw whole show it has been shown that yes he’s a person that took a responsibility that need such a personality that yes is going to be “one dimensional” on the outside but some scenes have shown that he truly isn’t that character that’s dull. He indeed has emotional responses to the things has done and things. I mean people seemingly like to forget that he breaks down a few times in season 1 alone, about the things he’s done and the pressure about the responsibility he’s up taken.
those were always my thoughts like people that hate it just for the fact are just dumb i get that alo wasn't good but sao gun gale was what basically peaked my interest in anime with guns and also was the first i watched that was like that and Alicization with god tier animation
Latifa part was just messed up, she got graped by worms and experiencing pain like its real life. But what was worst, at least for me was writting, like it happened and she walked it off like nothing happened. I mean, that's some traumatizing shit right there.
This is because the anime sexualized the scene based on a visual that was in the light novel. The scene itself in the light novel is basically just her getting her life drained over and over again. So still torture but kinda pales in comparison to everything that followed.
I stopped watching the Alicization arc cuz I couldn’t handle another rapey scene. One of my biggest gripes with the series (despite the harem) is the fan service shots and completely unnecessary scenes. But dang I can’t say it didn’t love the concept and potential dark tones the first season had
Sao fans really eat up the most predictale slop💀Woooow Kirito wakes up at the pivotal moment and saves everyone, how unexpected. There's no way anyone could have seen this coming! 😭
This seems to be missing the point. We want Kirito to save the day. That's what the whole build was about and what makes it cool is long it goes on for. No one called it unpredictable
I like the majority of sao, especially for it's female characters. Alicization was a blessing as a sao fan because it really got a lot of people into sao. I just wish people would stop calling characters waifu bait as If every other anime doesn't do the same shit.
There was Ainground/Hollow Realization, with a lot of cast bonding moments in between the main story, but that's the gameverse, so it's not relevant here.
@@gallenberger1 You're right, I enjoy watching shows with unique storylines, and not to mention it came out 12 years ago! also The Devil is a Part-Timer! S1 was released around the same time. By the way, before watching your video, I hadn't fully realized the depth of this arc. 😅
my god I've been saying this since the days people hated on SAO for Kirito being "overpowered" or whatever XDDDDDD Alicization literally just completely destroys that by making him a vegetable for half the arc and AND he doesn't even WIN on his own against Gabriel because despite him going super giga op mode he LOSES and if it wasn't for Eugeo (or spirit or w/.e you want to call it) helping him out at the last moment he would have literally lost and that's not even the only instance something like that happens like if Asuna hadn't jumped infront of him in the Kayaba fight he would have also lost like there's so many moments in SAO where Kirito is shown to NOT be as strong as people see him to be and he knows all of that himself as well as seen during the fight with Quinella where he remembers Asuna jumping infront of him etc when Alice tried to protect him and he got his shit together to truly face Quinella like the SAO hate is unimaginably stupid also at 3:19 that's literally not true lmao Eugeo literally DIES LOL infront of his eyes because he wasn't strong enough to do something about the situation himself literally how can people call Kirito EVER being an overpowered protagonist when his literally best friend dies infront of his eyes XDDDDDDDDDDDD I don't get you people I really don't
There can be good moments in poorly written media. Does that make the media they come from is good or worth watching? I don't think so.. but I can appreciate an emotional moment when it's good.
Having trouble finding this arc because the way Crunchy Roll labels things is weird and doesn’t say “season 4”, what is the title of the first episode of this arc
Nice video, but War of Underworld is ss3 part 2, not ss4. Also, I wanna add that most reason why Kirito have trauma is that he can't not save Eugeo, he can't do anything in the fight and he see Eugeo fight to death to protect him.
@@fierytigergaming8112 That are his bad memories, and they are displayed in his coma. However, the main reason lead to coma is Eugeo death + electric issue
@@Yujio-c9j I know, I think it got explained in episode 1 when Alice returns to the village with the catatonic Kirito, in a flashback to what happened after Kirito told Kikuoka about the situation over in Underworld
If you think it was well done in the anime then read the LN because it is infinitely better and alot more serious no weird tentacle scene with Terraria it was pure torture.
SAO was full of really cool ideas but bad execution until Alicization started. Alicization was good with the exception of 1 scene and the War was althoughout amazing.
Can someone explain to me again how Kirito survived at the end of the first season? Like he died to the owner of SAO, how come he just woke up normally. And also his other party member’s death didn’t really feel allat impactful when they did die because it didn’t show a scene of them dying in real life.
@omlg2021 The way I understand it is that while he died in game, there is a lag between death in game vs. Real life, and he defeated the game during that lag. Could be wrong though
Gallen is partially correct in that there was a level of lag involved. That lag however was the result of a sort of lesser form of the Incarnation system seen in Alicization, basically just buying himself a few extra seconds before his avatar exploded. That said, even if that hadn't happened and he'd lost the duel, it's possible he would have survived anyway, as Kayaba wanted to speak with him after the fight regardless of it's outcome if I recall correctly, which is why Asuna also didn't die, as he'd already made it so that he could talk to them after. As for the Moonlit Black Cat's deaths, that part of the story is written in a first person perspective from Kirito's point of view. So obviously the irl scene wouldn't be shown, and it isn't even necessary since you see them die in game and understand what that means.
I mean, if you do the proper thing and count NPCs as NPCs, then season 3 was just Kirito playing a single player game, and the first half of season 4 was just the game running without anyone playing.
Kirito's return?! Alicization was best when he was a vegetable. I was lamenting his inevitable return towards the end of the season, hoping he wouldn't come back till after the climax.
SAO is one of my favourite anime. The main complain I have with the season 4 is that it completely breaks the well-established cannon from the novels. It is established in the novels(and anime season 3) that the mnemonic visualization thing(that makes it so the imagination of the user can influence the world) is available only for the STL, but SOMEHOW the other devices not only can do it as well, but people can be controlled by it(Poh influencing the players from Korea/China). In the novels there is a scene where the American(?) players say how trash the graphics are. Only STL users can see the world as if it's the real world. Also I wish to see the anime adaptation of the latest arc of SAO. It's a very interesting arc that follows after the whole alicization ordeal with yet another large scale vrmmo incident.
Lesser forms of incarnation do exist thoughout the series with other devices. Such as Kirito delaying his death at the end of Aincrad. Or Asuna curing her admin paralysis. Other devices therefore have been established to be capable of Incarnation, just to a weaker degree. So a character like Eiji being able to alter his appearance isn't that strange in my opinion. It's nowhere near on the level of altering the function of a skill or overloading a person's fluctlight for example.
I hated the last part of war of the underworld after season 1 Asian just turns into a Kirito simp and does nothing else and then comes into this world and is somehow as good as Alice and same goes for the other side characters from the real world because 2 years in sao somehow made them more capable then people who have trained there entire lives. I would have liked it if war of the underworld stayed in the underworld without bringing in the American players
If you enjoyed this video please subscribe! There is plenty more SAO and anime content to come!
Do you have a Discord Server, I'd be interested in chatting sometime if you'll have me.
@@HachiRiku I have a discord account but not a server
Hard to imagine this whole string of tragic events was kickstarted with setting npcs to autoloot.
@@Laszer271 Right?
LMAO 🤣
the lore
Oh I get it lol.
Bruh🤣🤣🤣
Hi Gary, long time no seeee
Alicization legit felt like an entirely new show with how well the writing, animation, and storytelling pace went man. One of my favorite shows to date just because how good this season was. SAO gets so much flak (which I can get for some scenes) but that doesn't define the ENTIRE SHOW for what it is.
Great video man, was definitely a good watch!
Totally forgot about the insane animation jump it had from prior seasons. It's not perfect but like you said overall it's handled so well. Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did, hope to see you back for future videos!
The entire show as a whole is not good, seasons itself, 1 and 4 are god tier
At the end of the day, this is just a matter of “to each their own”. i thoroughly enjoyed all seasons and movies of SAO. The memes and bashing of the show never really reached me or affected my enjoyment of the franchise. Other people's opinions, while they are free to express it however they want, means nothing to ourselves unless you CHOSE to take their words seriously to heart.
GOATED ANIME
@@CelesNihility Agreed
SAO fucking haunts me because the original idea for season 1 had SO much potential for several seasons, especially since the events happen over the course of several years?!?! but it got fumbled in the way we just kinda... speed through everything. and the fairy dance arc is like that... we all know. it's an emblem of wasted potential to me because i adore characters like asuna and sinon but i hate how they get kinda sidetracked as pure "protagonist waifus", at least until season 4. what this series could've been, man...
@failboything Season 1 definitely fumbled an all time cool idea. I think the season 4 idea was pretty damn epic though
@@gallenberger1 season 4 is what sparked my interest in the series again! i loved mother's rosario and i'd been waiting for an adaptation of alicization for ages so i definitely think it came across in such a cool way
@@failboything Right? Alicization was awesome
That's honestly not an SAO anime problem... the problem in aincrad was, as you said, how it "speed through"... But that as a matter of fact a problem from the source material... the light novel version of Aincard, which was used for the anime, only contained the events past floor 74 (aka from when we first see kirito's iconic black swordsman outfit untill getting out of SAO) and the first episode as a flash back... everything else in season one came from short stories that where released months/ allmost a year apart...
Fairy dance was obviously a mess, even keeping in mind that the anime cut an entire sub-arc worth 7-8 episodes, which actually got referenced in the "caliburn sub-arc" which was put in season 2 between Phantom bullet and Mothers Rosario which when speasking of, where kinda rushed...
We where honestly lucky that Alicization and War of Underworld took up so many volumes compared to the prior arcs (first four arcs = 2 Volumes per arc, Alicization + WoU ~12 -13 volumes) and therefore had more content which forced the studio to release longer seasons, aka. 50+ Ep for the entire alicization story (allthough, they did cut a lot of stuff, like the entire Zakkaria storyline in part one of Alicization)
Also, if you didn't know... The Aincrad arc started getting a new Manga adaptation called "Re:Aincrad" which is better paced and more fleshed out, containing a lot of LN content which got cut from the original manga and anime, aswell heavily basing the character designs on the anime's first seasons one... as of right now, there are 10 chapters that go up to the Ilfang fight but also inclued the soon to be animated "first day" story line...
But, if you're not that much into reading manga, then i can recommend the SAO - Progressive movies... If you haven't heard of them yet, while not perfectly adapting the Progressive light novels (adding movie original characters), which are a floor by floor retelling of the aincrad arc. While not as fleshed out as the SAO Re:Aincrad Manga, in terms of anime format, it is the closest thing of what someone like you wishes from SAO's first arc... Sofar we have 2 Progressvie movies which tell the stories of the first and second floor respectfully...
progressive is coming in to fix that
the reason for aincrad's rushedness was because it was written for a competition, then scrapped because it was too long and published instead. Kawahara has realized this and decided to rewrite it for its full potential
Alicization in general had alot of good ideas, enough for me to straight up ignore ALO as a bad dream. For example, this tackled the ethics of AI long before AI became a thing.
@@ronelm2000 It did, good call
More like before AI became mainstream. Yk AI already a thing even before terminator
This was a great arc, Asuna vs Prince of Hell was a top tier fight 🔥
@@Dougall12 💯
Dont forget Nautilus combat too owo
Pandemic babies don’t know how big SAO in 2012. It popularized rpg in our region and especially the isekai genre. “Another world” concept in a realistic most possible way.
Yeah except now all anime and manga is essentially a ripoff Isekai “with a gimmick” for the last 12 years
@@Zivin last 12 years *does* contain stuff like mushoku tensei, rezero, and konosuba though. Those 3 of which I'd consider to be isekai in its purest and best forms. Even some "gimmick" shows are still really good, like reincarnated as a slime for example.
I can't understand how ppl rly thought kirito has no trauma must be fking blind to not see it
Because they stopped watching SAO because of the previous seasons which i can understand since not many people really like SAO in the previous seasons
But im no SAO hater i just understand why they would stop watching and would think he has no trauma
@@sechikirigaya2802 Since Sacchi died its obvious he is dealing with stuff and just not showing it
@@milojevicdavid9956 its more of how they build up his character i guess that they hate especially how powerful he is that they give him a nickname of jesus-kun
I get what u mean tho with sachi's death since i watch and love SAO but i guess thats not enough for them
@@sechikirigaya2802I still think he’s Jesus kun but at the same time gun gale flat out confirms bro is still haunted by SAO ( the games too I think)
My biggest gripe has always been they just make him too op
@@amari7782 he still is jesus kun XD
its good for the memes
Well yeah, SAO was never about the isekai/video game aspects. It has always been about digital vs real world. Think of it like The Matrix, but more close to reality and modern day. Even in the first volume of SAO, it was never about stuck in video game, it was about love transcend the digital world. The 1st vol is literally just a love story between Kirito and Asuna and how their relationship make Kirito defies the system. It's the anime that advertise it into an isekai/video game focus anime.
Or think of it as Tron becoming real…heh?
Asuna used Yuuki's attack in the Ordinal Scale movie prior to Alicization.
@artofroses2253 oh yeah!
Thank you for the video. It really put to words some of my own thoughts for the show. Seriously, this moment in SAO is by far the most epic sequence of events I've ever seen in an anime and I've seen some awesome ones.
Glad you enjoyed it! The Kirito return episode is one of my all time favorites, and the build/execution of it all was perfect. TheAsuna/PoH fight being a banger is the cherry on top.
SAO's hate was blown out of proportion to the point that it is entirely unreasonable (let's say "it almost is", though I find it really hard to see arguments with any kind of objective foundation behind them). It's good to see someone praising it (or more generally, speaking of it reasonably - I don't mind that people dislike it if they don't give stupid opinions) in a sea full of corrupted opinions. Good video!
@olivegarden3604 Glad you liked it! Too many people dropped it early
I’m glad that this show is getting the recognition it deserves. Everyone says it’s overrated and sucks but I really enjoyed watching it
@@Breadyboi18 It does get a ton of hate. I think that has to come from people who didn't watch this far
0:32 Two examples immediately came to mind!
1: Goku is sidelined often (bit of a meme, but it's usually for a completely justifiable reason), but it is particularly memorable in the Namek saga. He's first sidelined as a direct consequence to his battle against Vegeta (No more sensu beans, so he has to heal from the fight the normal way, through hospital), and then he has to catch-up to his friends in space, which takes time. He _immediately_ makes a difference as soon as he arrives, but then almost immediately gets sidelined _again_ after his fight with Ginyu, and stays in a healing pod for the rest of the season until his fight with Freeza.
Happened against in the Cyborgs saga: dude got a nasty heart virus that kept him in a coma for most of the arc, and given that Future Trunks straight-up says he dies from it in the future (and also that he already died at the beginning of the first season), it's not impossible that he will again. So, you know. XD
2: Luffy in the Alabasta arc. He straight-up lost his battle against Crocodile (main villain of that arc), got horribly stabbed, and was left for dead for such a long time that it made it difficult to know when he was gonna show up again. He shows up a bit before the climax of the arc.
I still think your point about SAO is fair (the way they sidelined Kirito is one I have zero issues with), but I figured I could actually _try_ to think of examples. To my surprise, I have a bit more knowledge than I thought I did. XD As I typed all of this, Megaman.exe came to mind (he got literally deleted in a fight against Pharaohman.exe, and for a good chunk of that arc, his friends have to assemble pieces of him to restore him back to normal. Good stuff).
I think the biggest part of it (at least to me) is how heavily SAO has relied on Kirito.
MOTHERS ROSARIO MADE MY BACK AND ENTIRE BODY FILL WITH CHILLSSSSS AGGH
This is a good video that has really good explanation and is also good to remember about SAO. I am a huge SAO fan, even through all these new anime coming up that I've watched, SAO will stay as my number one anime.
@@tyliedo Glad you enjoyed it! SAO really does get to be awesome as it goes on
Sao is an anime that could potentially make multiple seasons and ended it in 13 episodes
@@arthurblizzardxd2985 They definitely ended the first stuff early
That's what they are doing with the progressive movies now, taking SAO itself slowly which is love, sure they are still skipping a few floors but I think doing every floor would be excessive
speedran through the anime again recently and skipped ALO and was so happy I did but I can never describe how sad I felt when Eugeo died. Alicization was my first intro to SAO and god dam I have to have cried for a solid hour over him dying. It's honestly two masterfully written shows kinda rolled into one despite the pacing being off in both directions sometimes
💯
Other than the unnecessary tentacle scene with Leafa. SAO Alicization was such an amazing arc, it was very well pase and the references to all the past events was a love letter to the almost 10th of SAO. The ending make me wanted more of SAO for at least 1 week, it truly felt like the end of everything.
@GodoMatrix Yeah, the Leafa scene was unnecessary but overall such a great arc
we actually did see the 11 hit combo. it was in the ordinal scale movie
@Unveileled Yeah my mistake
I'm so glad someone is finally seeing the beauty of some of the things SAO has been doing. I feel like people are missing out because it became popular to hate. Although some of the hate is deserved, the show is still something special and good
@@Dabst3rPlays And has some incredible ideas!
" some of the hate is deserved "
You're one of the reasons why people miss on it you clown
no hate of it is deserved
This is easily my favourite anime. Love me some Sword Art Online. Can’t wait for season 5
@Connie-sx7nz It's taking its sweet time though 😑
thank you fpor the great video! I loved Alicazation and was at the edge of my seat every week until the next episode =D
@vor6126 Same here. Absolutely loved that season. Glad you enjoyed the vid!
Legi SAO s3-4 were so damn peak, we need another season😭🙏
We really do
The next season will come when the Unital Ring light novels come to an end. This will also be the mark of the end of this series (aside from Progressive rewriting the first arc) as a whole since Unital Ring was confirmed to be the final arc
Being able to kill the lead if people do not like them, the story out growing them is a great reason not to name the series with a character. Many series name after a character, that character is badly wrote nine of ten times. Having a lead be gone for a season is a great idea, Star Gate did this with Daniel Jackson he cam back as a great newer version(still keeping to who the character was in many ways, but he needed change).
still waiting for season 5...like 4 years later. Also its funny the anime/manga almost accurately predicted the 2020's as we do have vr and it is all the rage but we dont have a mmo rpg vr game nerve head set thing with a crazy dev that decided one day yea let me make a game where if u die in game u die irl and let me lock all my day 1 players in the game. Then pretend to be one of them for sh1ts and giggles.
@@TpRedNinja 💯
Alicization was great, it's definitely the best SAO arc for me. Btw, concerning what you said at 2:30, Asuna did use Yuuki's combo before, towards the end of the Ordinal Scale movie which takes place just before Alicization
@@CheickHD Yeah, totally forgot the movie tbh
The anime that got me into anime, and still one of my top 5(all seasons)
@JrockProject1 It doesn't get nearly enough credit imo. Always good to see fellow fans. What did you watch after it?
SAO's greatest idea was benching kirito's ass for half a season.
@@yyhn7168 That's one way of putting it 🤣
SAO had an interesting premise at the time of its first season. However, it ended up becoming a detriment to its expectation as an Isekai series, mostly because of focusing on Kirito's perspecive as a Messianic savior and turning the supporting characters as loyal and unquestionable NPCs without any personality or ambition of their own, until Alicization. Plus, the fact that every arc had the same pattern as the Aincrad one, even the point of having pervy antagonists for Kirito to fight. Even if Alicization had its moments, including the usefulness of most of the supporting characters and the wake up call of Kirito, it did not win me the heart of rewatching the series with awesomeness. By that time, it was well dead and buried in my eyes and heart.
@angelb.823 That's fine, people have different tastes
this anime is my 2nd fav anime just seeing the relationship with kirito and asuna build up is so awesome
@@ilywatermelon 💯
To me, SAO is good, but can be better. the entire idea of being trapped in the game and the other concepts like how you talk about Kirito's PTSD, but they could do SO MUCH for the first season, we seen it in the Progressive Movies too, it has so much protiental right there
They definitely didn't utilize the first season to its potential.
If you liked this sequence then the novel version was even better and had way more depth into Kirito's trauma
also the anime butchered PoH's backstory
@@BillPlunderbonesTew8 Oh damn, good to know
SAO tackled the exact premises and themes I wanted out of a life-and-death-stakes fantasy video game isekai. It bungled it badly through misplaced fanservice, badly written harem-baiting, and the author clearly not understanding video games from either a design or play standpoint. Man, though, in the places that it works, it *works.*
It definitely has its issues and misfires, but yeah, like you said...when it works, it really works.
This arc was so
Good.. people just hate on sao or they just say sao carried by the first season. People just keep saying that kirito has no development Thank you for explaining this and shedding some light on it
@NateGlacier4589 Glad you enjoyed it as well!
First season didn't carry imo. It started like it had potential but went to shit as it went. Not really a carry imo.
But Alicization was much better. Alfheim was the true garbage though.. absolutely can't stand that arc.
@@Healer0079a terrible take
It goes to show that SAO has some way of impacting viewers
From popularizing the genre of video game isekai animes
To making people think that he's a so called perfect protagonist but is actually afraid and has a huge guilt
Take season 2 ggo arc he didnt wanna go to ggo at first because he didnt want what he thinks is a second death game but it felt like he had no choice
Despite the amount of hate this anime gets. Cant escape that in a way we relate to the guy, making it that things look ok and we can just live alright but hidden inside we have a huge fear and guilt
The 2nd half of Alicization during the final battle, it one upped itself every 2 mins and it pissed me off to no end. Other than that it was so good.
@@BAYKON8R Totally fair
If sao season 1 would’ve went haywire and went off of they own damn script do you think it had any chance of being better than it is now? I’m kinda curious as I do wish we had a lot more floors to explore in the sao universe. A whole 100 floor story would be epic, hard to make but hopefully epic
@@duality6783 Probably, season 1 has a lot of missed potential. They are redoing parts of it
Really liked this vid, and yes it felt like Kirito finally became the complex character we knew he could be.
I liked S1 up until they made Asuna a whiny baby for kirito to comfort. But her arc with Yuki brought her back. And Eugeo was my fav Wifu but 2 male leads could not share the spotlight😂
He died for Kirito ch development 😬😭
Great Vid
@ljeans531 Glad you enjoyed it!
The Masterpiece ❤❤❤
Damn this shit deep
Yuuki returning for that fight had me crying instantly when I saw her show up the first time after Ordinal Scale... I miss her...
@@ShanaGartrex Such an amazing callback
People's biggest gripes with Sao is that it didn't do what they thought it should.
What I find most ridiculous is the fact that people clown on this show for things that they'll actively enjoy in the slop that released in recent times seasonally, Ive seen "Harem-baiting" and other bs term thrown around like it even matters, never have I seen an anime get this much hate for BS
Sao was Reki Kawahara's First ever official story that was submitted on a fluke, I find it very unreasonable to expect absolute perfection in plot just because you liked the original idea/concept or is it because these people are "Actually Gamers🤓"
Proof is in the pudding, these same people will tell you the abridged series is some Incredible improvement, I can say the same for the AoT abridged btw.
It's insane how even a video *praising* SAO still misses the point so fucking bad
3:17 - This is simply objectively incorrect. Before War of Underworld, we've had multiple arcs that explore Kirito's PTSD surrounding the SAO Incident. This episode is just the deepest dive we've gotten
Fairy Dance is in large part a character study of Kirito's changed mindset after the events of Aincrad and how it's changed his perspective on inner strength and how people let their true selves shine through when the veil of consequences is lifted. Phantom Bullet explores his PTSD of killing people, even if it was just self defense. And Ordinal Scales brings up a massive debate on how memories shape the people we become, both the good and the bad. Multiple characters in that film in particular question why Kirito would ever want to keep his memories of SAO, which includes Eiji, Shigemura, and even Klein
War of Underworld *is not* the only time we've seen Kirito struggle, both physically and mentally. Nearly ever arc post Aincrad explores and challenges his mindscape in some way or another. He's always been flawed, has always been portrayed as someone who's deeply vulnerable
@@Delta-lu5kf 👍
It's mainly the anime's fault it was overlooked and hell they even skipped almost all of the Nightmare sequence in the Anime
@twilightwolf6248 Honestly, I never subscribed to this idea
I will conced that the anime swapped out some of his silly goober moments in exchange to make him look more badass and cool, but it never neglected to make him vulnerable. I've read the novels as well, that aspect of his character is very much intact.
It is unfortunate that the anime's nightmare sequence skipped out the First Day portion tho. I really think they fumbled in not included it, but I still think it works well on its own. The sequence as it is in the anime still explores his trauma from the past few years, still showcases how he feels about the actions he's taken to accomplish his goals. For as much as I love First Day, I don't think Kirito's character hinges on it
@Delta-lu5kf they also skipped his depressed parts in Human Realm arc.
I look forward to every season of sao, because I wonder how the abridged will adapt it, this arc in particular because it was actually one of the few arcs I thought was genuinely good
@@yoshigaming9321 It'll be interesting for sure
Abridged is over, as far as I know
Then you are just greatly misinformed they just take about a year per episode
It is genuinely wild to me that Reki improved at writing so much that he was able to do this, but the people legit just added anime only SA scenes for some fucking reason to what could have been an amazing season.
2:37 honestly this hit me in the feels just rewarching it here
@@TheWeeklyWeebs Love hearing that
I loved this video its great to see one of my favorite animes getting recognition But when you say we haven't seen the 11 hit skill mothers rosario that asuna uses that's incorrect we've seen it once before in the movie Ordinal scale (which yes is cannon) still no hate just a little correction
@@truegod6233 You're right, I missed on that one
im going to be so real the primary connecting factor between all of the best sao parts for me is directly correlated with how much mr white bread with no meat or condiments over here is in the front line of the narrative -- the best parts of SAO tend to be the ones where kirito isnt around
but i like white bread
@@abbythings you can like white bread but having white bread be the entire meal for 3 meals a day six months of the year kind of gets grating
im a big a fan of white bread as the next person but sometimes simplicity isnt the best
Não importa o tempo que passe SAO sempre vai ser meu anime favorito!
Always good to see fans of it!
Alicization was amazing. The first couple episodes of Season 3 had Kirito nearly die and become comatose in irl and enter the Underworld. Then Kirito becomes comatose in the Underworld in Season 4.
Totally forgot about that, nice catch.
@@gallenberger1When I watched Season 3, I remember thinking that I had never seen an anime basically kill off their main character before without having the show reboot or spin off into a new series.
@@Alpha0727 Right? That's what makes this season so epic
The *one* aspect I objected to in this excellent scene was Kirito’s sorrow for killing Sugou. That animal tried to *violate the mother of his child;* that *alone* should already absolve him of *any* guilt for butchering him like the pig that he is. And yet 4 years on he feels *grief* for defending his Wife’s honor? Some executive producer drank too much that day because it does *not* make sense for a Husband & Father consider his duty a *sin.*
What pisses me off about Sao is that it has so much potential but it just flops due to lack of character development and how it sidelines potential good characters like eugeo
@@animexgenes1641 I think they've gotten better at handling stuff over time but there's definitely been bumps along the way
Eugeo was a goat till the end bro, they even reuse his character a lot in Kirito’s final battle. They have his voice lines everytime Kirito uses his sword.
@@omlg2021 Really cool detail
@@gallenberger1 fr
Good analysis, though the video felt kinda short when it ended abruptly 😅
@noorazamzain2661 Video was done for a few weeks pending, then some copyright concerns popped up, and I had to cut some stuff last minute. That's why
@@gallenberger1 ahhh copyright strikes again
This season of SAO is definitely the best. And no, I can't think of another series off hand that sidelines the Mc for such a prolonged time. S1 during the aincrad arch should have the best if it had filled through with going through the whole castle and not breaking down mid way through. It's a shame, though, that despite how good Aliczation is, people still talk cap about it, all the while, supporting shows that use the same generic stories over and over yet call them great.
Just a small minor mistake at 2:33, Asuna did use mothers rosario before this during Ordinal Scale. Other than that amazing it was an amazing video.
@@SADAZ96 I've been corrected on that a lot 😅 glad you enjoyed it!
Best comeback in anime history
@@figureviews The way it's dragged out is up there
sao was the first anime i've ever watched so it's just my favourite anime cuz of nostalgia
@@Azuto.. That's awesome
Appeareantly people really don’t like sao lmao.. he’s had the guilt the whole damn time, and it was shown, he’s never been as one dimensional as people make it out to be. I gave up the 3/4th season because it was too damn long lol. But throughout thw whole show it has been shown that yes he’s a person that took a responsibility that need such a personality that yes is going to be “one dimensional” on the outside but some scenes have shown that he truly isn’t that character that’s dull. He indeed has emotional responses to the things has done and things. I mean people seemingly like to forget that he breaks down a few times in season 1 alone, about the things he’s done and the pressure about the responsibility he’s up taken.
those were always my thoughts like people that hate it just for the fact are just dumb i get that alo wasn't good but sao gun gale was what basically peaked my interest in anime with guns and also was the first i watched that was like that and Alicization with god tier animation
Latifa part was just messed up, she got graped by worms and experiencing pain like its real life.
But what was worst, at least for me was writting, like it happened and she walked it off like nothing happened. I mean, that's some traumatizing shit right there.
@@nobody4y Yeah, that was a weird and unnecessary add
This is because the anime sexualized the scene based on a visual that was in the light novel.
The scene itself in the light novel is basically just her getting her life drained over and over again. So still torture but kinda pales in comparison to everything that followed.
Latifa...? I take it your autocorrect changed "Leafa" to that?
What can I say? Knew it was a banger anime since the very beginning.
@@KingofYggdrasil Such a great premise from the start
EUGEO IS THE BEST BRO
But for sure SAO is veryy good. it was amazing
I stopped watching the Alicization arc cuz I couldn’t handle another rapey scene. One of my biggest gripes with the series (despite the harem) is the fan service shots and completely unnecessary scenes. But dang I can’t say it didn’t love the concept and potential dark tones the first season had
Damn, it makes me wanna rewatch the whole series... 4th season was BASED.
It was, totally worth a rewatch
Sao fans really eat up the most predictale slop💀Woooow Kirito wakes up at the pivotal moment and saves everyone, how unexpected. There's no way anyone could have seen this coming! 😭
This seems to be missing the point. We want Kirito to save the day. That's what the whole build was about and what makes it cool is long it goes on for. No one called it unpredictable
My favorite arc is aliciAtion, also some de2nd season of viland saga
@@Crazyviolin-Official Still have to finish that
I like the majority of sao, especially for it's female characters. Alicization was a blessing as a sao fan because it really got a lot of people into sao. I just wish people would stop calling characters waifu bait as If every other anime doesn't do the same shit.
There was Ainground/Hollow Realization, with a lot of cast bonding moments in between the main story, but that's the gameverse, so it's not relevant here.
@@Shuwa217 Sounds cool!
If you think them sidelining Kirito is impressive, you should watch daytime soap operas. They do stuff like that all the time.
@@terakhanthis The fact that they did it in anime is what makes it fun
I don't care what others think, but i enjoyed watching its all seasons.
@@FaizAhmad.Official Season 1-2 have their issues but agreed, all of them are still enjoyable
@@gallenberger1
You're right, I enjoy watching shows with unique storylines, and not to mention it came out 12 years ago! also The Devil is a Part-Timer! S1 was released around the same time.
By the way, before watching your video, I hadn't fully realized the depth of this arc. 😅
@@FaizAhmad.Official Devil is a Part Timer season 1 was so good too. SAO definitely revolutionized isekai
my god I've been saying this since the days people hated on SAO for Kirito being "overpowered" or whatever XDDDDDD Alicization literally just completely destroys that by making him a vegetable for half the arc and AND he doesn't even WIN on his own against Gabriel because despite him going super giga op mode he LOSES and if it wasn't for Eugeo (or spirit or w/.e you want to call it) helping him out at the last moment he would have literally lost
and that's not even the only instance something like that happens like if Asuna hadn't jumped infront of him in the Kayaba fight he would have also lost like there's so many moments in SAO where Kirito is shown to NOT be as strong as people see him to be and he knows all of that himself as well as seen during the fight with Quinella where he remembers Asuna jumping infront of him etc when Alice tried to protect him and he got his shit together to truly face Quinella like the SAO hate is unimaginably stupid
also at 3:19 that's literally not true lmao Eugeo literally DIES LOL infront of his eyes because he wasn't strong enough to do something about the situation himself literally how can people call Kirito EVER being an overpowered protagonist when his literally best friend dies infront of his eyes XDDDDDDDDDDDD I don't get you people I really don't
Kirito been evangelioned like shinji
There can be good moments in poorly written media.
Does that make the media they come from is good or worth watching? I don't think so.. but I can appreciate an emotional moment when it's good.
For sure! I wouldn't say season 4 is poorly written, but I see see what you're saying.
Having trouble finding this arc because the way Crunchy Roll labels things is weird and doesn’t say “season 4”, what is the title of the first episode of this arc
@@mattsmith5704 I believe it's technically considered season 3. It's titled something like Alicization: War of the Underworld
I miss Eugeo so goddamn much it's unreal.
I plan on covering him too
Nice video, but War of Underworld is ss3 part 2, not ss4. Also, I wanna add that most reason why Kirito have trauma is that he can't not save Eugeo, he can't do anything in the fight and he see Eugeo fight to death to protect him.
Mixed with everything else, you mean? Most namely the deaths of Diavel, and Sachi, her squad, and Keita taking his own life as a result
@@fierytigergaming8112 That are his bad memories, and they are displayed in his coma. However, the main reason lead to coma is Eugeo death + electric issue
@@Yujio-c9j I know, I think it got explained in episode 1 when Alice returns to the village with the catatonic Kirito, in a flashback to what happened after Kirito told Kikuoka about the situation over in Underworld
If you think it was well done in the anime then read the LN because it is infinitely better and alot more serious no weird tentacle scene with Terraria it was pure torture.
Good video
@@reallight_ Thanks! Hopefully you check more out
0:25 it’s One Punch Man. Well, in the mangas atleast, but goddamn did we have to wait for Saitama to pull up
fine, i'll rewatch peak.
👊
He's not been hiding that trauma, the anime did a bad job showing it, sadly...
You said this is the first time we see Asuna use the 11 hit combo but that's not true, she uses it on the floor 100 boss in Ordinal Scale
You're correct, I missed that
SAO is better than 99% of anime no matter what weebs say.
SAO was full of really cool ideas but bad execution until Alicization started. Alicization was good with the exception of 1 scene and the War was althoughout amazing.
@@issacthompson330 One scene?
The r*** scene is problematic and feels like fetish bait given the show did it before.
I think war of underworld is a little confusing and chaotic with how much stuff is happening
"kireeto" thats how i hear him say it
In last season they said kirito will return . Can anyone tell me will sao come again?
@@dazzlingking2697 I wish
Can someone explain to me again how Kirito survived at the end of the first season? Like he died to the owner of SAO, how come he just woke up normally. And also his other party member’s death didn’t really feel allat impactful when they did die because it didn’t show a scene of them dying in real life.
@omlg2021 The way I understand it is that while he died in game, there is a lag between death in game vs. Real life, and he defeated the game during that lag. Could be wrong though
@@gallenberger1 so how come Asuna didn’t wake up?
@@omlg2021 I believe that's because of fiancé guys tech.
Gallen is partially correct in that there was a level of lag involved. That lag however was the result of a sort of lesser form of the Incarnation system seen in Alicization, basically just buying himself a few extra seconds before his avatar exploded.
That said, even if that hadn't happened and he'd lost the duel, it's possible he would have survived anyway, as Kayaba wanted to speak with him after the fight regardless of it's outcome if I recall correctly, which is why Asuna also didn't die, as he'd already made it so that he could talk to them after.
As for the Moonlit Black Cat's deaths, that part of the story is written in a first person perspective from Kirito's point of view. So obviously the irl scene wouldn't be shown, and it isn't even necessary since you see them die in game and understand what that means.
@@shawn4116Also was it ever explained why the guy created SAO? Why did he lock thousands of people in a death game?
Given SAO's usage of SA record, it couldve very well have just like that
@@NexusVFD ?
asuna used the 11 hit move in ordinal scale
Yeah I got that wrong
hey buddy you gotta watch ordinal scale thats when asuna does starburst stream for the first time... its also where eiji and yuna show up from
I have, totally forgot that part though 😅
@@gallenberger1 it's okay I'm the one who screwed up mother's Rosario and said starburst stream lmao
@@trentmercer4738 It's not too late bro, you can still edit the original comment!
@trentmercer4738 all good 🤣
@@codyknight3580 nah I was tired
Do we know when the anime's returning?
@@IveGotTenCents No clue 😑
@@gallenberger1 😭
@@IveGotTenCents Someday...
Season 4 isnt out yet
I mean, if you do the proper thing and count NPCs as NPCs, then season 3 was just Kirito playing a single player game, and the first half of season 4 was just the game running without anyone playing.
@@ailius1520 That's a funny way to look at it 🤣
Kirito's return?! Alicization was best when he was a vegetable. I was lamenting his inevitable return towards the end of the season, hoping he wouldn't come back till after the climax.
@RipleySawzen The build up to it was pretty awesome
Wait did I seriously miss an entire season of sao
@@Joshua-y8e A lot of people call this season 3 part 2, so maybe not
SAO is one of my favourite anime. The main complain I have with the season 4 is that it completely breaks the well-established cannon from the novels. It is established in the novels(and anime season 3) that the mnemonic visualization thing(that makes it so the imagination of the user can influence the world) is available only for the STL, but SOMEHOW the other devices not only can do it as well, but people can be controlled by it(Poh influencing the players from Korea/China). In the novels there is a scene where the American(?) players say how trash the graphics are. Only STL users can see the world as if it's the real world.
Also I wish to see the anime adaptation of the latest arc of SAO. It's a very interesting arc that follows after the whole alicization ordeal with yet another large scale vrmmo incident.
Did the same not happen in the novel, or am I misremembering?
@@trulyno Yeah I want to see that too
Lesser forms of incarnation do exist thoughout the series with other devices. Such as Kirito delaying his death at the end of Aincrad. Or Asuna curing her admin paralysis.
Other devices therefore have been established to be capable of Incarnation, just to a weaker degree. So a character like Eiji being able to alter his appearance isn't that strange in my opinion. It's nowhere near on the level of altering the function of a skill or overloading a person's fluctlight for example.
I hated the last part of war of the underworld after season 1 Asian just turns into a Kirito simp and does nothing else and then comes into this world and is somehow as good as Alice and same goes for the other side characters from the real world because 2 years in sao somehow made them more capable then people who have trained there entire lives. I would have liked it if war of the underworld stayed in the underworld without bringing in the American players