Sword Art Online II - Reviews

YES, YES, YES! I just reciently finished this season of SAO and I gotta say, it was  worth watching! I enjoyed every episode (even the slower ones) this time around. The first season I  had alittle trouble "loving" the second half of the season, but with this one I didn't have that issue at all. The story was there, and it was great. The animation was slightly lacking, but, well, I've seen worse lol. The ending, though on the sadder side, was (to me) a good edition as well. Overall, this season in my opinion was much better as a whole than the first season. I'm very much looking forward to seeing season 3, if and when it is released!

Ok i see a lot of crying think everyone exspects every new thing to BLOW YOU MIND away that just doesnt happen fist two eps are story building and interdusing char motovation which is actuly pretty compelling so far im enjoying the story 

I don't know what people see in this anime... Yeah 1 season was good but this season is a joke ... The beginning of this season ( I mean here 15 episodes :c ) was really poor.

Shino Asada the new character in series... she's so annoying... I personally hate her :<

New espidose ( I mean 16 ) I was thinking it will be good, you know what I mean... new dungeon new beginning but it was disappointing. Fight in this episode was so stiff. I was hoping for something better.

In my opinion "legend" of this anime ended in season 1.

First things first, I am not a gigantic fan of Sword Art Online.

I do really enjoy SAO's concept and its art, but I never really jumped on the obsession train. The first season left me wondering if I would be getting more and I was happy to see that we did get an extra season; I didn't scramble to see it, though.

Starting out this second season, I went in with low expectations. I've noticed that when an anime gets a second season after having an extremely successful first one, the story never really comes out quite right and they chop out a lot of development while leaving much to be desired. Not to bring up any spoilers or anything, but I had expected this season to be all about GGO, but it totally wasn't. I've never read the Sword Art light novel, so I had no idea what the rest of the season would be about after the session of GGO ended.

As the season progressed, focus changed from one character to another, and while that was cool and all, I wanted more development on the character they started with. It was nice to finally get some information about Asuna and the life she lives, but there were other characters that we really didn't get to learn about in the first season, much less in the second. 

I will admit, the switch from GGO to ALO was a total surprise to me, and the ending was even worse emotionally. They really tug on your heartstrings with this season, and it hit me like a train. I legitimately cried. Almost as much as I did for Angel Beats. So, if you haven't watched this season yet, be prepared to cry if you become attached to the later character they focus on in the season. I know I did.

All in all, I actually enjoyed this season, just not as much as I wanted to, even though I did go in with low expectations. I wanted it to be more about Asuna and Kirito, and the kind of life they will have together after all the virtual reality stuff. They didn't touch on that much at all. Yes, I did want more romance. After all, it is about them two. 

Still really glad I watched it though. So that's how I ended up at a 8.5/10.

Be warned this is the first anime review from a recent anime convert.

My thoughs on this series can be summed up in one phrase: wasted potental.

I start watching this series because the premise was intriguing and in particual one character's story (Sinon) interested me. I must confess that after watching I was disappointed. It seems to me that the writers cooked up a good starting idea and didn't really go anywhere far with it.

Story 

As I said above the initial premise and story perked my interest, but I rapidly lost that interest after I found out that was only a third of the series, too the point that I stopped watching after ep. 19. Here the writers built a world to go anywhere with, only to scrap it after 12 episodes and built another, that to be honest confused me.

Animation and Sound

I'm not a pro critique, it didn't blow my mind away but it wasn't liquid-[censored] either, moving on!

Characters

It felt to me that you needed to have watched the first series (I did not) to understand anything about the dynamic between the chararcter that were in both (a policy I disagree with, but I digress). My other point of contention being that the new characters are barely explored, case and point, Sinon. SOILER ALERT: She's left with one defining character point: she has PTSD after killing a man when she was little leaving her with an extreme fear of firearms and is using the game as therapy, and we never get very far as to who she is beyond that.