⭐SAO Alicization War of Underworld Ep 36-37: Watch Along & Analysis

That's not true at all. From the ones currently in love with him, it's only Ronye and Asuna. Reki made it clear that Sinon only feels deep respect for Kirito as a comrade, having gone through similar trauma. Everyone else loves him platonically. (At least as far as the light novels have said)

Gen

Really Kat....that was just a peck on the cheek?...Sinon has not been and continues to be not shy about how she feels about Kirito even in front of Asauna. She is totally in love with him, but at least seems to respect to a point Kirito's and Asauna's relationship. That's at least 6 women that are in love with him including Alice and Ronie from the Underworld, and another few that have strong feelings for him but that may just be a friendship love. The one thing that I appreciate about this type of harem anime is that he is in love with someone and has made it clear. I enjoy the usual harem trope in most anime's but sometimes it could get annoying how oblivious the MC can be in them.

JAMES D'ALESSANDRO

Seeing someone see all these small details in the anime really surprises me. Seeing other reactors and just other people watching the anime, most of them don’t see everything and just see things at face value (At times not even that). Anyway for the fighting parts, the anime cut a lot of Asuna stuff. In one part, a soldier was about to get pierced with a lance but before he did, Asuna stepped in front of him and let it pierce her. It was actually pretty graphic in the novels and I honestly was excited to see it animated, but sadly they cut it out. Also, if you didn’t notice, the Alicization title changed once again. The anime has now entered vol 17, Alicization Awakening. There’s only one more volume left after this one and it’s finally the end of the Alicization arc (This arc started on Vol 9 of SAO). If I had to say what you should watch next, I would probably say (chronologically) Alternative GGO since it happens during the SAO anime (Around the Mother’s Rosario arc). Personally, I would prefer if you went straight to Accel World since it actually moves the story forward instead of just being a side story, but even then, everything the anime version of AW covers isn’t my favorite either. As MasterAries7 mentioned, the anime is made by A-1 Pictures (The same ones who worked on Fairy Tail). When it comes to animation (Not too much with the CGI) they are very good at what they do. With this next episode (And some other things later on) you will definitely see the strengths of having Kentaro Waki as your Animation Composite Director. My only issue is Manabu Ono as the director, but I won’t get into that since I’d be here all day. Thankfully they changed the director to someone else for the progressive movie. Speaking of which, there will be more information about the Progressive movie during an event in march. Probably another trailer and a release date for the film. You should react to the one that is out now. You can find the English translated one on YouTube or on the SAO website, just make sure it’s not the teaser. As for the games, I’m not gonna lie, they aren’t very good. Only SAO: Hollow Realization, SAO: Fatal Bullet, and SAO Alicization: Lycoris, are pretty good both story and gameplay wise. For mobile games, SAO Alicization: Rising Steel is the best one of the three available. This one is even said to have a better adaptation of the arc than the anime. It’s also the one that has a lot of backstories to characters like the knights. Right now it has an event that is adapting the Moon Cradle arc (Which isn’t being adapted by the anime apparently) so you would have to keep that in mind if you play it. Keep in mind, the games are set in a different universe to the anime and novels one. This is made clear by one of the other mobile games (At the fact that the events are completely different) in which there are these two characters named Makoto and Thokk who accidently were able to visit the regular Novel/Anime universe. But that’s a whole multi-verse can of worms that I don’t want to open. Now for some more of the “Criticism” towards SAO. This should be the last time I mention stuff like this, but I just want to show how much haters can reach just to bash this show. So, I like debating with people (When I have the time), especially when it comes to Sword Art. It can get pretty interesting, although they usually don’t bring up any real criticism. Here is a few direct quotes from some of the people I tried to discuss SAO with recently: One said, “Rushed Romance, MMORPG anime having shitty MMORPG elements, Kirito having no personality, plot conveniences, villains having no motives or just doing shit that doesn’t make sense. Do I have to go. These are all objective flaws which makes the anime trash” Here’s three I got recently that is more about Kirito than SAO as a whole: “Kirito never risked his life to save randoms. That’s not what Aincrad is about. Even from then on, he didn’t risk his life at all after Aincrad ended. Never made a conscious decision to do something that would threaten his safety. Y’all need to learn the definition of risk lmao” “He never once even tries to be a good person. He’s only out for himself, and he’s proud of that. He’s willing to let countless people die so he’s not inconvenienced, even if he does feel guilty about it occasion.” “There is no more USELESS character in the anime world than Kirito’s Gary Stu. It represents everything that should not be done when telling a story. Although, we all know that SAO is rubbish because of its protagonist.” (Also, just wanted to point out they called him useless and a Gary Stu at the same time.) I’ve also seen people argue the show is misogynistic for its portrayal of female characters. They always reference the Asuna scene in season 1 and Sinon at the end of the first arc of season 2. (You know, where she fought her friend in order to protect Kirito) (Twitter is really something else) Then there also the large groups of people who say Reki is a bad writer. They say things like he knows nothing about video games and that all SAO is, is his power fantasy. I don’t know who’s power fantasy involves a lot of death an PTSD but I’m pretty sure Reki’s doesn’t. Anyway, I doubt these people’s minds can be changed. They’ve already made up their mind on the subject and reject anything that tells them otherwise. Now to end it off with an actual fun fact: Reki always has a bunch of information about characters that don’t really matter too much or isn’t relevant yet in his novels. Like with Sinon he’s stated that out of all the SAO characters, she was the one he first had a plan for what she would do as an adult. Right now, he said that she took up marksmanship at school and that she hopes to become a police officer in the future, and to participate in the Olympics with her marksmanship. He also said that out of all the characters, she is the one with the most household-skills (since she lives alone), even beating Asuna at cooking (With Japanese-styled meals at least). Also, the glasses she wears are just for show, her eyesight is just fine (The glasses are also bullet-proof). There’s a bunch of other stuff like these for other characters, it’s pretty fun to see how much he’s thought about the lives of each one of his characters.

Gen

Gasp! I am not first this week, lol, Well done Le Tomato, well done. From Chris' comment last week, i am now very excited for Unital Ring. I was just thinking about how little screen time Liz has gotten since the beginning, and the other characters, i would love to see the "side" characters more. On the subject of Kirito X Asuna. yeah everything comes back to the primary problem in all of SAO...the Fairy Dance Arc. But yeah, my favorite scene in ALL of SAO. Is the season during the Yukki arc, when Asuna and Yukki have their duel. When she takes the fight seriously, and you see off to the side, a small smile on Kirito's face. One of the few moments up to there, where we get to see the OLD Asuna for the first time in a long time. But yeah Asuna is no damsel in distress. There are arguments to be made for one arc in the series, but that is it. The new OP is Anima by Reona, same person who did the ED for the second half of part 1 of season 3. And yes, it is my favorite so far, lol. Yeah none of us are sure why the Anime folks decided to...ramp up...the...uh...ick? of the Leefa vs Dark Mage Bitch fight. As far as i know this scene DID happen, but not nearly as serious as that. But no Leefa is logged in on the Goddess of the Earth and Life, account. Which means her Life is nearly infinite, that is why the Dark Mage could keep sapping life from her endlessly. The after credits scene was on 36, and you watched it. All the SAO anime is made by A1 Pictures.

MasterAries7

Sadly there is only 10 episodes left but wow are they good ones. The animation this season has been pretty good so far but you haven't seen anything yet. From here on things go to another level Episode 38 has a after credit scene although the credits play during the end so it is hard to miss. It isn't very important but it has something you might notice if you have a good memory.