Sword Art Online Alicization Episode 16 Review
Kirito was warming up his ultimate move last week and this week starts with him unleashing it. I’m going to be honest, for the build up, and given how pretty Eugeo’s skill was, I’m kind of disappointed with black light reaching out across the distance and just kind of brute force overwhelming the opponent. Even more wondering why said opponent flew upward and hit the ceiling given the direction the two forces opposed to each other were pushing (just kind of seemed a little physics breaking). Still, the fight comes to a suitable end just in time for Kirito to sermonise.
You know, Kirito was a lot more fun when he was a solo player. Because he helped people but he didn’t bother to explain his reasoning or motives, he just kind of did things and offered very little in the way of justification. Kirito in Alicization is endlessly explaining himself to Eugeo and trying to justify his choices and while it makes sense from the point of view that Eugeo really hasn’t had a lot of exposure to other ideas so kind of needs it, it makes Kirito a really dull and preachy character. We get it, the knights are humans so even though they are enemies you don’t want them to die… blah, blah. Tell us again. Sure, why not.
We then move on to an elevator ride up to the eightieth floor to really hammer home the point that the 100 floor thing was an entirely pointless conceit given we’ve seen exactly 3 of these floors. And guess what, they found Alice.
I think this is when I realised that finding Alice had long since moved from being the central goal of this anime. The problem is, I have no attachment to any of their other goals of defeating the administrator and preparing for some upcoming war. For me, the only goal I’m attached to is Eugeo finding Alice and realistically, mission accomplished, you know except the part where she’s still trying to kill them and all.
Realistically, Kirito’s finishing move on the fiftieth floor didn’t impress but got the job done. The fight with Alice was visually a lot cooler and the cliff-hanger ending works at making me want the next episode now, but as has become usual when watching Alicization, I’m increasingly wondering if the payoff will ever be worth all the set up and I’m finding myself more and more not really caring whether they actually succeed or not. Still, pretty lights, clashing swords, and hyped up music so it works well enough.
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Sword Art Online 9 (light novel) : Alicization Beginning
- Alicization Series Review
- Sword Art Online Series Review
- Sword Art Online Abridged Review
- How Does Kirito’s Belief in Himself Cause Success?
- Images from: Sword Art Online Alicization. Dir. M Ono. A-1 Pictures. 2018.
I want to like this series more than I do, but it feels like it takes too much explaining. I honestly don’t care if they rescue Alice and I don’t really feel like they have accomplished much of anything since the season started. I still enjoy watching this season but it’s feels like a big drop in entertainment value from SAO 1 and 2.
That’s kind of how I feel. I’m a fan of the franchise and I really want to like this, but I remember how much fun I had watching Aincrad and this just isn’t giving me that same kind of entertainment. Which is a shame because I kind of like the concept and I enjoy Eugeo as a character, but the actual progress and plot hasn’t been all that fun.
Speaking of forgotten goals… Kirito seems to have forgotten that his original goal was to find a way to communicate with the outside world.
He certainly hasn’t mentioned that any time soon, or even trying to leave the game. Which just seems weird that he doesn’t seem even vaguely concerned about not being able to exit the game. At least in Aincrad they knew that when they cleared the game they’d get out. Here he has no such assurances and yet doesn’t seem to care.
And he hasn’t mentioned Asuna at all, one would think that he might occasionally miss her
On that note, we haven’t seen Asuna in forever either. Would be nice to know that she’s doing something other than just fretting about him.