Sword Art Online Alicization First Impressions

The third season of Sword Art Online is finally upon us. The alicization arc has been long awaited by people like me, who have read the entire arc through light novels. To put it in perspective, the first two seasons of the show were covered in books 1-9; The alization is books 10 – 18. So, there is a lot of content.

The series reboots the story a bit at the beginning. We have a backstory of the boy Kirito playing with two other children, Eugeo and Alice. We found that you are testing a new full-dive technology that is indistinguishable from real life. After being attacked by the third perpetrator of the incident with the death weapon, he is rushed to the hospital. The next thing he knows, Kirito wakes up in the virtual world, known as the Underworld.

Things slowly explain themselves as Kirito tests his problem solving skills on the inside, and Asuna shows off some detective skills on the outside. The real question is, what is the underworld and why does it exist? You will discover, eventually, as well as the beginning of corruption within the Underworld.

So far, how does it compare to light novels?

Pretty good, actually.

The first few episodes of the show do a great job following the light novels almost perfectly. All the important parts of the building are present, and it is truly amazing to see the characters I read about come to life in animation.

Now there are some parts that get cut off, which I really don’t agree with. Throughout the first six episodes, I counted two main scenes that should have been included, that weren’t. These scenes were important to the development of the character; one for Kirito and the other for Eugeo. The most important scene was for Eugeo as he is a newer character and we can always use some more construction.

Then episode 7 happened.

Episode 7 threw the nice beat to the wind and was quick to read about half a book of material, which I don’t like. We received a flashback covering Kirito and Eugeo’s journey to become students at Swordcraft Academy, but it was actually much deeper than just a flashback. They also rush Kirito and his mentor’s relationship, which is very sad, especially since she comes back later, and it would have helped develop their relationship further.

All things considered, I am very satisfied with how the anime is developing. In the end, the book is almost always better than the anime or the movie, so I can’t complain too much. The animation is absolutely beautiful and I am enjoying the story unfolding before my eyes.

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