[Reaction] Sword Art Online II, Episode 22

Warning: If you have not seen all 22 episodes so far of Sword Art Online II yet, well, you'll be totally lost, and major spoilers are ahead, so yeah, you've been warned. 

...Right, I'm going to be choosing my words very carefully. I'm going to try to not reference my thoughts on the season as a whole, so no mentioning GGO, or Sinon, or the Excalibur arc, because I do fully intend to review this anime some point after I've reviewed the first season of it, because there are a few things I want to talk about. So, for this reaction, I will only be referencing this episode alone. OK? Cool, so I'm back talking about SAO II, yeah it has been awhile(about 17 weeks or so) since I last talked about it, and while I just said I'm not talking about previous events of this season, I do want to backtrack a little and talk about the Mother's Rosario Arc, which if we are honest with one another, has far from been the worst thing that SAO has given us, shoutout to the Alfheim Arc. It has been Asuna-centric, which in my opinion is a good thing, and it has had little of our main protagonist Kirito, which in my opinion is definitely a good thing, and we've been introduced to a whole new group of characters like Yuuki and the rest of the Sleeping Knights. There have been a few eye-roll worthy moments along the way sure, such as Kirito apparently being powerful to run up walls and take on about 50 people nearly single-handily, but for the most part, I'd say this has been a decent arc. However, this was it. This was the episode. The episode which was supposed to be the emotional high-point of the entire arc thus far, which it had been building up for the entire time, and apparently the reason why readers of the Sword Art Online light novel consider Mother's Rosario to be the best arc in all of the light novels. And, while I haven't read the light novel so I have nothing to compare it to, and while I don't think I'd go as far as to say A-1 Pictures fell straight on their face while adapting this, it just didn't work here. 

I'm going to try to be as fair to Sword Art Online II as possible here, because there are some things that work, so I'm going to deconstruct why this supposedly emotional episode didn't work for me. Honestly, I really don't think it was much of a surprise to anybody that Yuuki had a terminal illness this entire time. The anime didn't really cover that Yuuki obviously had something big to hide very well, even the OP gave away that there was obviously something going on with her. And this would be fine I suppose, as long as the execution of this episode was good, but it just wasn't. The details of her illness and her current circumstances were actually handled more maturely then I would've expected from this franchise, but the problem winds down to emotional attachment to Yuuki and the rest of the Sleeping Knights. It's hard when you pretty much replace the entire cast at the same time and expect the audience to grow fond of them in such a short period of time, even of Yuuki, who had the most screen-time. I mean, I don't even know all of Yuuki's group's names, because they were given so little screen-time, and when it's revealed that all of them have critical illnesses and are expected to die soon, which I actually think is a really powerful thing to reveal without at the same time being emotionally manipulative, didn't impact me as much as it could have. If this group was one I had gotten to know for even just a 13-episode arc, this reveal might have actually gotten to me, but we've only known these people for 5 episodes, and that just isn't enough. I still really like that reveal, and it is probably the best bit of writing this show has seen for awhile, but the problem above, and the fact that Kirito somehow got the number to this hospital in the first place was floating in the back of my mind, did nothing but dilute it. And finally, the last scene with Asuna and Yuuki under the tree just didn't do much for me. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be crying just because the characters are, but I'm not, and I'm really not being effected at all. 

We've still got two episodes left, so we'll see what happens now. I appreciate the effort by Sword Art Online II to actually try to make the audience feel something, and could have done it worse, a lot worse, but that doesn't change the fact that this universe and these characters really can't be taken seriously by me anymore. The writing is just bad, and the god-awful Excalibur Arc before this one sort of already proven to me that I'm just past caring about the franchise now, so any attempt to win me back emotionally is just... too little-too late. Actually, I think that's a great way to sum up this arc as a whole. Too little-too late. Sorry Sword Art Online, but I'm don't think I'm willing to even make an attempt to like you anymore, and you have nobody to blame but your self, because even if this arc had some good points to it, it doesn't make up for all the stupid characters, flawed logic, fanservice, and cringe-worthy moments I've had to put up with till now.

Goodbye for now guys.


My reaction to Episode 5 of Sword Art Online II is here. 

My anime review of Eden of the East is here. 

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