Sword Art Online - Alicization - War of Underworld - Episode 23 [END] - 10 Second Anime

Alice runs away from home to Kirito’s house. They and Asuna find a way to reconnect to Underworld. Series Finale.

Episode 23 – “New World”

Hmm.

SAO gave Alice her long-awaited reunion with Kirito. We need to remember that she watched over his almost inert body for six months. For less than five minutes, she knew he was back to his omnipotent self, but she still only saw him for a brief glimpse. Video chatting in the real world was nowhere near enough of the connection she needed. After her secret finishing move of the Steel Headbutt, she was back to normal and took her place in Kirito’s harem of deferring to Asuna but being annoyed when she doesn’t get enough alone time.

The series finale of SAO also gave the audience one last scene of the three main heroes (and briefly, the fourth one) in setting up the next set of stories coming from Sword Art Online. SAO in Space! There was tantalizing stuff to make an audience impatient for that next beginning. I saw the spaceships as heavily modified dragons, with their eyes still facing forward, but using their fire-breathing as propulsion. The two “Integrity Pilots” shared the last names of Tiese and Ronye, the juniors of Eugeo and Kirito, but it was a mystery for why they were so emotional seeing Kirito again or why the relative of Tiese would recognize Eugeo’s ghost. What does it mean? You’ll have to wait until SAO’s next story begins.

Heh.

Ha! Alice shipped herself to Kirito's house! Why did she have to be naked in the box, though? She finally got that face-to-face reunion since he came to her rescue in Underworld at the end. Ouch. No love for you, Alice, but Kirito cares about you. Just like all the other harem girls except for Asuna.

Time to have some fun at Kirito's house! Obviously they need to spar with swords. How strong is Alice's robot body? Finishing move – Steel Headbutt! Well, now that Japan has a real artificial intelligence factory, Kirito doesn't need to go to America to learn how to protect Yui. Alice is happy he'll end up spending more time with him in the future.

Oh? Does Alice want to sneak into Kirito's bed for old time's sake? Ah yes. One last bit of fanservice before the end of the show. Cool. Alice can make devices operate on their own. Someone emailed her a coded message. Yui will help Papa. IP address? I think we know who is that "someone." Back to Underworld! Alice shows her annoyance that Asuna needs to come with them. Already showing the harem dynamics.

Underworld from space? What is happening here? Asuna mentioned that Administrator ruled Underworld for 300 years and it didn't change that much during that time. Um, Underworld just had 200 years of modern kids from Japan ruling over them, so I think progress is going to be much different than a selfish dictator.

These spaceships have eyes. Integrity Pilots Ronye and Tiese? Descendants? That Abyssal Horror doesn't look very friendly. Time for the heroes to do their hero things. Aw. Nice moment of legendary figures waving. How does this descendant of Tiese know Eugeo? We'll need to find out in the next story.

Final Thoughts.

SAO’s Alicization arc was long! Look at that picture of those three little kids playing. It’s hard to accept that Underworld’s story was about the same length as the original Aincrad arc, ALO, and GGO combined. Of course, I interpret those subsequent arcs as dealing with the aftermath of Aincrad’s story, where Asuna was missing and the Laughing Coffin assassins continued their SAO player-killing into the real world and other games. Alicization was the new epic like Aincrad, but its theme was about unpacking the issues involved in creating artificial intelligence and how to treat them. I find it so interesting that Yui, the navi helper character from Aincrad, remains undiscovered by authorities. We saw exactly how Kirito and Asuna would treat an AI in the real world when they gave Yui her own little camera to watch things from their shoulders. Alice’s new steel body is the punctuation point on that scene from so long ago.

While I appreciate Alicization creating a novel way of trapping Kirito inside a game world again, there still wasn’t the original horror of dying for real like the first SAO arc. Comatose state, losing a longtime character in hardcore mode, or perceiving real time as two centuries don’t have the visceral fear of death that was always present inside Aincrad. By the end of Alicization, the audience needed to put that fear onto the artificial souls we learned to know and love. Knowing that a real person dying inside Underworld just meant a forcible logout made the ends of Miller and Vassago confusing. I felt Miller’s soul disappearing and Vassago’s body going missing muddled the whole purpose of caring so much what happened to the artificial fluctlights.

The art style and animation in Alicization's beginning was visually interesting but as the seasons wore on, more traditionally flat texture painting dominated, with only some key scenes getting the original treatment. This may have been a product of the COVID-19 pandemic complicating work schedules and conditions in 2020. We’ll never know for sure, but some of the cuts in the fighting scenes in the final season looked like they relied on post-editing effects instead of animation effects.

The final arc of Sword Art Online, the Inter-Intelligence War, will have several proponents, like two versions of Kirito, Akihiko, and whatever Vassago will turn into as a nebulous nuisance. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another five years before that story broadcasts its anime adaptation.