Let's kick things off with ongoing series that either a) picked up again or b) continued on from last season
SWORD ART ONLINE: WAR FOR UNDERWORLD
So where we left off last winter season: Kirito, Eugeo, and Alice (mostly Kirito) had defeated Administrator and there was a terrorist group that was attacking the Ocean Turtle in real life where Kirito’s body, Asuna, and the rest of Rath was located. Right as Kirito was contacting Rath in the real world from the Administrators computer, the power was shut off, rendering his consciousness “problematic” we shall say. Fast forward a bit and Alice has returned to her home village with Kirito in tow, he is in a vegetative state, aware of very little going on around him but still knows certain things. We learn that the goal of the outside group is to retrieve Alice’s A.I. from the Underworld; best way to do that is to have their own high level accounts for the Dark Territory side and start a war against the Integrity Knights and humans of the Underworld. Hence, War of Underworld. We see gruesome bloody battles. The Integrity Knights finding out they are people with no memories yet they still realize they are humanities last line of defence. That no one in her village knew that Alice was an Integrity Knight. How that Final Load Test was going to happen where the forces of darkness would face the humans; yet the Dark Territory is not all bad people and simply the only difference is what side of the mountain you were born on. We see the return of Asuna to the cyberspace, which leads to the first “girl fight” since older versions of SAO; I say this because the nicest thing about Alicization was that Kirito (though he was the main character) was not surrounded by women that fell for him but merely lived a normal life and tried to help Eugeo rescue Alice. Though he still worked his “magic” in Alicization, so in this new season, upon Asuna showing up Alice attempts to fight her to “save her Kirito”, so they decide to talk it out, which leads to Kirito’s former mentor and his paige all joining in to share stories. There are more bloody battles, the leader of the terrorists becomes the Emperor of the Dark Territory and easily throws away the lives of his servants to get Alice, it’s actually sad to see.
All of this culminates into these American terrorists who invaded the Ocean Turtle, having people sign up for a “beta” allowing them to become dark knights who would destroy what’s left of humanity in the Underworld. Their only hope is Kirito’s friends: Leafa and Sinon immediately plan to set forth to the Underworld and so do Lisbeth, Silica, Klien, and Agil; but they know that is not going to be enough to help so they make a plea to the entirety of ALO, “please convert your accounts to an Underworld one like us to help”. They are all skeptical but this is a tearful moment as all of ALO sees these people as “just SAO survivors trying to help each other” when they find out they may lose their accounts in transition and that there is no pain absorbers so it will hurt it seems like no one wants to help. And as of the end of things, we only see Sinon in the Underworld with the rest of the crew on the way. Not knowing if they did enough to convince anyone else.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 10/10 (THE ALICIZATION & WAR FOR UNDERWORLD ARE THE BEST SAO's)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 10/10
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 9/10
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 9/10
Honestly, it was another fluffy slice of life show; only watch it if you saw We Never Learn and are interested in it continuing.
SO-SO RECOMMENDED - 6/10
To give a run-down of just how awesome this anime is you have a show that takes romantic comedy, harem, slice of life, and makes fun of aspects of all those types of anime. Bringing out the best of the best in the tropes. It is also a beautiful show, not ufotable level of artwork, but the character models are drawn so well and the setting is so nice but what really does it is the heavy use of colour. The amount of colour makes everything pop, which makes the world feel more alive and I love it.
So the entire show centres around Joro, who calls himself the typical male protagonist, and he is asked out on what he thinks are dates by both his childhood best friend, , and the student council president, Cosmos. What both are after though isn't Joro but his help with asking out his best friend Sun. To which he says he will but immediately his attitude shifts from nice person to an absolute jerk, Joro has a Jekyll & Hyde personality and only two people know about it, one of them being the shy library girl named Pansy. And that's the reason she's in love with Joro. The other person that knows is Sun and it leads to situations. Honestly, this show is so funny and so worth watching that if I keep talking about it beyond these brief things I'd be ruining it if you want to watch.
It was so good and left me on the edge of my seat after certain episodes that I had to go ahead and read the manga because I was so worried about the characters. Ya, WORRIED about the world and characters, if a show has you that invested it's 100% worth it. I can't say enough about this show but that's the problem, I feel if I say anymore I'd be doing it a disservice. Just watch Oresuki, you won't be disappointed by Joro, Pansy, and their friends.
HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 10/10
GOOD RECOMMEND - 8.5/10
RECOMMENDED - 7.5/10
Oh, and the theme song to this show has no business being as catchy and good as it is.
IT'S WORTH IT, IF YOU DON'T HAVE BETTER STUFF TO WATCH - 6/10