Mini Anime Review - Sword Art Online II (Arc One)

The long anticipated return to the SAO/Accel World universe, SAO II takes place 5 months after arc two and goes a long way in an attempt to fix the problems of the previous series; with a single romance interest yet again, this time found in new girl Sinon, but being written as a strong confident woman who don't need no man, much like Asuna. However she is given an awesome back story that makes her far more interesting than every other character in Sword Art to this date.

Kirito is also a lady-man now, for unjustified reasons. 

This series manages to fix a lot of problems that SAO Arc 2 had; it actual;y shows Kirito having mental issues relating to playing an MMO again, it returns the element of threat, it removes the creepy romance aspects (Sinon and Kirito being much more flirty but less romantic, playing better seeing as he has a girlfriend), it also makes Kirito a fair bit more likable. 

He acts like a total dick at points, which makes his character more likable somehow, rather than the perfect harem king of the previous season. While this is sudden in the anime he is shown to be more like this in the manga, yet another thing the anime missed out that was a good point. He even goes as far as to introduce his new romance to the other other harem members in the final episode, where he shows her off and basically makes his own girlfriend jealous. 

The animation is great throughout, as is the soundtrack, and apart from a few main character invincibility moments from Kirito the show is far more interesting that Arc two and arguably Arc one of the original series.There is also a black Avatar Aang at one point for some reason.

Rating - 

Looks - 4.2/5

Sound -4.5/5

Plot - 3.2/5

Characters - 3/5

Overall - 14.9/20