The long-awaited third season of Sword Art Online is here with an hour premiere episode. Following the events of SAO II and the Death Gun arc, Kirito has become a beta tester for a new VR hardware. However he has been experiencing false memories of another world and interactions with fellow testers of the experimental tech. Meanwhile, Sion has plans to enter a new GGO tournament and ask Asuna and Kirito to join her.

Sword Art Online: Alicization is a 2018 seinen anime series, and the third season of Sword Art Online. It is produced by A-1 Pictures and licensed by Aniplex of America (home video) & Funimation (streaming). It is currently streaming on Funimation Now, Crunchyroll, and airing on Tokyo MX.

Editor’s Note: This review contains near complete to complete spoilers for SAO III’s first episode.

Kirito as he appears in his false memories in SAO Alicization.

Kirito and co. return in the long overdue third season of Sword Art Online. Following the Alicization plot, Kirito has been beta testing new VR hardware & software, similarly to before. The only problem this time is the world feels entirely too real in addition to the fact that Kirito has not only suffered from memory loss, but he can’t seem to keep reality and virtual reality in check with one another since his experiences with the tech began.

Alice in the Alicization anime.

THE GOOD: In SAO III Kirito is testing out new VR software and hardware for a startup company and he has found quite a few issues with its tech. Namely the fact that he’s suffering from blendings of fantasy and reality & has memory problems since first use of the tech. Meanwhile, he and his friends have been playing Gun Gale Online, and Sion has asked that he and Asuna participate in an upcoming tournament for the game as her team mates. In the new VR world Kirito has been test playing he’s met two other apparent testers named Eugeo & Alice. When the trio go out looking for ice to help their food keep for much longer periods of time they end up in a cave which is connected to the forbidden “Dark Territory”. During a battle between a Knight & beast Alice accidentally crosses over to the Dark Territory and is soon captured for treason.

Kirito learns a new sword skill in the prototype world.

Upon his second log in with the VR world Kirito has no memories of his previous session and is re-introduced to his tester friend Eugeo. After Eugeo vaguely mentions Alice small bursts of memories are released in Kirito’s mind.  Having impressed with his use of a sword in the VR world Kirito begins his first steps into becoming a swordsman. Back in the real world, Kirito and Asuna are discussing potential plans to go to America for further study in VR technologies, however they are suddenly ambushed by former Death Gun member Johnny Black who successfully injects Kirito with poison. The character designs and animation for SAO Alicization has received a huge boost in quality and cleanliness from A-1 Pictures. In a weird way it almost feels like I’m reading a colored version of the light novels, whereas in the past SAO had what felt like a standard shounen animation style of sorts. It’s only been about two episodes but Alicization’s world building is pretty impressive. I already feel like I know more than enough about the new VR tech, its world, and the new characters.

Young Alice, Eugeo, and Kirito in the experimental world.

THE BAD: I admittedly haven’t read the Alicization LN, however I can already tell that more established characters will be taking a back seat to Kirito, Eugeo, and Alice as the new leads, which is rather unfortunate for anime onlys.

Sword Art Online is back with a canonical storyline and it’s been far too long.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Sword Art Online returns with a strong first couple of episodes to start it off. Solid world building, story telling, and fairly impressive animation is a great step up compared to years past. As the story goes on I’m seriously hoping that the inevitable second half of Alicization doesn’t suffer from the same issues the seasons in the past have suffered from, but we’ll see. Otaku Dome gives Sword Art Online: Alicization episodes 1 & 2 a combined score of 89 out of 100.