Is Kirito OP in Sword Art Online Alicization?
Kirito is not as OP in Sword Art Online Alicization. One of the biggest criticisms of Sword Art Online was that Kirito was such an overpowering and invincible character, it was hard to root or feel anything for him. A-1 Pictures adapted the Alicization arc and in this arc, Kirito’s victories feel more earned. Sword Art Online: Alicization fixes many problems that were prevalent in the Aincrad and Alfheim arcs and feels more ambitious and mature. It is the best Sword Art Online arc to date.
Kirito is Not As Overpowering As He Once Was
Kirito starts off as a weak character in earlier episodes. He gradually gets stronger over time in Alicization. In the first episode, we see Kirito inside of an unknown virtual reality environment. We see him with two unknown characters, Eugeo and Alice. When things go awry and an Integrity Knight comes to take Alice, he is easily beaten. He is unable to save her and Alice is captured. From this, you get a sense that Kirito wont be able to easily have his way with his enemies.
This was made even more apparent when he fights the goblin leader in one of the episodes. The goblin leader is actually formidable. Furthermore, when Kirito is careless and suffers a serious injury by the goblin leader, he feels deep severe pain that he’s never felt before in other virtual reality worlds. There is a sense of danger in this new virtual reality. He realizes he can die more easily and this causes him to feel real fear. His way of thinking and approach when fighting is more careful and it actually feels to viewers it’ll be somewhat of a challenge.
Kirito still has many of his sword skills from Sword Art Online and they are effective in this new virtual reality that he is in. However, he is not as strong. Kirito is essentially starting from zero like one would from a normal role playing game.
As Kirito engages in battle and defeats enemies, his life force and his ability to cast higher level spells and hold stronger weapons increases. For example, before the goblin battle, Kirito attempted to cut the Demon Tree with a powerful ancient sword. He was barely able to hold the sword because a certain level of skill was needed to just wield it properly. After the goblin battle where he was able to come out victorious with a less powerful sword, his object authority level increased. Later, he was able to better wield the sword and make a deeper cut in the Demon tree, lowering it’s life force.
Despite being skilled in swordsmanship, Kirito has a teacher who mentors him in early episodes. There are different swords skills and styles in this unknown virtual reality and so it is necessary for Kirito to adapt and learn.
It’s somewhat refreshing to see Kirito not be in a position of superiority and actually work to be strong. As the Alicization arc goes on, Kirito gradually gets stronger and it feels more earned this time around.
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Alicization Has Good World Building
In the first episode, Sword Art Alicization started off with one of the golden rules of story telling – show, don’t tell. It allowed for viewers to get a feel of this new virtual reality and was very well directed. The first three episodes were movie-budget quality.
Kirito is sent to a virtual reality by an experimental FullDive machine called the Soul Translator (STL). The Soul Translator reads a fluctuating light proton in the brain, which is referred to as “Fluctlight“. It writes short term memories on to the Fluctlight to insert information of the sights or sounds it wants the person to experience. It’s different than the virtual reality created by the Amusphere and it is difficult for the user to distinguish between the real world and virtual reality. Furthermore, the Soul Translator alters the user’s perception of time, which means days in the virtual reality is only a few hours in the real world (this process is referred to as “Fluctlight Accelaration”. It is characterized as being a realistic dream. The virtual reality world is called the Underworld and is very realistic and has more complex rules.
In the Underworld, the three things visible on Kirito’s status is his life force, his object control authority (determines what high level weapons and items you can use), and system control authority (related to what high level spells you can cast). Another thing that affects your strength is your mindset. If you have the confidence and belief in your abilities, your individual power can be amplified.
The Underworld seems like the ideal fantasy world, a peaceful quiet place where one can live peacefully and without worry. To enhance that sense of safety even more, warriors with the highest skills in battle known as Integrity Knights are in charge of cities. The people of the Underworld all follow strict rules by something referred to as The Taboo Index. Everyone follows the rules religiously , and as a result, there is essentially no murder or theft or major wrongdoing in society.
An interesting feature of the Underworld is that the people residing there are not NPCs (Non Player Characters; characters that are controlled by virtual reality with predetermined responses.). They are closer to artificial intelligence. The people have been born and raised in the Underworld. They refer to people who come from the real world and have no knowledge of the Underworld as lost childs of Vecta. Vecta is a god that likes to prank humans by stealing their memories and leaving them somewhere far away. This is the explanation that the people from the Underworld give to others to explain how users pop up from nowhere.
One of the intriguing aspects of Sword Art Online Alicization is the ultimate goal of the company that is responsible for the Soul Translator Technology. Their goal is related to using artificial intelligence for military use. Kirito becomes a key part in this research because of his past experiences. Sword Art Online Alicization delves into some interesting questions about artificial intelligence. It deals with more mature themes than in past arcs.
Alicization is the Best Sword Art Online Arc
It was announced that Manabu Ono would be the new series director for the Alicization arc, which means the old director Tomohiko Ito would be leaving. So you can expect somewhat of a different direction. Most of the previous production staff is still there, such as Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale animation directors, Gou Suzuki and Tomoya Nishiguchi.
Sword Art Alicization takes a different approach from the other Sword Art Online arcs as it focuses on the mystery and psychological elements as Kirito adapts to living in a virtual world. Sword Art Online has always been an isekai (revolving around a normal person from Earth being transported to, reborn or trapped in a parallel universe).
The RPG and MMORPG video-game elements have been more fleshed out instead of focusing so much on the romantic relationship between Asuna and Kirito. This arc is more similar to the anime Log Horizon (2013), another popular isekai. One of the worst aspects of Sword Art Online were the romantic-comedy elements and the harems, but in Sword Art Online Alicization, the plot is more focused and there is less of that.
Sword Art Online Alicization improves many of the flaws of Sword Art Online. The actions scenes are very well animated in beginning episodes. Unfortunately, the animation decreases in quality in later episodes. The visuals are better. The new art style looks very clean and gives the whole world of Alicization a really unique aesthetic. There is better plot development. There’s no fillers or switching arcs midway through the season. Past seasons were rushed before but they took the time to properly develop the world. It helps that the Alicization arc is four cours (around 50 episodes).
Kirito has improved as a protagonist. New characters are not just there to make him look good. The lack of world building especially in the Aincraft arc is one of the biggest disappointments. Sword Art Online was always a cool futuristic world full of interesting concepts and ideas waiting to be explored and the potential was ruined in the first few seasons as it chose to focus on the romance and the lackluster action. The themes are more mature and ambitious in this arc. Should artificial intelligence have the same rights as humans? Should you simply obeys laws even if they conflict with your morals? There are interesting questions that the story touches on.
Despite all this, Sword Art Online Alicization is not without it’s flaws. The animation and action scenes in later episodes don’t have the same punch. There is still cliche characters and dialogue. Even when the animation is great, the choreography is severely lacking, which is a shame for a series that’s titled “Sword Art Online”. There is also too much info-dumps and it would have been better to present certain information in a more engaging way.
Overall, Sword Art Online Alicization has an interesting premise and Kirito is not as OP. As someone who was critical of past seasons, the Alicization arc is an improvement.
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