#”SAO: Alicization – War of Underworld” Vol. 4: A weak finale
Table of Contents
“#”SAO: Alicization – War of Underworld” Vol. 4: A weak finale ” It’s coming to an end: Volume 4 brings “SAO: Alicization – War of Underworld” to a close. We watched the final and draw our conclusions in this review.
Label: peppermint anime
Publication: 07.10.2021
FSK: Approved from 16 years of age
Running time: 125 minutes
Image format: 16:9
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 p
Genre: Action, Fantasy
Languages: German, Japanese (DTS-HD MA 2.0)
Subtitle: Deutsch
Number of discs: 1
Packaging: Digipak in a slipcase
Extras: Clean Opening, Clean Ending, Trailer
Story (5/10)
The hero is back! Through the combined power of his joy, Kirito can finally wake up and face the insane Vassago. But not only he threatens the logged-in players and the residents of Underworld. Gabriel Miller has of course not given up either and with a new account is still on the hunt for Alice, who is on her way to the altar at the end of the world. While Kirito and his friends are fighting, the next calamity is looming in the Ocean Turtle: Miller’s unit follows their instructions and initiates maximum acceleration in Underworld. If Kirito and Asuna cannot log out quickly, they will be trapped in Underworld for the next 200 years …
Personaly thinking (Warning, spoilers!)
The grand finale of “War of Underworld” is here – and gives the already weak season the coup de grace. Here the anime pulls out all the clichés again and leaves one plot hole after the other. This is directly related to the return of the actual main protagonist Kirito. Although he was confined to a wheelchair for a large part of the season, it was neglected to show possible consequential damage or limitations. On the contrary: shortly after he woke up, the black swordsman single-handedly defeated Vassago as Deus ex Machina.
Like a magician, Kirito always conjures new techniques out of his hat, mostly with the help of Eugeo, who is long dead. This pattern also runs through the final fight against Gabriel Miller. The other main characters degenerate into purely emotional support to underline Kirito’s position as hero and savior. Unfortunately, the fears from the conclusion of my last review have also come true.
But the “Real World” is not spared from hair-raising plot twists. Here an old friend celebrates his comeback in the form of a robot. It is again noticeable which tricks are used to arouse emotions in the audience. Instead of fountains of blood, we see machine oil pouring out before the metal supporter gives up his ghost. Or not – because after a short motivational speech, the robot can miraculously straighten itself up despite a total write-off.
In the last few episodes, it remains unclear what purpose Alice should fulfill as the first real AI in society. Although this topic is broached in a depicted press conference, in the following scenes Alice tries rather to join Kirito’s steadily growing harem. Apart from that, the end leaves a few more questions unanswered, which left me with a bad aftertaste.
Animations (8/10)
The animations from A-1 Pictures are still above the standard. For the most part, the figures are neatly drawn and only lose noticeable details from a certain distance. The final fights in the final episodes were also staged imposingly, although in places the whole thing borders on a thunderstorm.
Regarding the background, we unfortunately only get to see something new to a limited extent. Most of the existing episodes continue to take place in the familiar environments. In the case of the Underworld, this means that, unfortunately, you can mainly see the same red rock texture, which appears monotonous in the long run.
Music (8/10)
In terms of music, there have been no notable changes since the previous volume. ReoNa’s song “ANIMA” continues to serve as the opening, while Aoi Eir’s “I will …” can be heard at the end of the episodes. In my opinion, both pieces take neither the first nor the last place in relation to the entire anime. This is also because I remember the songs less than “Crossing Field” or “Innocence” from the first season.
For the background music during the episodes, familiar sounds are predominantly used, including the classic “Swordland” theme in various variations. The background was always chosen appropriately. Nevertheless, in my opinion, it does not match the atmosphere and the overall sound image in the Aincrad Arc.
German localization (10/10)
Oxygen Sound Studios in Berlin are responsible for the German synchronization of the episodes. Philip Gaube wrote the dialogue book, Rieke Werner took over the direction. As expected, the team is building on the good work in the past episodes.
With the awakening of Kirito, we mainly get to hear Patrick Keller again, who again delivers a great performance. Kirito’s cries of battle – his trademark, so to speak – can be heard here once again.
Only at one point did I notice an avoidable double cast: Julius Jellinek, who actually embodies the role of the pugilist Iskahn, has also set a few sentences to music for one of Gabriel Miller’s colleagues. Due to the distinctive voice of Jellinek, this is quickly noticeable, so one could have resorted to another speaker from the ensemble for the small roles.
The mix of German dubbing fits in well with the overall impression. The sound effects used, like those used in the final battle with Gabriel Miller, were implemented close to the Japanese original.
Packaging & Extras (6/10)
Like all previous volumes, the last disc comes with a digipak in a slipcase. Compared to an Amaray with an O-Card, this is clearly an upgrade, but it lags behind the AniMoon Mediabooks, for example, in terms of processing. The interior design of the volume unfortunately didn’t appeal to me as much this time as usual, but the pattern is probably also a specification of the licensor.
Regarding the extras, it unfortunately looks poor again. Here you only get the clean version of the opening and ending, which were already included in the previous volume.
Conclusion
With the fourth volume, the entire third season of “Sword Art Online” also comes to an end. Therefore, I would like to draw a short overall conclusion about the Arc at this point:
In summary, I can say that the latest adventure about Kirito and Co. left me disappointed. In my opinion, the beginning of the season in particular had considerable starting difficulties due to excessive information dumping. I didn’t get really warm with “Underworld” even with the increasing number of episodes. The anime tried again and again to make the viewer emotional through obvious methods. This had the opposite effect, at least in my case.
I think the idea of leaving Kirito out for a longer period of time is a success in itself. Unfortunately, the implementation showed that I was indifferent to the fate of the sometimes hastily introduced secondary characters.
But even with the last volume and the return of Kirito, potential was unfortunately wasted. This one becomes a classic example of one God from the machine and in doing so, to a certain extent, takes the tension off the finale.
We would like to thank peppermint anime for providing the review copy!
The article “SAO: Alicization – War of Underworld” Vol. 4: A weak finale first appeared on BuradaBiliyorum.Com.
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