English Dub Review: Sword Art Online: Alicization “Project Alicization”

Error 404: Kirito Not Found

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Okay, let’s try this again.

Asuna grills Kikuoka about why Kirito is really being treated here, to which he responds that their tech is the only type capable of restoring his brain functions after he was poisoned. Rinko then asks what exactly this project that they wanted HER on is all about, so he tells her their goal is to make a “Bottom-Up” Artificial Intelligence, meaning one created from its brain first to grow and learn over time, and with the ultimate objective of being useful to Japanese Special Defense Force, of which Kikuoka works for. They’ve also already done a copy of an existing human soul before to show that soul-copying is achievable. The one who was copied was Higa, the other member of Kikuoka’s team, but once the copy becomes aware of it being a copy, it begins to deteriorate and shuts down (though luckily not so bad that it shuts down the episode this time).

Their next step was copying the souls of newborns, created a fantastical world based on existing VRMMO’s for them to live in, then accelerated time and saw how a civilization formed around them, including laws and guidelines. However, those laws, the Taboo Index, interfered with their goals in that all of the AI were unable to break those laws, so they needed to introduce a factor that would compel them to think outside of the law. And that’s where Kirito, with his years of MMO experience, came in.

Asuna takes issue with this, mainly in how this treats the AIs as tools as opposed to real people (something that Kirito would never approve of if he was aware of it), but goes along with it for now so that he can continue being treated. She also gets up to date about the situation with Alice and what that could mean for the experiment, but also that the authorities within the world took her and altered her soul.

Rinko then explains to Asuna about her relationship to Akihiko Kayaba, including how he put a bomb inside her while she helped him during the SAO incident so that she wouldn’t be implicated (and also so we can get some obligatory cleavage shots), but Asuna forgives her.

OUR TAKE

After last week’s glitch, Toonami had to resort to the most effective and most forbidden tactics when dealing with a frozen computer: Turning it off and then on again. Luckily it worked, so now we can finally talk about the episode.

So, now we get down to the bare bones of what this season is all about. SAO as a series has dabbled with Artificial Intelligence plots before to…varying degrees of success, but with the wide berth this season has, it looks like we finally get a chance to properly dive into the topic and all its implications.

First off, MAJOR reveals regarding why Kirito is in the Underworld: He’s there to help fix his brain from the injection while also helping Kikuoka in his own project, which is to use Kirito’s rebellious spirit to start inspiring some rebellion amongst the AIs in that world.

Next, we get some insight into what exactly this world is. This isn’t just another game people got stuck in or having people be brainwashed into thinking they’re fantasy characters. This is basically a new universe observing its lifeforms grow and evolve (so essentially Rick and Morty’s “The Ricks Must Be Crazy” but with less Stephen Colbert). Alice and Eugeo and Selka aren’t so much real people as they are descendants of copied souls who have grown up and died in this world for generations. So, whatever Kirito discovers on his quest to escape, everyone he has met or will meet will have to remain within this world. Unless they are chosen as the success of the project, which leads me to…

…Kikuoka’s goal with all this. He’s constructed this world with the objective of finding an AI amongst them that will be able to help protect the lives of JSDF officers. How they will do that is unclear at the moment, but I think we’ll get more info on that in time. Though what’s interesting is that it seems the AI in charge of the Underworld are also aware of the importance of one that can break the rules, having apparently altered Alice’s soul once she violated the Taboo Index. They can formulate theories about this independent of Kikuoka, which is why Kirito has been brought in to possibly retrieve Alice for Kikuoka’s purposes.

And finally there’s Rinko, who gives us a previously unseen angle on Akihiko Kayaba and what exactly he was doing while the SAO Incident was going on. Definitely got some “Gendo/Yui Ikari” vibes from this, though I HAVE had Evangelion on the brain a lot lately. Still not much explanation as to why he resorted to a murder game for all this, which was one of my biggest unanswered questions from the first season, but I guess you can’t win em all. Next week sees us check back in with Kirito and Eugeo, but it was nice seeing Asuna be actually helpful for the first time in awhile.