English Dub Review: Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld “The Final Load Test”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Nine days ago, Gabriel Miller exited his game of Gun Gale Online (the one that Kirito and his friends were engaged in during the first episode of the season, in fact) to accept a job from the US government to acquire the Soul Translator and Light Cube Cluster from Rath. Now, he has infiltrated the facility along with his men, two named Critter and Vassago, but they’re now unable to access what they want. Their only course now is to retrieve Alice from within the Underworld, though they need a profile to enter. Because all of the high ranking profiles have been locked off, meaning they’ll be normal people with no power if they go in the regular way. However, there are a couple available accounts for the Dark Territory, Dark Emperor Vecta and a Dark Knight, for Miller and Vassago respectively. Their arrival disrupts what were forming peace talks with the Human Empire, as well as begin the “Final Load Test”, AKA the process of breaking down the wall between the two sides.

Meanwhile, Kikuoka, Asuna, and the rest discuss Kirito. His mind is still damaged, but they think it might be likely that he and Alice are still together, which is good because they need Alice for this to be a success. And Kirito’s mental damage mainly comes from his guilt over not protecting his friends, so all that might be necessary would be some forgiveness. But in order to get that, they’ll need to bring someone in, so Asuna is the only choice. She lets her friends know and logs in, not knowing that Miller is actually Subtilizer, the shooter they faced before in GGO who is SUPER creepy and brutally killed Sinon in the game once upon a time.

OUR TAKE

This episode basically serves in filling in the blanks on questions we had (who are these guys invading the Ocean Turtle and what do they want) and ones we didn’t know we had (who were those guys Kirito and co were fighting in GGO back at the start). We also learn just how they’ll be doing their job to locate Alice, which is to enter the game themselves, likely to take her to the World’s End Altar and take her for themselves. But instead of brewing more unrest with the humans, it looks like they’ll be going to the Dark Territory to gather forces. This makes sense, as the first half of the season primarily focused on the inner workings of the human side and the Axiom Church, with the Dark Territory being mostly left in the background. Now that the threats within the empire have been dealt with, it seems this half will bring the Dark side into the forefront as a major threat.

The leaders of the Dark Territory, the Council of Ten, do look to be a pretty interesting and diverse set of baddies with what seems to be differing goals and viewpoints, or methods at the very least. It’s a shame then that they’re now going to be led by a rather unbelievable creep in Miller, who feels less like a person and more an over the top weirdo possibly written in to give Kirito another romantic rival for Alice before he goes back to Asuna. If the “your soul will be so sweet” talk wasn’t enough indication of that, wait until you see the next episode when he gets EVEN MORE creepy. And despite Sinon’s flashback, I highly doubt he will be getting much in the way of well developed rivalry with her.

But Miller and his even less interesting friend Vassago won’t be the only new arrivals, as Asuna will also be touching down in the Underworld, probably with her own high ranking account, in order to help Kirito get over the loss of his friends and realize how awesome he is again! Not any sort of self-reflection or overcoming a personal flaw that has hindered him for years, just that he regrets not being an EVEN BETTER DUDE than he already is. My heart weeps for him. But not as much as it will for ME if this show goes down the tubes again. Though in the meantime this wasn’t too bad, I must say.