So this isn't exactly an airing show, but it DID release in this past winter season and I DID pay a whopping $15 to go see it, so I figured I'd share my thoughts on it. I was and always will be someone who will at least partially defend the Aincrad arc of the original SAO; it wasn't anything great from a narrative standpoint and had one hell of an ass-pull to cap it off, but it was executed very well and was a very aesthetically pleasing experience. Hell, SAO is what got me back into watching anime in college, and even if it is an over-hyped, well-polished turd (especially Fairy Dance and season two), I can at the very least respect its popularity. As someone who went in to Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale with this very prototypical anime-snob opinion of SAO at the ready, I have to say that I was honestly surprised.

Now don't get it twisted here, Ordinal Scale is very firmly still SAO. The overall plot is forgettable, and simply a vehicle to get us into fights and show Kirito and Asuna in romance sequences. You still have your array of stupid and useless characters like Lizbeth and Silica. The plot is still incredibly forced and laden with ass-pulls and plot conveniences. Yui "Deus-Ex Machina Incarnate" still fucking exists to call Kirito "papa". This is all that stupid shit that makes SAO..., well, SAO, and without it I don't think that the series would be as monolithically popular is it is. If you stripped ALL that crap out, you'd have one of the most drop-dead gorgeous, technically impressive, and great sounding anime action movies that I have ever fucking seen in my LIFE, but all that "SAO bullshit" just drags you out of the experience and straight into the gutter. The ending fight in particular, where it's essentially just pure fanservice and bad-assery highlighting every character in the cast, was the most hype I have ever felt about SAO and likely ever will be. That is, unless they somehow kill off every male character, bring Yuuki back to life, and make a slice-of-life about her and Asuna living together.

And it's worth noting here that I'm not even ragging on the Kirito/Asuna romance, which seems to ALWAYS be a point of criticism when discussing this series. Their relationship was always more well thought out and respectable than any offering from SAO's contemporaries, which has always been due in part to the fact that Asuna is far and away the best character. I can say without shame that their romance sections of this movie were definitely the plot highlights for me, giving Kirito a chance to act like an actual fucking human instead of a faceless edgedark husk of a killing machine. Their relationship is a far cry from something like Toradora's Taiga and Ryuji, but Asuna and Kirito are believable and charming enough in a world where everyone still plays video games despite almost being brutally murdered inside one.

If you're an SAO mega-fan and think that I'm an asshole for even attempting to criticize it, get the fuck out of your house and see this movie right now, preferably in the nicest theater you can. It'll be everything that you ever wanted, and it's a true sequel to the Aincrad arc for the series. Those who are more on my side of things should still go see it, as I'd say it's a technical marvel for a mainstream anime movie that didn't come flowing out of Miyazaki's skull. This is the best thing to come out of the SAO franchise since its initial adaptation, and although that might not be much more than "meh", at least it keeps bringing along something that's nice to look at and listen to. One day, it would be nice to see this series shake off the bullshit and grow into its aesthetic.

...but SAO will always still be SAO, and that's the fucking problem.