There are a great many problems with the three part sequel to the SAO Ordinal Scale movie.
The central one is the ill-conceived fusion of the sci-fi modern day plotline and Underworld’s essentially stand-alone fantasy plotline. The two never had any reason to mix. Assassin’s Creed does something similar, and the criticisms about the way that franchise mixes its past/present settings hold doubly true here since Underworld is effectively self-contained as opposed to being a reflection. The author could have easily wrote Alice and Eugeo’s story as its own thing with no association whatsoever to Kirito’s group and ended up with a far more consistent and immersive product.
Pretty much all of the remaining issues can be tied back to Kirito’s involvement with the story; spontaneous power-ups, random cameo appearances, last minute saves, questionable character motivation, harem elements, and bizarre plot twists all. Really, the only flaw that can truly be called its own is the re-occurring theme of using psychosexual megalomaniacs as main villains.
Vaguely related to all of that in a ‘you can probably watch this if you’re a fan of the genre’ sense are the series Runway de Warrette and Princess Connect! ReDive. The first of which is a fashion industry-focused Cinderella story overloaded with assholes who magically become nice while the latter is a conventional fantasy action-comedy whose protagonist has the personality of a particularly dull puppy.
War of Underworld:
Princess Connect! ReDive:
The choreography (correct word?) in that, “Hoshigami, this moment you’ve created for me won’t go to waste!”, animated gif must have been done hundreds of times–the moves, the sequencing, the types of elements, everything about it.
Although I’m sure it has been obvious to many viewers, this is the first time the remarkable sameness of anime battle choreography (perhaps battle choreography in general) hit me.
Usually, the music so dominates such scenes that I don’t notice their genericness. Without sound, however, the experience offends the intelligence.
However, the closeness of the reuse is fascinating in its own way.