Is Sword Art Online Alicization Appropriate for 10 Year Olds

Reki Kawahara's Sword Art Online series has become a phenomenon in the nearly two decades since the author first self-published the original web novel series. The success of the revamped light novels would inspire a highly successful anime that served as a precursor to the Isekai genre's boom in popularity in recent years.

Rather than limit itself to one world, Sword Art Online has made use of a variety of game worlds that its protagonists adventure through. But the series lost the survival game elements that had made its premise so interesting with the conclusion of its inaugural Aincrad Arc. The Phantom Bullet and Fairy Dance arcs would retain certain core elements, but it wouldn't be until the fourth main arc that the series would recapture some of the aspects it left behind in Aincrad.

What Alicization Gets Right

The Alicization arc thrust a comatose Kirito into yet another virtual world, putting him in a state similar to how he was throughout the SAO incident. Making Kirito so vulnerable went a long way in getting fans invested in the arc, as did the introduction of the Soul Translator, which brought back the life-or-death high-stakes that the second and third arcs had been lacking.

The Soul Translator connects to its user's soul, taking them to a world filled with advanced AI crafted from remnants of human consciousness called Fluctlights. Rather than simply being programmed into the game, Underworld's denizens evolved and progressed over time, developing their own history and cultures. The inhabitants that formed its first society were all made from the souls of those involved in the project, making for an interesting distinction between them and other AI.

This human-like connection is what drives Kirito to help the residents of Underworld, and the humanity of those who inhabit it is reflected in their personalities, ambitions, and the impact of their deaths. Getting attached to characters like Eugeo, Alice, and Bercouli, among others, is what made the conflicts that comprised the Alicization arc so engaging. Unlike in post-Aincrad arcs, permanent character death was a real possibility again, and with that came strong emotional ties.

Underworld feels more alive than ALfheim and GGO's world did, with the arc having introduced so many different personalities and giving insight into the world's history and cultures that made it easy to engage with. It mirrors the care spent in crafting Aincrad as a living world inhabited by real people, rather than just serving as an RPG setting. By the time the arc's definitive battle rolls along, there's been enough exposition, world-building, and character development to get viewers genuinely invested in its outcome.

Comparing It to Aincrad

The Fairy Dance and Phantom Bullet arcs felt relatively tame compared to their predecessor. Though they expanded on the series' lore and built upon new worlds and character dynamics, the conflicts that drove them were very different than what had started the series. Kawahara's decision to move away from the survival game setting came at the cost of the tension and finality that made the original premise so exciting.

The Alicization arc didn't bring this dynamic back as it was, but recreated it with an additional focus on Underworld's unique AI, allowing viewers to ponder upon the weight their lives held. Everything about it seemed to be handled with more care than its predecessors, making the conflicts more intense and giving viewers a better understanding of what drove them.

Alicization stands as the longest animated SAO arc so far, spanning 47 episodes. The extra time to institute the various conflicts that drove its story, flesh out Underworld, and the various characters that inhabit it all made for some of the strongest storytelling the series has put out. The Aincrad arc ran for just a fraction of that, and while the two are somewhat similar in their premise, Alicization is able to take what made the series' inaugural arc so interesting and build off of it in a meaningful way.

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