Sword Art Online II

A year after escaping Sword Art Online, Kazuto Kirigaya has been settling back into the real world. However, his peace is short-lived as a new incident occurs in a game called Gun Gale Online, where a player by the name of Death Gun appears to be killing people in the real world by shooting them in-game. Approached by officials to assist in investigating the murders, Kazuto assumes his persona of Kirito once again and logs into Gun Gale Online, intent on stopping the killer.

Once inside, Kirito meets Sinon, a highly skilled sniper afflicted by a traumatic past. She is soon dragged in his chase after Death Gun, and together they enter the Bullet of Bullets, a tournament where their target is sure to appear. Uncertain of Death Gun's real powers, Kirito and Sinon race to stop him before he has the chance to claim another life. Not everything goes smoothly, however, as scars from the past impede their progress. In a high-stakes game where the next victim could easily be one of them, Kirito puts his life on the line in the virtual world once more.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kirigaya, Kazuto Main

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Yuuki, Asuna Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Asada, Shino Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Konno, Yuuki Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Yui Supporting

Itou, Kanae Japanese

Kirigaya, Suguha Supporting

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Tsuboi, Ryoutarou Supporting

Hirata, Hiroaki Japanese

Ayano, Keiko Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Shinozaki, Rika Supporting

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Mills, Andrew Gilbert Supporting

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Miki, Kazuma Producer

Kashiwada, Shinichirou Producer

Futami, Yousuke Producer

Seita, Jouji Producer

Reviews

Nov 27, 2025

ThxBoki

Recommended

Season 2 surprised me in a really good way.
The darker tone this time felt more mature and grounded, especially in the GGO arc. I really liked how the pacing actually worked — nothing felt rushed, and the story had enough space to build tension.

Kirito’s trauma arc was honestly one of the strongest parts of the season. Seeing him finally face the weight of taking a life, even when it was “justified,” made him feel more human and vulnerable. It added a whole new layer to his character and made the story way more real. And the whole BoB tournament? I genuinely enjoyed it — the ... atmosphere, the mystery, the intensity, everything fit together really well.

The Calibur arc was decent overall, but the pacing definitely slowed down a bit there. It wasn’t bad, just not as gripping as the rest.

Mother’s Rosario brought the emotional punch. Seeing the story shift to Asuna felt refreshing, and the way they introduced Yuuki and the whole message behind that arc felt meaningful — like something that actually matters in real life. The big emotional scene hit exactly how it should.

Overall, Season 2 had strong moments and great character depth. Not perfect, but a very good season that delivers both darker storytelling and real emotion.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 17, 2025

Caeruleus_CCXVI

Mixed Feelings

4.5/10 ~ its neither as bad as they say or the hype it originally had...

Honestly I feel like SAO is just the gold standard of how seasonal anime wants to be these days. Kirito, Nerv Gear, SAO, Being Trapped inside a video game but somehow still an Isikai... all of these things are just so woven in to anime these days its so weird to go back and watch what it came from. I decided to watch GGOA:S2 and within the first 5 min I realized I did not remember anything from S1, then I watched S1 again and realized that the gurl with the ... lightsaber was mentioned but missing, so I looked it up and completely forgot that that was a spin off of SAO, so I rewatched this just to go revisit the past and honestly the only thing good imo that came out of SAO, Gun gale online. The spin off series 'Alternative' is much much better, but honestly I wish they split this into 2x season where its the initial 15 episodes or so as GGO and then a 2nd season of going back to fairytale land with his harem and incest (the worst parts of SAO), I remember watching SAOII when it was live and thinking... man this shit is so much better I wish they would just expand on it, which they did and I was baffled, and with out kirito, a very not great character. But Part 1 of this season had very little harem or incest... so that was neat.

Its so hard to recommend SAO at this part in time because it has one of the strongest starts of any anime, especially for the time in Season 1 and then falls off hard through bad writing and bad tropes.

But if there was a direction it would be:
Watch episode 1+2 of season 1 --> Look up a synopsis of Season 1+2 (and watch a highlight real) --> Then:
- Watch Season 3,4, 4p2 (Alicization is actually not bad, you just need to know how we got there)
and or
- Watch SAOA:GGO 1+2
[All movies are skippable]

Thats it, this is the optimal and objective way to enjoy animated SAO, thank you for coming to my ted talk.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Nov 3, 2024

CaptainSalty

Not Recommended

The Gun Gale Arc was semi entertaining and had a decent amount of fun action with some character building for Sinon. Sword Art Online again presents a very unique world for us to immerse ourselves into. As someone who played the Fatal Bullet game, I do believe this is a contender behind Aincrad for the best world this series gives us. As for the substance of the season itself, the GGO part was by far the only real part that felt anything worth watching. Again, the second half is taken up by a filler segment and an uninteresting character story. So the review will be ... about what's worth mentioning.
What they attempted to do with both Kirito and Sinon sharing getting over their PTSD is interesting to explore, but at the end of the day it's nothing more than the surface level plot point. Kirito in particular suffers from them trying to explore his PTSD in the fact that he mercilessly slaughtered Laughing Coffin's guild in the first season, something we see nothing of. We have no attachment to this plot point by extension, and it feels like it was fabricated for this season and wasn't planned beforehand. There was plenty we could have delved into that was already there, but instead we focus on an event we didn't know prior to this season.
Sinon though does get some depth to her trauma, using exposure therapy to attempt to get over her fear. As someone who has tried exposure therapy, it is incredibly difficult, and I feel as though it isn't really given enough attention as Sinon usually has zero issues with using guns. Only the exact model that she shot is what triggers it which begs the question why she's playing in the first place despite not using the gun she has trauma with. The explanation of how the villain worked was also dumb and even though it was supposed to make me feel the tension more, I felt less tension for the illogical approach to the "die in the game die in real life." The villain himself doesn't make much sense as well, and a spoiler warning for this plot point, especially with their ties to the characters and how (one) of their motives doesn't seem to make much sense.
Plus there's still that one very uncomfortable rape scene which is extremely gross but fortunately we don't see much as the previous season. But it starts to beg the question why this is a reoccurring thing the author includes in his works. Seriously, what is wrong with you?
The idea of Kirito having PTSD from SAO was an interesting concept but it wasn't properly explored until the next season. And this is without mentioning again, the second half of the season which is both a filler arc and an uninteresting laid out story for a new character. Sword Art Online proving again that it has no idea what it wants to devote its time to explore. It was meh, and I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone who values their time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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