Sword Art Online fans have had a good few years with not only the movie coming out and being really good but also two different anime series were announced with Sword Art Online: Alicization coming out this fall but that's not the series i'm going to be talking about i'm going to be talking about the spin off series Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online.
So then the plot of this series is Karen Kohiruimaki who is around six feet tall plays Gun Gale Online with her avatar being 5 feet tall and she and a partner enter the bullet of bullets tournament. I will admit that the plot of this series is really lacking but this review is being made after the first four episodes so there's a chance it could get better but as of right now it really is paper thin.
Starring as the main characters are Tomori Kusunoki as Karen Kohiruimaki and Llenn (her avatar name) , Kazuyuki Okitsu ( Andre from Prison School) as M and Yōko Hikasa (who can also be heard as Jivunya Lorezzo in Dances With Dragons) as Pitohui.
Honestly the cast do a fairly solid job all of the characters sound really good and their performances really are top notch but if there was one thing i'd criticize the acting for it's the fact that Llenn has the typical small cute girl anime voice and to me it's eye rolling it's not a knock about the series but it's something I wanted to bring up.
Now usually an SAO series will cover two to three arc's per season so to me it's refreshing that this series only going to cover one light novel and not try to fit in as many as they can regardless if it makes sense or not yes i'm looking at you SAO season 1.
Usually SAO is animated by A-1 Pictures but they are bust animating the third season of not only this show but also Fairy Tail and so in steps studio 3hz who have seen mild success with shows like Flip Flappers and Dimension W.
For me the animation in this series is pretty good SAO will never be known for having outstanding animation but I feel that the animation is probably the best seen in the SAO series i'm not saying it's better then the movie because of the fact the movie would have a bigger budget but for a TV series the animation is really good.
I do like the fact that this series is really taking it's time in building up it's characters but tho the series has around twelve episodes so that could come back to bite them but tho even the main series doesn't take it's time and while that's fine for that show it's nice to see things done at a slower more natural pace.
I think it's safe to say that Llenn is a pure badass and I love the fact that she really doesn't know how much of a badass she can be and she really is a good character and one that I personally can see being better then Kirito and and Asuna in terms of fan popularity.
The main series is known for putting it's best animation in it's fight scenes and sadly the animation in the fight scenes isn't that good which is a shame because this series is pretty much built on having good looking action scenes the ones in this series while not being that bad there clearly not the best the series has to offer but tho i'd still take these actions scenes then the whole ALO arc.
What shocked me when watching this series was the fact that the opening song called ryuusei is sung by SAO veteran Eir Aoi and I have to say she can still get me excited and pumped up because that is one hell of a song and it's one of the few anime songs I make sure to never ever skip that's how good it is.
Overall this is a really good series and if your a die hard fan of SAO then i'd say watch it and I would even kinda say the same thing if your not a fan just because it's not the main show and should be treated differently I give this show a solid 7 out of 10.