Review: #817
Title: Sword Art Online 12: Alicization Rising
Series: Sword Art Online - 12th volume
Author: Reki Kawahara
Comments: The fourth volume in the Alicization arc sees Kirito and Eugeo speaking to the Cardinal and learns a great deal of things in this world. It reveals the rise of power of the big bad and even more exposition on how this world works in terms of system commands. It starts to stretch how far the reader is willing to believe when it introduces yet another special command that Kirito and Eugeo can do for their weapons. This is considering that everything is still within a computer simulation. Otherwise, the volume follows the pair as they climb up the Church’s tower, all 100 floors. Thankfully, progress is a lot faster than the Progressive side novels and they make decent progress although it felt like it might be undone by the ending (which is yet another cliffhanger). The clashes against the Integrity Knights were interesting, particularly since they are not one on one duels anymore. Rather, the Integrity Knights are coming against Kirito and Eugeo in numbers, with the main draw being what sort of plan that Kirito can think up of to win. Nevertheless, Alicization Rising feels like a midquel where it doesn’t quite have its own identity and serves as filler until the big climax in later volumes.
Rating: 6.5/10