Review: #914
Title: Sword Art Online 15: Alicization Invading
Series: Sword Art Online – 15th volume
Author: Reki Kawahara
Comments: While still set in Underworld, this is effectively a new arc considering the previous volume finished off with a significant event. Unfortunately, it felt somewhat like a filler since Kirito takes on a very very minor role. This is also what makes it feel like a copout because you can’t help but get the impression that the author is making it up as he goes along. Taking on two perspectives, we get Alice as she tries to recover from her discovery of the nature of her world. It’s a passive viewpoint since she reacts to things happening rather than being proactive in deciding what to do next. The other is that of the real world. The author has a knack of introducing characters with odd quirks that borders on absolutely creepy at times. The way that this new villain enters the Underworld is extremely contrived. The sequence of events is predictable and this is the volume’s greatest flaw. Nothing will surprise you in a good way, the surprises are mainly how the author constantly plucks some random thing out of nowhere to escalate the current situation. Hopefully, with the amount of set up in this volume, the story can improve.
Rating: 6/10