sword art online the movie review

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Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale Reviews

Tomohiko Ito continues where he left off with a number of social comments, mostly regarding the relationship of humans with technology, and the consequences of one relying on it excessively.

Full Review | Oct 27, 2019

The pacing in between action scenes could drag but it was a worthwhile anime to watch.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 28, 2019

Directed by Tomohiko Itō... the film is an estimable work of adventures with interesting reflections on the nature of technology and our relationship with it. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 23, 2018

The second act falls a little in action by focusing more on defining the motives of the antagonists, but everything recovers in an exciting and prolonged climax. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 23, 2017

It's not a visual stunner, but Ordinal Scale serves up a solid original story that will help tide over those who are hungry for more SAO while they wait for a third season.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Mar 9, 2017

Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale Review

Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale is a nice little movie that scratches the itch that a lot of Sword Art Online fans have needed to have scratched for the long time. The last arc of Sword Art Online (The Phantom Bullet Ar c aka Sword Art Online 2 ) was released in 2013, so that’s 4 years without any update as to what has happened with Kirito, Asuna and the rest of the group. While Ordinal Scale does give us more of what made Sword Art Online great to watch in episode form, it just didn’t feel like it was enough to satisfy that long of a gap.

In 2022, the world of virtual reality was upended by the arrival of a new invention from a genius programmer, Akihiko Kayaba. Called NerveGear, it was the first full-dive system and with it, came endless possibilities to VRMMORPGs.

In 2026, a new machine called the Augma is developed to compete against the NerveGear and its successor, the Amusphere. A next-gen wearable device, the Augma doesn’t have a full-dive function like its predecessors. Instead, it uses Augmented Reality (AR) to get players into the game. It is safe, user-friendly and lets users play while they are conscious, making it an instant hit on the market. The most popular game on the system is “ Ordinal Scale ” (aka: OS), an ARMMORPG developed exclusively for the Augma.

Asuna and the gang have already been playing OS for a while, by the time Kirito decides to join them. They’re about to find out that Ordinal Scale isn’t all fun and games as a deeper plot unfolds around a mysterious couple of AI girls and the second best player in Ordinal Scale , all involving an old nemesis from Sword Art Online ‘s past…

Ordinal Scale is everything you need and more from Sword Art Online . It’s more of the same yet at the same time it ramps things up in a way that online putting out a movie can provide. The plot is interesting even though it’s the same thing that happened in a lot of anime of the same genre. The characters seem to either have learnt from their time in the previous games, or just ignored it completely. The introduction of Yuna and Eiji works well and the progression that the two take throughout the movie is what holds the whole thing together. Out of all the returning characters, I was most impressed with Kirito. Out of all of them, he was the one who went through the most change from Sword Art Online 2 to Ordinal Scale . Kirito doesn’t like technology and only jumped into things when he was pressured to by Asuna or when people are in trouble, only to find that his personal laziness has rendered him useless in battle in Ordinal Scale . This was amazingly realistic even though it was dropped mid-movie due to the plot’s needs. Also the callbacks to Sword Art Online are well handled to the point of actually being shocking… Then there is that tease at the end of the movie… ARGH!!!

The animation quality of Ordinal Scale is something to be cleaned up. Given the 4 years since anything Sword Art Online was animated you’d think that they would be able to keep the quality consistant, but nope! The animation, as you can clearly see from the screen shots used in this review, goes from amazing and detailed to Saturday morning Pokemon levels. I hope that this will be addressed in the eventual Bluray/DVD release down the line. Another thing that did get to me during Ordinal Scale was the plot. While there was a twist near the end that made it all tie together really well, you could see all the connections the second the new characters appeared and things began to happen. It’s a shame since things worked out so well in the end and there was the promise of more to come.

Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale is one of those movies where you get more of the same from a franchise that only has a few stories to tell before it’s run out of things to tell from it’s Light Novel beginnings. The idea of making something relatively new-ish from later content worked well for Ordinal Scale , but at the end of the day it just felt like more of the same with a predictable second half. But I’m not unhappy with seeing it, in fact, I was buzzing about it for hours afterwards and tried to track down as much information about all the things that happened in the movie as I could. I can’t wait for the Bluray either.

©2016 REKI KAWAHARA/PUBLISHED BY KADOKAWA CORPORATION ASCII MEDIA WORKS/SAO MOVIE Project Disclaimer: Content provided by Madman Entertainment for the purposes of review. The review product was provided by Madman Entertainment under provision of review only. This is not paid advertising. To see The Outerhaven guidelines on reviewing and our Code of Ethics, please click this link. If you believe that this review breaches any Code of conduct or Ethics as described on this site, please use the form provided on our Review Guidelines and Code of Ethics page.

Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale is more of the same, but that’s not a bad thing. Ordinal Scale gives progression of characters while giving us more action and drama that we have come to expect from Sword Art Online . If you missed the Japanese Subbed edition in the Theaters, make sure you either catch the currently playing (as of publication) English dubbed version or just wait it out a little longer for the DVD/Bluray, it’s worth it.

An open ending to a series I want to see continue

X (Twitter)

The main "Australian arm" of The Outerhaven. Karl primarily spends time playing and reviewing video games while taking time to occasionally review the latest movie or piece of gaming technology.

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