Not Recommended
Oh, man. I never considered this title good because of the flaws in the story's premise and yet someone might've still watched it for the entertainment factor. Well, not anymore :))) So, for the previous season I just said the visuals got better, now I need to say that it is sht. I don't know what happened and I don't really care. The artstyle got a complete new look. Weird-looking 3D something. It looks like something from a sim game. They move that way too. Even physics don't wanna touch that. At some fancy party: A lady sits on a high bar chair, one of herlegs is at weird angle; someone uses a glass to demand attention, the liquid won't change its relative form and to spill even thought the glass is tilted to almost 45 degrees; the people have a weird tilted posture and while walking it looks unnatural. So the good news is that now the spells look more like something you'd find inside a game. The bad news is that no one would want to play such an ugly looking VRMMORPG. The game itself isn't one, but the production treated this anime like one since the 1st season. You know, their avatars having their faces, grimacing and stuff like that. And now, in a weird coincidence, the way their weapons move and their streaks of glinting light look more like something you'd find inside a mmorpg. But their "real world" looks sht. And then, because that wouldn't be enough, we also get some sht animation chibi-like. You know, those kind of silly faces... A good thing thought: the cinematography was kinda good, lots of interesting shots and angles. Although, lots of interesting shots of weird looking "art", so maybe thats not really a plus? :))
Moving on. the audio was meh. Some kind of an "sad piano" used every time it was supposed to be about a "emotion-loaded scene". Or that theme for the old friend. I won't even bother with the OP/ED. What else? The pacing was bad. Even though it showed us more stuff eSports-like so implying faster pacing, at the same time lots of time-jumps. Granted, those scenes were not needed, but still it felt weird. And then dead moments. Like I said, bad pacing all around. Character development was tried a little bit, but usually we got the normal 1-dimension troupe ones. And a couple of generic "evil-man". Oki, not evil, just bad. Or mischievous.
So, to sum it up: it was really sht. Any redeemable quality it might've had while previous seasons (movies etc), got obliterated in this season. But it raises a good question now: without the visuals to help (because now it really didn't), is the story still interesting? I mean it never was for me, was lacking in a lot of aspects. It was something specific-tailored to ride the hype of eSports era, to hook the fans that melancholically believed in the "you're a gamer, try your luck, you might also become rich just like them". I know, I know, the themes are about second chances, never give up, keep pushing forward and sht, but its not working here. This story is dumb and sht constructed, so, no. I can understand the intention, but the author has no idea how to make it work and instead hoped the readers would read between the lines and do the job for him. Same for the anime. And seeing how many people liked this "thing", it worked.
It gets a rating of 2. Watchable only by the hardcore fans, although I think they would be even more pissed by this season. Not recommended, no rewatch value, obviously.
Have a lovely day.
