'Sword Art Online' Fans Are Calling Season 3 The Anime's Strongest Yet

Sword Art Online's third season is one of the many big returns headlining the Fall 2018 anime season, and it has had a much better first impression on fans than previous seasons of the series.

Sword Art Online: Alicization introduced fans to a brand new virtual world with a new mystery at its center, and fans are hooked to see what's next.

Not only are fans loving the mysterious young girl named Alice who shows up in the first episode, they are loving the return of series favorites like Asuna. The third season's first batch of episodes has made more of a connection between Kirito and Asuna that fans sorely missed through the second season, but it's quickly snatched away by episode 2.

Regardless, with all the new developments and returning favorites, fans are really feeling the third season of the series so far. Read on to see how fans are reacting to the first few episodes of the series, and let us know how you feel in the comments!

Sword Art Online: Alicization can currently be found streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu. The series is described as such:

"Where... am I...?" Before he knows it, Kirito has made a full-dive into an epic, fantasy-like virtual world. With only a murky recollection of what happened right before he logged in, he starts to wander around, searching for clues. He comes upon an enormous, pitch dark tree (the Gigas Cedar), where he encounters a boy. "My name is Eugeo. Nice to meet you, Kirito." Although he is supposedly a resident of the virtual world - an NPC - the boy shows the same array of emotions as any human being.

As Kirito bonds with Eugeo, he continues to search for a way to log out of this world. Meanwhile, he remembers a certain memory deep down within him. He remembers racing through the mountains with Eugeo as a child... A memory that he should not have in the first place... And in this memory, he sees someone other than Eugeo, a young blond girl. Her name is Alice. And it is a name that must never be forgotten..."

Sword Art Online was originally created by Reki Kawahara with illustrations provided by abec. The series follows a boy named Kirito after he and thousands of gamers get trapped in a virtual reality video game known as Sword Art Online. The gamers must band together to defeat the game's final level to escape, but Kirito and his guild learn there is more behind their prison than they were originally told.