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I think I'm wasting time here as most people actually enjoy this kind of anime, but I'd like to point out at least one thing, even if by stating my own opinion I will be most likely ignored.
This anime thrives by 'not being normal'. And that's it. The plot, the characters, the unfolding events, everything is mostly connected to being the opposite to normal. Stupidity brought to the banana girl level, useless infatuation alongside procrastination and a passive genius that is supposed to be a comic relief through absurdity and irony.
I repeat, this is my own opinion, but this anime is TRASH. ... If you started anime and went chronologically you can remember many example of anime that tried to use the abnormal factor as the theme. But most of them had some advantages. This one does not have such a thing. You can't think to enjoy this anime. You just need to accept the absurdity and laugh. Think, you who watched a lot of anime, how many times did it happen that in a rock,paper,scissor to make something funny the creator added a new move? Or how many times did it use a loli that hates being made fun of? Or how many times ... did you get a shitload of cliches?
Lastly, this is a waste of time, I'm dropping it. I just wanted to write my opinion even if its a waste of time as I can't stand seeing this shit being ignored as a problem when the 'isekai' genre is considered a plague. They are both in the same category, a freaking curse.

A short review for those that are new to this anime.
The second season of the highly appreciated anime 3-gatsu no Lion does not continue its former legacy, instead starts a new quest where most of the things you may have enjoyed in the first season are left aside only for the story to advance to a more social feeling.
While the first season brought us face to face with the protagonist inner demons and allowed us to see how he faced them while dealing with the problems of a pro shogi player, in the second season everything starts recycling itself through a side character, ... a character that is over and over again praised as some goddess while doing just a plain fucking thing. Still, we are forced to see how the protagonist sees this character as some sort of salvation to his wounded soul.
The protagonist family is also ignored while in the first season the protagonist sister seemed to be the storm that always managed to make the audience stand on their tiptoes as she was the materialized form of his inner demons.
There we some good parts too, of course, but they were fragmented and only slightly extrapolated in comparison with the way the protagonist enlarges his social network.
Lastly, at the end we are left with a slightly more ambiguous problem, the romance that seems to have bud between two characters that I couldn't even see one fucking reason to be together if this season didn't force me over and over again to see and accept.
A humiliation for someone who expected to see the protagonist advance along his darkness while slowly dispelling it. A perfect story for anyone who didn't care about the connection between what was supposed to be and what it is.

Welcome to the most hated anime! But why? Because this is the general opinion. You know how all Android users hate Apple users because they pay more just to have something that is NOT as special as their android right? This goes mostly the same. People hate it because they don't want it to gain more popularity. Now some people may think that I actually say that SAO doesn't have bad points. No no no, it has bad points. But it also has good points. But most people only see the bad ones because they are bored to see how much attention it receives. I'd ... like to make it a little better. Its annoying to see how much hate can a good anime get.
Story, lets be serious, if you don't know the story of this anime at this point in time you are either new to anime or completely ignorant. As we know, we have Kirito who is trapped in an virtual reality online game where if you die once you die in real life. From here people either kill themselves to test that ( smart right? ) or start killing others ( smarter right? ). Anyway, our hero will try to end this game to free everyone. He is OP in everything that has to do with warfare, and somehow gets a harem, but of course he is only interested in the female character Asuna. Asuna is .. you could say even more perfect than Kirito. She is a goddess or something like that. Well, after 15 episode or so, you get a classical Mario ending ( The princess is in another castle ) and we start again with another VR online game. Until now you might hate this anime to the core. But, we have good things. The idea is original in the anime genre, being the first one to create such a setting. The villain being someone closer that it was believed at first, also became a good point. The love story went well ( the bad part being the characters themselves ). And the actual fighting was awesome. Well thought moves and skills. For me, the story gets a 6.
Art, I can hardly understand why people could even begin to complain about the art. When anime like "Ping pong the animation" gets a almost full marks in this category I feel like puking each time I try to understand why someone can simply rate it as bad just because he or she can't stand something from another category. We have a fluid artwork that is great to see especially in the fighting scenes. The scenery was sometimes breathtaking and other times eerie. The characters were designed to be either cute as sugar or nasty as crap. But that's just how the author wanted them to be seen. In my opinion, art can get a 9.
Sound, if you have a problem with the sound you have a problem with Yuki Kajura that made the soundtracks for Fate/Zero and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Those series obtained the highest marks possible in this category but once again were hated in this anime because of one big problem from another category. The openings and ending from both parts were absolutely great, and I don't think there is an anime fan who hasn't listened to them at least twice or thrice. Once again, a 9.
Characters .. Sorry, I know that I praised two categories one after another, and that may be biased, but I won't make a review just for that. In my opinion, the characters were, simply, clearly and absolutely DREADFUL. From the first to the last they were puppets created just so the author could live his fantasies. None have any depth, none have any logical background, all of them are so shallow that you can either ignore completely or see them as just side characters that weren't meant to be. From me, with all the possible love, a 2.
Enjoyment - I watched it. Not once, but twice ( i was bored ) and I could watch it from the beginning until the end. I felt annoyed sometimes, that's true, but sometimes I felt like I could really enjoy it. In other words, a 7.
Overall - If you haven't watched many anime's and wish to be immersed into one, watch it. Depending on your mentality it can strongly attract you. If not, well, it may be good as a reference in the genre as it has a huge amounts of cliches. It receives a 7.

The last episode came, many people watched it and at the end one thought was strongly resonating in their brain: "Why did we underestimate this anime so much?". The beginning of this anime may be the biggest hoax in the anime history. Not only it made no sense, but it was like in the middle of night while you were sleeping someone blew up your roof, killed your family and then told you that it was your fault and you should be punished. No sense right? Still, slowly but surely this anime showed that it was a lot more than that. Sometimes surprising ... by the deep philosophical understanding of the human nature, and sometimes using its main card, the fighting, the best way possible. Many could say the entire premise of this anime was to not judge a book by its cover. No mater how ugly it may be, what is inside could be worth thousands of time more than a book with a cover that shines like gold. Anyway, lets do it the normal way:
Story - 9, The story of this anime centers around a girl, Ange a royal princess, who at her coming of age ceremony is shown to be a Norma, a person not considered human in a society where everyone is using mana to control everything around them, thus making life easier. Everything falls into chaos, many sad things happen around her and after that she is sent to Arsenal, no, not the team, but a place where all Norma are disposed of, or so was believed. A lot of whining, hundreds of screams, enough to make you wish she was killed right on the spot. After a few episodes no one would wish the same thing. Not only because her character became a lot more interesting, but because the purpose of Arsenal is becoming clearer.The story becomes more and more complex as time passes so it should be impossible for someone to try to present the story in only a few words. There are betrayals, there is love, there is friendship, sadness,quite a lot of yuri, and we have an awesome antagonist who appears at the right moment. Still, its not like everything was perfect. There are a few blanks in the story, blanks that not only were not explained but it felt like a railway was missing some parts. For better or worse, we were made to forget about this and move on. I don't know if that part is to be explained in a movie, ova or maybe a second season, but it certainly needs one to explain a few missing parts without going back to the plot of the first season. Its the best ending for this anime and I really do not wish for everything to repeat in the same world as before.
Now, after the story comes the art.
Art - 9, Sometimes I wonder, how should we describe art? Some anime have such an ugly art that it would not be a surprise of everyone to hate that anime, but instead there are fans saying it receives a ten just because they feel like it fits. Sadly, I do not have the same opinion. Art is about beauty, about fluidity, about complexity, about impact. This anime excels at most, but some may say they could be even better just because .. . Anyway, every characters, robot, dragon looked awesome. Especially the dragons which didn't try to fit in the same criteria we were used to. Each battle was like a movie. They can make you forget to blink or breath. The only problem was its too fast pace. They moved to fast from one place to another and because of this it became tiresome to try to take in everything and instead were are left with the decision to only concentrate only on a few things forgetting about the rest.
Sound - 10, extremely enjoyable. The bgm is very important, but its true role is to make you feel attracted to the story, which this one did. If a bgm attracts to much attention, be it good or bad, then it failed in its purpose. Some forget about this and rate it poorly or better only based on this. The ost, op, ed and especially the seyuu's are the most important. And all of them are doing their job perfectly.
Characters - 10, Vivid, strong, beautifully. Each and everyone of them had what you could call charm. Their personalities, feelings, point of view were attractive mostly because there are so many that its impossible to not see at least one that shared your emotions and state of mind. I can say that in my opinion this anime strongest point were the characters.
Enjoyment - 9, there is not much to say about this. It was a gem found in the garbage. If you can watch it with an open mind you will not only not regret doing it but you are also going to remember it as one of the most surprising anime in the entire history.
Overall - 9, The story was not perfect, this is clear. A story that is short but also complex can hardly manage what Cross Ange did. Its divergent points were not only large in numbers, but also had its own characters which had to do their job in a way that wouldn't hinder the progress of the story. I'm going to re-watch it later this year for sure. Until then I can only recommend it to anyone who loves anime.

Sadly, as many others have already said, I wonder ... how great it would have been if the entire series relied on the relationship between Kirito and Sinon rather than the always lovely couple KiritoXAsuna? An anime that started so promising only to disappoint so hard is a rarity among rarities. Well, lets get down to business.
Story - 6 The first part had its flaws ( I mean the first 14 episodes), like how Kirito was given an avatar that looks way to much like a woman. Until then the always frail Kirito was acceptable, but now its to much of a stretch. Still, the ... plot was interesting and it made me anxious about how its going to end. I have read previously the light novel, so I knew the plot, but I was interested in how the animation will make it better. And yes, it was better. The gun fights were awesome, the stressed Kirito was a refreshing add to the boring love story. Don't get me wrong, I really like love stories, but only if it does not damage the mood. This love story had a huge impact on the dramatic mood, way to big in my opinion. The antagonist was also a great pick because of his connections with both protagonists. The end was acceptable. If it had ended here, I would have been so happy. But well my biggest fear was that they would actually include the filler volume from the light novel in the rest of the anime, Mothers Rosario, instead of the next arc. Well, as we already know, it has happened. After the first episode, I already felt like a stepped in some deja vu. It felt like instead of taking a step further with the story we were forced to go back. Instead of seeing something new, we go back to Aincrad. I won't go in details, if you have seen SAO first season, believe me, it's mostly the same. One change is that at some point Asuna is the protagonist.
Art - 9, I never had something to complain when I watched SAO. The level of details was high and the movements were awesome, especially in some fights. The only draw back is how most of the characters seem like they jumped from a shoujo manga in a world of action.
Sound - 9, SAO had always good tracks, especially the opening and the ending which were outstanding. The action themes were also well synchronized making the battles more exciting. There are a few flaws like how they are sometimes using a super dramatic song on a scene where they are just talking, but well, a small mistake.
Character - 7, Sinon was a great character. Her past had a strong connection with the present and the trauma that came from it made her sometimes lose her ability to function as a normal human being. The drama that this setting induced was awesome. Kirito was also presented as a veteran of SAO. Because of this we are given some answers about his feelings now that everything ended. What he truly feels. The antagonists weren't anything special, what impressed what was their style of fighting and also their obsession with killing. The rest .. well, sadly, the disappointment as always comes from the second part. The huge coincidence that led to a fateful meeting between Asuna and some "old" players only to create drama was one of the most annoying things ever. It felt like there were tons of Asuna clones everywhere.
Enjoyment: 7 Half of it was great, it was something that I waited every week only to see how the story evolved and the action scenes of the dual user in the gun world. Half of it was .. well, more or less, crap.
Overall: 7, I can't say that I won't recommend this anime. Some may enjoy bot parts which would make this anime complete, while others would agree with me that only the first part was great. Watch it if you have not done it yet and try to enjoy it as hard as possible.