Anime 11757 Sword Art Online Reviews Filter Check 2

After examining forums, comments, and reviews on Sword Art Online, it doesn't take a genius to recognize that this anime adaptation is one of the most controversial, disputable TV Series of the year. Thus, it'll be understandable if you disagreed with me at some point in this review, but please take the time to actually read it before deciding "oh, just another fan boy" or "gross, just another hater." Because, in my opinion, Sword Art Online doesn't deserve the amount of crap it gets or the amount of praises; essentially, it's mediocre.

First and foremost, the Sword Art Online TV Series is an adaptation of the ... light novels under the same name. People who have witnessed this pattern unfold before know the difficulties in the adaptation process. For those of you new to the community, when a studio announces an adaptation it usually means two things: fan service, and fillers. Sword Art Online is a perfect victim for the studios these days that desire the big bucks. What derived from a romantic, unique concept was transformed into an utter construction of unoriginality and clichés.

Other words, all the significant features residing in the original light novels were compacted down into seemingly unimportant bits and the wrong things got emphasized.

= Story (3) =

What the studios completely ignore first is the purity of the story, scripts, and chronological order of events. It doesn't even matter to the producers if positive/negative attention is given to Sword Art Online as long as the work gains popularity, discussions, and trends. Well, if you just watch anime collectively and only for enjoyment, it doesn't matter too much if the dialogues sound cheesy or unrealistic. However, there are too many clichéd story narratives, the dialogues require better writing, and [insert more heedless blobs of complaints you can read elsewhere].

The premise and first half of Sword Art Online actually poses an intriguing concept of survival of the fittest, which just isn't elaborated on enough to continuously track the audience's attention. In the actual light novel, there's much more emphasis on action-based themes than what's presented in the anime. Execution of the script definitely has problems, the pacing embodies inconsistencies which could've improved, and the story does contain some questionable timeline eclipses. However, it wouldn't exactly be the source material's fault if a parody of their work is bad.

= Character (5) =

The main protagonist Kirito and his companion Asuna both illustrate essentially perfect beings. Kirito is a beater whose masculinity cannot be touched by anyone vincible. Comparatively, Asuna strives for a taint of sexiness with her slender yet untouchable body, and she can cook perfectly--somewhat misogynistic but inevitable. As a couple, Kirito and Asuna are both interesting subjects due to their fair share of intimate interactions with each other and other characters at first.

However, the chemistry between the two main romance interests, in the anime, quickly devolves into little or none at all. Events are laid out too bluntly, at a false pace, and Kirito's dedication for Asuna appears to be more artificial than in the light novels. Asuna became a target for fan service and though the appearance for fan service itself isn't exactly a terrible thing, the problem resides with how they applied that to more females. What shouldn't have processed through as a harem became apparent. Instead of illustrating the chemistry between Asuna and Kirito wholeheartedly, the Series often diverted with several unrelated (female) story arcs, which in turn didn't contribute to much of Kirito's phlegmatic personality anyways.

The main problem with the side characters is that barely any time is spent on them and most of them don't really have a purpose after their first appearance. Even when they do, you don't remember their names or why their presence is significant.

= Animation (8)/Sound (9) =

It's almost factual that nobody can complain about the artistic aspects of Sword Art Online. The impacting action scenes did themselves justice with intense atmospheres. Character designs transported from the light novels comprised of more details and it is overall fitting. Noticeably, the background in some of the scenes portrays a vivid, limitless sky, which soothingly befits the floating island setting.

The Original Sound Tracks from the anime are just fine. Although it would've been better to switch around its soundtracks, the synchronization of music with the art worked out efficiently. Both the Ops & EDs consisted of scores beautifully done by the artist; Yuki Kajiura strikes the mood perfectly yet again. Each voice acting roles also surprisingly resembled their character's traits.

= Enjoyment (7) =

Admittedly, Sword Art Online was a guilty pleasure the day it aired each week despite its flaws. The premise alone embraced me in a MMORPG setting which many have nostalgia for. Although a bit romanticized, the production actually portrayed the prehistoric Medieval Europe (in this case) and flourishing civilization of many cities like Venice at the time fairly well. And those familiar with the time period knows Sword Art Online just added another layer of wistfulness.

Honestly, Sword Art Online provides decent entertainment if you watch it playfully without expecting serious, satirical works of some sort. Otherwise, it may be a disaster if you end up taking the concepts the show throws at you too literally.

= Overall (5) =

A well thought-out premise and concept which ended up being jammed into a catastrophic adaptation—basic outline of Sword Art Online. It's really a shame that an action-packed Light Novel franchise became a victim of today's failing anime industry. This TV series comprises of lots of story arcs which should've been ignored, but was instead included due to their rewarding of pure fan service.

There are too many trickled-down, mixed lighthearted scenes for someone to take the anime too seriously. Yet, the producer of the anime almost expects you to nonsensically. In the end, it's up to the audience to take Sword Art Online seriously or not. For one's health, I suggest viewing this TV Series as a romantic comedy with quirky action scenes and supernatural settings. Otherwise, for the real action-packed themes promised by the premise, I guarantee that the Light Novels will present a much better experience than this "once-in-a-lifetime" plebeian anime adaptation.

I've heard many things about SAO (Sword Art Online): There's either a lot of love or a lot of hate for it. Personally, I'm leaning a little towards the latter, but not fully on it. Before you start sending me hate mail or press the "Not Helpful" button, please hear me out.

As a gamer, and a fan of MMORPG's, I tried to keep my expectations not too high, because you know what they say: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall". Unfortunately, SAO fits this saying to a T, as it was one of the most disappointing anime that I've seen this year. Why? ... Well, why do think I'm writing this forsaken review?!
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Story: (3/10)
The story of SAO involves players getting trapped within an VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game), in which they are required to beat all 100 floors of the game in order to leave. The catch is, however, that if a character's HP drops to zero before clearing the game, not only do they die in the game, they also die in real life.

The concept of this story is absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, the execution of this story is poor. The writing and pacing is just awful. Even during the SAO arc of the show, while this was tolerable, I was left wondering, "What on earth is happening here?" The Alfheim arc, on the other hand, was just... I don't even want to describe it. Parts of Episodes 21 and 24 were just borderline unwatchable... (I'm not going to say which parts, just to avoid spoilers...) At least the ending was somewhat satisfying...

Overall, the story was just utter CRAP. A good premise at first, but was terribly executed due to poor writing.
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Characters: (2/10)
In my opinion, the characters of Sword Art Online were by far the weakest part of the show. The main male character, Kirito, is just a Gary Stu, and nothing more. But somehow, he has the ability to attract girls by just looking at them. Why are these girls attracted to him? I'll never know. The main female character, Asuna, was introduced in Episode 2 as a badass who I had high hopes for. And what happens with her? The writers decide to turn her into a generic tsundere, and in the Alfheim arc of the show, she basically turns into f**king Princess Peach. Suguha, other than being there for the sake of fanservice, and to be part of a love triangle that involved a little bit of incest (It didn't work for me in Elfin Lied, it doesn't work for me here...), pretty much served next to no purpose (In my eyes). And to go into deeper detail about Kirito and Asuna, I could not for the LIFE OF ME understand the romance with Kirito and Asuna. It felt so forced and plot-driven that it made me feel absolutely frustrated.

However, I'd be lying if I didn't say that the reunion of Kirito (or Kazuto) and Asuna during the final episode was heartwarming... (but I digress).

The supporting characters were either uninteresting or just really annoying. The only character I had actual interest in was Klein, but even then, he was pretty much tossed aside. And as for Sugou, he is one of the worst villains I have ever seen. Period. He just absolutely disgusts me... (Though he has a certain line that's absolutely HILARIOUS!)

In the end, next to none of the characters were interesting or likeable in the slightest...
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Art/Animation: (10/10)
With my bitching and moaning aside, what DO I like in SAO? That's easy. I love how it looks. The art in this show is absolutely beautiful. From the scenery to the action scenes, the animation is consistent and fluid, and the scenery is just gorgeous. Maybe it's the fact that graphics/art is one of the major things I look into within a video game, but I digress.

With animation, this anime hits a perfect bullseye.
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Music: (8/10)
Since I'm not a person to critique VA, I'll just talk about the music. Just like the art, I also really enjoyed the music of Sword Art Online (and because I'm a fan of Yuki Kajiura). It reminded me of the countless hours I used to spend on MapleStory leveling up my character. The first opening, "Crossing Fields", got me pumped for an episode; giving me SOME hope that the show would somehow redeem itself (Sadly, it didn't).

Nevertheless, the music was as good as the art!
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Enjoyment: (4/10)
While I did enjoy Sword Art Online in the beginning, progressing through it turned into more of a chore than an enjoyment. Most of the SAO arc was "meh", and the Alfheim arc was just painful to watch. If it wasn't for the action scenes, this would've been rated MUCH lower.
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Overall Score: 5.4 out of 10 (Rounded down to 5)
In my honest opinion, Sword Art online was just painfully average. While the art and music are amazing, the story and characters prevent the show from being anything memorable (At least for me). Like I said before, it is definitely one of the most disappointing anime I have seen this year. Although it's not a 1 in my eyes, it's also not a 10.

Was it worth the hype? No.
Will I watch it again? Probably not.

*Feedback and Constructive criticism is welcome! Just don't be too nasty about it.*

Sword Art Online. I don't think it's an exaggeration to rank this as one of the most hyped anime series of 2012. That being said, one only has to take a cursory glance at any SAO related forums, discussions et cetera to see for oneself - that SAO is undoubtedly a series dogged by controversy.

Fans of SAO are so devoted to it that they will leap into every discussion to defend any perceived slight at their beloved anime. On the other hand, people who detest it tend to make an almighty fuss about everything that has to do with it.

To be frank, I was actually ... pretty fired up by the hype surrounding SAO and was anticipating an anime that was brilliantly presented, on par with the likes of Steins;Gate and Fate/Zero.

The first episode indeed lived up to all my expectations. We have a bunch of players trapped in a massive virtual world and a raving mad scientist ruling over said world. Throw in an additional quirk, dying in-game means a horribly real death in the real world. I could wax lyrical about the limitless opportunities this premise offered up! The second episode followed this up with a well delivered boss fight and excellent story development. Hope burned bright in the souls of many SAO fans.

However, all good things come to an end, and for SAO, it was disappointingly a whole 22 episodes earlier than expected.

Cue the main protagonist, Kirito suddenly transforming from a well thought out character into a cliched knight in shining armour. A Gary Stu to boot, perfect in every respect.

The few episodes go something like this.
A girl has a worry. Kirito pokes his nose in it. He miraculously manages to come up with a perfectly viable plan to solve the girl's problems and manages to execute it flawlessly every single time. The girl then suddenly develops romantic feelings towards her knight in shining armour a.k.a the one and only Kirito-kun. He's practically a stereotypical Gary Stu!

If it were a single episode interspersed in between the main story arcs I don't think anyone would have complained. But no! The studio in all its great wisdom decided to string 'em together in one almost unbearably long series of episodes.

The main grouse I have with this portion of the anime is that is does not have any bearing on the overall plot of the anime. See those cute girls that have befriended Kirito? They get one episode together in the limelight with him, and then fade away into the darkness. Helping someone get an item? Tell me how that's going to impact on the future plotline of the anime.

Whew. Now that I've got that out of my system, let's move on to rating the anime.

I gave the story a 5. Essentially, SAO is a jumbled up mix of episodes that each do the main concept of the anime no favours at all. First we have the filler episodes. Then we have huge leaps in time. Heck, the first seven episodes spanned one and a half years, yet the rest of it up to the end of the SAO arc only took a few months. Ever heard of pacing, people? That pissed me off no end. I was expecting them to pace the SAO arc over the whole 25 episodes.

The one major problem in this area is that the people in charge either took excessive artistic licence or were high on something, because SAO is as filled with holes as a block of Swiss cheese in terms of plotholes. Basically we have logic defying actions, even within the rules of the SAO world. On one occasion, the anime even blatantly contradicts itself, feeding us the ridiculous idea that pure willpower and love can counter the rules of said world. Come on, give us a break. That's just a blatant deus ex machina!

Then we have ALO, or Alfheim Online.

I won't spoil any people yet to watch SAO any further. Suffice to say that SAO's story and execution as a whole are mediocre, extending to the ALO arc. Its only saving grace is that the plot twists are quite well executed and unexpected when they are not logic defying.

Art-wise I have no particular complaints to make. The art as a whole is solid stuff, especially in a few scenes that are a feast for the eyes. A 7 overall.

Moving on to the sound.
The first OP, LiSA's crossing field was decent. Not bad, but not too good either, a hallmark of her songs. First ED, forgettable, generic and very plain indeed. I feel that the second OP was a shade better than crossing field. And finally, the pièce de résistance, the 2nd ED, Overfly. In my opinion it was actually a great song. Haruna Luna's not half bad. The soundtracks were done by Kajiura Yuki. Need I say more? 8 out of 10.

Characters! Now we're getting serious. I mean DEAD serious.
A breakdown :

Kirito - Every part of him shouts Gary Stu! He is the modern day Sherlock Holmes with wonderful deduction ability. He is a chick magnet without even trying to. He always goes out of his way to help people. He even gets a wife after non-existent courtship! He's even got his own unique Dual Wield sword skill because he's just that badass! "Make me a sammich and a rabbit stew, Asuna!" "Okay!"

Asuna - The female protagonist. When we first see her, she appears as a strong character, with the personality and traits to match as well. Granted, she does play some important roles in the earlier stages of the SAO arc. After that, she degenerates into Kirito's sidekick. What, you're among the top in your guild hierarchy and a front liner to boot, yet Kirito has to fight for your freedom from your guild? For some honeymoon so that you can spend your lovey-doey couple time together? She gets even worse in the ALO arc. Basically, Asuna is there to help Kirito on the road to awesomeness. Whenever she's in a spot of trouble, cue Kirito stepping in and coolly getting rid of her problems, be it enemies, monsters or otherwise. No point in her existing otherwise, is there?

These two are the only two that SAO really focuses on. The supporting cast are merely there to cheer them on. They play no major role and do not impact the storyline. Some even appear in only one episode!

Characters - A really bad one. 3 from 10. It would have been lower if Yui didn't at least appear to compliment the Kirito-Asuna pairing.

Enjoyment - I'm going to give it a deserving 7. I will concede that although the story and characters are immensely lacking, I quite enjoyed the series. Between facepalming at those god awful plotholes to being absorbed in the beautiful world of SAO, it's actually quite an enjoyable experience.

In conclusion, SAO is probably an anime series that polarises opinion like never before. I'm going to take a neutral stand here and say that I neither detest nor love it. Else there's probably gonna be another SAO flame war.

The source material by the author is excellent, but suffers very badly when being adapted by those "What the fuck are they smoking, they're so high" people from A-1 Pictures.

I'm giving it a 6. Seeing as the light novel is selling as fast as Kirito attracts chicks, I'll go out on a limb here and say I'm very hopeful of a further season 2.

Now, if only they would kick A-1 out and replace them with a better studio...

Sword art online is not one about action, but instead is a pseudo harem monomyth despite what the first episode suggests. It implores the same marketing tactic as Accel World, and Guilty Crown, where the 1st episode is merely a showstopper/crowd-pleaser with alot of eye candy and flashing lights as well as a misleading title, in order to accrue a sizeable fanbase. But if we ignore the 1st episode, and look at the anime as a whole it can be said that the anime was adequate for its intended purpose.

//Story
The story is quite simple, and it seemed to copy the core ideas of hack//sign, but ... to a lesser extent, that is it focuses more on romance rather than action after the 1st episode. The story seems to advance rather too quickly after the 1st episode, where it seems to bounce from the 1st floor, to the 50th floor in a mere episode. As an aside just to explain the floors, the anime featured a large tower which the hero must climb, similar to that of Druga, that featured floor 1 to 100 that had a very powerful boss awaiting on the top floor. So it was quite clear that the 2nd episode sparked large displeasure/controversy in the audience. So just to reiterate an important point, the plot moves very fast, it was expected there to be minor 'time' leaps and that the entire anime would revolve around climbing the tower that was featured in the anime to be the ultimate obstacle to freedom. But that was not the case. Sword art Online's story ended mid-season, in a rather, pathetic fashion. For a damsel-in-distress or monomyth anime, in regards to the 2nd portion of the anime, it did amazingly so in it's portrayal, but as an action-game anime, it failed miserably. The plot moved too fast, the romance seemed to be forced, for example where suddenly two protagonists get together in a romantic relationship almost seemingly out of nowhere (though there were small hints), and the fact that the circumstances which brought this about in the anime was unrealistic. The manga on sword art online could explain clearly why people in the virtual game could live as well as other questions on the context of the world of Sword Art, but the anime failed to explain adequately such small questions, resulting in an un-cohesive/disjointed anime with too many questions to be asked about the world. So if a person watched only the anime, without reference to any of the written works of Sword Art Online, the anime seemed to be fundamentally confusing. Sci-fi worlds must have depth, Sword Art Online lacked depth due it's seemingly short time frame.

//Art and Sound
The art and sound is something you'd expect to be top notch in an eyecandy anime like this, the first opening song, "Crossing fields" by LiSA seemed to resonate with the anime very well. Other notable mentions are, Innocence by Aoi Eir (2nd opening), Yume Sekai by Haruka Tomatsu (1st ED), and Overfly by Luna Haruna (2nd ED). The music in the anime was pretty well done, and seemed to blend well with the situations depicted in the anime.

//Character
The MC seems to be the most random personality on the anime, he's indecisive at times, a genius at times in decision making, and may other inconsistencies with his character. In the monomyth structure, where the hero saves the 'damsel in distress' the hero seems to become stronger, more intelligent or at least improve in character as the story progresses, with Kirito( MC), the reverse seems to happen. So as character progression goes, there seems to be regression rather progression in the case of the MC. The other characters, seemingly very vague, despite the anime being a fantasy. Other animes such as Hunter x Hunter, go out of they way to explain the background of side characters that are going to die in the next episode. Though I don't expect Sword Art Online to have this kind of depth in it's 25 episode anime( which could've been split into seperate seasons to make it seem less rushed, especially at the end), it could've at least explained more about the important female characters that turned the emotionally stagnant Kirito into a Cloud Strife.

//Enjoyment
I can't say I didn't enjoy the anime, but the appalling story development and heavily flawed characters make it difficult to progress with the anime. The story seems to jump at random speeds; from very fast, to slow, to fast, to very fast (at the end). The ending of the anime reminds me of Avatar Kora where the last episode seems to be 6 episodes smashed into one episode. So for enjoyment I'd say I'd be a 6 or a 7.


//Verdict
Overall, due to the reason stated above, I'd say the anime is around a 5 (mediocre), the anime was heavily over hyped due to its flashly first episode, but from then on, it seriously let down fans on the episodes afterwards. The anime seemed to combine 2 seasons into 1 seasons for some bizarre reason which just caused disjointedness, and a very strange final episode.

But if you've read this far, I'd like to thank you for reading my review.

I apologize for my ignorance in advance, as I have not read the manga or the light novels or any other related media corresponding to this franchise. This review is solely preliminary and focuses on the first 5 episodes only.

Sword Art Online seems to be an anime hyped up by many this season. Its easy to see why, as the setting of a virtual world in which players are trapped and must fight for their lives can easily attract many. Personally, I was excited as well, and as the summer anime season rolled by, I immediately picked it up. I had very high hopes ... for this anime, as it was in fact my first "virtual reality" anime. I had never watched .hack or any other similar anime so the setting was very fresh to me and i wanted to see how an anime taking place inside an MMO would play out. Now that I've viewed episode 5, it seems fitting to offer my initial thoughts on the series. In my opinion, Sword art online definitely did not disappoint in its portrayal of a virtual world, but is seriously lacking in other aspects such as character development and story.

Lets start with the good. Wow. What a fantastic world SAO is. Its portrayal definitely made me jealous of the players. Except for the fact that they were unable to log out and that dying meant death, I definitely wanted to visit SAO. Sword art online portrays its world magnificently. The art is fantastic, the settings are vibrant and colorful, and they all make the viewer feel that they are, in fact, in a virtual MMO. However, what I was even more impressed with were the concepts introduced in SAO. Its easy to see that SAO was inspired by many of today's MMORPGs but SAO takes it a step further and translates all of these concepts into a VMMORPG. Its very interesting to see how the concept of guilds, parties, and health points are portrayed in a world where the player is the character. One thing i thought was brilliant and hilarious was the concept of "sleep-pk," in which a player duels another player who is asleep, by using the asleep player's finger to accept the request. Overall, sword art online has a magnificent setting and I am looking forward to it expanding over the course of the series.

Unfortunately, I was not a big fan of the storyline or the characters. One main issue I had with the storyline probably came from my unfamiliarity with the franchise. The time gap between episodes 1-5 is erratic and almost none of the episodes had any contiunuty. Generally I'm open to this type of storytelling but the jumping around simply left me confused. Kirito's experience changes drastically in between episodes and it almost seems like he is a different person in each new episode. After wathcing episode 5 it seems that they are finally going through with an "arc," though I would have very much liked for them to continue a coherent story from episode 1. I feel the episodes were more used to show off the concepts and setting of SAO rather than to give insight into Kirito's personality and motives. In fact, I feel that this format of storytelling actually hindered my relationship with Kirito and isolated me from his character. Because of this its hard to keep track of Kirito as so much time passes by in between each episode. In addition, I feel that Kirito is too one dimensional as a character. In almost every episode, he plays the role of a "white knight" and helps random girls he runs into. It seems to me that he has no agenda in each episode, and that he is simply there, playing the game and helping people that he runs into. Its hard to see any ulterior motives and it seems to me that Kirito is 100% pure, which I hate because it subtracts from the depth the writers could have added to his character. In episode 5, Asuna returns(finally) and the two embark on an epic journey to.. help investigate a random murder. It seems to me at this point that most of the shows conflicts are caused more by other players rather than by the world itself. I would very much like to see Kirito "progress" in the game world and have a goal that he can work towards, rather than come to the aid of anybody who needs his help. Everyone he interacts with seems to be a girl as well(I was starting to think this anime was turning into a harem.)

To sum it up Sword Art Online is definitely worth watching. The weaknesses I addressed only pertain to the first 5 episodes and it is very possible that the show will pick up. I'm very much expecting it to. The setting is magnificent, and has revived my daydreams of visiting a virtual world. I hope to see a lot more good things from this anime and will post another review whenever I feel like it.

I can't add to what others have said but let me just briefly summarize my opinion, criticism, and praise.

= [ ( Story ) ] = ****3****

I apologize for such low rating. What started out as a promising series, SAO lets down its audience with weak plot and conflict resolutions. The periodic and time lapses between episodes cause confusion and misunderstanding. Without your ability to access primary source (LN), some of the plots are unclear, if not simply misplaced. What remains of the plot? Instead of focusing on serious aspects of the story, we are dished with series of ... MC's love interest, which serves zero purpose to actual love interest of MC. Harem is a word that fits this situation. The excessive amount of fan service that this story vomits is unjustified and unnecessary. However, SAO delivers simple and understandable plot objectives, which a little child could understand. There is a clarity in its objective and I applaud the author of SAO for making that very clear.

= [ ( Art ) ] = +++ 6 +++
the art is very justified for this sort of anime. With harem, loli, and incest, the cutesy style of art is very fitting and well applied. At the same time however, it does draw away from the believability of the story as a serious material, which the plot, at least at the beginning, promised to be a very mature topic. It is fortunate that SAO art tries to please teenagers and casual watchers and opted out for harem/romance/damsel in distress plot devices.

= [ ( Sound ) ] = """" 8 """"

Excellent music--one of saving grace of the series. It adds excitement to otherwise boring and repetitive action scenes, which seems to overuse charging and 360 degree back and forth.


= [ ( Character ) ] = """"3""""

Character development is shallow. MC is given little time for character development. Little of what does occur uses convenient plot devices [i.e. death of a friend] to advance its objective, which is extremely cliche and unoriginal. The time given to achieve this objective was narrowed to just one episode, which devastated the impact of the development as a whole. As well, other character developments are small or absolutely zero. If there was a little development, it was completely dependent on their interaction with the MC and it is highly unclear whether character development is visible or understandable from the viewers perspective.

= [ ( Enjoyment ) ] = """""6"""""

SAO is fairly entertaining, due to its cliche plot and high production value. The forced incest drama is really the highlight of this show, so I highly recommend it.

= [ ( Overall ) ] = """"5""""

I would like to think that 5 is justifiable by my reasoning. I would've given it 7 or 8 if it weren't for the horrible pacing, weak character development, and overall hype that is given to this show. IF the show was focused instead of trying to be everything (harem, romance, incest, tragedy, drama, action, seinen, tentacle, sex), SAO could've been an awesome project.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead; read at your own risk. (Or if you don't really care, then read away, I guess...)

Well, where shall I begin with this... I'll just say right now that this series (one which I had really high hopes for) ended up becoming absolutely horrid by the second half; each episode getting progressively worse than the last. But, in any case, let's discuss this shall we?

The story: It's basically just your typical MMO-genre type of series (think .Hack but with actual fighting as opposed to the characters just standing around and talking episode after episode). The first half of the series takes place in ... the world of Sword Art Online (hence the title) where everyone including the main character, Kirito, becomes trapped and in order to free themselves from their virtual imprisonment, they must clear all of the floors within the world's dungeon.(There's the whole "if you die in this world you'll die in real life" thing, but again, this is really nothing new.) In the second half, Kirito enters another MMO called ALfheim Online where he must now rescue his waifu, Asuna (a girl he met in the first game that ended up being trapped in the virtual world after everyone else in SAO had been freed) who now lies waiting for him at the top of the World Tree, a colossal tree in the centre of this new world. I won't go into too much detail, but the series really goes downhill from this point on. I'll just say that there were a few bad writing choices and leave it at that. *Cough.* A horrible villain, a tentacle scene, and incest (Oh my!). *Cough.*

The Art: Definitely one of the high points of this series (this being one of the only ones). As an artist myself, I can say the characters were drawn fairly well, but I can't help but say that I've seen this art style somewhere before... Oh well, moving on! Though aside from the characters, I must say that the world(s) look absolutely gorgeous and there seems to be quite a few well used colour schemes in certain scenes. Bottom line: It's pretty and colourful. NEXT!

The Sound: The soundtrack was both very intense as well as very peaceful and relaxing when it needed to be during certain scenes. Although, if I had to make one nitpick about it then I'd say that a lot of the tracks sound fairly similar to one another if not almost the same track played differently. (Though I can't say that for certain, it did sound like that to me.)

The Characters: This part was kind of like a roller coaster to me; at one point I'd want to murder them for all of the horrible choices they made, but then they kind of grew on me as the series progressed. However, during the second part when a certain character appeared, I just couldn't take this series seriously (especially near the end where he was literally licking off the heroine's tears and trying to rape her whilst the protagonist could only sit and watch). Just... No... A tip for any writers out there: DON'T MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS ACT LIKE BLOODY CARTOONS! If you want to write a character well, then make them a bit more realistic and even relatable. Even a villain can be a relatable character if written correctly (trust me, I've seen it).

Overall, it wasn't a completely AMAZING series like I was hoping for, but I did get a fair amount of enjoyment from it (not so much the second half, but beggars can't be choosers). If you want to watch it for the sake of wanting to watch something of this genre, then just watch up to episode fourteen and drop it immediately (trust me, the other half is not worth sticking around for). If you're a writer looking for what NOT to do, then I'd recommend watching it all the way through. What are you doing still reading this? Go watch it and see for yourself whether it's good or not. Go on... Shoo...

Here it is! My first review here on the wonderful website on MAL and what better way to kick start my reviews then with one of the most controversial and possibly overrated anime of all time. Of course I'm writing about SAO.

The story in SAO at first glance seems very interesting and almost desirable. A video game is released in the year 2022 and has each gamer step foot in a virtual VRMMORPG( Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) This seems like an excellent setting for an anime and was something that got me excited for this anime. However what SAO does with ... this setting simply is the definition of wasted potential. Throughout all of SAO's main story arc it keeps drifting away farther from its core story line. So what is exactly the main story line in SAO? well, you have Kirito our main protagonist in SAO who decides to play this game and try and beat it. Thousands of people enter this virtual gaming world in hopes they can also beat it just like Kirito wants to. However they soon find out that they are trapped inside the game until they beat the final boss. Also if you die in SAO, you die in real life. The first 4 episodes or so really suck you into the world of SAO but after you meet Kirito's love interest AKA Asuna, the story keeps tumbling down a spiral of never ending boredom and annoying episodes. I really gave up on SAO's story line after the first half of the season where they set SAO in a new MMO. The story never focuses enough on beating the game and more or less focuses on the love between Kirito and Asuna. This is where SAO becomes a real drag and honestly a pain to watch.it becomes Predictable and extremely cliche. Not to mention the story isn't paced what so ever and jumps all over the place.

The art in SAO is one of the things it has going for it. Beautiful in almost every scene especially the action parts of the anime, this show really knows how to show off a cool action scene. The animation is crisp and clean and every major characters' face is detailed and distinctive. This is something I really loved about SAO even if it's all just eye candy.

Another part of SAO's saving graces is the sound and music. The music in each scene is fits very well and is enjoyable to the ear, dare I say even the sad moments felt even more sad due to the music. which is what music should do in every anime. In terms of dub or sub, I would say sub however the dubbed version isn't the worst and is for sure watchable. It may all come down to preference in the long run.

I'm just gonna come out and say SAO has some of the worst characters out there and the most wasted. The two main reasons why SAO's characters are so bad is because 1. They have ZERO and I mean zero development in their personalities. For example Kirito is overpowered from the first episode to the last. Nothing seems like a challenge for Kirito or an obstacle.This makes SAO very boring to watch and soo predictable. My second reason why the characters suck so much in SAO is that there are just too many! You have a harem type thingy going on mid way through the first half of the season where Kirito meets girls who all have a some what of a love interest in him. I don't have a problem with this if only the characters were actually interesting!
SAO introduces one character and then seems to throw it out like yesterdays trash! It's frustrating when you have multiple characters introduced in an anime yet only two are fully fledged out. In terms of how Asuna's character is, all I can say is that she's the typical Tsundere love interest until they some how fall in love in a video game. I won't even go into detail on Yui's character as I believe she's the most worthless. Oh and also Kirito has a "Sister" or cousin who falls in love with him and wants to be with him. Somehow or someway an anime revolved around beating a virtual MMO managed to include an incest story line in the mix. Great job SAO.

Finally, did I enjoy SAO? Sort of, I say this lightly as anyone is even remotely intelligent in terms of anime would know this is an overrated anime full of eye candy and cool effects. Something excites new comers to anime. SAO would've a great anime had it done all the things correctly. I enjoyed the action scenes and awesome music yet dreaded the two main characters who I'm supposed to love and cheer for. In short Sword Art Online was a Colossal disappointment.

Some people likes it. Some people hates it. Some people finds it overrated. However, SAO is definitely one of the most anticipated, hyped-up, popular, and controversial anime series of the year. It is one of the most debated series with its various themes, characters, plot, artwork, music, and other factors. The series is adapted from the light novel written by Reki Kawahara, with illustrations by Abec. It has gained enormously popularity despite the way it originally was created. Indeed, the series has earned mass amount of sales revenue, topping the sales' chart, spawning video games, manga, side stories, and last but not least, the ... anime series.

The anime series is adapted from the light novels of the same name written by Reki. He is known for his themes of incorporating a boundary between fiction and reality related to the cyber world as one of his other popular works known as Accel World. But that's whole other story.

I have to admit. I was quite excited with the pilot episode. The idea of being trapped in another virtual environment where our very own lives are at stakes is an eye catcher. It is dangerous. It is deadly. And it puts your skills to the test where you realize it's not longer some virtual game you play for some high score because once you die, it's GAME OVER for real. But of course, Sword Art Online isn't by all means any original piece of work. Series like .hack//Sign, Summer Wars, and even old school series like Digimon Adventures have these themes. Sword Art Online has most of these as sources and presents in a more dangerous way. In other words, it's all or nothing. Once you're logged in, you're not going to get out until you beat the game.

Welcome to Sword Art Online.

The series does bring promising ideas like I've mentioned before. The pilot episode shows the horror of the players' faces where they realize their lives are changed forever. The theme of conquering floors to reach a final boss seems intriguing and some of you watching the series might even wish you were there especially when you were younger and conquering floors yourselves like some classic MMORPG games. The idea of these all sound interesting and SAO makes a good impression at first. However, it doesn't last.

From the first two episodes, the series maintains its reputation. The promising trailer sticks to its point and we are introduced with some of the main characters. However, it later show signs of shifting apart. Out of nowhere, there are side stories that are presented. Additionally, some of the main supporting characters gets lesser and lesser roles. At some points, it almost feel like a “monster of the week” phenomenon where each episode presents a different side story. Oh, and the dangers of the SAO world seems to be shifted as well. Originally, there were pkers but the idea of them actually becoming a significant threat is weakened from the beginning. It is debatable how this series came together like this from the first few episodes to be honest. I mean, there are stuff of what we mainly see in MMORPG games but some of it just doesn't seem to shine itself.

Now, adaptations aren't easy and fans (especially one with such a large fan base) always expect some greatness. But did SAO achieve greatness? From the first half, certainly not. The side stories' episodes does bring some of the other mechanics and a more detailed way of exploring the SAO world. However, it masks itself of the real story and what's to come. It's almost as if it's purposely making the fans wait for what's to come in these episodes. The way this approach is being handled is a flaw in my perspective as impatience takes ticks is way in.

That's just the first bite of the dish though.

The series does eventually draw its back to the main story but divides itself into two sections – Sword Art Online and later on, ALO or known as ALfheim Online. So essentially, it's almost like watching a two core series in one package with a small break in between.

The package doesn't stop there though because coming with it is the characterization of the two main characters of the series – Kazuto Kirigaya (Kirito) and Asuna Yuuki.

Initially, Kirito is one of those loner guys who wants to keep to himself but has a kind and courageous heart who is willing to help others. However, that sort of personality doesn't work well in SAO or any MMORPG especially since joining guilds and conquering beasts requires teamwork and motivation. Thus, he makes friends with other characters throughout the series as well as being an official guild member.

Now, the friends that Kirito makes are all strangely of the opposite sex, in other words, girls. Yes, they play the game as well and what's more strange is that most of them seems to have a thing for Kirito. As the series progresses, it almost seems as if Kirito is forming a harem of his own. In fact, no girl is safe; Whether you're a beauty, a blacksmith, a beast tamer, or fairy. This is likely due to the fact that he is a much higher level, has a kind heart, and is protrayed as a “Gary Stu” character where he is able to overcome any obstacle with eace. Oh, and let's not forget the Desu Ex Machina factor where Kirito is able to solve an unsolvable problem with some divine intervention. His characterization also has a problem in which his skill level is portrayed as a very high level but the series does not portray on how he manages to obtain a feat. Furthermore, Kirito doesn't really seem to have an interesting personality. The only time he really shines is during his heroic speeches or interacting with the other characters.

On the other hand, there's Asuna Yuuki. Originally portrayed as an admired girl with equally admiring traits in combat, she is the one that Kirito shares a dynamic relationship the most. In fact, the later episodes explores some of their relationship that began from strangers, to teammates, to friends, and later to something more. As dynamic as that all sounds, it doesn't mix right. Some of the sequences are rushed too much and the deus ex machina factor comes in. Out of nowhere occasionally, the problem becomes a solution where Kirito uses his Gary Stu abilities to solve them with the help of Asuna. However, I do admit that some of the relationship between the duo are relaxing to watch that balances in between the intensity of the fights involving the bosses and the dangers of the SAO world.

On the ALO side, the series' relationship between the duo is drawn away due to certain circumstances. Oh but that's not all. Another character with admirable tits and a peculiar relationship with Kirito is introduced. The chemistry between them is more of one sided and seems more like just a friend zone scenario till later on when a startling revelation is revealed. It's safe to say that Kirito's development by then has weakly worn down especially with Asuna, yet they remain close at heart.

The overall characterization of the series is only drawn out mediocre at best. Kirito, as I've already mentioned before, is the loner type who only seems to have good spotlights during action and interaction scenes. Asuna on the other hand is seen as a strong girl who often presents herself as entirely different character – sometimes she's a fragile girl with tears, other times, she swings that sword like a boss and shows why she is known as Asuna “The Flash” Yuuki.

Luckily, the concept of the series does remain intact. In other words, the theme of the virtual world is still there. There are the bosses, the floors to be cleared, player environment, items being bought/sold/traded on the market, guilds open to join, and other things you typically seem in the MMORPG world. However, the exploration of these themes are generally just mediocre with no exceptional twists. Furthermore, there are the random fan service themes presented throughout the series with Asuna Yuuki being the star of it all. She is like the desire of what the fans want and sometimes compared to one of the other main characters later on in ALO. (both physically and mentally of course)

Dem graphics:

I will say describe the animation as graphics since the majority of the series is presented in virtual form in nearly every episode. The artwork is portrayed as being slightly above mediocre. Every environment presented such as the city, guilds, sky, ocean, dungeons, etc are of the typical MMORPG settings. Even some of the monsters fits within the virtual boundaries. The way Kirito dresses is typical with his black outfit and standing out above some of the others. It's no surprise that he looks that way as if he was almost the leader of a wolf pack. On the other hand, Asuna dresses in ways that is portrayed as an female knight. Later on, it becomes more balanced with the duo in some more casual wear.

The soundtrack and music of the series are alright. The OST curtsey of Yuki Kaijura seems to be limited where we often hear the same rhythms over and over again. The main SAO theme that plays during battle seems also as if it's trademarked to Kirito, especially during his desu ex machina scenes. However, it does get to the point during some of the boss fights where the intensity boils up. The first OP song, "crossing field" by LiSA of the first half is actually well presented with some glimpse of foreshadowing and a montage of the supporting characters. The second OP song, "INNOCENCE" by Aoi Eir” from the latter half seems to be more of a monotone where we see mostly Kirito and his side with the addition of a new female character. The ED songs are just mediocre, however.

Enjoyment? I'd say this series is just slightly mediocre at best for me. The first arc concludes its story and leaves the viewers to a wondering of what's to come next. The certain events from the arc puts a nail into some of fan's original expectations with the side episodes and fan service being a main factor to blame. Well, the concept is still quite interesting and coming into SAO as an anime fan did satisfy me at that part. However, the characterization and the characters themselves are cliched and flawed along with some of the themes.

The artwork and soundtrack are there to backup the virtual environment. At times, it's serious and at others, it seems like a romantic comedy. And of course, SAO tries to present these all at once and it just doesn't work out as some may expected to be. To enjoy or not to enjoy? That's the question. It's hard to say really but some of the inconsistencies and weak development of the writings refrained me from giving this a higher score. In the end, this series is viewed from a different perspective to everyone. It's no doubt though that it's one of the most popular series of the year and possibly more to come. I know this review is quite long but time flies fast especially in the virtual world.

Thank you for reading my review :)

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Sword Art Online... what a name - + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + for this unrealistically realistic game. + ... + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + A vast virtual world, and YOU are part of it + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + to breathe the medieval air it‘s all about to emit. + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + Because seriously, who doesn‘t want this more easy way to live? + + + + + +
+ + + + Instead of dealing with today‘s one thousand problems which won‘t even forgive + +
+ + the slightest mistakes, so take some cakes + + + + + + + + and join Sword Art Online! +
+ But what nobody of you knows about yet: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ there won‘t be any possibility to reset, + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ to log out or to further live your modern life; + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + so now the game got down to death, despair and strife! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + And only by the time the final 100th boss is slain, + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + there‘s a serious chance to overcome this domain + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + and get back to your boring everyday life again. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + So what to do to not become pathetic and insane + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + inside this relentless and beautifully designed game? + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + This question has to be delved into by every single + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + of the 10000 players now stuck in this intricate mingle. + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + But since most written stories need at least one hero, + +
+ + We will focus on him: + + + + + + + + + Kirito, whose aim to join a guild is near to zero. +
+ + + After being a beta tester, he‘s kind of overpowered right after the game truly begins. +
+ + + + He is your usual shounen guy: strong, cool attitude and practically without sins. + +
+ + + + + + But you know, some people like these invincible guys without any fault. + + + + +
+ + + + + + + Although we won‘t see any serious development coming from him, + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + he wants to beat the game, so there‘s a jungle to skim + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + and also random girls who won‘t stop to bother + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + his progress, the show‘s progress, and other. + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + But one of these + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + girls is not just there to please + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + but also to master her cooking skills; + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + and so dear Asuna gives our Kirito the thrills, + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + abandoning her initial mysterious demeanour for + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + one more obeying, more vain, but not self-reliant anymore. + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + So now together with these two, + + + the rest is rather simple to review, + + +
+ + + + + as they search for a way + + + + + + + + + + + to escape this demonical play + + +
+ + + and try to reach the upper floor + + + + + + + + and in between some mundane chore.
+ + Seriously, they go for a fishing + + + + + + + + + + + when others get their final dishing! +
+ Would be amazing if we were shown more trading and bartering, more MMORPG stuff, +
more city life, training battles, world interaction, leveling up; that would have been enough! +
+ I won‘t deny some romance, but in their situation it‘s rather unnecessary and cheesy... +
They have to master conditions queasy, + + + + + + but most of the time it looks too easy +
to build up any more needed suspense, + + + + + so the story slowly becomes less intense
and focuses more on minor sideshows+ + + + + which don‘t possess that much to oppose.
+ It‘s just they don‘t promote the story; + + + + + + + + they are there for Kirito‘s glory. + + +
And so when the action gets more serious, + + + + it‘s bound to jump and stays delirious. +
The story‘s conclusion just feels rushed + + + and basically all side characters are hushed.
And then the second story commences + + + + and requires some other type of defences.
+ I am not willing to spoiler you here + + + + + + + + with the new content that will appear. +
+ Let‘s just say: it‘s decent enough + + + + + + to watch our heroes doing some more stuff.
+ Cause if you like this kind of games, + + + + + + + + then overcome your inner flames + +
+ and watch this show until the end + + + + + + + + + and you will most likely comprehend +
+ why many of the reviewers here, + + + + + + + despite having rated inside a very low tier,
have actually watched the complete show + + + + without dropping during its entire flow. + +
So yes, the presentation stays mediocre; + + + + + just try to stay calm as if playing poker.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + Now to leave the poor story execution behind + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + and to not let the really weak direction disturb our mind: + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + let‘s focus on the two redeeming points which strongly help this show + + + + + + +
+ + to retain a more subtle inner flow + + + + + + and a smoothly presented outer glow. + +
The music alone will bear you away, + + + + + sometimes so deep you even can convey +
yourself right into this world‘s heart, + + + + + + + and together with the richly detailed art, +
the decent animation flow and more, + + + + + + you get to know sporadical profound lore.
So while bombarded with more minor + + + + places and people, and praising the designer,
the simple truth is: you will stay tuned + + + + + and endure this anime for opening a wound.
A wound so deep you will likely ask + + + + + + how the director has failed to fulfil his task +
to use the immense budget for a far+ + + + + more coherent work, and not one this bizarre.
But still this show gets so much hype + + + + + + + quite similar to SnK, it‘s equally unripe. +
I would say: just watch it for yourself + + + + + + before it catches dust on your virtual shelf!
+ Do not let yourself overconfuse + + + + + + + + by some of the far too harsh troll reviews!
It‘s your average show, like many other. + + But see, even average doesn‘t always bother.
+ I even rewatch the opening from time + + + + to time just for its beginning‘s catchy prime.
+ + + + + So I conclude this review by expounding my final point in a clear way: + + + + + +
+ + + + + do not expect an awesome story, thrilling moments, more bloody prey, + + + + + +
+ + + + + + but instead an anime made out of popular and fan-serving material, + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + +which will at least be entertainment next to your breakfast cereal! + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Three. I’ve watched this show three times. Two. I’ve written two reviews for this show but didn’t post them because I didn’t like them. One. This show deserves the one review it has coming to it, to cover the good and bad beyond the visuals and music. After watching this show thrice, can I truly say what makes this show tick?

God help me, let’s begin. Let’s look at Sword Art Online.

The story begins with the launch day of a virtual reality online game called Sword Art Online. But as the day draws to a close, the players find that they can’t log out. Their minds ... are trapped in the game, and the only means of escape is to clear all 100 floors of Castle Aincrad where the game takes place. And death in the game means death in real life. From here on, it’s worth noting that the concept of a “death video game” is tossed in the sense that there are gameplay mistakes that might be better suited to an alternate world fantasy show.

In fact, the show mostly IS an alternate world fantasy show. That doesn’t entirely excuse the mistakes, but bringing focus to them would be missing the bigger picture. Mistakes are only bad when nothing distracts from them, and for the most part the show is able to distract from them through world building and immersion.

It achieves this world building by greeting viewers with believably strong visuals. It’s not just how vibrant and fluid the visuals look, but the design choices to reflect practicality, to look less like a fantasy and more like something that could really happen. Save for one villain, the designs look at least well armored or fully clothed all over; it’s easy to believe sword and shield users like Heathcliff can charge the frontlines, or why a speedy fighter like Asuna can dance around a fight. There are no skimpy outfits tanking hits or heavy suits zipping all over the place. It looks as practical as it is.

The setting itself is often as down to Earth as a fantasy can get. The 18th century flavor to most of the towns and the undeveloped locales such as the lakeside forest don’t serve to remind the viewer the show is a fantasy, but as a glimpse into the past. It’s a fantasy with the illusion of reality, and avoids being too fantastic to be believed. That is, except for the dungeons and monsters. More mundane creatures tend to lurk the normal fields, with the lizardmen, ogres, and reapers showing up in more and more dungeons that remind viewers this show is indeed a fantasy. A fantasy the players want to wake up from.

All the players, the characters, are simple but personable. I couldn’t describe the well-meaning but perverted Klein or feisty Lizbeth beyond just that, but taken together all the characters give the setting a personality to match how down to Earth it is. It’s simple, but lively. The characters themselves are unexplored, but their stories come to life by expanding on everything the setting has to offer. From the carelessness of low level players in a treasure chest room to a journey for a rare mineral to craft the finest sword, the setting gives action to the characters, and the characters give life to the setting.

There are two certain characters who form the crux of the story, where the viewers see most of the action from. They are Kirito and Asuna, two of the strongest players in the game, but still only a slip away from death via sleep PK, defending a weaker player, or tricked into a bad state. Like the side characters, they’re simple, but the draw here is a couple on equal ground. Their behavior behind closed doors is charming if cheesy, but as they defend and rescue each other from fights, it’s hard not to stare in awe at them as they fight.

The fights themselves are loud, with music going with it that ranges from the energetic and nearly hopeful to the ominous and almost hopeless. But while the battle music makes fights entertaining, it’s eclipsed by the calm and unnoticeable. The town music gives a sense that it’s just another ordinary day in this fantasy world, while other pieces go from nostalgic to ambient. The ambient tracks are used especially well during moments of silence where the dialog becomes the focus. This helps to bring life to the show where it is uneventful, and uneventfulness does happen often.

This is because while the show starts as an action fantasy, it turns into a slice of (fantasy) life. As the days trapped in the game turn to months, more and more players stop trying to clear the game for fear of death, and yet with so few people trying to clear the game the odds of winning begin to slim. It’s this strong subtext of safety VS sacrifice that dampens a holiday celebration or someone going fishing, and makes the move into calmer episodes believable. But whether the show is calm or intense, there are often small reminders that the setting isn’t real beyond some of the monsters and dungeons.

Sometimes a relationship from real life will change in this virtual reality, one character will remind another character of a sister they have in real life, and another character still may scoff at the idea of players really dying if killed in the game. It’s reminders like these that always give the show a sense of weight, to pull viewers—and the players—out of any good feelings that might have been starting to build for the game, where what they might cherish is only a dream. For better or worse, the show is immersive, but not as immersive as it could be with the way the show is paced.

Often times the show will have time skips between episodes, which hurts the immersion like a level select cheat in video games; the more levels one skips, the more disjointed the game feels. From a storytelling standpoint, each time skip goes to something important or at least different from the hours a character might have spent going from level 40 to level 75. And yet, the time skips are still often misused. Some episodes would have been better showing more of the events leading up to it, another episode actually seems to forget the plot point it started with entirely, and Kirito and Asuna’s relationship can feel rushed.

With the immersion being hurt, the mistakes begin to show. So the show is far from perfect. The characters are simple and the pacing and mistakes make the show stumble. But though it trips, it keeps going forward. The world building covers for the characters, and the characters give life to this setting where the show might have skipped over. The setting and characters are fairly down to Earth, where the strength of this fantasy is an illusion of reality. Glued together by strong visuals and music, and the show is very much worth watching.

Of course, this is only talking about the first 14 episodes.

Episodes 15 to 25 is where Sword Art Online changes a lot for the worse. It brings in a new character who’s as personable and simple as any character from the show’s first half. Now, the show’s first half could get away with its simple characters because it had so many and most were only around for one or two episodes at most. They left before wearing out their welcome, but not in the case of this new character. Much of the show focuses on this new character’s feelings for Kirito, but with almost no other characters to cover for her simplicity, she can’t even give the image of being a compelling character.

But while this new character is just decent, Kirito goes from decent to offensive with a lack of sincerity on his character. At the start of the show’s second half, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him as a certain plot point becomes his driving motivation. And yet, for much of the show’s second half, he has almost no sense of urgency despite how devastated he initially is, until the plot demands it. There is actually a scene where he says he’ll get revenge on the villain, only for another character to remind him of his actual reason for fighting, to where Kirito says “oh, right” as if he were running an errand. I’m not joking.

It’s easy to get why the show becomes less action heavy in the first half, but Kirito’s lack of sincerity in the show’s second half is baffling. As for Asuna, she doesn’t degrade as a character, though the story’s treatment of her goes down. Now, I don’t have a problem with showing a strong character as vulnerable, changing someone’s role in the story, or what have you, but in the show’s second half the writers have done everything in their power to outright disrespect her image from the show’s first half. There are more tasteful ways to show weakness than softcore porn.

The other characters are even worse. Most of them are shoved to appear all at once in one or two episodes, with their roles in the story being nothing more than to serve as fight fodder or to give info dumps about the setting. There’s no time for them to give the world a personality, they have no personality to start with, and the world itself has almost no immersion with so many of its aspects being crammed. Of course, the show’s second half is a more personal tale about Kirito and the new character, but only the new character is worth something since Kirito is insincere.

But Sword Art Online isn’t a personal tale. Though the show’s first half does focus on Kirito and Asuna, it’s more about what they learn from the world and other characters around them than their own thoughts. The show’s first half has simple characters, but they don’t overstay their welcome. Though the show’s pacing hurts it, it makes up for it with world building that can make these personable but simple characters something more. The show’s second half has none of this, and to make it a personal tale when it worked much better as a grand story becomes its downfall.

With the world building gone, the mistakes really surface and soon the show has more questions than answers. Conflicts between player factions amount to nothing, fight scenes are bland when thinking about their new powers, and the over the top villain is more annoying than threatening. Except for Kirito, Asuna, and the new character, the show does away with its down to Earth characters and setting, further ruining the immersion as it hammers the viewers head with the message that this is a fantasy. This aesthetic change would have worked if the setting and characters were at least decently fleshed out, but they aren’t.

So why couldn’t the show stop at episode 14? The show’s first half is far from perfect, but the love and energy put into it really shows. But the show’s second half is a cash-in focused on the wrong thing and somehow made that thing worse. In a way, the launch day of Sword Art Online is much like watching this show; everyone is immersed by it, but by the time the evening hours come along, everyone regrets ever starting this game. The good news is the viewers can log out, and I suggest doing so after the show’s first half. But if I’m saying that, then I question if Sword Art Online is worth logging into.

SAO is about as generic as an anime can get. I was really excited to see a .HACK styled anime outside of the franchise; expecting some new inputs from an outside perspective. I am sadly disappointed by SAO, it started off like an even darker .HACK//SIGN and quickly turned into light-hearted romance where they insert as many anime clichés as humanly possible. Without further ado let's get into it.

STORY:
SAO does not have a well developed story, and it is not the kind of anime that can survive on near episodic content and filler. Continuity and consequence are pretty much ignored because of the way time ... jumps around "someone dies, oh well they might as well have never existed as of the next episode" and "I'm forced into a situation I don't want to be in, good thing time can jump forward and just give a vague reason why this is no longer the case." That aside SAO's biggest problem in my opinion would be that the story seems like it was written by several people and none of them talked to each other. The story starts off as a bit of a dark action story but you can tell by the way the plot is set-up (climb to the top of the tower) that it will become an action-adventure story and it does, very briefly, before it transcends into what every person watching an anime based in an action-MMO wants: A slice of life romance, because that's what we all wanted... right? Although there is a clear goal to the series, there does not appear to be much in the way of direction, at least that we actually get to see. Other than the occasional downing of a boss we mainly get to see the lives of Kirito and Asuna as they fall in love and eat sandwiches. The lack of an antagonist is annoying, even more-so because it's somewhat predictable as to what is going to happen. (NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS SPECULATION but it's probably true) the game creator is an obvious choice but since there'd be no way to defeat him outside of finishing the game and getting him in person, the creator is likely playing the game and just for the M Night Shamalan twist he is probably a character we've already met disguised as a good guy (I'm confident in all of that but the last bit but that is basically an example of how generic this is.) Which brings us to characters.

CHARACTERS:
They're bad, they're soo soo bad. I don't mind an OP character, in fact I prefer them, I don't want to watch 100 different anime all about some guy who is kind of emo and not very good at anything and then watch him grow and overcome his hardships to finally become a pokemon master, or whatever. I love watching badass main characters just be amazing and overcome incredibly difficult challenges in a creative way instead of struggling through it over 5 episodes. I don't mind that Kirito is strong, I'm not a big fan of the super secret trump card, especially when it's as lame as his is (to be honest pretty bad game design that his secret ability wasn't available to everyone.) Kirito starts off as a smart calculated loner (overdone but hey at leasts he's not emo) he quickly turns emo (damn!) and drops about 10-20 points in IQ, now at this point in watching he becomes a happy-go-lucky love bird with a sense of justice also an optimist. Next up is Asuna, a shy antisocial girl who has never played an MMO also pretty and smart. Jump to the future, she's one of the most powerful characters, talks to everyone, and is a high-ranked outgoing member of a guild also a tsundere. Jump again to the lovey-dovey girl completely overshadowed by her boyfriend and is entirely too emotional and cooks of course. I'd talk about some of the side characters but they're pretty much all dead. Other than Klein and the girls who will likely make an appearance as love rivals because there isn't enough generic romance in the series, there aren't many returning characters so far.

ART:

It's great, their is a great use of colours and even the UI looks sleek and nice. Backgrounds are drawn well and tend to reflect the mood very well. The animation for the action sequences is actually quite nice though the action is a bit sparse.

SOUND:

I would not at all be surprised if someone told me this anime existed to show off the music, it's implemented quite well and overall there's a high quality pick. The voice acting is fairly good for most characters.

ENJOYMENT AND OVERALL:

I wouldn't call it enjoyable, actually, I'd say you could basically just skip through the episode and watch about a total of 7-10 minutes and get the entire idea, there's a lot of unnecessary dialogue and if you don't care for the romance then there's a lot of nothing going on for the most part. Basically this anime is just teenagers playing house, eating sandwiches, having the occasional battle, and faffing about. The unfortunate part is that the action bits are done really well for the most part.

Watching Sword Art Online (SAO) is kind of like watching a baby bird learning how to fly. At first is stumbles a bit, but then gets the hang of it and takes off. However, once it's in the air, one of two things can happen: it's able to keep its strength and fly safely, or comes crashing down as its unable to hold its own. SAO, in my opinion, is like the latter of these two situations. After getting going a few episodes in, it got really good, then halfway through everything changed and it fell apart. From what I'm gathering, there appears to be ... a fairly large difference in opinion on the show itself, some love it and some hate it. Personally, I loved it but that's from a mostly enjoyment standpoint. When you look deeper into the show, the flaws are pretty obvious.

So, lets get on to the breakdown!

Story - 4/10
I was very torn on how to rate the story of this show. The overall concept behind it, a virtual reality MMORPG was amazing to me. It's something I've thought about for years. However, it feels like something was lost when they translated this idea into a show. At first, things are too fast-paced, events move faster than I was comfortable with. But a few episodes in it was wonderful. The original action-based plan of the anime turned into a smooth more romance based one with action. The concept of losing your life in reality if you die in the game added a nice touch of suspense and drama to the whole story, though this only applied to the first half. There was a ten episode stretch where this show probably would have ranked a solid 8 or 9. Once the first arc ended, however, it just collapsed.

The second half of the season, which I honestly thought was a spin-off show at first, was a game changer and greatly took away from the quality of the show. If you're content with the story at the end of the first half, feel free to stop there. The aforementioned romance aspect took over and the show fell into the dark cast-iron mold of romance anime. Unnecessary aspects, such as ideas of incest, were also tossed in. The previous idea of dying in the game means death in life disappeared, removing a major piece of drama that could have been better utilized. The focus on romance took over the show and seems to have taken away from other story aspects - everything revolved around a single girl far more than what seemed appropriate for the show.

Overall, the story pans out to be about 4/10 ("decent") to me.

Art - 10/10
In contrast to the violently fluctuating story quality, the visual aspect of SAO was incredible. As to be expected from an anime produced in 2012, the artwork is crisp, clean, and smooth. The character designs are highly appealing and the landscapes portrayed within the story are beautiful. Based in virtual reality, any scene was possible and the ones shown were highly detailed.

Sounds - 8/10
Audio was appropriate in most situations but nothing made it stand out from any other show. I did greatly enjoy both openings, Crossing Fields and Innocence, though.

Character - 3/10
To me, this was the most problematic part of SAO. Due to the pacing issues, some characters initially introduced magically vanished for many episodes while others disappeared shortly after being introduced. With the concept of losing your in place for the first arc, you would expect many emotional moments to be possible, and they were presented. However, failure to develop character backgrounds and personalities allowed emotional moments to fall through. I'm generally a very emotional person so I can be swayed by these scenes pretty easily, yet they only managed to make me tear where I imagined I would be fully crying.

The massive amount of characters thrown in with off-paced story-telling just leads to disaster. Even the two main characters suffered from stunted character development and left me quite disappointed. Additionally, the final villain just feels utterly out of place and awkward to me. All this said, there still manages to be "enough" character development to allow the show to work but still only gets a 3/10 ("poor")

Enjoyment - 8/10
Despite the major issues in the story and sub-par character development, SAO manages to be a very entertaining show. At first, I somehow completely overlooked these flaws and fully enjoyed SAO at a basic level. It wasn't until I looked back on it that I realized how flawed it was. This is likely where the split in opinions stems from (once again, my opinion). If you're looking for something to just pass time and enjoy a show without any deep meanings, SAO fits the bill. However, if you're looking for a solid storyline with characters you can fall for, you probably want to look somewhere else.

Overall - 6.6/10 (6)
SAO was generally worth the watch and I did enjoy it. The artwork and sound are really holding this rating up (though I deducted a bit to give a 6). It's a show that had massive potential to be something amazing and fell flat on its face.

I took a bit of thought and self-coaxing to actually criticize this show since I enjoyed it quite a bit. Hopefully the time I spent mulling this over and analyzing was worth and you all find this review useful. Thanks for reading!

Ya there!
This is my first time reviewing and the scoring is personal. So it's not surprising if your score with mine is different. By the way my english is not that good either so I hope you understand that. Well, whatever..
So here it goes!

SAO(aka Sword Art Online) one of the most loved and hated at the same times in 2012 era. With that being said, SAO is actually not that bad or at least not as bad as the haters said, BUT SAO is without a doubt is not as great as people said either.
Why?

Let's talk about it here.

-STORY- (6)
We have our main character(Kirigaya ... Kazuto aka Kirito) one of the few beta tester(which is not really important soon) play and then trapped in a game called SAO. And then the game creator said that the player must clear the 100th floor and defeat the final boss on the game to survive, with dying on the game lead you to death in the real world.

The concept of the story is great and the potential for this anime to be a great and unique anime is huge, but the execution of it for the rest of the episodes is bad. The most disappointed part of the story(for me) is that the author is not making use of the concept effectively, instead the author end up make a cheap romance relationship with a few shown development.

But I believe it's totally decent for most viewers. It's not great doesn't mean it's bad.
So give it a try folks.

-ART-(7.6)
I don't find the art unique, it's great and the animation is fluid but that's all. Most anime nowadays is better or as good as SAO.
Though with that being said the art fit the anime greatly.

-SOUND-(7)
As for the Sound, I just personally don't like the OP and ED so I give it 7.
It's OST is great though, as you can expect from Yuki Kajiura.
I don't know many voice actor but they're doing good.
It's probably 8 for most people.

-CHARACTERS-(4)
This is the worst part of SAO for me. I'm quite sensitive when it's about character development, so it won't be surprising if I 'kind-of-insult' it a bit.

I don't understand for people who's saying that SAO's character is deep. The story is rushing too much at some point, so there's no space for character development. All we know is that:
Kirito go help many people.
Kirito Lvl up without any process.
Kirito got the ideal girl(and harem) easily.
Most female characters fall for Kirito without any realistic reason.

I'll begin with our MC first.
Kirito's development is the most poor one. He's like totally created to be the ideal form of guy without any process, and that's the worst way to use main character effectively.
Asuna's development is poor too. At first she's a cool solo beautiful female character, but end up becoming a 'easy to get' girl and totally weak character, and again it's happening because lack of character development. what a let down.
I personally find Suguha(2nd arc)'s development is the most decent one. but again with a few development close to none Suguha's arc(ALO) is looks so stupid to me.

As for the other characters. Most of them show in each episode related to them and then thrown as if their purpose is to show how badass Kirito is.
So I end up don't remember the other characters anymore.

That should've been a strong prove enough to show that SAO's character development is poor here.

-ENJOYMENT-(5)
I personally don't enjoy SAO.
But I think SAO's quite enjoyable actually, only if you don't think the depth of it that is.

-OVERALL-(6.4)
SAO's not that bad, actually it's good. It's just disappointing that a great potential anime is poorly written.
So, there're few problems why SAO is disappointing for me:
It's concept is great but not used effectively.
The character development(again) is so poor.
The Author is throwing too many female character that was end up fall for Kirito which leads to harem-ish condition.

If you seek a easy to understand and not so in depth story with a great animation. SAO's a good choice without a doubt.
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So,I believe it's not hurt for you people to give it a try.
it's worth watching.

tl;dr The entire problem with SAO is the adaptation. They are rushing through this far too quickly, which results in this being a pretty bad series. I hope they find their stride and recover after a time.
EDIT: For some reason the review is still showing me at 1 of ?. I'm currently caught up.


STORY (6): Solid story, but the details aren't being developed very well. There's very little world building, and I'm left to assumed that the things they pull out of nowhere are actual components of this world. It doesn't draw me in on any level more than a basic fight-for-survival story, and even ... that it does poorly thanks to Character.

CHARACTER (5): The director and writer seriously have no idea what they are doing. Killing off a character and then spending the rest of the episode trying to make me feel bad about it isn't the effective way to go about things. The character development is very poorly timed and lacking when it does show up.

ART (8): Good, but nothing spectacular. No Fate/zero.

SOUND (8): Good, but nothing spectacular.

ENJOYMENT: (6) It looks cool, sounds cool, but fails at the ultimate task of drawing me in and experiencing the world with the characters. I really don't feel the drama and emotion they are trying to make me feel, which is entirely due to the poor pacing.

P.S (Pre-Scriptum): In general I don't write anime reviews. Actually, I don't write any at all, but something about the reception that this release has received so suddenly brings it to my attention, and not in a good way.

Story (8): The story and premise in general are very good and in fact unique, it leaves a lot of room for expansion and opportunity and also draws in the audience. The protagonist is a teenage boy who beta tests and becomes immersed in a new MMORPG release titled "Sword Art Online" (SAO). The scene is in the future where video game technology has progressed with new ... hardware called "nervegear" a physical attachment that allows players to become fully physically immersed into the video game, allowing for more realistic combat, interactions, etc. All well and good. So far at least. The first 10,000 players that receive the release are trapped inside by the ominous game-maker who states that leaving and/or dying within the game results in a real life death for the player, and that the only way to escape is to complete the game by clearing all 100 floors of Aincrad, the main MMO city, and beating the final boss. You would think that in the future where such video game production quality is available that a designer could come up with a better game progression system than a layered dungeon. Come on.

Art (7): Not much much to say in this respect. Lots of vibrant colors and a good landscape design for the world of Aincrad. The art is pretty standard and similar to that of other releases currently.

Sound (6): Here's where I can be a bit picky. The BGM is okay, nothing that stands out, and the OP/EDs are the typical boring upbeat Jpop bullshit. Been there done that. I just wish that every anime could have great OP/EDs like Tatami Galaxy, Gurren Lagann, Zetsubou Sensei, to name a few.

Character (3): This is where the entire anime falls in quality. The main character is un-relatable, lacks emotion, and is just good at everything and lacks any physical or mental flaws. The writing also makes his decision making hard to understand and leaves the audience bored. He meets another player, who is magically the most beautiful and skilled and has about as much to say or do as Bella from Twilight. Nothing. Then you have the actions of the rest of the players. You would think that with your life on the line you would at least try to stay alive, but no. The leader of their first expedition to the first floor decides to throw his life away for no discernible reason, when he was offered the choice to survive at no cost, he instead chooses to give up his entire life, worth, and meaning. Great job writers, great job. Then the main character after being named a hero and all that shit, turns into a huge dick and sneers at the rest of the players, declaring his dominance and their inferiority. He goes on to talk about how he is a cheater and a hacker (with no evidence to back it up). And goes out strutting his pompous ass, without a single explanation or care from the writers.

Enjoyment (7): As with all shounen/action genre releases, the anime is well paced and won't leave you hanging at drawn-out slow bits, but the enjoyment of the action is broken with consistent contradictions and more plot holes than you could count.

Overall (5): With such a quick growth of fans and 10/10 ratings/reviews, you would expect more from this release, but that is something an intelligent viewer just can't do. Many would just take a look at the surface art/story premise and call it good, but few would take the moments to delve into the behaviors of the characters and the shape of the story, to see where all of the great issues lie. And these issues spoil any enjoyment that you can find in this candy-coated money sink production called "Sword Art Online". Even with only viewing the first 3 episodes, I have little hope for the future of this anime, as I can see little opportunity or skill that the writing staff could use to save this imminent train wreck.

Please don't take my review too harshly or critical (although it very well may be that!), keep in mind that I have only seen the first 3 episodes and am coming into this viewing with an open mind and neutral observations. I am not doing this to spite anyone, I just find it funny that people are so quick to praise this, and I would like to offer contradictory evidence.
Thank you for your time.

An anime is huge potential, an excellent premise ruined by poor execution. They diluted the plot with shallow and redundant romance. Every single character in the show is one dimensional, the main character is a Mary Sue and has more plot armor than the millennium falcon.

Despite people claiming this is one of the best anime ever made, i really have to wonder if this was the first anime they ever watch. 5 for average.

Life isn’t so bad. It’s not so bad~ SAO

We all like to play games: fighting, racing, action games, etc. But the anime I'm going to review today is SAO(virtual reality game, MMORPG). This anime takes place in the year 2024 where technology has influenced a lot. This is the story of people who started playing SAO, when suddenly they get trapped inside the game. if a person's HP falls to 0, he/she dies in the game as well as in the real world. The people won't get out of the game until they have completed all the 100 floors, defeating all the boss levels. ... Somewhere between the episodes 19-23 the story is exaggerated where the time is wasted.
Otherwise, this anime has a good story, so i'll mark it as: (6/10)
____________
ART: (9/10)
WHAT I LIKE IN SAO? Maybe, when ever playing a game I look at the sceneries,graphics(art). The art of SAO is simply attractive, beautiful and gorgeous...They have focused on the most delicate thing like making the grass of natural color, the butterflies, insects and other beats and animals. SAO takes high points in art.
___________

SOUND: (9/10)
In every anime what i like are the opening and ending songs. In SAO, both opening songs have extremely good music as well as lyrics and unlike opening songs, ending songs are slow but they are also good. Whenever starting a new episode the opening song made me excited.
SAO also took high points in sound/music.
__________
CHARACTER:(5/10)
The viewer in anime watches the characters and how are they made. In my opinion, the characters were made good. when Kirigaya(Kirito) fought to someone, his expressions showed and told that what was he feeling, the pain he was feeling at that time. Kirigaya attracted girls. He was a die hard fighter. In the beginning Asuna was shown as a leader of the guild but later she depended on Kirigaya. this is the reason why i gave low points in the character. Whereas Sugu being Krito's sister fell in love with him in ALFheim online not knowing that kirito was his brother(Kirigaya). This was rather entertaining.
____________
Enjoyment: (5/10)
I enjoyed the first half of SAO and the last two episodes ..The between episodes were time wasting. well, there are some scenes viewer enjoys the anime , like when fightinng the boss or a great monster, that felt really great.
________________
OVERALL: (6/10)
Although , it is not worth watching again, but i would recommend myself to watch it again as it has a good story and great sound art.

WILL BE WAITING FOR YOUR FEEDBACK.

Whenever I state my opinion about a show that is immensely popular, I often don’t use the term “overrated”. The reason for this is because when people use the word, they often mean “you like a show I hate”. The times when I use that term, I try to make sure that it’s understood as “the show is getting more credit than it deserves”. Not only when it comes to bad shows, but also those that are good and worth your time. If anything is treated as a masterpiece when it’s not close to it, overrated is the word of the day.

In my review ... of the most talked and viewed anime of 2012, that word is the short version of my feelings for this show.

Sword Art Online (a.k.a SAO) is an anime adaptation of a Light Novel with the same name that was released in 2009. The author of the novel is Kawahara Reki, who is also known for writing Accel World, another popular novel that received an anime adaptation earlier than SAO. Judging from works, Kawahara always use games as the center subject of his stories.

The anime itself is directed by Itou Tomohiko and the studio behind the show is A-1 Pictures, known for other well-known adaptations such as Kuroshitsuji, Fairy Tail and Ao no Exorcist. While I’m not familiar with most of their works, it quite safe to assume the show is in decent hands.

Let me get one thing straight. I’ve played a few MMO’s in my younger days and currently play sometimes when I’m bored (And the last MMO I played was in 2011). In all of them, I was like Kirito, a Solo Player. I rarely teamed up with a guild, joined a party or talked to anyone (Mostly because players prefer the internet language, which I don’t understand very well). The only difference between me and him is that I was never among the best. The highest level I achieved in an MMO is level 40, while Kirito have top marks like it’s genetic. MMO games are a lackluster to me now due to the amount of hours spent on just leveling up and boring questing.

However, I was drawn back to that world when I watched my first episode in a small anime convention that showed the first four episodes. I was enjoying it and it was something I’ve never experienced (I have not seen .hack). I decided to take a dive into this new world and returned to the surface with something to share the world with.


PLOT:

My reason for watching it in the first place was because of the concept. When I found out that the story was “A virtual reality game turned into a real life death game”, it caught my interest. Not only that, but the world was solely created to satisfy a sadistic scientist who wanted to play god for real (That was my impression of the introduction). The first episode game me a good impression and a determination to see more of the show. From that point forward, I was really enjoying myself.

But that did not last. It has been discussed by hardcore and casual fans alike where the story started to fall. The most common one is episode 3 to episode 7, because those stories were side stories in the original light novel series. If it’s true or not matters little, since the main storyline isn’t any better. If the side stories were hated for being about random sh*t, then the main one does not deserve more praise. To me, both the filler and the main story are equally as bad that I almost thought they were the same thing. And when things get a bit more exciting after a mini story with little purpose was done, the story decided to end there. How things turned out was a bit unexpected, but it felt forced at the same time. It was like the writer was in a hurry. If the original story was longer, I might’ve not criticize it as much as I did now.

What made it somewhat worse was that the second half of the story focuses on an entirely different plot and concept. The appeal of the original concept was lost when the story decided to be about something else and forget why many viewers started watching it in the first place. This would’ve worked better if it was a sequel to the story (like a second season) instead of being a part of the same season. That’s the ALO arc for you.

But the reason why the story fails to become what many wanted to see was because of how messy and poor the execution is. The amount of time skips, side stories and how short the main story was proved that the writing of the story is in fact quite bad. I learned from classes about movies that a story has a specific structure to work. While I will not go into detail due to the fact it takes forever, I’ll just say that SAO follows that structure poorly. It’s like it’s missing a pillar somewhere around the end.

Personally, I loathed the cheap drama and the Deus ex Machina. The drama was so laughably predictable in a narrative sense I felt unmoved, even when the story gave me its saddest scene. The Deus ex Machina was used so often that it made me think that the creator ran on limited imagination when this was made.

And of course, my number one question was unanswered through the entire series. I assume you all know, but if you don’t, I’ll just say “f*cking Kayaba”.


CHARACTERS:

Believe it or not, the true reason why Sword Art Online falls flat for me is the characters we have followed through the whole story. Within the community, there are a fair amount of love and hate for them. Or to be correct, there are a fair amount of love and hate for Kirito or Asuna, because nobody cares about the rest. What there is to know is that SAO have quite a share amount of characters, and since the game is focused on an MMO game and not an RPG, it’s only natural that there are so many people to know about. Sadly, this anime does not succeed to get a high score in the character section.

Let’s start with our lead characters:

Kirito (a.k.a Kirigaya Kazuto), the main protagonist is described as an average kid with socialization problems, except that is not true. While it is shown, it’s only portrayed when secondary character Klein is shown. To everyone else, he has no problem at all. That is beside the point, however. In the anime community, he is either a lovable badass or a hated Gary Stu. But what’s problematic about him is not only because he’s a perfect hero, but his character in general. Besides the fact he is designed like every other generic harem male lead, Kirito’s reason for hitting the trash can is because he has no true identity.

His entire personality is based depending on what scene is being played. If the scene requires him to be stupid, he is stupid. If it requires him to be smart, he is smart. If he needs to be a badass, he is badass. The idea is that there is nothing about Kirito that identifies him, at least not as an individual. This could also be because of how he is portrayed as some boys want to be and becomes a wish-fulfillment type of character. All the character traits that are given to him are what defies a guy as perfect and at the same time, deny him any other traits. This doesn’t give him a strong character identity, but it rather makes him a prime example of a Gary Stu character. In other words, his character is so scattered and unbalanced that I can’t even call him a character of a story, but rather a visual novel protagonist with a voice and eyes.


Asuna, the main heroine shares the same problem, but on a different scale. While Kirito has little character to speak of, Asuna has too much of it to have an identity. When we first saw her, she was a quiet and mysterious person in the corner who rarely speaks till her face was shown. Next time she appeared, she was a tough leader with a cold personality. Next time, she became a Tsundere. After that, she was a scary lady. And after the event that… screw it, you know what I’m talking about. The distinctiveness of Asuna does not exist.

Every personality she uses is just different fetishes for the general otaku community to obsess over. And it works, because there are a f***ton of fans that adore her. Because of her multiple of personalities, I don’t even know what part of her makes her so appealing to others. Not only in the real world, but in-universe, everyone seems to be after her butt. In SAO, she is more of a prize than an ally to her guild, and Kirito fights them to claim said price. Her character becomes less chaotic later in the series, but then she is just and only the main love interest that relies on Kirito all the time and it pisses me off.

Now, if the fans of her comes to my door and points out that she can kick ass, I simply reply “Bullsh*t”. While she can pack quite a punch and is one of the most powerful players in the game, she never had a moment to shine. When an important fight is on screen, she is either a decoy, a distraction, a helpless damsel or a meat shield. Not only that, but Kirito takes all the credit in every fight, making her more of a motivation pet rather than a fellow comrade in arms. It’s quite clear she is only a fighter because it attracts more attention and making her more appealing to female viewers (which doesn’t always work). The fact that a female character can fight doesn’t automatically make her a good character.


Oh, I hear “what about Suguha?” in the background, but I’ll keep it short. I’ll be honest and say I was interested in her when she appeared. I did not expect a good character since the ones before didn’t do their job, but her relationship with Kirito in the real world made me hope for something I’ve not seen in anime for so long: a brother and sister relationship with no incest. But of course, I got slapped in the face by the show and it laughed it’s a** off when my hopes were broken. It was nice to focus on someone else than just the “Twilight v2” couple, but she didn’t create a strong impression and felt like just another collection of Kirito’s harem. The only point I give her is that she tried to stay away from him because they were siblings, but adding incest at all still did not change my everlasting hate for its enormous presence in modern anime. Yes, I know they are in reality cousins, but we all know it’s just an excuse to get away with it.


But aren’t there more characters? There are, but they are so irrelevant to the story that might as well be replaced by rocks and it wouldn’t make much difference. The Sword Art Online icon that is used on this site would give you the idea that the story focused around these people, but the truth is that only Kirito and Asuna matter at all. Every other character appears briefly and sometimes only show up in one episode before disappearing. Next time they appear, a minute cameo is all they can achieve. There are also those whose only purpose is to die, and it becomes so obvious in time that it’s not even funny. It’s a shame, because I wanted to see more of the side characters and learn a bit more of them. However, it felt like the series resented me for it and told me to focus only on the main characters (which I genuinely disliked). It was very frustrating, since I’ve always have hated that type of character treatment.


ANIMATION:

Unlike how I criticized the two catagories above, I can honestly say that the animation is quite good. While not so amazing that you get eyegasm by just looking at it, it’s above average and can be called stunning, if you willing to give it that much credit. When action is used, the movement is quite fluid and action packed, making these moments never boring and suspenseful. The usage of CGI is also quite well done and is used in a way that it blends in with the environment. This is mostly helped because the setting is a game, but it feels like a part of the game when it’s used. Even CGI haters can’t really criticize its existence. The background and setting material aren’t as impressive, however, but it’s quite safe to say it’s good enough. While it cannot hope to be compared with Ufotable quality, it at least above something completely unimpressive like Naruto.

One thing that the animation can be criticized for is its habit of using shots that has no movement. It’s mostly used during large crowd sequences, which is somewhat understandable. It’s not the first anime to use them and it’s not a prime example of an anime that uses it all the time, but it’s something to think about.

Oh wait. There is also a bit a fanservice as well, and anybody that knows me knows that I loathe anime that takes that route. However, it does not appear so much or get in the way when something serious is happening, unlike something that uses it so much that it’s annoying like High School of the f*cking Dead.


SOUNDTRACK:

One thing I cannot badmouth about is the music of the show. In the anime community, just knowing that Kajiura Yuki is doing the music automatically means win. I can’t blame them, because her work in one of my favorite shows of all time still impresses me to this day. Unfortunately, even she can't save the show. While the soundtrack was very good, it was not her best work. Many are forgotten and I only remember a few, and it’s mostly because they were repetitive. Still, the songs did fit the scenes when it was used and were quite pleasant to listen to. This is not Kara no Kyoukai or Fate/Zero material, but it’s good enough to stand on its own.

The opening and endings did not however do as great. All four were quite generic and obvious for a title like Sword Art Online, but they aren’t obnoxious in any way. They in fact are quite fine. Personally, I found Opening 1: Crossing fields quite catchy, despite how average it is. So I can’t say anything really negative about the songs that were picked for this anime.


FINAL VERDICT:

The only way I can describe SAO in no more than five words is that it’s bad, but looks pretty. Not all of it was dreadful and some episodes were quite good, but when looking at the larger picture, I can’t accept its popularity or love that has been given to it. It might look good, but the things that keep a show together (Story and Characters) can only be described as awful.

Story: 5
Characters: 3
Animation: 7
Soundtrack: 8
Enjoyment: 5
Overall: 5

However, I will not discourage and tell you to not watch this anime, despite my low rating of it. It still quite possible to enjoy this series if are looking to watch something simple and average. Just don’t expect the next big thing or anything amazing. This is not for those who want something thought provoking or something original. And if we are going to question its popularity, let’s just say it was luckier than better titles of 2012.

Now that I think about it, Sword Art Online works perfectly as a visual novel. It already has a generic protagonist and a harem of all type of girls involved. In fact, I’ve heard that the game “Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment” is just a dating sim game with gameplay. Are you guys sure this story was meant for a Light Novel?

Sword Art Online[SAO] is a tricky anime to review. While I usually keep my reviews personal, I think SAO is something that should be approached only after you've researched it, because if you haven't, you may end up disappointed. Badly.

I'll start off by saying that I am an avid fan of the .hack/// series. I grew up with it, and even though it's not the first or best "Virtual Reality Game" anime, it always brought something new to the table in all of it's branches and reboots. My initial reaction to SAO was mixed, I knew it was trying to ride off of .hack///'s success, ... but I was really intrigued by it's greatest feature- the fact that ALL players who die in the game die in real life.

Kirito is your average MMORPG nerd- terrible in real life and completely absorbed in his video games. Fortunately for him, SAO offers the chance to transition to an almost real world where he's unbeatable. A beta tester for SAO, he rises to the top and when the game opens to the public, he's ready to do it again. Except this time, there is a new challenge. Players are unable to log out of SAO until someone beats the game's 100th floor(the equivalent of a level) because of an insane Game Master. Also, they die in the game, they die for real. Trying to avoid as many spoilers as possible, Kirito continues his typical behavior and becomes one of the most important, although not well known, players. With the help of Asuna, an ally from when he first started the game, he may very well be able to save everyone.

This is where things sound great. There are so many truly wonderful and new ways to handle the story from here. Perhaps a Game Master who desires the chance to play God? How glitches or government interference make the situation worse? A mystery on who you can actually trust in a game where you'll be backstabbed by anyone?
By far, the biggest and most salivating premise would be a study on human psychology. How would players react in this situation? The anime is really eager to answer that question. Actually I spoke too soon. It isn't. Throughout the anime (and light novels) we see some really genius moments. Some players form coalitions to save the rest. Others just hide in the beginning town, where they'll be safe. Beta testers use their advanced knowledge to grab the best training spots and compete. Some PK'ers question the truth of the game, believing that killing other players will actually liberate them from the system without frying their brain. Characters even begin to wonder whether the real world happened and if they'd really want to return.
But this genius is hidden among the most terrible, convoluted and twisted plot pacing/story I've seen in almost all of modern media. You'll see these great ideas hidden behind pretentious filler and useless romance scenes. I've heard the comparison of SAO to a young otaku's wish fulfillment fanfiction. And that's pretty much accurate. There is so much harem in this anime that a wonderful setup is completely lost.
SAO's pacing and arrangement is just so awkward I had to make a section for it. In the original light novels, thing skip around to level 78 after the beginning. That really isn't too bad once it happens. There are some cute side stories later. But the producers of the anime decide to show those first. And there are a lot of those episodes. In fact, episodes 2-7 could be considered entirely unnecessary. Again, more harem. Nothing else. Then, once important and slightly enjoyable content rears it's head, we get more harem. And what, due to the childish look of the protagonists, could very well be an underage creepy marriage. Oh, and an .Hack/// Aura clone that is somehow even harder to care about because she's just so dang annoying.
Unfortunately, the second arc doesn't solve much. Without spoiling too much, it's a very very very disappointing move, and while some may not mind, it's a terrible trope that ruins an already faltering storyline.
Despite this, the first episode is possibly one of the most well composed and addicting openers in an anime. It explains just what it needs to, it doesn't give too much but it sets everything you need to know and really captures MMORPGS and the human psyche perfectly. Watch that even if you don't watch the rest because really, it's nearly perfect.

Characters. Ughhhh. Kirito is a badass Gary Stu. What tries to be character development is rushed and not character development but just extra sympathy for a character we already love. So Kirito is awesome and terrible as a character. Asuna is simply adding to the breast count, she's a straight up Mary Tsundere and also lacks emotional development. Every other character is pretty much pointless and in only 1 or 2 episodes, with no time for emotional attachment.

The art is a moot point. The backgrounds are truly great at times and really show the expanse and varying floors of SAO. But the art is just standard if slightly better than average. I will admit though, the menu screens for players that hover around them are really neatly done and very consistent. Don't ask why I love them so much, but they get the art score an entire extra point. Character designs are great, although when you're doing designs for characters for an MMORPG, that's not hard. I have small issues with how the producers tried to make the game seem like an MMORPG, because when they do it right, they succeed really well with AI messages and drop down menus. But they just don't do it often enough. Sound is good, not much to complain about. The MMORPG sounds are all really well done and quite modern.

And well, there is the real issue with SAO. Both the light novels and anime ruin a fantastic premise, but the anime does it even worse(the later novels of the light volume, uncovered by the anime, are surprisingly experimental and are more like science fiction than your typical adventure light novel; I highly recommend reading the series just for them). In a conceptual phase, this anime is godlike. When actually produced, it's a sad specimen. But really, don't let that failure get in the way of your enjoyment. Because while SAO doesn't do everything right, it's still a nice anime. It's not as effective or compelling as it should be, but if you liked .hack/// you'll probably get something enjoyable out of it. Maybe one day, a reboot will come and fix everything. Until then, Sword Are Online is a piece of milk chocolate with just 3 decadent hazelnut flakes mixed in. When you hit one, the taste resonates. When you don't, it's just chocolate. But chocolate isn't bad, it's just... chocolate.