Anime: Sword Art Online

Based on the popular light novel series, was one of the most highly anticipated releases in recent memory.

The series' protagonist, Kirito, is a rather two-dimensional gary-stu whose sole motivation seems to be protecting his harem. Similarly, Asuna, who started out as a strong and independent character, eventually became little more than a love interest for Kirito. Her own motivations and goals took a backseat to his.

Even secondary characters like Klein, were relegated to minor roles and used mainly for comic relief.

The addition of Kirito's sister, who seemed to have an inexplicable desire for him, was an unnecessary and awkward subplot that added little to the story.

Sword Art Online may have been groundbreaking, but its impact on the anime industry has been largely negative. The anime's popularity inspired a proliferation of isekai and harem LitRPG shows that lack originality and creativity.

Sword Art Online featured a predictable love triangle involving Kirito, his main girlfriend Asuna, and other female characters who all seemed to be vying for his attention.

While Sword Art Online may have had an excuse for incorporating LitRPG elements and video game logic - being set in an actual video game - unlike most current isekai fantasy anime, it still added little value to the story and instead felt like a cheap gimmick. The use of video game mechanics such as character stats and skill upgrades was overall vague.

Sword Art Online had its memoriable and shocking moments..While it may be worth a watch for fans of the genre, it is certainly not the groundbreaking anime it was hyped up to be.

Yes! Yeeees! Oh, let me taste your tears, Asuna!
Mm, your tears are so yummy and sweet!
Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness! Yummy~

In a world where series' like Harry Potter, or other real abhorrent fanfiction tittles the likes of Twilight sells well enough for multiple sequels, it shouldn't be a surprise then, Sword Art Online's popularity skyrocketing that is. Pretty posters, familiarity, perhaps male power fantasies and the like, etc. There are numerous factors that play a part in a works' popularity; but it's hard to pin-point just what exactly got SAO such hype. Especially since it becomes apparent that it was already losing it's focus just after the third episode. In a similar vein to SAO's sister in terms of popularity still that very same year, Guilty Crown also had an (ostensibly) enormous fanbase even before it aired. It's a mystery really.

SAO is a clear indication that it's target audience are easy to profit from. Which is exactly why it makes it just the kind of anime that makes you wonder about where the anime industry could be heading. It is not a positive influence. And unfortunately for the supporters, SAO does provide with more than enough empirical evidence to tell them that it is garbage but, that would be unfair as there actually is entertainment value to be had here.

In the visual department SAO definitely excels, maybe not enough to make a graphic artist have wet dreams over, though. From the character designs to the very world which they reside in, it is all aesthetically pleasing. And while consistent and fluid in it's animation, it's a little rough around the edges during the fight scenes. There's an abuse of stills to express 'action', and distorted facial expressions used in an otherwise uneventful location (was that actually intended to be used for comedic effect? Welp). Of course, this alone wouldn't damper the experience. If everything else were intact, this would remain relatively unnoticed.

An interesting concept? A Charismatic main character? world building? SAO had just about everything working in it's favor to make it anime of that year. But even with the few legitimate merits it has it does away with them in favor of, well, to make our hero The Black Swor- wait, no one actually confuses to whom that tittle belongs to, right..? - Kirito, more of a flawless gary stu.

All complete with enough deus ex-machinas to make you puke.

Thousands of players dying? All off-screen and no one gives a crap about statistics. Boss fights? Essentially, a grand total of three and they don't re-spawn.You never really get a sense of dread in the world of SAO. Even the very first death was due to a player refusing to take a life potion. And that's all in the first half of the series. The second half? Not even going to touch it. Unless, of course, we're talking about Suguha's sugus here.

And as you can imagine, with it taking itself so seriously already, when it come to the uh... romance the end result is laughable. Later on, at one point Asuna said something around the lines of, "Kirito has changed me, everything I am as it is now is because of him". I started to cringe at that point, none of what she said happened. The characterization suffers almost as much as the writing; or vice versa. Every villain is cartoonishly evil and every supporting character doesn't fair any better either. All of the 'character development' happens during the constant time skips, successfully nullifying it and making for a heavily disjointed pacing. And It doesn't help that the script is akin to that of an eroge. Meaning: A) relationships take on a surrealistic fast pace. B) can't hear a confession a foot away from you. C) Being nice is enough to attract females from all corners of the land, etc.

SAO could very well be suggesting you to be a Infidelity-committing, sister-fornicating, misogynistic pedophile who loves rape as fanservice. Topped only by those slimy tentacles everyone likes. -- It doesn't encourage anything positive, it's too delusional to do so. All the gamer pandering, multiple relationships, etc. It only serves to further take away any sense of realism it might have had, including it's potential to construct a society within a virtual world; firmly planting it into wish-fulfillment territory.

Splendorous action - this is the only reason I can think of as to why I would recommend this show. And yet, despite all that, knowing that it falls off the rails, crashes and burns; it get's back on the tracks again, and again only to end up crashing.

It's fun, if only to mock it. - 1/24/14

Please don't hate - this is my first review and I hope to improve and post more in the future.

I actually really enjoyed this anime when I first watched it. It was what got me into anime, and it was pleasing. However, now that I've watched different (and much better) shows and rewatched this one, I have quite a bit to say on this one.

STORY - 4/10

Sword Art Online at first took place on a floating castle known as Aincrad. It was a death game; if you were killed in the game, you died in real life. The first bit was particularily pleasing, as it had decent action scenes and good animation. However, a shallow love story seemingly randomly developed between Kirito and Asuna, and when they moved into their little log cabin and found Yui, I thought, "Will they ever fight again?" The story became even more cliched after that.

It only gets worse from there. The anime waved good-bye to Aincrad HALFWAY THROUGH SEASON ONE, opening the door to a moronic fairy incest arc. It takes place inside another video game known as Alfheim Online. I honestly found it stupid, even during the first go-through of the series.

ANIMATION - 9/10

The animation wasn't bad. Actually, I found it to be one of the big positives of the series. Beautifully done.

CHARACTERS - 1.2/10

The characters just made this anime worse than it could have been. Kirito is an idiot with absolutely no character flaws. I mean, he's ridiculously overpowered and all of the girls like him! Those characteristics just made him pathetic. I liked Asuna at the start of the series, but her personality changed dramatically and she just became a lovesick slob in my honest opinion.

OVERALL - 5/10

I chose to give Sword Art Online a 5. Sure, the characters and story were kind of - no, really terribly done, but the upsides were the animation and the soundtrack. The positives balanced with the negatives, but quite honestly, I look more for decent characters and plot than animation.

Spoilers!!
Thoughts on - Sword Art Online

First of all, i have heard some people almost cryed because it had some sad moments. How can you cry over SAO? There is nothing in it that is sad, because it does not know what to focus on. the idea is alright, it starts okay, but the main character is so impersonal, there is nothing that characterizes him other than he likes videogames, he's made so generic that he is almost passive throughout the whole series, except when the plot tells him to save another girl in the game, that is basically whats going on in it.
and now that they are caught in a game shouldent there be a sense of danger? Everyone in the game goes around and has just resigned to the fact that they are trapped and can afford it, just because the game allows them to go around and live they´re daily lives and wait for Kirito to clear the entire game for them. If it would be a game that made sense, all the players would have to go through the same as Kirito. That is the big mistake of SAO no logic at all.

The entire pacing of the story is ridiculous, Kirito and Asuna have no chemistry at all and after 10 episodes they decide to marry each other? here is a great reason to doubt the series, it will come up whit an idea and becomes nothing more than clutter. This is something that continues throughout the series, they find a helpless girl, decides to play father mother and daughter. In my opinion it is laughable the way they jump from one thing to another, and when it should be about the game and about getting to a Higher level. Should we not show them grow instead of ignoring it completely and be busy with a lot of side missions which have no bearing on the so-called game.

And then they decide to end the game fast, just so Asuna can come in a coma and be caught by a perverted businessman, who wants to marry her in another game where Kirito has to save her in. To me this is nothing but a harem where everything is random, with dull character design, good animation, but lets be honest, you see them cook more than anything else in the series and makes it seem like it´s something special.
The only thing it has running for itself is its animation, okay backgrounds and concept, (if they used it to its full potential.) Hope you will bring it to you and see it from a different perspective, because when you analyze the series it is rather poor, even when you do not analyze it, there are so many dumb things that makes no sense. Thank you for reading and hope you can be more critical now, if you thought this was a good series, since many hype it it up to be a masterpiece. By the way, if you want a live action version of the series, there is one! It´s called: Spykids 3D: Game Over. Enjoy!!

By a fan of some anime, from Denmark. Rubencriticsalot

So this is my first review! Probably could have started off with something better, but whatever.



I don't want to insult anyone, so if you like SAO you should probably steer clear of this review. Don't say I didn't warn you. There's also not much that I can say that hasn't already been said about this anime, so this will be more of a quick overview of my thoughts about it. (If I tried to explain every little thing this anime does wrong it would take up a 50 page report)
I will only be review the first 12 episodes of this anime. I've heard that the back half is even worse than the first so I'd really rather not subject myself to that.
This is easily one of the worst anime I've ever seen. And what makes it worse is how ABSOLUTELY MASSIVELY over hyped this series is. And this isn't the kind over hype that goes away after a few weeks, no, this is the type of hype that is still going strong even after almost 4 years. (I know like 5 people that still say this anime is their favorite!) I can't even begin to tell you why it's so popular, but I can tell you why it's terrible.
Lets start with the story.
So it starts of with a bunch of people getting trapped inside a video game. Not a terrible premise, but hardly original. And I do have to say, the first few episodes are actually pretty good. There were some good scenes and I thought it was pretty entertaining. The high stakes and character deaths actually made for a pretty damn good start but after that it totally goes to crap. They introduce a plethora of characters that could of been interesting but were horribly developed and all instantly fell in love with KIRITO-SAMA. Anyone that could have been interesting was introduced, added to Kirito's ever-growing harem, and then never seen again. Then with get some bull crap with a ghost I think? The story tries to be suspenseful but none of it works because of how stupidly OP Kirito is. WHY? YOU ASK? BECAUSE THE POWER OF BONER CAN SOLVE ANY PROBLEM, THATS WHY. Then we get to the best part, the "ROMANCE". By god this shit is worse than Twilight.
Talk about out of left field. This "romance" had absolutely no build up what so ever with absolutely no chemistry between the two characters. Kirito loves Asuna because why the hell not? It less "romance" and more "horny teenagers super eager to get laid". Then they have a child together? But it's not actually their child, it's a bug in the game? What the Hell? If there was an explanation behind that I certainly couldn't find one. Then I think there was some bull crap about the power of love? I don't know. I was too busy trying not cringe to death while watching this.
Then we have the "characters" which are as follows:
Kirito
Asuna
Harem Bimbo #1
Harem Bimbo #2
Harem Bimbo #3
and so on and so on...
There was absolutely no character development for any of these characters besides how much they love Kirito. Even Kirito himself was horrible. He honestly felt like a otaku/weaboo gamer pretending to be super cool when in reality he is an absolute loser. But it's ok that he's so unbelievably shallow because you can self insert and relate as him! It's easy to tell that SAO was focused on a gamer audience, but it even screws that up by presenting a horribly explained entirely broken non-realistic so called "MMO" environment. I'm pretty sure Reki Kawahara has never picked up a video game in his life.
One last thing. I could have possibly excused some of the bad story and bad characters if it hadn't taken itself so goddamn seriously, it could have maybe been a guilty pleasure, but no. Because it constantly insists that you take it so seriously it comes of as pretentious rather than entertaining. A great example of what SAO could of been is NO GAME NO LIFE. Love it or hate it, you have to admit it is incredibly entertaining. Thats because rather than desperately trying to be deep or edgy it embraces it's stupidity and roles with it. It knows what it is and doesn't try to be anything more than just awesome entertainment, and that makes it infinitely better than Sword Art Online.
In the end I give Sword Art Online a 2/10. The only reason it is worth watching is so you can watch the abridged, or as I like to call it, SAO done right. You know it's bad when the abridged has better character development than the original. I'm so glad to be done with this steaming pile of garbage that it SAO.
SAO Abridged :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6kJKxvbgZ0&list=PLuAOJfsMefuej06Q3n4QrSSC7qYjQ-FlU&ab_channel=SWEabridged

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.