Review of Sword Art Online

The infamous SAO truly is an extremely controversial show that makes people fight like angry chickens that just don't know when to stop and think about it without adding too much personal enjoyments into it. This is going to be a rather long review so bare with me. As a person who actually somehow enjoyed the series for at least some of its screen times, I shall try to put my thinking cap on and talk about this piece on a critical standpoint. All constructive criticism is welcomed via PM or comment. They well be greatly appreciated. STORY (Concept 3/5, development 1/5) Sword Art Online is notthe first anime that has a setting in MMORPG (shout out to .Hack sign). With that in mind, I should definitely give it less credit for being "original". What SAO did was to implement the very popular visual reality gaming system to the show to make all those otakus and video gamers find "relatable" and "OMG this is awesome". Now looking at the world of SAO. Basically people needs to beat the game in order to get out of the visual world. The one-hundred floor idea is very generic, but hey it works every time (shout out to Mashin Hero Wataru). As for the second arc universe, well just your very typical fairy videogame that nobody plays in real life...

All things considered, SAO did have a fairly interesting setting that is good enough to attract many if not most anime fans to watch it.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Alright let's talk about the actually plot. After rewatching the second time, I can confidently say that the first 6 episodes are actually really well executed. It did a great job introducing the plot and character and seemingly promising story.

I was so damn wrong. Despite the major plot twists, the quality of the story certainly doesn't meet my expectation. Alright so why is this 2-years time in the game summarized in 3 episodes? Come on it is like that the game is no longer a concern. Sure some people may say this is a way to create the a not-so-flat plot but it just doesn't do enough. This practice just makes the plot flatter and uninteresting. As a shounen anime, implementing a half-assed love story is simply stupid. (Yes, it comes back in the second season but that doesn't justify the decision. ) And with the addition of multiple filler episodes that has nothing to do with the storyline other than adding a new girl in Kirito's harem. There are however, some truly good moments, including but not limited to "Kirito joining a small guild" mini arc.

If the first arc of SAO was a "yea-whatever". The second arc is a "f*ck it". Rather than a continuation, the second arc is more like a restart. The characters have a new goal that has basically nothing to do what all the emotion and goodness established in the first arc. Everything is just gone. The villains were like random characters popping out of nowhere and the mighty hero Kirito just has to defeat the bad guy and save the girl. This reminds me of Mario. The random meaningless sister character comes into play like a distraction rather than a supporting cast. The entire arc just has too many "wtf" moments that I'm not going to point them out here.

At the end of the day, I personally enjoyed it. I enjoyed it not because of it's awesome "plot", but rather the stupidity the plot offers.

CHARACTERS (Design 2.5/5, development 0.5/5)

The characters in this series, for a lack of better term, cliche. All the characters are too typical to be interesting. They are just one dimensional characters that has no complex personalities. They are like Pokemons that are given one specific property and they always act accordingly.

Three characters are worth mentioning here. The mighty Kiriro, his girl Asuna and his sister Boobs. Oh I meant Suguha.

Kirito is every MMO player's dream. The eternal badass nature of him has created a symbol in many people's minds. I'm sorry but there is no way you can be the strongest person in an MMO without playing with other people. He is very indecisive, but in critical moments he is able to win the battle with the power of friendship. Ha. If a character truly received development in the series, it's gonna be him. In the beginning of the show he believes he is the strongest and playing with others will only make others in danger. This is showed in a mini arc and honestly I thought that was the only part of story that was well done. At the end he learned the power of friendship and began fight with girls. Yea, that's it for him.

His girl Asuna starts out to be interesting. A strong character who makes her way to a good position in a guild and fight extremely well. But after a while, she becomes weak and rely on his mighty Kirito. In the second arc, nvm I'm not even gonna mention what she looks like.

His sister was so freaking bad. I can't even describe the person. Rather than a main character that supports Kirito in his Journey in the new world, she is more like a companion pet that is overly attached to his brother... She did change a bit however. She wasn't into the games too much first but after the journey she understands it a bit more and that's all there is.

Honestly, the characters are very bad. Despite that bad design and development, the characters are fairly entertaining and boring. If you enjoy it, good job, if you don't, well, I guess you didn't take your brain out.

GRAPHIC (Art 5/5, Animation 3/5)

With all those mediocre plot and character, the art is truly a savier. The character style is fairly unique as I cannot recall any other anime with similar art style. The background are also beautiful with extraordinary landscape.

"Animation 3/5? Are you serious? The actions in the show is AMAZING!" You may be right. The action scenes are very well rendered and the flashy, multicolored light are very cool indeed. But I'm not sure if "good animation" can be summarized with "flashy light and smooth movement". If we go to the scenes where their aren't supposed to be a fight, we can see clearly how lazy and cheap the production team is. Still images aside, in a scene where Kirito is drinking tea in the bar, there is a shot of the drink he is drinking. As short as the shot may be, the glare on the drink is literally made of two white lines moving around. Hello? this is 2012, can you at least make it a little bit complicated and detailed? Even Cowboy Bebop has more detailed animations in these objects.

All things considered, the graphic in SAO is quite good. But considering the budget the team has, they really could have done much better.

SOUND (OP/ED 3/3, OST 2.5/3, Dub/Sub 3/4)

If there is one thing I love about SAO, it is gotta be the music. Lisa's opening is very well written and directed. It has this action packed yet emotionally expressive feeling to it. They are also very memorable as one can easily remind themselves SAO whenever they hear the songs. Well done.

The OST are very good as well. It has this exciting but not brutal music during the fight, and when the show gets emotional, the music is also fitting. The problem is that, the show doesn't really have any soundtracks that stand out so I can recognize that "oh, this is an OST from SAO!".

The dub is passable as the emotions can be expressed in the voice actors. The problem is most of the time it is just boring monologues. The sub actually suffers similar problem. I don't understand Japanese, but there really isn't anything extraordinary going on. I feel like some voices aren't even from the character's mouth. They feel like those bad voiceover TV shows that lacks realistic feeling. Again, it is just my feeling. Honestly the dub and sub doesn't matter as there really isn't much cultural elements.

ENJOYMENT (7/10)

I loved it! I love how this ridiculous show can be that entertaining. I had millions of facepalm moments and that's fine! At the end of the day, it made me laugh and I would probably recommend it to my friends just for the sake of laughing at it afterwards. It is popular, it is worth checking out.

OVERALL (6/10)

Well, this show certainly has its quality to absorb so much fans and love as well as criticism and hates. But since a review should be reviewed objectively, I wouldn't call this anime a well made production. It does leaves memorable symbols such as the SAO worlds and the Mighty hero Kirito, but other than that it is pretty shit. (Remember Doraemon? Everyone remembers it, but if you look at it closely... it's bad."

Peace.