Review of Sword Art Online

Is this review waaaaaay to late and kind of outdated? Yes. Do i want to justify why this anime wasnt the BEST THING EVER? Absolutely. Sword Art Online was the most popular anime of 2012. Right now, in 2013, we've got Attack on Titan, but for know, lets take a look at Sword Art Online. Plot: To be honest, SAO's premise shows infinite potential. A ton of people who are trapped in a MMORPG that they have to beat to get out ? And when they die ingame, they die in real life as well? Thats just awesome, plotwise THAT is Sword Art Onlines greatest strengthnext to is production value. And during the beginning, it looked sooo damn promising ( until ep 4-5 ). The story got sidetracked alot after that. From trying to develop 2 romances in 2 episodes to an episode where the main characters just fuck around. And I just want to ask: Why? This game has 100 floors to beat => 100 bosses to beat, and we only get to see 4 or 5 boss battles. The infinite potential was wasted. And dont even get me started on the 2nd half .... GOD. its not that I hated it, but I think the story went a bit out of hand. Stopping a pedophile from marrying a teenage girl in a coma isnt what I originally expected, but that whole sister ( oh wait, it's the cousin 0_o ) relationship thing just fuuuucked stuff up. Anyways, I still think that the way SAO's story was set up is great, and with more episodes it could've destroyed. But while looking at the way it is, it bumped down to an okay story

Characters:
The MC, Kirito, is the god damn MLG ProGamerGod of all awesome. He just destroys everything. My problem is, that he didnt develop in any way. I mean yeah, that Sachi thing was sad, and you could see its effects, but they didnt take any further than that and some similiar things. And the romances that are portrayed in this anime were ... uhh.... a bit underdeveloped. Asuna, who is the female MC, starts off as a mysterious badass chick who works her way up to the top. But in the end she turned out to be a tsundere ... man. She can still kick some ass though, I would've liked it if the romance between her and Kirito would've been more developed. Because the way it was done just didnt satisfy in any way. it one of those: I like you because you're the male MC of this anime thing. There are several side characters as well and some of them were actually quite cool. As for the villains.... lets say the first one was good. The only thing that bugged me about him is that we still dont know why the hell he created a game in which he trapped tons of people who he forced to fight for their lives. Other than that I actaully liked him. The 2nd villain .... a pedophile who wants to marry ( and in ep 24 i think rapes ) a girl who is in a coma and trapped in a game. Meh, he looked absolutely laughable as well. I would say that THIS is SAO's weakest overall point. But now, we've got the negative stuff out of the way and i can start to explain you the good stuff.

Presentation:
Great, absolutely great. The animation and the art style are fucking good. The battles are just a feast to the eyes and the backgrounds are vibrant and detailed. The music is epic and makes certain scenes just so much better and did i already mention THAT THE BOSS BATTLES ARE AWESOME 0_o. Sword Art Online has outstanding production value, which is one of its most positive aspects.

Enjoyment:
I sounded kinda negative during the review didnt I? Well, I still enjoyed SAO for what it was. It showed an interesting world with pretty generic characters. I liked the portrayal of the different aspects of the game and the fighting scenes were just amazing. During my first watch I simply ignored many problems. But after starting a 2nd watch I realized that is was very flawed. Its still a pretty damn enjoyable show.

Overall:
It's kind of disappointing to see so much potential to be wasted, but i think SAO was a good anime. Its saving grace were its look and its sound which, in combination, resulted in some pretty intense scenes. I would've loved to give this anime an 8. Because, believe it or not, presentation can bump up an animes score quite a lot for me. But when the rest is so flawed, I can only give it an overall 7 at best, which I give SAO.

7/10