Review of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

I am one of the fans of the original SAO series. I didn't think it was a masterpiece or anything but I did enjoy watching it. It could probably because it was one of the first few anime I watched. I don't know. Talking about this spin-off series. I honestly think this spin-off series was better than the original series. Don't get me wrong though, I still wouldn't call this one amazing or anything close to it. This also had its flaws. I think SAO Alternative: GGO had better fights / battles. Not from an animation perspective, but from a viewpoint of entertainment and logic. Ofcourse there is a lot of plot-armor involved but it wasn't unbearable - at least in the beginning. I quite enjoyed the earlier battles. But, the ultimate showdown between Pito and Lenn was far from enjoyable. To be honest, the final showdown from the first squad jam was also not very satisfying. LENN/Karen is too lucky and the writers went with stupidest ideas in these two showdowns.

I don't have any issues with the art. We have some cute characters and I am happy with that. But I do feel like there are lot of lolis - like too many. But otherwise, the art was quite good.

As for sound, i loved the ending theme. The opening was alright, but I skipped it for the second half of the season.

Now the characters are tricky. I like only couple of the characters. I haven't seen many anime with a female lead, so I cannot compare. But, I think Karen was quite likeable as a lead character. I liked Pito for the most part of the series, but the ending screwed up her character. She changed too quickly. As for the supporting characters, I don't think I particularly liked or hated any of them.

I did enjoy the series even though it had its flaws. Honestly the series was a 8/10 for the most part but then I had to drop it to 7 for the ending. It was a really screwed up ending right from the fight between Pito and Lenn upto the conclusion. There was one particular scene at the end that no man can hate, but I would like not to spoil stuff here.

So overall I give this series a 7 on 10. For those having second thoughts about watching this series - I cannot say that you might like this series but I definitely think this series is worth a try.