Review of Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online is a guilty pleasure of mine. Despite being able to acknowledge that it objectively isn't that good, I really enjoy it. Story- 5/10 The main overarching story kept me interested and engaged for the entirety of the series, however, there are infamously many large time jumps and some episodes that are more character-focused that could be considered filler. The show probably could have ended after the Aincrad arc and the second arc is noticeably weaker. Art- 8/10 Probably the only reason I was so engaged in this show the entire time I watched it. The art and animation are beautiful and the fight scenes get mesuper hyped. The stylized, slick animation is a huge plus for this show and combined with the amazing sound, takes a pretty meh watching experience and makes it good.

Sound- 9/10
The opening and ending themes are all fantastic. Especially Crossing Field, Innoncence, and Overfly. Having watched twice in sub and once in dub over the years, voice acting in the Japanese dub is good with the notable exception of Klein (only in the early episodes), and the English dub is not bad but certainly worse than I remembered.

Character- 5/10
The main protagonist, Kiritio, as pointed out by just about anyone who has watched this show, is about as bland and uninteresting as it gets but functions as an alright self-insert character. The love story between Asuna and Kirito is paced pretty horribly but offers some cute moments. Asuna herself as a character by far is one of the most interesting and likable characters in the beginning, however, she unfortunately doesn't get nearly as much screentime later on in the show. The rest of the side characters are fairly inoffensive and some like Agil and Suguha are fairly memorable (it does need to be said that Recon is extremely annoying in both the sub and dub). Overall, the cast of characters isn't bad.

Enjoyment- 9/10
This score is just my personal enjoyment and I am definitely biased since this is the first anime series I watched to completion, but the show is extremely entertaining and can get you captivated in its world if you let it.

Overall- 7/10
Sword Art Online definitely has some rough patches and giving it a 7 overall is generous, but the great music and animation really make it a joy to watch. This series is definitely a love it or hate it affair, so I think everyone should try watching it to see where they fall on that spectrum.