Review of Sword Art Online

This is my first review so please bear with me. I also apologize in advance if I use any profanity or capitalization of words. Characters: For our main male character, we have Kirito, an ace player of the game. He is an excellent swordsman, is way too easy to beat and is for the most part unbeatable. Maybe it is a good thing for him in a life-or-death situation, but to watch as entertainment is just plain predictable. He seems to somehow overpower every single opponent he encounters, while I'm just sat in front of my laptop just thinking: "He's gonna win this." Maybeif he came in the game not as experienced then it would be more fun watching him learn and grow as a character. But no. When it comes to romance he seems to be pretty much the same. Most female character he encounters seems to fall head over heels in love with him, even creating is own harem (which includes his own FREAKING COUSIN). Maybe apart from Asuna, this seemed to really annoy me. He also lacks personality, which just makes him really bland. Hell, even the parody YouTube videos seemed to make him lot more interesting and fun than the one in the actual series.

Our female lead character, Asuna, is just a generic Tsundere. In the first episode she appeared in, she had so much potential: being new to the game she is a pretty skilled player and seems pretty badass. She also seems to be a pretty good leader. But,she turns out to be another tsundere with not a lot else. Yeah, sure she's badass but that's it. THAT'S IT. Nothing else. And then her and Kirito always need to be together ALL THE FREAKING TIME.

The side characters. Oh, the side characters. They had the potential to be good, but they just weren't when I wanted them to be. They came in at some point but were just shoved to the side to never be seen again or came on only a few times. I really wanted Kline to have a decent back story, development and screen time, but no. It never happened.

Last but not least, the wonderful creator of Sword Art Online himself. He was just blah. Just plain blah. No motivations were explained as to why he trapped so many people in a game. Nope. Nothing.

Art:

The art is stunning, quite frankly. It's really nice and fluid throughout the series, along with amazing scenery even during the filler episodes. Scenery looks good, just not the fanservice.

Sound:

Opening and ending fit the show well, even if it's not the type of music I normally listen to. The voice acting is alright.

Story:

The premise sounds okay even if I've heard it before. The first episodes are somewhat decent, introducing the characters and the plot. Before we know it months have passed and thousands of players have died off screen and we're not even showed a short montage? No. The first two are only really the decent ones in the entire show so make sure you make the most of them.

The third episode quickly tries to form emotional bonds to characters just in a few minutes which just comes off as ridiculously rushed.

Next comes romance in the air and harem antics. The next few episodes are all about some girls falling in love with Kirito the same day they meet him. This also involves fanservice, blushing and tsundere actions. These episodes are pretty much filler.

The biggest problem is filler. Too much filler. Somehow they manage to find time to resurrect a dragon, marry Asuna, go on a honeymoon, solve a 'murder', eat and go fishing while trying to get back into reality. Everyone loves fishing in a VIDEO GAME, right? This just follows with eye ball rolling melodrama, tears and promises of love. The surprising thing is that this happened in around fourteen episodes. Yes, there are eleven left.

The last half is just pretty much the same as the first but without the life or death aspect. It goes downhill from there. It's just completely unnecessary. They should have just delete those eleven episodes and finish it right there. But no, it shreds up every piece of dignity it had left.

Another problem is that the show just takes its self way too seriously. It makes it look like a super serious adventure inside a video game, but it just came off as a group of idiots messing around. I think that you should just switch off your brain when watching this.

Enjoyment:

Switch your brain off when you're watching this, unlike I did. Action and sound was great but just don't expect a lot from the characters and story. I could sit back after watching an episode and go "Ahh. That episode was awesome." but somewhere in my brain I'm saying "Oh my God. Really? You've gotta be kidding, right?" Just to reiterate, make sure you switch your brain off or don't think too much while watching this because it makes it look like a bunch of idiots messing around in a video game.

Overall:

Average 4/10