Review of Sword Art Online

There are anime that i consider bad and somewhat enjoyable but there comes a time when there is an anime that simply is so stupid that you feel insulted by simply watching it for pure enjoyment, enter Sword Art Online or SAO for short. This is so badly written that "turning off your brain" does not help either. I am a long time avid gamer and have experience playing MMOs in general, from early Everquest to World of warcraft and watching this anime that tries to mimic its merits is nothing more than insulting. Lets begin..... Story: The story opens up with the information that a new gamenamed SAO just got released, it is an virtual mmo game that is played by using Nerve gear, which will simulate the events as if you were there, it is connected to your brainwaves that simulate all this. The main character Kirito is one of thousands of players who enters this game. At first everything seems fine until Kirito realizes that the "logout" button is not working, then the gamecreator Kayaba Akihiko appears and reveals that everyone in the game is trapped and cannot logout. The only way out is to defeat the game and destroy the final boss, but there is a catch, if you die in this world, you die in real life. It is from this moment that the "death scenario" is created and the reason why the series will hook you, at first.

Now you are thinking "ok, so this sounds interesting so what is wrong with all this?" well its simple, the story and the episodes that follows after episode 3, does not even focus on this so instead of expanding on the theme of "death game" and development of the lore, characters and what more, the series is then nothing more than a side story journey. Episodes 4 and onward to episode 13, does not even attempt to defeat the game or its "bosses" and only after half way with episode 13 do we get this theme back but then how it ends will shock you to the core how it all ends. SAO is nothing more than wasted potential in this front. But belive me, it gets worse.

Characters:

Perhaps the worst part of the series, so i will break it down in detail.

Kirito:

Kirito is perhaps one of the worst characters i have seen, he is OP, can do everything by himself despite that the show is all about an social mmo game. He can be whatever the plot wants him to, therefore he is not a character but more of an "self insert" type. That means that he can be whatever the plot feels like at the moment. He does something stupid in episode 3 that will haunt him but only after several episodes will it be mentioned. When he breaks down in front of Asuna and tells her about the event, funny, why did he not feel bad about it when it all happened?. Oh yeah, now i remeber, the plot now requires him to remember so he does. He has all the girls, can have a skill that no one in the game can and more. Basicly, he is a wish thinking character that many young boys wants to be and nothing more than that. Kirito is this kind of "self insert" character. There is a difference between a powerful character and an OP one. Kirito ruins the entire show becouse of his OP stuff, makes no misstake, wins almost every fight and more. Simply boring as hell character.

Asuna:

The only character that i like in this show, at first, she is this "badass" female that is second in command of the Bloodknights guild. That is until she meets Kirito and later starts dating him where her character is wasted. She cant do a thing without her boyfriend and therefore ends up in the background for the rest of this arc and the rest of ALO arc, more on that later. SImply wasted character alltogether, no redeeming qualities about her.

The rest:

Pretty much pointless, they dont matter at all, not in this arc nor in the future in season 2. The only purpose for them is to be "Kiritos" leftovers or harem girls as they are called.

ALO Arc:

At episode 15, the next arc starts but it has nothing to do with SAO, it is as if its a new anime alltogether. It just features the same characters, cant talk about it since it may be a spoiler but lets just say that it is "garbage" and episode 21 in itself will make you puke. The death game is gone and no penalty is present. Kiritos own cousin Sugha is introduced and she is horrible, cut her out and nothing is lost.

Sound and animation:

The only redeeming quality of this show is its animation and sound, the animation is fluid and the soundtrack adds to the feel of the game and battles, Yuki Kajiura is the composer of the soundtrack and this show does not deserve to have her making the music. While not in her best form, she is still awsome.

Game mechanics:

This is here where the entire show collapses, Kirito gains a dual wield skill that he and "only" he can use. Sorry but gaming does not work that way, immagine what would happen if a player have access to a ability in Dota, wow or Starcraft or any game for that matter that no one has access too, it would be a shit storm pretty much. So where is all the magic gone? where is the support classes, everyone in the anime seems to be some kind of melee knight sort of, i am sorry but this kind of game would be pretty boring to play if only the melee was the option.

Also, SAO uses a system it calls "switching" but it is not explained how this is benificial especially when there is no healing involved. So what happens if everyone is injured, who to switch to if everyone is close to death?. Log Horizon does a much better job of this, there are roles and that adds to the fights, SAO ignores all that and pretends that you are retarded and stupid and that you would not ask those questions. Even Nerve gear is not that well explained despite that it is a very important plot device in the story.

When people claim that Kirito is a gamer and they want to be like him, sorry to burst your bubbles but gaming in general does not work like that, Kirito is so OP that he almost breaks the game becouse of it.

SAO from different views:

So who is SAO for? is it for gamers, action lovers or romance lovers?, well lets take a look.

Action and MMO progression....

Sorry but there are not many action scenes that are exiting, for several reasons. First, Kirito is OP, this alone ruins everything, having battles with good animation is great but if you can predct it then it becomes pointless. Character progression takes a hit as well, for one reason, "time skips" thats right. Kiritos leveling leaps a huge leap between episodes, yes, seeing him grinding would be boring but they could have made it so that while he and Asuna is on the quest to complete the challenges they could have done leveling that way. So sorry, no action, only filler episodes.

Romance part.....

Once again, "time skips" stands in the way. The anime tries to tell us that Kirito and Asuna is cute together but fails to tell us how they ended up together, it seems that the writers tells us that relationship is easy, all you have to do is "point the finger" and the girl is yours. Sorry but this attempt fails big time. In one episode, they are friends, in the next they are a couple and in the later one, they are married. So if you are a romance fan and wants some more than simply a kiss then you will not find it here.

Conclusion:

SAO is the worst anime writing i have seen in fiction, stupid antagonist, plot holes, time skips, Op Kirito, sidelined and wasted characters, not understanding the MMO genre in general is killing this show. Vast majority of episodes for the first arc is nothing than filler with characters that has nothing to do with the plot nor will they ever be important.

Kirito is a wish character that comes out from a fan fiction withing at its worst, brooding, anti social which is stupid becouse he is pretty good for someone that is anti social, manages to catch the attention of any female in the ass long radius, i wish i had those "anti social" problems. All in all, one of the most overhyped anime that i have seen, no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Reki Kawahara the writer of the series is not capable of writing, not the lore nor the characters. If you want to create a anime based upon a MMO, please do some research how MMO works.