Review of Sword Art Online
Oh geez! Never has an anime made me go from being obsessed by it to being embarrased that I was ever a fan of the show. Much like Attack On Titan, this is one of the shows that got me to want to watch more anime. Unlike Attack On Titan where I still really enjoy it, SAO is nowhere near as good as I remember it being. It's not the worst anime I've ever seen (I've seen a LOT worse) but it's incredibly mediocre. I'd rather watch Fairy Tail and that's fucking sad. Story: It has an interesting premise and it has potential to be somethinggreat. Thousands of gamers play a VRMMORPG but they get trapped in the world and they have to escape. If they get a Game Over, they're brains get fried in reality. That's such an awesome premise and the first few episodes are great for that. However, once they get out of the game, the story goes downhill super quickly. It goes from having a life of death situation to a story about a Self Insert character doing fuck all besides building up a harem. Like... why?!!
Art:
I'm not gonna lie, this anime looks fucking gorgeous in a lot of places. Although it can also looks a bit bland in other places. There's very little animation errors and it mixed 2D animation with CG effects pretty well. While there isn't any blood in the battle scenes, I can forgive it here because... well there in a video game.
Sound:
Admittedly the best thing about the anime. I fucking love the OST of SAO. Crossing Field is definately one of my favorite opening themes ever (or at least at the top 10) and some of the in show music can feel pretty astmospheric. The voice acting for both the sub and the dub isn't to shabby either.
Characters:
This is definately the worst thing about SAO by far. Kirito especially is nothing more than a blank slot Mary Sue of a character. Asuna is okay but she isn't as interesting as a lot of other females in other anime. Klein could've been a great character if he had more time in the spotlight (as well as some other characters.) and most of the harem female characters are either annoying or not vey interesting in the slightest. That and most of the villains aren't that interesting and are mainly just evil for the sake of being evil.
Overall: If you like SAO, good for you but me personally, SAO had nothing going for it besides pretty colors and admittedly outstanding music. It's not the worst anime I've ever seen but in my opinion it's not a good anime. I'll watch Fairy Tail anyday over this. At least Fairy Tail has some fun character interactions and some epic arcs. SAO from a story and character standpoint has nothing going for it.