Review of Sword Art Online

How to watch Sword Art Online: 1) Watch the first half of the Aincrad arc 2) Drop the episodes cold turkey but continue to watch the OP's 3) Watch Boku No Pico because you love yourself enough to not watch trash All jokes aside, this is a painfully average, self-insert fanfiction about a moody, overpowered protagonist as interesting as plain toast surrounded by his harem of cute, cardboard-cutout girls who all look suspiciously similar to each other. While in many cases this could be a fun harem rom-com setup, SAO is actually attempting to be a serious Shounen series about agroup of people stuck in a video game fighting to stay alive, but it fails horrendously in both genres. Fan service and jokes feel out of place and forced in the "serious" tone of SAO, and the "serious" fights never manage to evoke any feelings because of the poorly written characters. I think the only plus side to this anime is that the OP's are fantastic and it's animated well enough to not be distracting, even if all the girls are just palate-swapped versions of each other who all think having an interest in something is equivalent to having a personality. If you like the premise and are interested in watching something like it, then I've been told that Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is much better.