Review of Sword Art Online
SAO (Sword Art Online) scored very highly for me as an anime however there are some hiccups. First I believe that they could have taken more time to show the progression of time and develop the characters a little more. The first few episodes took place over a few weeks which was understandable. The randomly they jumped a few months into the future then even further after that. One episode shows them going to a new place for 2-4 days then they're called back to the front lines and the guy says its been 3 months! The story is mostly original. I say mostly causethe whole being trapped in a videogame has happened in anime (Dot Hack), movies (Tron), and other media (Dot Hack and Tron are just 2 random examples) but the way they went about it was very original.
Some of the filler episodes are frankly useless while others really show you why the main character is the way he is (pity they didn't do that for some of the other main characters) The main problem with the story is that it focuses too much around the main character and jumps around the time line far too much.
All that being said I loved the anime and would definitely play the game if it were real. Some stuff in it made no sense at all though. Taking someones sword to fight an enemy for example when they didn't give permission or even know it was happening. "But that's what pickpocketing is!" I hear people typing sarcastically and they're right. Taking an item that doesn't belong to you from someone else is a pickpocketing skill that is in a lot of games like that. However out of all the games I've played I've only ever played one where you could steal the item they actually had equipped.
Think the main complaint I have is for the second season/part/whatever you wanna call it. It kinda felt like they were just pushing it through for the sake of doing so. "Oh I can give you enough money to suit up most your army with Ancient class items? (Guessing that's epic level in wow give or take) Alright take all my money, I'll just continue to use this random sword. (guessing to be around a green level sword in wow). The first part was awesome and it has a great re-watch value and all and all I would say the anime as a whole was almost a masterpiece...almost. I believe if they made the anime longer even with a few filler episodes or some bouncing back and forth, make it 2 seasons for the 2 different games other then just 1 longish one it would have been a masterpiece. However beggars can't be choosers and over all I would recommend this anime for at least a one time watch to see how you enjoy it.