Review of Sword Art Online

WARNING: MILD SPOILERS Before you guys click the "not helpful" button, let me clarify my position before you shower me with criticism and disgrace: SAO wasn't inherently bad. It had its flaws and certainly did not meet expectations and hype, but honestly, what did you guys expect? "Perfect" anime come once a generation - and though I may have rated more than one 10 myself, that does NOT mean it's perfect, far from it. It's what MY "perfect" opinion is. But truly good titles, one that the hivemind agrees on, comes rarely, and if you guys are pasting YOUR idealistic 10 to SAO and trying tofigure out why it doesn't fit, then your opinion is more than biased, it's just plain skewed.

I feel like this anime deserves more credit than it has at the moment. Everyone says this, everyone says that - if "everyone" dropped off a bridge to fall and die, would you follow without so much as a thought? Of course not. You may teeter on the edge, yearning to follow, but ya don't. So try and take all the hateful responses and think lucidly, as if you had just freshly finished the anime and don't know anyone else's opinions. Hard, I know, but you're more inclined to believe in tandem with the crowd unless you take a step back and breathe your own air.

Story: 6/10

Now that that is out of the way, let's get down to the review. SAO wasn't bad; far from it, actually. It had its WTF moments, but honestly, the people producing anime can't please everyone, and try to direct the show to be in line with their ideals. The storyline, one has to admit, is (decently) unique: by putting on a helmet called the NerveGear, one can be completely (and sensorily, as well) immersed into a virtual world, where sight, touch, sound, smell and taste are all created for your enjoyment. A young guy named Kazuto Kirigaya comes online, and then finds out he cannot log out and reenter reality. That's when all the 10000 gamers realize that they are stuck until the hundredth level is cleared, else you die in the virtual world, your physical body also ceases to exist. Now if that doesn't open up the show quite shockingly, I don't know what does. It's a clear shock moment, one to hook you and drag you into the story.

And boy was I hooked. Usually action anime take a little while to develop and find its way, to develop the protagonist, to create the arch enemy and sprint towards the climax. SAO skipped all of that and headed straight into the action. What fun! No fillers, no sidestories, no pointless waiting for something to happen - the first episode had me by the fingertips! I was ready to marathon it right then and there.

But whaddya know, all good things must end, eh? The main quest, the fight or die, the survive against the elements and overlords became the sidequest. Kirigaya falls in love, yes, but also does petty missions and rescue events to help the "damsels in distress." What. Honestly, this doesn't further the story other than show how awesome the protagonist really is. But we already knew that. Why do we need reinforcement? Sure bits and pieces of the game were brought into the light, but at the cost of these stupid little fillers. Bleh. It detracted from my earlier mood.

Kirigaya has a constant romance with Asuna, and it gets pretty intense. Except it doesn't. It waxes and wanes, like the battle scenes (which were few and far between, despite this having SWORD in its name). Kirigaya has to juggle a bunch of things at once, women, Asuna, his battles - yay? I guess? It got kind of old as well. When there were action sequences, they were brief, albeit intense moments. But that's all they were, short, abrupt little fight scenes. I wanted a grand battle, a grand climax. Boy, was that hoping for too much?

And when the derailed train of a plot decides to come back onto the tracks, the first arc ends abruptly. What, why, when, HOW? It was just getting good! Things were happening, the ball was rolling towards the finish line, and BAM. It's like right before the winning goal in a football game, some asshole decides to change the channel, then switch back. Sure the end result we see, but we didn't see what led up to right before the climax. I was a little miffed. Surely, after half the series was over, there would be no more mishaps, right?

WHY WAS I WRONG. The second arc put me off. Another game? Another trial? What was wrong with the original story? And then the sister comes into play....that was more unnecessary character development. Why was she even mentioned, let alone play a bigger role than the what the true romance story is? JEALOUSY? This is SAO, not lovey-dovey universe 2 or something like that. And the end was....I can't even say. It was something I didn't expect, nor wanting to expect.

But there were good elements as well. The entire world was well-propagated the entire time, and there were moments of humor where I chuckled aloud. Humor, if used right, can diffuse otherwise high tensions within the story and SAO attempted it, but its effectiveness was limited. The original arc was (counting out those fillers) tense and what I wanted: different. The beginning had me hooked, and the way the characters used menues and the dueling system were all very cool and such. The various guilds and the in-depth research the anime makers used was obvious (I mean, everyone has played an MMO at one point - Maple Story, WOW, even Runescape) and well incorporated into the theme.

Art: 9/10

I think if the artists and storymakers switched places, this would have been a FANTASTIC anime, but weird and boring artistic style. Because dang, that art was sexy. I can't even begin to describe the stunning visuals I experienced. The environment, the virtual fantasy world, was brilliantly designed. The colors, gorgeous, the scenery, exquisite. Even the food looked too good to be true; everything, visually, was top-notch. The battle scenes, like I said I would have liked to see more, not just for the mere action or testosterone pumped yells, but because it was beautiful. SAO made fighting look like a graceful art, dancing against the enemy, dueling rather than simplistic fighting. The characters were drawn pretty plainly, but the hair styles of the girls was a little unique, especially Asuna's hair styles. The uniforms and variety of people and their clothing was shockingly diverse, and each town, the floors shown, the items in the game, everything was drawn perfectly and had its functions clearly designated for them. The art, in its own sense, was beautiful.

Sound: 9/10

Also a saving grace. The music was written for something epic, and SAO delivered decently well. Though not used that effectively, I found it very accurately portrayed and through it all, used well in conjunction with the various going-ons the entire time. The fight scenes had zest, the romantic scenes with trepidation, and simply music when one character was strolling through town all were well-rounded. I should have paid more attention to the voice-actors, something many forget, but this takes into account even them. Each character portrayed his or her emotions well - if I had watched SAO with my eyes closed, I could probably accurately tell each and every one of their facial expressions and whether tears were rolling or not. Simply great stuff. Also, the sound effects were a touch one shouldn't forget, either. The sounds of battle all the way up to when the wind whistled through the trees was varied and accurate. Good stuff.

Characters: 6/10

This, unfortunately, was why it fell so flat so quickly. While likable, the Kirigaya stayed mainly the same throughout, and changed only when he really need to...and it wasn't really a change. Though he did have the talents and characteristics of a hero, I feel like his entire character dynamic was pretty static, and he needed something really crazy to change who he was. Asuna, the next big character, showed potential early on, but then became a sideshow, and eventually the princess locked in a tower thing. Her role, at best, was minimal save for the beginning, parts of the middle, and the end. Not minimal to the main character, but minimal for the watcher. The various other characters (the swordmaker, the cutesy girl, Sugu) all kind of....were pretty one-faced too. And the other character arcs seemed only to reconnect whenever it was convenient. Whatever happened to the first friend he made? He showed up maybe twice before the series ended. That friendship should have been stronger. But like I said, what was great potential turned into a huge disappointment, and this is where an anime is supposed to shine: in characters one can relate to.

Overall: 7/10

Now this seems a little higher than what it should be, and no I'm not averaging all the numbers I have. I feel like this deserved credit because it was a "good" anime, just not "great" nor "fair." It deserves a higher title for the music and artwork, voice acting, attention to detail, but loses its sheen and luster to lack fo storytelling, some stupid plots, and random character intrusions by people who are simply not needed. Like a plain cheese pizza that at first tastes delicious but loses its flavor after the first slice because it's so uniform, SAO was good, but not terrific. And people are slamming it harder than it needs to be, because it didn't live up to some ridiculous standars. I went in with no bias, and came out as honest as I could, but an opinion is an opinion. But for me, this is enough MMOs for me. I need to disconnect, run outside, and breathe in reality.