Review of Sword Art Online
Know this - Season 1 is all there is to Sword Art Online....all of the good aspects of the series (story, art, sound, characters, etc.) are attributed to the first half of the anime. Season 2 is a useless harem anime. But I won't wreak havoc on Season 2 in this review - I would rather focus on all of the good aspects of Season 1. Story is really damn good - SAO was seemingly my first “real-life” anime, meaning that all of the other anime that I had seen had been in different universes such as Ao no Exorcist, Magi, Naruto, Hunter x Hunter,etc (note: I had not seen Deathnote yet). Although it was a slight change, it was surely a well-executed one by Aniplex and Genco. Essentially, in the year 2022, video game players immerse themselves in immersive universes by wearing advanced tech called “NerveGear.” However, an intentional glitch in the mainframe of the system causes all the players to get trapped in the universe, where the only way to escape the game is to beat it. If you die in the game, you die in real life. I thought the story was actually phenomenal - it ties in elements of both fantasy anime with the realities of life. I give the story a solid rating (9/10) with the only lost point going to the fact that there is a significant amount of fan-service (although nothing compared to the sh*t in Season 2).
Art and Sound were not too shabby - Many of the fight scenes were incredible in Season 1 (easily receiving a rating of 8/10). Now here’s the thing I cannot deny: the animation and art in Season 2 were actually better than Season 1, probably because of an increased budget due to the success of the predecessor. Now, that being said, the story actually goes quite well with the fight scenes in Season 1, which is typically why so many people love this anime. The sound is nothing fantastic for a good anime like this one, always coming in clutch to make the emotional scenes seems all the more emotional (7/10).
Ahhh… the Characters - The voice acting (obviously in Japanese) really brings out the gravity of the situation, and the strife for survival. As players begin to die, the game becomes quite intense, and it felt to me that I was following Kirito (the main character) on his journey to beat the game. The story plays out nicely when Kirito has to reach out to make friends, attach himself to people (some of who perish), and do whatever he can to reach the end. So, Kirito is a solid character. However, almost everyone else is either just fan-service or quite mediocre. There are some small characters who died who were actually quite memorable, but other than that I thought that this part of the anime could have been developed better. However, to SAO’s defense, if they focused on these other characters, then Kirito would have lost development - so the sacrifice could be justified (overall 6/10).
My final remarks would be this - SAO Season 1 is certainly a good anime to watch. I thought the concept was neat and properly done, so overall a (8/10) anime for sure. Now, like most people, if you watch Season 1 then you are probably going to end up watching Season 2 (which is like a 6/10), but its not the worst thing in the world.