Review of Sword Art Online
It being 2022, the year the anime is actually "set" in, at least at first, I thought I'd re-watch it and give my thoughts on it. And, after all of my years of watching anime, I've never seen an anime do so much wrong...and so much right; all at the same time. Sword Art Online. Arguably one of, if not the most controversial anime, ever? If you tell someone you like this anime, they'll fall into one of two crowds: A crowd, which scoffs at your ignorance for liking such a "shitty" anime. And B crowd, which fully agrees at the "masterpiece" that this anime is.I am in neither of these crowds, and I really think more people should join me. Let me explain...
There's no denying that this anime is truly filled with TONS of plot holes, lack of character development (with the majority of characters we see), and a story that goes bad after the first arc ends. So, why on earth do I think this anime is worthy of being rectified after all this time? It's because of how much I enjoyed this shit show. Don't get me wrong, I fully agree with crowd A, in the sense that this anime has a lot of issues and goes places that it really didn't have to go. But, I kept having to put the mighty sword of "elitism" down for a second, and remember why we watch anime in the first place: to be entertained. You can complain to me all you want about why x anime has issues, blah, blah, whatever. In the end, it's up to you, the person who watches the anime, to determine whether you enjoyed what you were watching, regardless of how shitty it was. Sure, good characters and a masterclass story are great, but I believe it all comes down to our enjoyment of said characters/stories.
That all being said, I did enjoy what I was watching. Though, I too scoffed at the Gary Stu persona of our main character, Kirito. He's an arrogant teenager who gets all the girls' attention, virtually does everything right, and never messes up when the situation gets hot. He even goes as far to break the laws of the game world he plays in. SURELY he can't be a good character, right? Well, okay, he really is all of that. But after watching so-many-anime with protagonists that have flaws...sometimes, it's actually nice to just turn my brain off, and enjoy characters like this. WHO CARES if they're generic and have no character. I didn't take anything here seriously, and neither should you. Why? Because it's a fucking anime, that's why.
In any case, that doesn't mean I wasn't annoyed when characters appeared once, and never again. Like, there are so many characters in this anime that add near zero to the overall show, it's almost sad. The only character in this anime that actually was somewhat fleshed out, & showed any real development, was Asuna. Even more, where they take the anime during the second "arc," and how they treat Asuna, the only character with actual development during the first arc, was undeniably a blow to her character. Let alone this awkwardly strange (pretty much, incest) relationship they try to push on the viewers between Kirito and his cousin. I can't deny I wasn't happy with that. Nobody was.
So, why? Why do I like it? It's like I said before, I enjoyed the entertainment I was given. I enjoyed the intense action scenes, the music (OP/ED in this anime are really good, ngl), and the story they started with. Which, if they had ended this anime when SAO actually ended, it would have been so much better. It's also the incredibly unrealistic approach to how one single player in a game world was able to accomplish all of that. The unrealistic approach is what makes it appealing to me. The character interactions are also really great, seeing how one character interacts with another after something huge either happens, or gets revealed. It's all so dramatic, and unrealistic. Not normal to how things are usually in a wide majority of other anime, and that...is why I enjoyed this.
If you are looking for an anime that has all of that, an anime that you can turn your brain off to and just enjoy it for what it's worth, you'll have a good time here. I promise.