Review of Sword Art Online

I decided to write this review to showcase my 2nd take on SAO, as I just finished binge-re-watching it to refresh my memory for the second season. And from the 2nd viewing, my outlook has done somewhat of a 180. I'll start off by saying the hype of this series is beyond belief. Every time I turn around, someone at work is talking about it, or someone on the anime forums is praising it. But I'm not entirely sure why. Don't get me wrong, this is NOT a bad series whatsoever. I just don't feel it's as complex andepic as everyone makes it out to be. Let me break it down a little bit.

The concept of SAO has been reused a little bit (e.g. Log Horizon, .Hack etc.), so going into it I kind of knew what to expect. Thousands of MMORPG players are mysteriously trapped inside the host game, and have to fight their way to survive. If they die in the game, they die in real life. Ok, so where does SAO differentiate itself? I feel like this series is bigger budgeted, and it started off quite well for me. The main protagonist, Kirito is an absolute badass. They wrote him to be like a billion times stronger than everyone else, in part due to being a beta tester of Sword Art Online. Chaos ensues as players are told they can only get out of SAO by playing through 100 floors filled with bosses, with each floor getting more challenging. Some players rush in blind and effectively commit suicide, while others grind until they are more prepared to fight these bosses. I REALLY like the idea they were going for here. That was, until the romance kicked in.

I am normally an advocate for a good love story in animes. But the one between Kirito and Asuna sometimes doesn't even make sense. He meets her on the first boss raid, and of course the two of them almost single-handedly beat the floor boss. This sparks a small romance that escalates quickly about a third of the way through. It was cheesy, unbelievable (even from an anime standpoint) and it just irked me the rest of the series. They even have an incredibly awkward sort of "offspring" which I won't elaborate on for obvious spoiler reasons. Damn it, I feel like they had an opportunity to be so gritty and dark in this show. It almost felt like it derailed about half way through until they remembered that eventually they would like to get out of this MMO... "Oh yeah, we were so busy acting like a cheesy married couple that we gave up and just wanted to have sex for the rest of time" Ok, end of rant.

The atmosphere and vibe for the first half of the story was good though, and I enjoyed "most" of the battle sequences Kirito and his band of players went through. Some of the dialogue was lame at times like "I'm gonna get you!" or something like that... but keep in mind that these words are coming from someone who is supposedly in early high school. I wanted to see how far they would get through the boss floors and how the battles would transpire, and I enjoyed the skill system and player interface for SAO in general.

Then came the second half. It felt as though the story was abruptly ended, and I was kind of wondering where it would go from there. And it made me SO SAD. It's so hard not to disclose spoilers about what happens, so I'll say this: most of the second half wasn't even necessary. The environment was lame, and the relations between Kirito and a certain someone he was very close to were creepy as hell. -Sigh-, of course I understand there was fan service to be had... but again, completely unnecessary. The second villain I felt was way better than the first though, and I loved the justice and vengeance at the end of the show.

The story of SAO was very hit and miss for me, especially the second time around. I can understand the hype, even with the love affair between Kirito and Asuna... but it just wasn't for everyone I guess.

It's funny to think that this was the most outstanding portion of the anime for me. As I previously stated, SAO was a big budget show, so it's only natural that the best animators and sound directors came with it. The character designs are great, and the landscapes of the MMO were all vivid and imaginative. The special effects were also done well, and I loved the way they made the bosses look visceral and ferocious. Well done.

The first opening was great, and initially got me pumped up to watch the series. It certainly made the show look pretty darn badass. The second one, well... I was sad. I don't like when spoilers are shown in openings, and I felt like SAO's second opening did just that. I also didn't like the song nearly as much. Oh well, maybe that's in part because I didn't like the second half as much :)

Initially, I really liked Kirito. A kind of introverted badass that really shines on the battlefield of Sword Art Online. But I felt he was a little too awesome. I've played video games all my life, but there's no way anyone could be as good as Kirito was... ALL THE TIME. It was a little annoying how he always found a way to win under any circumstance. Because of this, I was never awarded the opportunity to feel suspense or nervous for the characters, I just knew Kirito would pull it out in the end.

Asuna is just as bad. Coincidentally, she is also a super badass warrior despite devoting most of here time in-game to taking up domestic hobbies such as cooking :) She's a bit dull in personality, and not complex emotionally. Her astounding love for Kirito is a little odd, considering it only took a few episodes for them to hook up. She does look pretty hot as an elf though... Suguha is straight up annoying when not in game. I mean come on, could we get any more fan-servicey around here!? As Kirito's step sister, I liked her during the first half of the show... but not so much in the second half for obvious reasons.

I wish more time was spent on Klein and Kirito's relationship. It would've been cool to see him have a sidekick, but he was being a little too emo, and wanted to do everything as a "solo" player. Not cool Kirito! The rest of the ensemble was bland at best. Nobody had any depth, and they introduced a couple of female characters near the beginning that seemed relevant, and were never really revisited. Including one, who of course, fell in love with Kirito.

The first villain's motive seemed a little bit unfounded, and was very one-dimensional. There seemed to be a deeper side to them, but it was never really explored. The second villain was a small redemption, a super creeper. Their cause also seemed a bit odd, but judging from their personality, the actions didn't surprise me.

I really, really wanted to like SAO. I'm not saying i didn't, because there definitely were some bright spots of the anime. I just feel that so much more could of been done, while so much else was unneeded. I would still recommend the series to fans of action or virtual reality animes, but if you're looking for something in depth intellectually, you might want to look elsewhere. I did like it enough to start powering through the second season, and I will post my review when I finish it.