Review of Sword Art Online
Goodness this show is sounds and looks like the love child of Bones and Ufotable. But it seems A-1 can push the animation budget when they want to. If there is anything that will stick with you from this anime, I hope that will be it. Visually this show is impressive and the fight choreography is splendid. Along with a beautiful sound track filled with mood setting orchestral music I wish I could judge this show purely on its ascetics. However that is not the case. Our main protagonist is pretty devoid of real personality. Not so much a strong silenttype as a just silent for the sake of being silent type. He is a wish fulfillment character nad actsas an empty jug which you can fill yourself into. Now our main female character has a three stage processed she goes through. Stage 1: silent random badass, stage 2: angry tsundere love interest, and finally stage 3: lovey dovey wifu. The remaining characters really are not worth to much of a mention as they only show up for an episode or two and can generally be described by a single trait
The setting is that of a fantasy RPG, but with very few RPG elements ever showing up I like to think of it as colorful Skyrim with a better combat system. Also, no magic, at least for the first half....
For a good part of the first half the show sticks with an episodic style and jumps around with our lead as he runs into different situations and resolves them. This is mainly world building and is where the show shines. However as the main story starts to peak its head around the corner you start to see the minimized skeleton it is. It almost feels shoe horned in at times and really only functions as a start and end point.
I recommend watching the first half of season one and two as these are the points at which the show is the most entertaining. But be warned the second half of season one is cancer and the second half of season two actually has to do with cancer! Much like cancer it is slow and painful and not something you need in your life.
Basic Idea: Thousands of people get trapped in a game that has just been relieved. For some this might usually be a good thing. "I'm trapped in a game I've been wanting to play! Finally free of my worldly duties!!! NO SCREW YOU JILL FROM ACCOUNTING, I'M NEVER GONNA FILE THOSE TAX RETURNS!!! HAHAHHAAHAHHA"
.....Regardless, there is a twist. If you die in the game you die in real life! We follow a certain beta tester as he discovers the hardships of this new world, helps with trying to escape it, and unintentionally forms a harem! (Although I guess its pretty rare for any character to purposefully form a harem in any anime).