Review of Sword Art Online

Oh boy, SAO. There's a great chance you've already seen this anime or at least heard of it. Many say it's good, many say it's trash. What do I think? For me it was a: 'Eh, it's alright I suppose.' The story. Well it's there in the summary. People play a VR game called Sword Art Online and boom they get trapped. And if they die there they die for real. Definitely does not remind me of any 1999 movie at all. Now when I was watching it, I thought it was very fluid and progressed quite well... until it came to the '2 years havepassed' part. I didn't really pay much attention to this until they... they beat SAO and escaped 14 episodes in. There were 11 episodes in so I was thinking what was happening and I realise it did not take place in SAO at all and in a completely different game. Now I would not consider this a spoiler, especially since SAO 2 has guns on the cover which y'know kinda spoils the fact they got out of SAO in the first place for those who were trying to find out more about it. Nevertheless I was a bit underwhelmed at the second half although I did find satisfaction at the end of it as it really does conclude the story.

The art was pretty great. For a game where you could die anytime, it was very colourful and had nice scenery to it. Even the character designs are pretty. The soundtrack was pretty great too, opening themes aside. The music when they weren't fighting was very peaceful.

Now the characters. Well at the start I enjoyed Kirito's character until at 4 episodes in he was like "YEAH, I'M A LONER, I PLAY ON MY OWN." Not only that but he has exclusive skills and the most powerful sword in the game which basically turned him into a bland overpowered character. Asuna, the main love interest... she's a 'fair' at best. When we first saw her, she was average. Then out of nowhere she became tsundere then back to normal and then lovey-dovey. Speaking of which can I just complain about how fast they transitioned into being 'pals' then 'lovers' real quick, thanks. I gotta say, I enjoyed the supporting characters more. Like I feel like they could've done more with Klein, Liz, Silica and Agil.

Characters aside though, I did like SAO, it wasn't the perfect anime, but again it's not a crap one. But what you thought of it, is your own choice.

7/10