Review of Sword Art Online

This review may contain minor spoilers, I'll avoid them, but when I need to talk about it I'll let you know so don't worry +-+-Introduction-+-+ Sword Art Online(SAO) Is an Anime about a "VR"MMORPG, in which the players get stuck on the game and must finish it to be able to leave the game... or that is the first half at least You see, I started in Anime with this show, and at the time it was amazing, but after rewatching I need to adress some things, and I'll separate the review of each category in twoo, since we got two arcs in this first season +-+-Story -5/10-+-+

-->SAO<--
So, it pretty much goes around what I mentioned in the Introduction, the only thing I can describe here is that, if you are coming for the world and character building, you'll not get that, instead they focus on the romance between two characters. Now I have no problem with romance and stuff but, when you create such a big and gorgeous looking world, with weird creatures, bosses and guilds, not developing them and only going for the romance was a big loss for me.

-->Fairy Dance(may contain spoilers)<--
Basicly, Asuna(one of the characters) wasn't able to leave the virtual world after they beat the game, now Kirito(protagonist) must find a way to rescue his Girlfriend. Alright, where to start with this one? So this is where SAO goes even more downhill, we leave the "Romance" thing, and go the "Harem" way (we already had a bit of that the first half, but from now on it's even more). What I hate the most about this is the fact that Asuna became the "defenseless girl on top of the castle that the Hero must save" after showing the strengh she had in the last arc, even saving this "hero" that must come her way.

+-+-Art - 10/10-+-+

The visual on both arcs is breathtaking, making you want to learn more about the world they're in(which never happens), and the Real Life world feels somewhat realistic in the visual part. Animation is one hell of a strong point in SAO, having amazing fights in combination with good music... Speaking of music.

+-+-Sound - 10/10-+-+

Boy oh boy, the OST this show has is top-tier, it's not always you come across something like this, they have the perfect OST for what's going on on-screen(take a listen here: https://youtu.be/ad5TszNUVYI ). The opening themes(both of them) are amazing and so are the ending themes, definetely the strongest point SAO has after the Art.

+-+-Characters - 6/10-+-+

I'll separate this into the main characters
-->Kirito<--
One of the worst possible protagonists, he feels like your generic male hero(and he became the icon for that), too Op with little development as to how he became strong like that
-->Asuna<--
Now she has a cool development, goes from a weak girl(mentaly) to a strong one, though we don't see her grownth(shame). In terms of skill she is like Female Kirito, but at least she's more interesting than him, she feels more... Alive.
-->Klein<--
Here is a missed oportunity, He could definetely be one of the best main characters, if he wasn't left aside to become a secondary one, has little to no development in the first season.
-->Silica<--
The show's Loli, yeah yeah she's weak, grows a little stronger, but yeah that's pretty much it, at least she got a dragon... Another character that is left aside after the Episode in which she was the focus
-->Lisbeth<--
Weaponsmith, interesting personality, left aside... again
-->Egil<--
Merchant, cool guy... Left Aside... AGAIN
-->Yui<--
The other Loli, this one actually gets devolopment and it's not just left Aside, she got a cool development and personality, glad she wasn't abandoned
-->Suguha<--
Kirito's Sister, feels like she's only there for the Incest, though closer to the conclusion she gets a little bit more interesting.

+-+-Enjoyment - 4/10-+-+

If you ignore the world, I guess you can enjoy the romance(cause that's it's strongest point in the first arc), but to do that is hard enough. The fighting scenes are the best so that's another strong point in terms of enjoyment, the story itself doesn't do a great job cause y'know, it was left aside to develop the romance.

+-+-Overall - 3/10-+-+

The world was a miss oportunity, a lot of interesting characters were left aside, and the focus was purely on Asuna+Kirito and [SPOILER]Kirito and Suguha in the second half[SPOILER]