Review of Sword Art Online

Did I enjoy the show? Initially, yes. Is it good? No. Do I recommend it? Kinda. This is the first anime I watched that really got me into anime in general. I wasn't aware of how not good it was compared to other anime, since I had only seen one or two others at the time. I liked it because it was different from western media, which I was getting severely burnt out on. It was a breath of fresh air from the usual showsand movies I had been watching, so I had fun and even thought it was great.

Even at the time though, I thought it had way too much wasted potential. Video games is something I'm passionate about, so seeing a show that is set in a VR MMORPG be done so much injustice was annoying to me, but I was able to look past it because I enjoyed the show for the most part.

The music especially is amazing. I can easily attach emotions to music, so having these beautifully composed music pieces playing while I watched portions of the show allowed me to listen to these songs at a later time and evoke those same emotions I was feeling at the time of watching it. Even now, I still listen to some of the songs in the show, because they're very good and it brings feelings of sentiment when I hear them.

However, I recently re-watched it. While I still found entertainment in the show and the music to still good, I can see now how poorly it's mad. How shallow the characters and their interactions are, how lazy the art and world can be and how some B plots and episodes are not only pointless and bad, but some bordering on the needlessly offensive and repulsive side.

All of this could have been fixed easily with just a few tweaks to story, characters and a little more time spent on the animation. But they didn't, so you're left with a poorly made, shallow and basic show that is made to appeal to the widest audience possible. While making your show accessible to a wide audience is not a bad thing in of itself, most media pieces that appeal to a wide audience need to dumb things down, which is what this show does for sure.

VVVVVVVVVV*SPOILERS BELOW*VVVVVVVVVV

Kirito is a non-character. You're meant to put yourself into his shoes, which is what I did on my initial viewing, and then love him because he's so overpowered and nice to everyone he meets. It's a power trip is what it is. Asuna is completely under-utilized, doing almost nothing the entire time except act as a trophy for Kirito. She had like two fight scenes, and even in those Kirito is doing most of the work, even though we're lead to believe that she's supposed to be equally matched to him as far as skill goes.

There are several characters that show up for one episode and then never show up again until the second half of the season, but even then they are just there to have more girls fawn over Kirito, which adds more to the power trip angle. Klein was the best character in the entire show and he was only on screen for like 30 minutes. Even though Klein is mostly a surface level supporting character, it's just that everyone else is such a non-character that it makes Klein look like Walter White by comparison.

The first half is generic and has needless characters and episodes that don't advance the plot. However, the second half adds the worst part of the show, the incest B plot and the needlessly perverted villain, both of which are extremely uncomfortable to watch. Both of those aspects could be done tastefully and uniquely if the creators tried at all, but they didn't, so it's just another poor aspect of the show.

^^^^^^^^^^*SPOILERS ABOVE*^^^^^^^^^^

I would give this a 4 on the recommendation scale. The only reason it doesn't get lower, is because it is a good place to start with anime. With it appealing to a wide audience, you can watch it and get at least some sort of enjoyment out of it, then branch off into more specific genre's and better shows. If your new to anime, this is a decent place to start. If you've watched plenty of anime before, stay away.