Review of Sword Art Online

Overall, I didn't think SAO was anything special, despite all the hype I've seen. I didn't find the art anything special; it's very on-par with what is expected these days. I enjoyed the score very much, good to see Yuki Kajiura's compositions. I found that the story timeline moved at an odd pace - they would suddenly jump forward a few months (following a somewhat filler-feeling episode). The first arc I found to be more enjoyable than the second arc, as I felt the second was just slapped on to make the series longer. It didn't really seem to fit in (they could have ended theseason after the first arc and everything still would have been okay, no major loose ends that could have contributed toward needing another arc).

The story had too many moments that were seemingly out of the blue, too many deus ex machina moments that went unexplained (both times in desperate situations the main character just magically manages to override the system with no explanation?). Characters were generic, in my opinion; every girl that he met that was approximately his age would fall for him for no reason...

I've heard much hype about SAO, but also heard a lot of negative reviews about it. I'll continue watching the second season, and the extras just for the sake of completely watching the series, but I don't expect much from them.