Review of Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online was one of the first animes I’ve watched. Because of all the hype that surfaced upon its release, I had rather high expectations for SAO. I wouldn’t say that I was completely disappointed by it, but I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t. I don’t think that SAO was as bad as some people chalked it up to be, but I can definitely see where those people were coming from. Either way, after I watched the last episode, I stared at my computer screen for a little while, grieving over all of the lost potential. That being said, I watchedit quite some time ago, so my apologies if anything in here is inaccurate.

Story: 5/10
The premise of it (not the execution) was rather interesting and it had so much potential to be a decent anime. (Honestly, it had the chance to be a great anime, but I digress.) The first three or so episodes set the scene for the rest of the show, but after that it went downhill. There were so many fillers in the beginning that really didn’t have anything to do with the rest of the plot. Sure, it showed Kirito in action, but overall, those episodes could have been omitted and not much would have been affected. All they served to do was introduce a bunch of characters who didn’t really make any appearances in later episodes. In fact, the characters introduced just fell in love with Kirito and were shown for maybe two seconds in the last episode(s) to show how jealous they were over Kirito and Asuna’s relationship.
When they returned to the main (I use that term lightly) plot of the first arc, things were all over the place and overall, things made sense and there was a resolution. But, there were still ten episodes left. So, why not just rehash the first arc and plop them back into a virtual world? Honestly, I’m not going to go into detail about the Alfheim arc because this would take up an entire page. It was flat and clichéd and I did not like it.

Characters: 4/10
So, let’s begin with our main protagonist, Kirito. I hate using this term, but he was a generic Gary-Stu. He doesn’t have any flaws (evident ones at least) and a bunch of girls fall for him. And of course, of all the girls in his harem, he falls for the girl who at first didn’t like him but eventually warms up. Who saw that coming? Also, Kirito overpowers his enemies rather easily. I’m not much of a gamer, but from what I’ve seen, it takes more than a couple of flashy sword slashes to take down supposedly powerful enemies. Kirito is overall a flat character.
Next we have our demi protagonist, Asuna. She’s beautiful, badass, and can cook. I had rather high hopes for her; before I watched SAO, I saw her as a strong fighter who was still pretty. However, in the middle of the first arc, Kirito started making all of her decisions for her and she become completely reliant on him. Sure, she could still hold her own and poke things with her sword, but she didn’t do anything. The second arc didn’t help her cause: Asuna was locked away in a tower and even though she sought to find a way out, it obviously didn’t work. I’ve heard arguments that she had to be mentally strong while she was in there, and I agree. Yet, while that holds true, we didn’t get to see any of her mental strength. What we did see was her crying and praying for her beloved Kirito to save her. After the first arc, all she served to do was provide (rather creepy) fanservice and sit around, waiting for Kirito.
Yui is their “child”. She’s adorable and helps her daddy cheat the game to find Asuna. I didn’t really expect much from her, but the thing that annoys me about her was the fact that she was probably around eight/nine years old and spoke like a two-year-old. Maybe this was just me being picky, but that was unsettling.
Next is Suguha/Leafa. Not many people like her for obvious reasons, but I honestly think that she is one of the better characters of the show. She infamously falls in love with Kirito twice even though they’re siblings/cousins/I’m not really sure anymore. However, the fact that she still helps Kirito and tries to be happy for him and Asuna shows that she does, in fact, have a personality. I actually like Suguha and she’s my favorite character in SAO. (Although that really doesn’t say much because I don’t really like any character in it.)
The rest of the characters were all brushed aside and for the most part, useless. (Including the villains whose names I don’t remember, which goes to show exactly how much SAO developed the supporting characters.)

Art: 9/10
There isn’t much to say here. The art is beautiful and the character designs were great for the most part. However, the fact that Kirito basically has the same appearance in Alfheim as he does in the real world was confusing. They could have at least made him look a little different, but like I said, that might just be my nitpickiness.

Sound: 8/10
The openings and endings are wonderful, but that’s not a hard thing to do. I said earlier that Yui’s voice irritated me, but those aren’t really problems when compared to the overall issues with SAO.

Enjoyment: 4/10
I’m not really sure what to even put here; I definitely enjoyed some facets of SAO, such as the animation and music, but for the most part, it fell flat. The fillers did provide some entertainment and some moments were heartwarming.

Overall: 4/10
In general, I was disappointed by SAO and the amount of fans is has baffles me. I would not re-watch it and it was a let down for me. There were some high aspects of it, but pretty animation and nice music doesn’t make up for stale characters and a bland plot.