Review of Sword Art Online

Spoilers incoming. Story: 2/10. There are multitudes of videos and threads online basically destroying the logic behind SAO's narrative, from the practicality of SAO/Aincrad ever being released to how dysfunctional the game actually is. Even ignoring all that, the only thing interesting going for the anime (atleast for the first arc) is the prospect of death. And even that is hard to fear when the protagonist is an over-powered messiah who avoids death through various plot conveniences. Moreover, anyone who does end up dying is someone we care little about; the characters in this show are not memorable at all or completely wasted. When we move onto the second arc of the show, the prospect of death is thrown away entirely, so this arc really needed to emotionally invest us in Kirito and Asuna's dilemma while giving us an interesting world for Kirito to progress through. I found myself not caring at all about the Kirito/Asuna dilemma, namely because it felt like half the time Kirito didn't care about it himself. For example, we'd get episodes where Kirito decides to take a break from the (very crucial and time sensitive) pursuit of Asuna to do some random side quest, and then in the next episode he'd start regretting it. Also, Kirito starts out yet again as an over-powered player and breezes through most of the challenges here, so there's no intensity to be found throughout this arc as well.

And to top it all off, let's not forget Yui, the magical AI that can literally do anything Kirito wants. Hard to have any sense of urgency or fear for Kirito and his situation when he has an AI that can literally tell him anything he wants or help profusely without any repercussions.

Art: 8/10. For how much SAO lacks in its story and characters, it does well to build beautiful settings and environments. The character models are also pretty well-drawn, and the fights themselves are well-animated.

Sound: 7/10. SAO has a great soundtrack, although some OSTs can become repetitive.

Character: 1/10. The worst aspect of the show. Kirito is a static, unchanging character that really has no trials of his own to overcome. Most of the girls he meets on his travels end up becoming irrelevant in an episode, the exception being Asuna. There were characters like Klein and Agil who we should've seen more of, as they were the few characters who actually had an ounce of personality and potential for growth within them, but we see them sparingly.

Perhaps the worst offense SAO presents with Kirito, however, is how every trial he gets through is due to plot convenience. Fight with Gleam Eyes? Turns out Kirito happens to have an ultra-powerful skill to handle that. Fight with Kayaba Akihiko? Turns out Kayaba's gonna let him live because....well, not even Kayaba knows because he FORGOT his motives. Speaking of this, the villains presented in SAO are the worst I've ever seen, so much so I feel they need a proper critique just for how bad they are.

Now, I'm a big fan of villains done right in anime. I love Monster's Johan, Hunter X Hunter's Meruem and Yu Yu Hakusho's Toguro. A good villain not only operates as an obstacle or antithesis to the hero(es) of the story, but can also provide an original, new way to explore an alternate side to a conflict. SAO does none of that; the villains are just there to exist, to just instantiate a conflict so that the story itself can be present. In fact, I don't even consider the two villains of SAO characters so much as 'obligatory plot point Kirito must acknowledge so he can transition from the first arc to the second, or from the second to the end of the show". SAO doesn't explore their villains, their motives, their personalities, or anything that gives these villains an ounce of quality.

Enjoyment: 2/10. The first arc of SAO probably has the worst pacing of any anime I've ever seen. Most of the early episodes are either literal harem episodes where Kirito hooks up with a girl on an adventure (and we never see that girl being relevant ever again); moreover, these episodes do nothing to advance the plot or add the much-needed depth to Kirito's character.

The actual progression of the narrative is sloppily done, to the point where things abruptly end on floor 75 and the final villain fight is introduced out of nowhere. The events to get up to that point aren't even that clear cut; floors were somehow cleared, a few meetings were held to talk about clearing floors, and Kayaba's avatar was introduced in those meetings so we'd know who he was in that abrupt final villain fight.

There's no strong sense of what SAO wants to be, and there was so much potential for it. It could've been a great world-building anime where elements of exploration and survival were emphasizes, and each floor presented a new interesting challenge to overcome; instead, we really don't see much of the SAO world aside from generic snowlands/greenlands/forests and the bosses that accompany them. There really is no diversity to SAO other than "People die irl if they die in the game, Kirito is strong, Kirito and Asuna love each other".

Overall: 2/10. I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone. If you really want to see a video game anime, there are tons better out there. Heck, HxH's Greed Island arc did LEAGUES better in offering us a 'virtual reality video game', and that's not even the premise of the show! I do think SAO is a valuable work in that it shows us what SHOULDN'T be done when writing stories, and it's a testament to the fact that popularity doesn't imply quality. Watching SAO would be a waste of your time.