Review of Sword Art Online
*Spoilers* (I reviewed this show a 5, but in this review I'll mainly be talking about it's flaws. TLDR at bottom) After finishing the first 25 episodes, I cannot begin to understand why Sword Art Online has garnered the attention and popularity it has as this show feels lackluster in nearly every category. If you like isekai, you probably will enjoy this show as well, but I believe that SAO has way too many flaws for it to have become as influential and successful as it has. The story feels very awkward because halfway into Sword Art Online, the story stops talking about SAO. While I didn't expectthe entire show to only revolve around SAO, I did not expect them to wrap it up in 13ish episodes and then introduce a whole other game. While I don't dislike the idea of introducing other vr games, it's clear that this season was rushed just to get to that point, resulting in some truly awful pacing. There's a time skip after the first episode, second episode, third episode, and so forth. And it continues like that until about several episodes in. I would have really enjoyed to watch Kirito's solo journey and how he surpasses most of the other players, but instead, SAO decides to feature one episode side stories of him helping people (who are mainly girls because this show devolves into a harem anime, but more on that later). If someone were to watch episodes 2-11 without knowing that this is indeed the actual show, they could easily confuse SAO for an OVA because of how unrelated nearly every early on episodes are.
The characters are all pretty lacking in this show as well. You'd think you would see some interesting developments in the characters for a show that skips around in time a lot, but none of the characters are complex at all by the end and most are just plain boring. Kirito can be summarized as the typically powerful protagonist who always helps people. Asuna can be summarized as the protagonist's love interest who is supposed to be super strong but rarely fights and ends up being trapped for half the season anyways (obviously needing the mc's help to escape). All of the villains are so lackluster too as the game's creator, Kayaba, creates SAO for no other apparent reason other than a desire to become a god, and Sugou who is just evil without a clear reason. One of the worst episodes in this show was episode 3, where Kirito joins a guild filled with irrelevant side characters who die 10 minutes into the episode. It's clearly meant to be "sad" when it isn't as nobody can get genuinely attached to a character they've known for half an episode.
However, the worst part of this show is the harem aspect. Most of the female characters in SAO develop a crush on Kirito for no real reason. Even his own sister/cousin manages to fall in love with not only Kirito in real life but also in game as well. When you watch the first several episodes, the amount of times where, out of nowhere, girls start crushing on him is mind boggling. Just from the top of my head, here's a short list of characters that likes or liked Kirito: Asuna, Suguha, Leafa (counting separate since it's a separate incident), Rika, and Keiko. Keep in mind that this is just within the span of 25 episodes. Plus, there are several more characters that hit on Kirito by inviting him out to drinks and such. Why does this happen so much? No real reason other than Kirito helps people and is a kind person, which doesn't justify him getting doted on by most of the female cast.
tldr; bad characters, bad pacing, story appeals mainly to isekai fans, etc. Don't watch if you don't like isekai.