Review of Sword Art Online

I have never been more let down by a show before , this show started so well that i would call it spectacular , the story was intriguing and tense at times with plenty of moments that i really liked but this was just for the first 14 episodes , the other 11 episodes or the 2nd half was a huge letdown that just made me wonder why it didn't end when it was still about SAO. It starts with introducing us to Kirito the stories main character as he enters into this game called Sword Art Online using the "nerve gear" however things weren't prettyas all the players soon found themselves to be stuck within the game with almost no way to escape unless they beat the all the floors to the dungeon but here is the catch , if they die in game they are pretty much done for in real life. Sounds interesting doesn't it ? Well it certainly was and i can't deny that.

The first half of the show was highly enjoyable , i really liked how it set it self apart from other animes that are based on games by making death something that had to be considered by the characters in the unknown world they were trapped in. This brought stakes to whatever actions the characters took be it exploring new floors , venturing into secret rooms or even trusting people and this aspect of dread and just wanting to stay alive really sold it for me.

Now for the second part .... I really hated this part and all the arcs that followed , whatever i just explained above was not there any more and it suddenly became just another bland OP MC anime that we have seen a million times now. Do i also have to explain how stupid the villain and his motives were ?

As for the characters , the only ones i actually really emphasized and cared about were just Kirito , Asuna and to some extent Yui as this characters were the only to have gotten any development throughout the show to be honest with you. The rest of the characters are what i would call throw away characters that are just there to make it into another bullshit harem situation for the MC , Rika and Keiko are the same characters as when they first appeared and are given little to none character development , Klein a character which i personally really enjoyed is also given the same treatment where he is given so little screen time and development that it felt like a shame as he was a really enjoyable character that i loved every moment he was in the show and of course what is a harem without a bland overused brocom little sister character right ? yeah i am talking about Suguha and she could disappear for all i care.

Art and animation is nice , not the best but not the worst either , some fight scenes were animated extremely well while some of the other scenes could look pretty average at times. Monsters and character designs were actually pretty decent and i really loved how some of them looked. As for the sound i really didn't like the OP's or ED's but the OST were extremely stellar.

Overall , this is a show i would recommend you to watch for the first 14 episodes and then decide for yourself whether you want to watch the rest of it as while i may have despised the 2nd half some of the people i have talked to enjoyed it so make that judgement for yourself.