Review of Sword Art Online

SAO is probably the most "your mileage will vary" anime I have ever seen. While I personally fall on the "enjoy" side of things, I am aware of the whole lot of negativity surrounding the series and can understand where it's coming from. SAO is a series that is harshly judged by the severe shift in tone in its second story arc (15-25), going from a series that contained heavy themes of life and death survival, trust, and guilt, all mixed with beautiful visuals and a decent soundtrack. The main protagonist gets a lot of hate for being "overpowered" but I feel this comes from misplacedexpectations, as SAO is not a hero's journey type of story, so if that's the kind of thing you want then you will be disappointed. Characters don't go through big arcs and the large jumps in time cut out any potential glimpses of character growth (and stat growth) to behind the scenes.

What you will get in this series is a not too deep, fun story about adventuring through a fantasy land, flashy visuals, cool looking monsters, items, outfits, and characters. The Visual style of SAO is probably more what you will love more than the story or the characters. If you want 25 episodes of cool set pieces and beautifully animated action, and you don't want to be invested in the characters, this is a good series.

I would recommend that if you are satisfied with the story and premise after the first 14 episodes, you may want to consider quitting after that and just pretend that that's the end. The episodes 15-25 follow a typical, rather rushed shonen story with the same awesome visual style and set pieces but a lot less substance in terms of character and plot.