Review of Sword Art Online

By now I think every anime fan has heard about SAO and seen thousands of reviews for it but I still want to write my own version. It was actually one of the main reasons why I continued to watch this show. To be honest, I have no idea where to begin... Well for starters, do you like the main cover? Looks fascinating does't it? Some interesting character designs too! Do you want to learn more about the characters? Really? Well then... FORGET IT! The things is, this shows doesn't have characters. Especially in the first and main arc. The only characters we ever see are Kiritoand Asuna, the main due. However, despite being main characters we still know nothing about them until like second arc =/

Are they interesting? Well they are not boring but I can't call them entertaining either. For one Asuna is your perfect wife and housewife. A type of woman any guy would like to have by his side. She is cheerful, beautiful and carrying. You will never get hungry for she is an amazing cook and your house will always be clean. She has every quality a dream woman should have and none that real woman does have.

Same goes to Kirito. He is always friendly, kind, loving and strong. He never gets mad unless it is an enemy who threatens him and his friends. In a way he is same as Asuna. A dream man that any woman would like to have. He has all the positives of a dream man and no negatives of that real man.
Though he is not a very good cook... so I guess he is less perfect than Asuna.

Story... oh boy, where do I even begin?
I'm sure everyone is familiar with the premises by now. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? I was beyond happy to start this series! Sadly the only good thing it had were premises, the real deal was horrendous! What could've become the best show ever, turned into a disaster full of lost potential!

Before anyone says anything, I'm talking purely about anime not novel. Never read it. It might be the best piece ever written but anime defiantly isn't.

One of it's major problems is a pacing. It is jumping between months like a bunny! I'm not saying that we should have 100 episodes to show every level, that would be boring. But to skip 50 levels in one episode? Isn't that a bit too much?

First episode starts quiet nicely, then we have a whole month time skip in episode 2. Ok, I can tolerate that. But what about episode 3? At the beginning of the episode, series had skipped through another 2-3 months! But do you know what is the best part? By the end of the same episode it is already whole year! They skipped whole year in less than one episode! Do you realize how much material it is?!

Just look at you own life! Just how much happens in just one year? How do people change? How do we change in one year?! Sometimes there can be drastic changes in a week! Yet here show simply skips through a very crucial time for players! They are stuck in this game where they could die any day because monsters are everywhere as well as dark characters. It's a panic time! Even if not panic, it is a massive change of life for characters where they go through a lot not just physically but also emotionally. However, show decided that it is not import and skips this whole thing straight to the point where characters already accepted their fate and live normally. It's like if author/creators had no idea how to explore human mind as well as develop them and decided to simply skip to the easiest part of the story.

That's actually not the only time they did it. It happens in almost every episode. It felt more like episodic show!
This pacing also effected character development. Let's take Kirito for example. In episode 1 and 2 he is the biggest coward and then in a flash he is the bravest man on a planet. In episode 3 something major happens that turns Kirito into emo. However, in episode 4 he is all fine and happy. Why? Because another several months passed! Of course he would be fine! But does it really sit well with you? Once again it feels like if creators had no idea how to deal with Kirito's moodiness as well as how to solve it so they just skipped saying "Time heals everything!". They simply needed something dramatic to happen to drive MC forward. They just created an excuse for him to change. They did not develop Kirito, they just conveniently changed him to benefit their other future idea. That's called lazy writing.

Another issue concerning characters... in one of the later episode Asuna tells her sob story about how she was crying all the time but then came Kirito her light! Do you know what is the problem here? SAO breaks one of the main rules of story telling "Show, not tell." SAO does everything other way around. It is very hard to feel sorry for Asuna when in every single episode she was shown as a happy, strong character. None of the issues she said were ever shown or hinted at. Creators simply felt like she needed a sob story. If she was a side character, ok fine. But she is a freaking main heroine! You don't just skip things like that!

Talking about characters... every side character appears maximum for like 25min, basically just for one episode. You are lucky to see them at least for another few seconds later on. Most of the characters are already good friends with Kirito and forgave him everything. None of the issues were ever addressed.

Also it is a game, their real bodies are still out there and need treatment... where do they get it? How did they function for the last 2 years?! This question got answered only at the end of the arc when no one already cares. Bodies are taken to the hospital and looks like during that time characters had fallen asleep. One again we were told not shown. Show once again didn't bother to show us that abnormality. Don't you think it is important? Characters suddenly falling asleep? That's major! It could leave so much for speculation too! But no!

In all honesty it feels more like normal fantasy setting where characters have lived their whole life not like a death game where random people/gamers got stuck.

Deaths are pretty flashy and sometimes it is hard to take them seriously. Maybe it is my own opinion but I believe that series would have been so much better if we actually got to see what is happening in real life. What happens to the bodies? How are families dealing with it? How is government dealing with it? Did they just leave 10 000 people be?!

Kirito is the biggest lady magnet too. To make it worse every single female out there is probably a lock in who spent her whole life watching romance movies.
Females like that do exist, but every single one of them? Really?

This show has lost so much potential it is not even funny!
I have so much more to say but I'll stop and will address it's second arc now.

ARC 2
Unlike many others, I actually enjoyed this arc far more and for me it was a saving point for this series.
Story wise it was bad and quiet un-original. However, what made this arc better is the fact that we finally have a linear story and you do't feel like you have skipped something. Another plus is the fact that we finally have more actual characters! They still need more depth but in comparison to SAO arc they already have 10 time more presence. We also get to see what is happening in real world. Not much but better than nothing. We see how real bodies look and learn about consequences.

On it's own this arc was useless especially since main theme was a typical Dam in distress arc. Also players are taking game way too seriously. they make great speeches about sacrificing themselves, cry when someone dies and... what's the point? In few seconds the same characters comes back like nothing happened... it is not SAO arc! Scenes like this should be done there not here!

Also who said that SAO is very original? I lost count on how many unoriginal ideas it has:
a) Deus Ex Machina, Kirito just loves it! To be frank, he is the most over powered character there even thought it is a game where everyone can upgrade.
b) Unrequited cousin love, it is almost in every anime now.
And so much more! But those are the most glaring ones.

To be honest, if creators had combined two arcs, we could actually get a decent show. SAO would finally have a linear story with actual characters and development but like that it was just meh...

About good parts... well animation and character designs are beautiful. I would love to see one of those worlds so I have no complaints here. It also has some awesome soundtracks.

Despite it's flaws SAO still had some nice and memorable moments that I liked but sadly there are too many minuses. I didn't even list half of them...

Sorry guys but I find this show average. It had some good ideas but with horrible execution. Also a lot of bad and over used ideas, some of the topics were never ever really dealt with like for example dark killer guilds.

I can tolerate 8 and 7 marks but I totally can't accept 9 and 10 especially when people themselves admit that show has flows and that novel did this or that better.

Before you SAO fans will start to scream at me, shouting "Fuck you, SAO still has high rating." let me ask you one thing... do you know why?
Think about it... how many so called haters have given this show 1 or 2? I'm for most part hater but I tried to be reasonable and gave it 5. Imagine that all of us were to lower our marks to 1 and 2... How big will be this difference?

It will fall, I guarantee you that. So before calling us names think, it is thanks to us that this show is holding the high score, not only you.

Besides shows have to be criticized otherwise we would have thousands of works with perfect mark and then no one could call fanfics bad.

Now to those who still didn't watch the show... you heard my opinion, it is a waste. Will it be a waste for you? Don't know.
I addressed some of its main issues, if you believe you can handle them then sure watch it. If no, stay away.

The way I would summarize SAO, especially arc 1 would be a children show because of how simple it's structure and development is.

That's all I have to say for now.

Thank you for your time, buy!