Review of Sword Art Online
If anime went to school SAO would be that kid who tries really hard to fit in with the cool group but ends up just being the tag along. That's all this anime is, a massive try hard. STORY 6: I'm not giving this a six because it was good, I'm giving it a six because the outline of the plot is really clever but they didn't pull it off in a fashion that was appealing. The first three episodes set it up really well and if they had stuck to the skeleton of the first three eps this might have been better presented as amemorable 2012 anime (for a good reason).
Not only is the story telling unlimited flawed, the game it self ignores it's most basic rules all to help the protagonist along. The whole epic tale of beating 100 floors of monsters and bosses it totally wiped away in 13 eps all because the dribbling mess of a love story hits a fork in the road.
ART 7:
The character designs were pretty average, it's the monsters and landscape that makes this a eye feast.
SOUND 9:
Ahh the aspect that hits the nail on the head no matter the anime. Yuki Kajiura has done it again, bypassing the shocking plot to give us magic within every battle that increases the intensity right down to the last sword swing. (Can you tell I'm biased towards her? ^^; )
CHARACTERS 4:
What characters? They's only three main characters that get more then one episode of time and most of that is spent dolling over the main character. There really isn't anything else I can say here.
ENJOYMENT 5:
This 5 comes wholeheartedly from the music for me. It was a nice watch but that fact it takes it self way to seriously flaws many of the things that could have been great about it. The romance looks like it was written by a girl who's guessing how romance works, the game pushes aside it's basic rules of the world to help the main character. It's trying way to hard to impress and that it self is a really big brick wall for development.
OVERALL 6:
It was good but not great and it most certainly wasn't the highlight of the season. Give it a go but don't go into it thinking it'll change the way you watch anime, no deep meaning, no values.
But this is coming from a person who has watched a fair share of anime, if you're just getting into the whole anime thing it's a really good start for newbies who just want a animated thrill.