Review of Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online is a wildly popular light novel that skyrocketed in popularity, and has spawned its own anime series. The anime series has suffered from what almost every popular anime tends to suffer from: People either hating it and bashing it in to the ground or overrating it. To be totally honest, SAO is no where near "the best anime evuurrrr!!11" and yet its still a pretty decent show that's far from the worst. What was actually a pretty interesting concept and story was marred by its poor execution and sloppy characterization. [ Story 5/10 ] The story takes place in two "arcs." The firstis the Sword Art Online arc and takes place during the first 12 episodes. The second arc is the Alfheim Online arc, which is during the last 12 episodes. The light novel actually continues past these arcs, but the anime only covers these two arcs. The first arc suffers from poor execution and an unnecessary focus on useless, one time only side characters. Luckily it gets better during the second arc.

The first episode establishes the conflict of SAO. The creator of the game, Akihiko Kayaba, has made it so the players can not log out of the virtual MMO. In order to be freed from the game, they must work together to clear all 100 floors of the game's tower. Death in the game means death in real life. Forcibly taking off the Nerve Gear headset from the outside world also means certain death. There is no way around this "game" Akihiko has laid out. Panic ensues.

The second episode consists of the main character Kirito and a group of other players attempting to clear the boss of the first floor. These first two episodes are great at displaying the panic and desperation of the situation. In terms of drawing in the viewer, they definitely do their job well. But then whatever excitement you had might quickly whittle away by the next few episodes.

The next few episodes focus on a bunch of side characters that Kirito will help out of their jam. And then you won't see most of them again for several episodes. Many you will never see again until a brief scene in the ending. You won't remember their names and you won't care. After their episode they will go about their business and you won't hear another peep from them. One episode even shows several side characters dying. But it hardly even stirs up any emotion in you. After all, how can you be sad when they were just introduced this episode and you didn't even get time to get attached to them, much less learn their names?

And this could have been used as an opportunity to develop Kirito a little. But Kirito hardly changes throughout the anime. Oh wait, he gets more and more overpowered. But more on that in the character section. Which brings me to another point: The romance. Kirito and Asuna's romance feels a little forced, like it just sprung out of nowhere. They're friends one episode, then the next, they get married and love each other so much that they'd die for each other. This is probably due to the anime skipping around so much. You'll probably notice this when you see Kirito's level spike throughout the anime when we hardly ever see him train.

Now on to the second arc. The second arc is much better in almost every way. Almost. The story really picks up. There is less of a focus on useless side characters. The main villain is much better and has way more of a presence than Kayaba. You'll actually cheer when Kirito defeats this scum. The execution and pacing of the second arc isn't perfect but its much better than the first arc. It's a shame that the first arc couldn't work out like the second one could.

All in all, the story is just average. It redeems itself and drags itself out of trainwreckville once the second arc starts. But its kind of hard to forgive the boring episodes that followed such an epic start.

[ Characters 5/10 ]

Like the story, most of the characters are also just average. First, we have the main character Kirito. He can do anything, no questions asked. Even when it seems he's going to lose, he always comes out on top. We never really see him train either, as the anime just jumps around a lot in the first arc and his level randomly spikes. We never really see Kirito's struggle to get stronger, he just is. He's automatically awesome and the hero with little faults. In that sense, he's a bit of a Gary Stu. But he's not a bad character. He's still likeable. But he's not a particularly well written character either.

There is also Asuna, the main heroine. In the first few episodes, she's parades on the scene as this little cloaked badass. At first it seemed like she was gonna be a pretty strong heroine. But then later she turns into your usual run of the mill tsundere. Not only that, but she turns into the damsel in distress in the second arc and is pretty much out of action for most of it. Like Kirito, she's not a straight up bad character. She's still tolerable and very much likeable, but there isn't anything particularly special about her.

There is also Kirito's sister Suguha and the virtual AI Yui that later becomes Kirito and Asuna's "daughter." The relationship between Yui, Asuna, and Kirito is very cute. Actuallya lot cuter than Kirito and Asuna's romance. The scenes between the three just make you wanna go Aww.

Now for the villians. The main villain in the first arc is Kayaba Akihiko. And he fails at being an interesting villain. He mostly sits back and watches the players scurry around frantically trying to clear the game. He gets little screen time and has almost no personality to speak of. The villain in the second arc is much more interesting. Noboyuki Sugo, also known as King Oberon is a complete bastard of a villain who you will hate with a passion. He's sick, ruthless, and cunning. He also has way more of a presence than Kayaba did, always taunting Kirito and getting in the way of his reunion with Asuna. He's a great villain and after his actions in episode 24, you'll be screaming for him to go down.

Then there are a myriad of side characters that will either appear once or from time to time. They don't really serve any purpose other than to help Kirito out occasionally. The characters in SAO are tolerable and most are pretty likeable. But the main characters don't go through any significant character development. And most of the side characters are pretty forgettable.

[ Art and Sound 8/10 ]

The music is composed by the one and only Yuki Kajiura. Having composed a number of epic tracks for video games and anime, there's a lot to expect from SAO's soundtrack. SAO's soundtrack is a cut above your average everyday anime soundtrack but its far from Kajiura's best work.

The character designs are very soft and cute. The characters have round faces, big eyes, and hair colors that could be likened to an assortment of skittles. There are a few more rugged character designs for a few male characters and more mature looking designs for about two or three female characters. Overall, the character designs are pretty good.

The animation is good for the most part. Though some of the fight scenes look a bit sloppy and off.

[ Enjoyment 7/10 ]

I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this anime at all. As you can tell, I didn't particularly enjoy the first part of the series. I stopped watching this anime during the first part several times to go watch something else. But by about episode 17, the anime really started to pick up for me and I was eager for the weeks to pass so I could see what happened next. Despite my harsh criticism, I enjoyed the series overall. It was far from the worst anime I've seen.

[ Overall 6/10]

Overall, SAO is a decent anime. I've seen this anime get terrible reviews that peg it with 2s, 3s, and 4s, citing it as the "worst thing ever." And then there are people handing out 10s and 9s like hotcakes. I respectfully disagree with both of these people. And in turn, I've got some advice for anyone who's thinking of getting in to this show: please take the middle ground. Don't write off the anime as the worst thing in existence that needs to be killed with fire. This show honestly is not that bad. Yet, don't go in expecting "OMG THE BEST ANEEMAY EVARR!!11" because I guarantee you that you will be sorely disappointed.

The good and the bad:
+ Fairly enjoyable
+ A lot of great action
+ Good music
+ Nice character designs and animation
+ Second arc is pretty good
- Weak story
- So so characters that get little to no development
- First arc is poorly executed with too big a focus on one time only side characters