Review of Sword Art Online

Quality != Popularity. Implying, or wrongly stating that it does is a fallacy. I will begin this affirming: SAO is bad, not because it's popular, because it's bad. SAO has a really awful beginning that can't decide what to do with itself. It sets itself up as a Batsu game, but then never really expands on the subject, instead choosing to try and make it a grim and dark shounen, but that doesn't really work out either. It then tries being a mystery show, and was actually okay for the two episodes it tried, but that's all it accomplished. The story starts picking up aroundthe middle of the first season where it goes off on this romantic story between two players, and the guild affairs of the game. Honestly, most of the first half of season one was literally just setting this up, regardless of all the plot holes and idiotic story design elements and bad pacing. So it's pretty good. And then the first season randomly ends before the game is finished. Oh, hey, I'm the final boss. Let's fight for no reason away from the last floor.. This would have been fine, except they clearly didn't know what to do with themselves at this point, because they immediately set up another poorly placed ridiculous storyline that almost mimics the conditions of the first season, except without any of the negative penalties. "Oh no! Don't die or. . .you might be kinda. . .inconvenienced?" There's nothing really at stake other than time, and the villain is laughably two dimensional.

There is nothing redeemable about SAO aside from the soundtrack and occasionally decent animation. It had potential but everything was wasted from the writing.

You can enjoy bad anime if you want, but do not try to act like it's actually good in any way. This is why SAO fans annoy me -- not because they like it, but because they think it's amazing in the face of all the glaring issues. They disregard valid complaints with "well I found it fun!" and only cherrypick the bad arguments instead of addressing the ones that matter.

I can barely enjoy anything for the cute girls and the sexual appeal. SAO doesn't even have that. It's just a shell of a series that had potential but never utilized it. It's nothing more than a bad anime with good production values, and no matter how good the soundtrack and how flashy it looks, I cannot enjoy awful storytelling for those two aspects alone. Every time I feel like I'm about to enjoy the series, it goes right back to its problems due to the lack of talent from the writer. He tries so hard that it's actually embarrassing to watch.