Review of Sword Art Online

Just to summarize. I saw Sword Art Online a while back now so it’s not completely fresh in my mind. Regardless, I have a lot of time to consider and concisely put together my feelings and thoughts on this show. This will be a completely independent scoring as to what the show is on my list, simply because my list is usually just based on my immediate entertainment value. With that being said, let’s jump right into Sword Art Online. We begin our story in a modern-futuristic setting where humanity is taking its first or at least near-first steps into vrmmo technology. Our protagonist,Kirigaya Kazuto is a former beta tester for a brand new game that has just been released. Something of a recluse who does not socialize often, Kirigaya or his avatar ‘Kirito’ spends an unhealthy amount of time gaming. We’re introduced to the beautifully designed and innovative world of sword art online, which supposedly includes numerous systems and mechanics that have never been seen before in any other vrmmo. It’s a beast, and everyone is playing it.

Then suddenly, wouldn't you know, plot happens and the game-master suddenly gathers the player base in one place to declare that they’re all a part of some forsaken death game in which they cannot log-out and if they die in the game, their head-sets will be completely fried. Funnily enough, at this moment, all of the character’s avatars are disabled and replaced with actual representations of the player. I personally thought this was a stroke of genius, and comedy for the entire five seconds in which it was relevant. So from there on, we get to see how Kirito perseveres and survives in this hostile vrmmo where the only way to win, is for the players to conquer all one hundred floors of ‘Aincrad’.

Story – 5 (Mediocre)

What I just summarized, in my opinion, sounds pretty damned cool and interesting. Immediately, Sword Art Online already appeals to a large demographic, the gaming community which extends just beyond people who watch anime. I don’t know a single gamer out there who hasn’t at least once thought about what it would be like to play a game in a virtual world as a first-hand experience. Sword Art Online sets up and creates a majestic, intricate universe with a seemingly impossible objective and dark survival game tones that can have a psychological bearing, and perhaps lead to some introspective explorations of the dangers of entertainment and escapism… or you would think so at least. When I started watching this, I immediately drew comparison with the .hack franchise, but unlike the .hack franchise, Sword Art Online fails to deliver on possibly one of the strongest points it could have. The psychological effect on the gamer, what can these conditions do to people over extended periods of time? How does this process change one’s thinking, and mentality? You get the idea.

The progression of the story suffers deeply from a lack of focus or direction, strange considering there’s a somewhat clear objective in sight. Clear all one hundred levels, escape the death trap – but no. Somewhere before the mid part of the series, all of these darker concepts seem to get abandoned and replaced by extremely weird filler episodes that introduce a seemingly meaningless character that will never serve as a core aspect, or even a primary re-occurring existence throughout the series. So on one hand we have all of these weird little sub-plots that never seem to tie together or lead anywhere, and then we have equally as bad pacing – and then extremely cheesy and fairy tale romance that looks like it belongs in an erotic novel. (See the erotic sword art online light novel chapter to see what I’m getting at here, it’s worth a laugh and easy to find translations) All in all – it makes the climax appear rather rushed and unsatisfying, though that only refers to the first half of the series.

The second half of the series feels like an altogether different show, aside from the characters. I actually like the second half’s settings which is often a subject of criticism, but there’s nothing wrong with it in the slightest. It’s well defined, beautifully designed and is a solid concept. If not for its positioning, placement and being suddenly shoe-horned in after the rushed climax of the prior arc, I think it would have served as a better chapter in the SAO story.

So just to summarize. I think the entire concept is solid, and initially held a wealth of potential but there was a clear failure to execute these things and they come off as underwhelming simply because of their presentation and ill-timed placement.

Art- 8 (Very Good)

I think the visual presentation of Sword Art Online is stunning. I do not have a solid opinion on what good ‘art’ in anime is, but for me at least, Sword Art Online delivers on that front with dozens of extremely beautiful concept pieces, backgrounds and soft character designs. The world itself is extremely detailed. I feel the character designs are far too generic and basic but at least they are presentable. The special effects are great to watch, and the fight scenes themselves as rather spectacular. I don’t have any criticisms on this front barring the generic nature of primary characters. Kirito looks like a copy and paste job.

Sound – 8 (Very Good)

I’m absolutely in love with certain pieces of the sound-track, and the music fits the flow of the series extremely well. There’s not a single part of it that I think stands out in-particular however. I haven’t done any research into the musicians nor do I have a great understanding of music so there’s little for me to elaborate on here. In my opinion? It is good overall and enjoyable. Though I think they should have played on the game element a little more and brought out some video game sound-effects, music, etc just to push those nostalgia buttons.

Character – 1 (Pathetic)

This is where we get to the main core of Sword Art Online’s myriad of small but overwhelming problems. I’ll go through and examine the primary characters, one by one to point out what I believe to be the main problems with this series;

Kirito – The Protagonist –

Kirito is extremely bland and generic, a typical gary-stu who cannot possibly ever develop or change. Everyone is instantly attracted to his care-free and heroic, selfless personality. (I think this has improved of late but I’m referring to SAO here) kirito’s irl problems are extremely minor and inconsequential, in my opinion. He is physically well, rather attractive and just lacks flaws. He’s an overall flawless character template who would never do anything selfish or bad. At times he just does not even feel human.

It’s funny because we see moments in which he performs what many would consider to be morally reprehensible acts but these are often for the ‘good’ of his friends, and we never really see the impact the game has had on him. There are a sparse few moments in which we see him cry, or breakdown but these feel extremely forced and never really go anywhere. Kirito is the same character at the end of the series as he was right at the beginning, only now he has a harem of girls flocking to him.

Asuna – The Heroine –

Asuna was a mystery figure at first and didn't come into play until later episodes. She was better left a mystery, in my opinion. Once the character came out of the shadows, she was revealed to be no more than Kirito’s online sandwich waifu g.i.r.l heart throb.

Honestly, if she had turned out to be a G.I..R.L. it would have been far more interesting. Asuna, like Kirito, has EXTREMELY minor problems irl to the extent some consider her escapism border-line pathetic. She by no means, comes across as someone you would normally find in an MMO and this can be said about the majority of the female characters. Asuna had potential to be a very strong female lead, but ultimately she’s bottled into the damsel in distress role after being used as nothing but a forced romance character.

As a gamer who often frequents role-playing servers, their relationship reminded me of the numerous times I have been a part of a guild, and there’ll be two players who are always together somewhere having a little lost romance fantasy. More often than note, these end in drama, deceit and a myriad of other complications. There are much darker sides to meeting people on the internet than Sword Art Online does not seem to consider and my suspension of disbelief can only be stretched so far. It’s certainly no .hack.

Now see. I’d mention all of the other characters but…. Aside from the two mentioned above, none of the cast has a slight amount of screen time or development. Nearly the entire re-occurring, if ever occurring cast are female and all have the hots for Kirito but are otherwise more or less void of personality beyond an extremely simple archetype.

There’s one other male character that barely serves as comedy relief fodder. The ‘antagonist’ rarely ever makes an appearance and is once more, shoe-horned in quite spontaneously. I still to this day do not think his ‘motives?’ were worth the expense of thousand of human lives, and his motives to this day are still questionable. What the villain was trying to achieve appeared rather nonsensical In line with his methods, or simply too vague to draw a conclusive opinion on.

Overall, the one dimensional characters really let this series enter the crap pile.

Enjoyment – 6 (fair)

Honestly. Sword Art Online isn't the best show on the market like some people claim it is, but it’s not the worst either. You’ll notice a lot of people will either throw this on the hate or like list, but I like to sit somewhere in-between. I couldn't possibly have a strong opinion on a show, negative or otherwise if it did not offer some enjoyment value. Give it a try. Compare it to similar shows like .hack or Log Horizon. My advice would be, just try and be critical and don’t let the pretty graphics and sound-track drag you away from forming a descriptive opinion. Don’t be too drawn in by the either spiteful or borderline SAO cultist side of the fences.

Overall - 6 (Fair)

An overall train-wreck which serves as decent if not fleeting entertainment value, one day to hopefully be forgotten. Fails to deliver on any basis of realism on every vital area of human interest, achieves in creating hype for the future of gaming (when we’ll all be long dead), fails to deliver an inside look into the game addict, or gamer psyche, fails to deliver on any realistic romance or sense of danger and the characters are enough to make you fall asleep.

A good popcorn anime. Advertises more than it is in its plot/themes/etc, but cannot for the life of it deliver strongly on any of those points.

For further recommendations, I’d say give Accel World a try. A light novel by the same writer. I personally think it’s much better.