Review of Sword Art Online
Story: 6/10 First of all, I actually like the concept of Sword Art Online itself, but the arrangement of the story is kind of messed up. The pacing of the series is one of the bad points. The 1st and 2nd episode of the series take place during the first 2 months after the game launched. Guess what, the 3rd episode take place 1 year after the events in 1st and 2nd episodes. It seems that there are a lot of time lapse through out the whole Aincrad arc and the viewers (us) missed a lot of things we should know. (SPOILERS AHEAD) People may actuallywonder why did Asuna fell in love with Kirito (or vice versa) in such a "short" period of time. Little did people who watched the anime know that, they only fell in love almost 2 years after they first met each other. These all can be found in the SAO: Progressive novels. Sword Art Online could have been better if they arrange the story at a regular pace, not going too fast nor too slow. It could have been a good "MMO" styled adventure anime with all the viewers watching the protagonist clearing each floors. The anime missed a lot of important reference / points about the story.
In my opinion, that Fairy Dance arc is not necessary for the whole story. Why can't they just end the whole story after the aincrad arc? I guess the whole point of the fairy dance arc is just to tell the story of Kirito's sister falling in love with her brother and being rejected. The story can be very good without that weird character (Sugou Nobuyuki) licking and smelling Asuna. I am just disappointed with the whole arc because they just add a lot of useless things that made the story go south.
Art 8/10 + Sound 9/10
The art is one of the main component of this series. All the fights between the characters and the monsters are very beautiful. The great special effects of the sword skills really made the attacks more cooler, instead of regular sword attacks. All those fights really brings out that "MMO" theme. The environment of Aincrad is spectacular, as the art can highlight that greatness of the scenery in Aincrad. For example, that lake and the mountains on the 22nd floor can let people know that there are still good things in Aincrad (instead of all those dungeons).
The music, in my opinion is superb. Not only because all the soundtracks are composed by Yuki Kajiura (Composer for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero and etc.), but also the atmosphere created by the music fits the scenes in the anime perfectly. For example, playing 'swordland' during the boss fight really improved the sensation for viewers, as you can feel how tense the fight is.
Conclusion:
Sword Art Online is a good anime in terms of art and music. This series HAD a lot of potential for becoming a good anime. I would really consider this a good anime series if they have a slower pace and focusing on only an arc, rather than 1 rushed arc + 1 useless arc.