Review of Sword Art Online

*I made a deal with my brother. He has to watch Cowboy Bebop, and I would watch this. He won this negotiation because he never finished Bebop and I for some reason put myself through this entire show. Number of Episodes: 25 (about 20 minutes an episode) Plot: C- *The virtual world Sword Art Online after being released to the general public traps the players by preventing them from logging out. The developer lets the players know that it is not a fault and it was designed. The only way out for the players is to beat the game by reaching floor #100 and beating the boss.If they die in the game, the headset will react like a microwave and fry their brains. If someone on the outside world tries to remove the headset, their brain will get microwaved. It's a simple and goofy plot but is more than passable for a show. Unfortunately, it doesn't really deal with the outside world and how people react to it and it raises a lot of questions on the physical state of the bodies of the players and why the developers of the game haven't been arrested. The first episode Kirito says they don't feel pain but they can feel cold and warmth? It's very inconsistent. And sometimes most of the time, I feel like Kirito is making up stuff as he goes along. I think I would rather have known how the world worked instead of being thrust into it and have Kirito serve as our emotionless narrator. But I will say that Sugou Nobuyuki was a much better villain than I anticipated. For a show mostly geared towards the younger audiences, I did not expect to see Asuna chained up with Kirito incapacitated forced to watch Sugou start to strip Asuna naked and to molest her before his very eyes. That was some dark stuff and probably the best scene in the show despite it being so awful. And you know the show is catered towards teens so it is pretty disturbing that a scene so graphic was included in here.

Visuals: C+ *For an anime based on a virtual world video game, the visuals are fairly disappointing and basic. Still, they aren't bad or anything and the player characters look realistic enough with a few of them being " Waifu"worthy (not for me but I wouldn't be surprised if my brother thinks that way haha) But many of the creatures that they fight looked so goofy.

Voice Acting: C: *For the most part, I was ok with the voices. At times, Kirito reminded me of Light from Death Note, but then he gets super awkward and shy and does his weird breathing thing when he gets shocked by something and it's super annoying. He does it at least three times an episode. And I think three is underselling the number of times it happens. Asuna surprisingly has a good voice but some of the other female characters that are introduced to the show are high-pitched squealers that make my ears bleed with every word they say. I'm looking at you Silica and you Yui! There are classic anime screams in fights. There are exaggerated voices of heckler's in mobs. And of course, there is the stereotypical douche bag voice of any characters that we are supposed to hate. To summarize, the voice acting is ok, but not the best.

Film Score/Soundtrack: B- *This is a very repetitive score with a lot of influences that reminds me of other scores that I've heard. For instance, there's a track with violins that reminds me of Game of Thrones, And then a harp melody reminds me of Rufus Wainwright's Hallelujah that was made famous via being in the cult phenomena known as Shrek. One of the battle songs partially reminds me of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and its epic battle song and another one kind of reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. As a stand-alone listen, I was not surprised to find out how many great tracks that there are. But in the context of the show, I think I rolled my eyes more than I enjoyed the melodies.

***My favorite track: At Nightfall
(This is actually harder to pick than I realized especially with all of the great flute tracks on the record. But the gorgeous violin melody and the piano backing it up as the song picks ups in its intensity makes this tune beautiful, somber, yet hopeful.)

Characters: D *This is where the show really struggles. Kirito is not the most likable protagonist but I suppose that could be by design as he's meant to appeal to the loner, anti-social, awkward type that likes to game and play solo. Just saying most of those apply to me and I didn't really like him (although I wouldn't really call myself a gamer). Asuna is pretty cool and probably would be a more interesting character to have as the protagonist. But then they introduce some new characters and make it into a big deal when they die with super dramatic music and it's just not something I can care about in only ten minutes of runtime. The side characters need to be more likable and more human, They all are too into their roles in the game and the fact that all of the players seem to act like they've never been in the real world is bizarre and lazy writing. I'm not saying that every episode should be full of characters missing the real world, but there should be references and people talking about their old lives to make them seem more human. They might as well be NPC's with the roles they take as blacksmiths and shopkeepers etc.

Cringeworthy Anime Moments: *Anime cliches: high-pitched female voices not every episode but they happen. If there's a kid in an episode, get ready for them to say "mommy and daddy" but in a super annoying way. Overly dramatic screaming in the fighting, the characters saying their thoughts out loud in battle, yep it's all here. Also, I don't know if I think it's cute or cringy but when character's blush, their entire body slowly turns red like a loading bar. And I feel like the show is way too catered to kids with the lessons learned, the themes, and the love triangles. But the main thing that is cringy is how people react to Kirito. I used to play MMO's when I was younger and most people don't suck up to anyone because they are the maximum level. You ask for advice and try to join a party with them to gain some extra XP, but the way that they treat Asuna and anyone as a high level was super annoying. And the entire concept of "the beater" was so lame. Why wouldn't you want someone that played the game before to lead you? It's so counter-intuitive to the main goal of survival. And finally, any time they bring up the legends of the game and the Kirito gets scared. Dude, you are a super high level and you're freaking out over potential ghosts? Get a hold of yourself you're living in a video game dude. Also, why does every female in the show, including Kirito's sister cousin fall in love with him? Did I miss the memo?

Opening Titles: C: *J-Pop is normally not my style of music (although the more anime I watch, the more I think I may be wrong with this opinion). But the intro keyboard is cute and the melody is nice. And it grew on me a bit. The second song that starts at episode 15 is much less catchy though.

Final Verdict: 2/10 *There is a lot of anime cringe in this show. The plot is horribly inconsistent. There are a few recurring characters with voices that are really annoying. The themes are simplistic and don't delve anywhere near as deep as they should considering the potential a virtual world has for the real world. Think of movies like Inception or The Matrix where people either choose to put their body into a dream-like state living in a different reality or where they don't know that their reality isn't real. They touch on the aspect of people not being able to cope with returning to the real world but the show just doesn't do a good job of getting the viewer delved into the SAO to make people understand why. The time jump from episode 1 to episode 2 I think is the main reason why. SAO is just a game, and the next thing we know people have made it their lives and we don't learn how any of it happens and instead we just see Kirito is a "lone wolf" and by the series' end we learn that it's better to have friends. But with all of that being said, and despite the film score being very repetitive and overly dramatic for the plot at hand, there are a lot of gorgeous tracks that I will be relistening to in my free time. And more importantly, the show does tie up almost all of the loose ends while answering some of the lingering questions I had like what was happening to their bodies while they were trapped in SAO. I'm glad my little sister and brother and many other people adore this show, but it was definitely not for me.