Review of Sword Art Online

“I wrote a blog post a while ago about why I fucking hate video games because this is what it does! It appeals to the male fantasy.”— triggered buzzfeed feminazi

Sword art online - everyone's least favorite anime. Some hate it some worship it and others (like me) shrug and wonder why people would do either. If you haven't already known, SAO is about an eponymous video game that is completely immersive (literally). The catch is that no one can log out, and if you die in the game you die in real life. This sounds very interesting, but what if I told you that's only the first 12 episodes... and there's 12 left in the season that have nothing to do with SAO. That's pretty crappy if you ask me. That's just the biggest complaint I have with this show, along with a fistful of other things.

STORY 3/10
There is none. It begins intriguing, but then nothing happens for 10 episodes. I was expecting a good mystery with stakes, suspense and all that good stuff, but what I got was an episodic mess that progressed way too fast and couldn't focus on any character other than Kirito (the main character). To elaborate, every episode is accompanied with a time skip- months or even years at a time. This is horrible, because then I can't get invested in or attached to any plot points. The only plots that I can and do get invested in are the rare 2 or 3-parters in the middle. The 2nd arc of this season - alfheim online is the most generic damsel in distress story I've seen. It's also eerily similar to a story in Yu-gi-oh duel monsters.

CHARACTERS 1/10
Good lord! If I can rate things lower than a 1, then I would in a heart beat. I always think that good, well-written characters are one of - if not the most important thing in storytelling. I need to care about them, want them to succeed, don't want them to die and get invested in their lives and conflicts. This show did nothing to make me hate the characters per say, but it certainly did nothing to make me love them. The "protagonist" Kirito is without a doubt the least developed main character I've ever seen. He has no background, no conflict, no struggle and he solves every problem he comes across with bullshit deus ex machines. I can't get behind someone if I already know he's going to win. It should be a struggle, and I need to be on the edge of my seat hoping he doesn't die. That doesn't happen because no matter what, he wins. But there's more characters than Kirito, there's Asuna (hot girl #1). Silica (hot girl #2). Lifa (hot girl #3). The other girl I forget the name of (hot girl #4). Get the point? It's a fucking harem anime. Every female character has big boobs and wants jump on kirito's dick right away. They also have no development or problems or anything like that.

ANIMATION 7/10
Time to stop trashing on this show for once. The animation is actually a really good thing about this show. It always looks really clean, fluid and shiny. Sometimes it actually looks impressive, I'd go so far as to say this show'/ animation is better than a lot of other things produced that year. Stylistically, it's nothing new, but it looks pretty clean.

SOUND 6/10
I never care about or focus on the sound department of any shows, but a quick mention to the music, specifically the openings and endings which kicked ass.

OTHER THINGS
In my intro to this review I said I don't hate this anime. That's true but I can see why people do hate this anime. Why don't I hate it? Other than the animation and sound, there's a few other things that keep me going. The most prominent thing is sword art online (the game). If this game were real, I can see myself playing it and enjoying it. The show sets up the game as an enjoyable, well-made and developed video game that feels a lot like other well made games today. There's also the voice acting. I watched this show dubbed, and other than Kirito's voice I can say that everyone else did a pretty dang good job.

OVERALL 6/10
Should you watch it? First things first, if a friend recommended this to you and it's high on his top list of anime, he's a pleb who only cares about action and big boobs. Never listen to his opinion about anything ever again. It's not horrible, but I'd say don't watch it. If you don't have well-established critical opinions about things and you only watch anime to see people kicking ass and getting hot girls, then you'll like this. Otherwise, watch something better.