Review of Sword Art Online

This may contain very minor spoilers for the romance aspect of the show. Oh, dear, where to start. Sword Art Online is one of those series that explodes in popularity and if you haven't seen or heard of it you're living under a rock, so to speak. Going into this series I was excited and apprehensive at the same time. "What if it really is amazing?" as the many fanboys like to often remind me. But then I thought "It's probably most likely overrated and not as terrible as the haters make out to be". How wrong I was. I have many, many problems with thisseries ,but the major one is the main character. The ever popular Kirito. Kirito has no personality whatsoever, he's a blank slate for the viewer to insert themselves in a perfect example of a Gary Stu. He has no flaws, every female wants him and all the guys hate him or think he's the second coming of Christ. My second problem with the series is one that I thought wouldn't be that big of a plot point considering the synopsis, is that of the romance.

If I had to describe the romance in SAO in one word,it would be: cringeworthy. But before discussing the awful romance I have to talk about the main female protagonist: Asuna. Now, I had high hopes for Asune I was hoping for a strong female protagonist, but what I got was a Mary Sue.

*Sigh*

Asuna starts out with potential as a person who can take care of herself, but no low and behold she ends up having to rely on a man to do everything. Now back to the romance. The romance was probably the worst I've seen in anime so far, as the show started to focus on it quite it bit. It was just so rushed in how Kirito fell in love with sandwic- I mean Asuna. They even get married, which left me with the feeling that I'd missed a part of the story where their romance is fleshed out, but no I did not miss out on anything, the romance was rushed and cringeworthy. The couple had absolutely no chemistry whatsoever.

Now onto the story.

*Sigh*

The story, like the romance was equally rushed. In the first couple of episodes this is very notably as there are quite a few times skips for no reason. Oh, and the show fails the whole suspense thing. Sure, people are in danger and die, but it doesn't feel like it should. Kirito is protected by plot armour and even when he is in danger he just pulls a deus ex machina out of his arse and survives. It's moments like this that take away any semblance of "suspense" the show has. As for the the controversial second arc of the show, I haven't got much to say other than it was just as bad as the first. The only thing I can say about it is that Kirito's sister Suguha was a character that I thought had potential but in the and was wasted and she was pushed aside to make way for the all important Kirito. And with that it concludes my review. As I am writing this know I am somewhat melancholic, this show could have been amazing, showing the effects of what death can have on a person and the aspects of love in a virtual world, but ultimately the show fell flat on it's metaphorical face.

Ultimately,I cannot recommend this show to anyone, unless you want to live out a teenaged male power fantasy than go ahead and watch it. And if not, go watch something else you most likely won't like this.

Thanks for taking the time to read the review it was my first so I hope you found it helpful.