Review of Sword Art Online

The first few episodes are amazing, then it falls into a painful routine of one of the biggest wastes of amazing art and music in anime history. Meet Dorito-kun. A nerd-slash-MMORPG-pimp who ignores his only friend Klein because he's the kind of guy who only wants to game with one girl at a time, one who's younger and weaker than he is to impress her. Dorkito-kun leads on a bunch of different girls, including his sister at one point. And even though he spends all of his time going on e-dates and romantic walks through majestically illustrated forests, he is the greatest playerof all time.

Herein lies my biggest complaint about the protag - he doesn't have to spar, practice, or TRY to be the best in the world. He just spends his time hangin' and bangin' with his hoes, spends the second half of the story trying to save his bottom bitch from being raped by a creepy elf, yet has stupid strong and overpowered skills. A main character needs vulnerability to make me care about what happens, otherwise the chase becomes predictable - case in point. Granted, this is what every nerd fantasizes about, so the show probably provides adequate escapism for said target audience.

On most episodes the best part is when the intro and outro music plays.

The whack-ass plot is wrapped in impressive, top-level production value. The music is memorable, thematic, and adventurous. One of the best overall scores for an anime that I've ever heard. The scenery, settings, and character designs are awesome too.

It just feels unfortunate when amazing artists and composers are given such mediocre, cliche stories to frame. This time, they made a mountain out of a molehill of a plot and kept me along for the ride.

I will probably listen to the soundtrack on YouTube for years to come and never watch the show again.

-H