Review of Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online is the anime series that basically introduced us to the Isekai genre, in 2012 there wasn't anyone who hasn't watched SAO and got amazed by how they fulfilled every otaku's dream: to live inside a video game world. But in actuallity, Sword Art Online is one of the worst and most disappointing series ever made(and you'll only disagree if you're like 11/12 years old). But why? The anime have a brilliant idea, have a decent animation and CGI, goddammit they even managed to get LisA singing their opening theme.So how? Here, my review is going to be about why SAO isthat bad.

Story(3/10):SAO's story happens in an era where the VR games evolved, allowing you to experience a total submersion into the digital world. Eventually all the players get stuck on the game, where they can only leave by beating all the 100 levels and if their health bar reach 0, they die in real life. That's a pretty nice idea, very original and interesting, but they couldn't use the best of it. The first arc was just the story of a generic main character, who suddently becomes god for no reason, doing pointless things while they just ignored all the cast members with exception of Kiri-Jesus-Kun and Asu-ClicheTsundere-Chan (but I'll talk about the generic cast on the characters topic down below). One of the main reasons why I hate SAO is the stupid plot twist on episode 14, which could only be described as an insult to the history of animes. The writers didn't even care about why Kayaba Akihiko trapped everyone in the game, he just did it because he wanted to, there is no explanation! The "Alfheim Online" arc isn't any better, it's the total opposite. It doesn't have any positive point, the main villain is just pathetic, the fights are really pointless since in this other game they have a mechanic known as "respawn" and the story is even more mediocre than of the first arc. Worth mentioning that SAO has a lot more plotholes than Jojo, some examples are:if there some kids were like 6-7 years old later in the series, it means that they played the game with 3-4 years? If Kirito really was able to hack the game servers to bring Yui's heart back, why didn't he hack the servers to save everyone from the game? Why did Kirito refused to follow the plan that envolves killing NPCs if they are f###### NPCs? How did Asuna manage to move in the episode 14 if she was paralised? And in the same episode how Kirito managed to survive and kill Kayaba with an exact 0 on his health bar? All those questions can be answered with just saying: this show is garbage.

Characters(1/10):One thing Sword Art Online lacks of(other than almost everything else) is a good cast of characters. Just tell me, which character do you prefer? The generic overpowered with no personality emo main character, the cliche useless tsundere, the amusing but without any screentime at all side character or all the useless other extras? There isn't even ONE unique character, there isn't any development, and they don't even have a natural grownth. Kirito on episode 2 was just a regular player and was on the lowest levels of Aincrad. On episode 4 he reached godmode, somehow reaching a higher level than everyone from one day to another, and passing 20 levels from the dungeon. Other annoying thing in SAO is how every girl want to have Kirito just for them, for no actual reason, he just have a harem because the writers wanted it like that. Oh no, there is more... I didn't mention her, did I? Okay, here it comes:Yui. If the show wasn't total garbage until then, when she appeared I felt like the creators gave up on the series. (SPOILERS OF EPISODE 11/12 AHEAD)When she was introduced to us, I didn't think much of it. Later on, we got to know that Yui was actually an AI that decided to challenge her programation because she saw how Asuna and Kirito were... smiling? That's so freaking dumb to so many levels. And then there was the goodbye, where Asuna cried her eyes out, claiming that she couldn't smile without her. But who am I to judge, I would also feel like that if I've lost someone I knew for years... oh sorry they knew each other for months... wait weeks? Was it days? Oh no wait, they knew each other for LESS THAN 24 HOURS? I clearly saw her smiling on the other episode. And then, somehow Kirito developed advanced hacking skills, breached the main code from the game and created an item named ''Yui's Heart". Yep now thanks to episode 4 we know she's coming back, that basically means that her death meant nothing.

Enjoyment(3/10) and Overall(3/10):SAO to a certain extent is enjoyable, not great or actually good, it's likeable. And that is until episode 9, after that the show just becomes unbearable, the story gets even worse than it alrealdy was and all the concepts that were already bad(characters,plot twist,villains and basically every other single thing) just got even worse, especially when they introduced Yui. But I'm not going to judge anyone for enjoying it, I liked the anime myself in 2014, and it's not an exaggeration to say that Sword Art Online really made it's name on the story of animes. Love it or hate it, everyone knows how bad the series is.

It's really a shame to think that this anime was released in 2012, the same year that came out Nisemonogatari,Fate/Zero second season,Chunibyou and especially Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. For me, they could just drop the production of "Sword Art Online:Alicization" and all the future SAO series, and manage to create a reboot. This time making it a long shounen to explore more the universe of Aincrad,give screentime and actual personalities to the characters,make a explanation for why Kayaba trapped everyone in the game,remove Kirito's harem and finally just erase the "Alfheim Online" arc,"the Sword Art Online II" and finally the "Sword Art Online:Alicization". I really hope one day we'll get to see a GOOD SAO anime. But for now, it is only in my dreams.