Review of Sword Art Online

3/10

Not Recommended

March 19, 2018

2 min read

4 reactions

Sword Art Online is one of the most popular anime of the 2010s, but for the wrong reasons. I'm gonna be fully honest, I loved this anime. ...For the first 8 or so episodes. First of all, story. It has a promising premise of people trapped in a video game, with the stipulation of "IF YOU DIE IN THE GAME YOU DIE FOR REAL". I liked this idea, but it just wasn't done correctly. From the lack of a good motivation for the villain, to the way the problem gets resolved, and the worst offense, that the suspense of the death game became meaningless by like, episode 6, thisis executed poorly.

Characters.
They're bad. Like, REALLY BAD.
Kirito could have been an interesting protagonist. The setup wasn't that bad, he was a teenager who really liked video games and also beta tested for SAO, and had some extra knowledge of the game due to that. But, of course, all of that was wasted.
Instead of doing something new or interesting with that, they made him super, unrealistically OP. I wouldn't mind if he was just a bit more powerful, but he is pretty much god tier OP.
He also has the personality of a wet sock.
Some edgy, bruting kid who got upset because his friends died. Wait, wasn't he gonna solo the game BEFORE he met the Black Cats?... Maybe he was always an ass.
It's honestly hard to describe Kirito, because other than him being 'emo', what personality traits does he have?
Asuna.
Everybody's waifu. I really didn't like her...
While she was developed more, I thought she was still a very simple 'strong independent woman' character, but then they flipped it and made her a damsel...? In either form, I disliked how simple she was. She just didn't do anything for me.
All of the othher characters were bland. Except Klien he was okay.

Art and Music
THE ONLY THING THIS ANIME DID WELL.
Art is very polished, and the music was nice. I think these were done well, but that cannot save this anime.

Overall, I would reccomend this anime if you're looking for some mindless action. If you want good plot or strong characters, I'd search elsewhere.