Review of Sword Art Online

First of all, I´m a huge fan of Sword Art Online. I´m in love with its concept, its main characters and everything. I´m not going to be imparcial, let´s be honest. Besides all of this, I know that it has a lot of problems. The author made the story to participate in a Japanese competition as a complete begginer. With a 200-pages limit, he tried his best to come up with a great plot with a beginning and an ending. I think that´s why the story itself focus so much on the main character, Kirito, and we can barely see any secondary character. So Iunderstand that there are people out there that dislike this Anime saying that it has time skips, no secondary characters deep development, etc. This story was published on the Internet, and because a lot of people loved the story, the author continued it going forward, and that´s the problem: building a huge franchise with no solid base.
In my opinion, SAO is going better and better from its start, specially talking about the Alicization Arc. It doesn´t feel like the author is trying to write more books only for the money as the narrative doesn´t feel in a hurry and stories are very interesting, at least for me, and I have great expectations in SAO Progressive: its meant to be a reboot of the original Aincrad Arc but going step by step, with a slow pace, and I hope it can build a great development of characters and, overall, to set a solid base to the entire Sword Art Online franchise.

I have seen all SAO anime, including its only film, and I´m writing this review after reading the first two light-novels, including all Aincrad arc.

I have to say that, as far as I am concerned, the Anime is a clear transcript from the light novels. Everything that happens in the novels, happens in the exact terms in the Anime. So that´s a +1 for me.

I personally think that the animation is fine, but it could be better if we had more chapters, longer fights... but that didn´t happened because fights in the book where also short as f... I prefer the Anime to stay canon all the time. Talking about the art, I of course love it. Kirito and Asuna are pretty similar to the original ABEC concepts, they both look very good and their outfits are pretty nice.

Talking about the sound, oh my god... inside the game, the environment sounds, combat scenes... I would say they are ok. But when talking about Openings and Endings, I have to say this: I loved and still enjoy all openings and endings all SAO franchise have, seriously. Is not like Naruto that there are pretty amazing songs but some others that are pretty normal for me. In SAO, I enjoy every single one of them. Crossing Field by LiSA, Yume Sekai by Tomatsu Haruka, Innocence by Aoi Eir, and Overfly by Haruna Luna.

Character development, as I said. I think they all look cute, but it has a lot of problems. Secondary characters doesn´t seem to affect both Kirito and Asuna decisions or future events, and we cannot see their past, maybe because in SAO it was not okay to talk about their "real-life" outside Aincrad, but I just think that it was because of the author. Or he forgot about setting great characters development, or he just wanted to focus on the main story to fit the 200 pages limit extension.

This season is divided in two separate arcs. The first one being Aincrad or simply SAO (first light novel) + secondary missions or characters (second light novel) as Yui, Silica, Lisbeth or Yuuki stories. The second one being Alfheim Online or ALO. Talking about this second game, I like the idea of flying, but I really don´t like all the "elf" theme with those pointy ears. So in this second game I was not seeing it because what was happening in the game, but mainly what was happening in the real life. I think the character of Suguha is amazing as she has a real development. She feels so human... And no, there is not any kind of incest in this Anime. Sugu has lost her brother for 2 years, and when he wakes up she wants to start to have a better relationship with her brother. But she is told that Kazuto is actually her cousin, and start to feel some emotions for him. That´s not ilegal, they are just 15 and 16 years old confused teenagers. They don´t do anything, Suguha tries to shut down her emotions and begin to fall in love with a guy she just met in an online game. This characters still don´t do anything, and when she later realizes that person she just met is actually her cousin, she feel again destroyed. As I said, I don´t see what is bad about this, and I really enjoyed to see all these emotions in this arc.

Overall, I could give this season a score of 7 because I know there are better well-made Anime out there. But SAO became my favorite Anime and I feel so much love for its franchise that I have to rise the overall score to 8. It can have worse characters, worse plot, worse fights than other Anime series... but if in the end I enjoyed the hell out of this Anime, and I feel so atracted to it, I cannot lie to myself.

I really think it is a good Anime. Do I recommend it? Not really. I mean, if you want to see a good serie I can recommend, I could say other animes that have a better plot or a great and solid base.
If you watch this season and you don´t like it, it´s okay. Don´t watch the next seasons and everything is allright. We don´t have to like the same Anime.
If you watch it and actually like it, go on. I think SAO improves each Season, and you can get a better experience if you can also read the light-novels. Also, SAO Progressive is going to have a film really soon. Maybe they do a great job and we can all experience what is left from the original story. And don´t forget Progressive is considered as canon. Maybe in a few years it won´t be crazy to recommend to watch Progressive first, and then jump into these Anime.

PERSONAL OPINION IN SOME FAQ:

Why is Kirito so overpowered?

It is told that Kirito has been playing MMORPG games from a long time ago. He seems to not enjoy his real life and focus a lot in the games he play. In this particular case, he was able to play as a beta-tester in Sword Art Online, so he is already better in the beginning of the Anime than almost everyone else. When he realizes they cannot exit the game, he inmediately leave the main town to earn as much experience as possible. And this becomes his main goal in life, to become better and better. I think we would all like him to struggle a little, to see boss fights that are actually close, etc. But I don´t see a major problem in all of this. I understand he is the main character, that puts incredible effort to be the best, and later he will feel invencible because he wants no one to die, specially Asuna.

When Asuna meets Kirito, she starts being more passive, less independent, etc.

I think both Kirito and Asuna fall in love and want to protect each other. They momentarily leave all the boss fights and actually question if they can never fight again to live in peace. They soon realise that people need their help to finish the game, and not die.
I understand dissapointment in some people in the second arc about Asuna being trapped inside a cage like a doll, but she has nothing to do. She is powerful, don´t get me wrong, but the story tells us that its impossible for her to leave from the inside. I just think the author wanted us to be frustrated and worried about Asuna. That´s all.

Yui is saved because Kirito now is a professional hacker.

Yeah, it feels a little artificial, I have to say it. At least in the novels they want to emphazise the fact that Kazuto left Kendo when he was 6 years old or so because he was more attracted to his "mother" job as a web designer. He starts to work and study a lot about computer, machines, etc. He will later in the Anime produce some electronical equipments by himself, so I just want to think that he has been in touch with computing a long time ago in the real life. We can also think that he just made a backup of some data, from a computer that was previously unlocked by Yui... But yeah I get it, a little of "Deus ex Machina".

I hope you enjoyed this review!