Review of Sword Art Online

I watched this is in 2021, just a year before when the events of SAO start to happen in the story. And still I found the premise to be attractive, I could only think of how appealing it would have been in 2012 (back when the show was released). But having a brilliant premise does just half the job, and after watching the anime you cannot help but wonder if this is how you really would make a palpable story out of a very good premise. But this isn't SAO-I's only problem. The show's pacing is inconsistent throughout the entirety of the first season. Thefirst main arc (known as the "Aincrad arc") feels deliberately rushed. What could have been an in-depth exploration of what it means to live in a fantasy VR world turns out to be a bland story of a guy who defies the very rules that define the integrity of a virtual reality the show so brilliantly created. This isn't the source material's fault and it isn't entirely the adaptation's problem either- part of the reason is the show being on the wrong side of a gradual change in the style of story telling (especially the kind SAO belongs to) that took place as the show aged. But if that's the case, why has the show's reception been extremely polarized right from the beginning? That leads to the next problem - the incredible Kirito, the show's main man. Perhaps one of the few instances where being "incredible" ended up being highly un-likeable. He is too powered and frankly that makes him very uninteresting, the other characters suffer a very similar fate. As the story progresses, it does a lot of questionable things - it's treatment of female characters is frankly indecent , especially in the later stages of the season. Now, all this isn't to say SAO is bad, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it, the animations are good and the soundtrack has some very thumping themes that keep you hooked. To conclude, the world of SAO (and ALO) should've been given more time to express itself, but that wasn't the case and so it ends up too oversimplified, too straight-forward and too protagonist-centered. I would recommend watching the first arc of season one and then decide on whether to continue watching it or not. The reception is so polarizing that unfortunately it's misleading, at times.