Review of Sword Art Online

This is a review of Sword Art Online’s adaptation. I do not care for the light novels, this review is based entirely on the anime adaptation. The Story (4/10) The plot for this anime falls below that of an average seasonal anime. Sword Art Online begins with a good, interesting premise. The first two episodes are actually very promising. However, once you get past those initial episodes the show doesn’t really do anything of interest and feels like it was written by a sexually frustrated teenager. As I said, the concept is good and somewhat tragic. A new virtual reality MMO opens up and thousands ofplayers begin grinding away, only to find they cannot log out of the game and are stuck in this virtual world. There are so many possibilities and interesting things to be done with this premise. Sadly, it’s all wasted. Forced romance, time skips, filler and a random love triangle plague this anime.

It’s not that the story is dreadful, it’s just that it was incredibly mediocre when there was so much to be done with it. Disappointing. And that’s without mentioning the second half of the series, which is legitimately awful. Seriously, if you are going to waste your time on this show for whatever reason, just drop it when you get to the halfway point. You’ll know when you’re there. There’s a load of bullshit, Gary Sue, rule-breaking nonsense. I could go on all day, but then I’d have to give actual spoilers.

Art and Animation (8/10)
Very solid, actually. High production value and nothing to complain about really. Other than the fact that this decently-sized budget was wasted on a terrible show.

Sound (7/10)

Ahh, Kajiura Yuki. A shame his time was wasted on this tripe. Honestly, it’s not one of his best works. It fit the on-screen stuff but nothing really stood out. The first opening by LiSA is great, however. Possibly the best thing to come of this series.

Characters (2/10)

Nope, nope, nope. I can deal with silly characters like Yui from K-On. I can deal with whiney characters like Shinji. But the whole point of this main character is wish fulfilment. He’s a self-insert; an antisocial, somewhat pathetic, MMO playing teenager. I’m not sure if they were trying to make a character as close to the intended audience as possible, but they damn well succeeded. He’s then somehow amazing and brilliant at the game purely because he did some beta testing. In fact, he even defies the rules of the game. The hard-coded rules matter not to this Gary Sue! He also becomes some sort of courageous leader, somehow. He changes in the series but there’s no character development. He just kind of decides to be different.

Now for the female cast. I’m sorry, but how is this loser surrounded by attractive young women? Why are so many attractive young women even on this game? Way to ruin any suspension of disbelief. The female lead, Asuna, was perhaps the one character with some potential. Unfortunately, just like the premise of this show, the potential goes to waste and they turn what should have been a strong female lead into a damsel in distress.

Conclusion (4/10)

This series is below what I’d consider average, even with the high production value. If the second cour never happened this might have been above average for me, but the latter half was just too awful. If you are the target audience for this show (a teenage male who enjoys playing MMOs) then you may very well like this series. It is watchable, and some episodes are pretty good. Think of this as the Twilight of anime; there are occasional good moments, but to actually enjoy the whole thing you need to be a specific type of person.

I would not recommend this show to anyone outside of the aforementioned target audience. Those people will probably love this series, but to everyone else you’ll probably feel that you’ve wasted your time. Good premise ruined by childish wish fulfilment.