Review of Sword Art Online

Story: The setting was probably the best part of the story. Death game? Virtual reality? Clear 100 floors? Yes please. At the time when SAO was first released, this was still a relatively new concept to anime. It felt fresh, and the first few episodes of SAO was really promising. However, unnecessary time skips completely broke the flow of the first few episodes. The story soon devolves into an OP MC running around gathering a generic harem. Then, through illogical ham-fisted Deus Ex Machina, the plot progresses.The first arc, that could easily have been made into 25 episodes only lasted for half of that, before thestart of a new disappointing arc, complete with attempted NTR, wincest, and tentacle hentai. Overall 3/10.

Characters:
The worst part about SAO by far.
The main character Kirito Jesus-kun can be summed up as the ultimate wish fulfillment character. He is a solo player who somehow manages to level up faster than others with the support of entire guilds behind them because of reasons. His entire romantic relationship with Asuna started because he told her to enjoy a good day in Aincrad while he was trying to nap. WTF? It was entirely too forced.
Other filler characters:
Actually filler characters. They are important for 1 episode, fall for Kirito, and are ultimately forgotten about. Overall 2/10

Art:
Gorgeous art for it's time. The battle scenes are what I watched SAO for. Absolutely amazing. 9/10

Sound:
Really good. Yuki Kajiura does not disappoint. 9/10.

Enjoyment: Despite all my criticisms about SAO, I actually enjoyed watching it. The setting was quite novel at the time, and if you watch it without thinking too hard about all it's fallacies, it is actually quite enjoyable. 7/10