Review of Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online is one of the most recent hits to hit the anime world. It focuses on the story of a boy who is referred to in the online world as Kirito. The premise of the story is that 10,000 people who log on to a virtual reality massive multiplayer online role playing game (VRMMO) are now trapped inside by its creator. In order to escape, they have to complete the game by clearing all 100 floors of the game. The premise of the story is great, but what ultimately hurts the series is the fact that it is incomplete. The journey of Kirito isone that is full of hardships and difficulties, but we only see highlights of it. It starts from the first floor, then it jumps to around the 50th, then to the 74th, and then at the end. They talk about other events that occur, but they are never shown on screen. Some of these are important events that seemed to have affected the entire community that is trapped in the VRMMO, but they become "noodle incidents" that are only referred to in name. As a result, it feels like a lot of it is missed out.

For some reason, I really like the art of the series. To me, it seems simple, yet is highly effective in communicating that the world is in fact a virtual world. Each of the characters are introduced in the first episode (some are shown for a split second in the crowd), but we also get to see them change as they progress through SAO. It is nice to see that characters change their appearance as time passes for them.

Both of the opening themes and the main theme that plays whenever Kirito does something amazing are all songs that stick out to me. In the past, I have rarely taken a liking to the theme songs of anime, but SAO is one of the ones that I like and those songs stood out to me. The songs help contribute to the atmosphere, but they are mostly done for action phases. However, in the later episodes, the music also begins to help communicate emotion.

Character development is something that I am mixed about in this series. The main reason for this is that it feels like a HUGE chunk of the story is missing. Kirito begins his journey on the first floor, but we only see his first day and his last two or so days on the floor. We do not see key events in the story that contribute to their growth. Some of them are mentioned and a few are hinted at, but it feels like they are glossed over. For example, Kirito and Asuna have a disagreement about how to deal with a monster and whether or not they should lure the monster to the town so that they can kill it while the monster is busy killing NPCs. However, we do not see the events leading up to it, or what happens after. Leaving out these events hurts character development greatly. The second half of the story also depowers Asuna and forces her to become a hostage that Kirito has to rescue. She does have a moment in which she does try to free herself and nearly succeeds, but it is ultimately up to Kirito.

While the story, art, and music is good. The story still feels incomplete. There seems to be a lot missing and the two year period that Kirito is trapped in SAO is condensed into a dozen episodes.