Review of Sword Art Online

I just recently rewatched season 1 of this anime and oh boy do I have comments. First time watching it I was absolutely in love, second time (with many years in between) I started seeing many faults. 1) The first few episodes are great, they present clearly what the audience should expect from the show and the main characters. Nevertheless, a parallel romance plot, that should have been in the sidelines adding texture to the show, became the main and in a few episodes the -only - plot line. This took away from the adventure, action and survival idea of the show. While in generalviewers don´t mind seeing romance in an adventure, the show takes it too far making filler love episodes in what would be the most important and adventurous part of the shows goal to end the virtual game. The two story lines could have easily mixed -- everyone loves the perfect mix of romance and battle together. This was not it.

2) A lot of people criticize that Kirito, the main character, is too perfect. While I agree, we almost always want the main character to win in their endeavors, so we can kind of ignore this point. What I cannot excuse is the character development, or better, regression of Asuna. Asuna was presented as one of the greatest fighters in all of SAO, Kirito even mentions various times that she is the only one who could rival him. Nevertheless, after the first few episodes the writers turned her into a pathetic and weak character who would hide in the face of adversity and could only cook. Yes, back to the wifu stereotype. There is a difference between adding emotions to a character for development and completely changing that characters personality profile. She could have added so much to the show. This was a completely missed opportunity.

3) In general, the art and the sound are excellent.

I would recommend this show to anyone who is trying to get into anime. While the storyline is missing some texture in general the ideas and objectives behind the writing are well conveyed and the audience isn´t left with any cliff hangers (which to me is a plus for a newbie).

**this review does not apply to SAO II