Review of Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online (SAO), was the most hyped series for 2012. The hype gave the series very high expectations, and some feel that the series met those expectations, while others felt that this series was utter trash. The reason why most people feel that SAO is terrible is because of the characters and character development. New characters are introduced only to show how badass Kirito is and increase his harem. Each new character gets one episode, and then forgotten for the rest of the series. The only female character that I actually thought had an impact was Sachi. Sachi emphasized deathto Kirito and kind of(?) gave Kirito the inspiration to protect everyone. The one flaw with Sachi was that they killed her off way too early, because I didn't even feel sad for her at all.

A lot of people also complain about the time skips, how it started off from episode 1 and then jumped to episode 50. Lets be honest though, do we really want to watch Kirito enter a new floor, grind, look for the boss room, and then defeat the boss for every single floor? It'd get really repetitive, so what the writer tried to do was skip to the floor where minor events took place to keep us interested.

The art and sound were outstanding in my opinion. I felt that the art was amazing until the Alfeim Arc. That's when I thought the art got a little sloppy. The openings, endings, and OST were great.

Watching an anime isn't like being in English class. You just need to enjoy it. I did enjoy SAO, despite its flaws. That's really all that matters to me. But because of it's poor execution, I have to give this series a 7.5/10 (rounded to 8).

If you want to turn your brain off and just enjoy watching a badass in all black overpower the sh** out of everyone and get all the girls he wants, SAO is the perfect anime for you.