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Hey guys, AnimeFanFTW here, and welcome to another anime review, and today, I will be reviewing the anime that everyone both loves and hates: Sword Art Online.
Now, a couple of things to point out:
1. Don’t flame on my review. I say this because I’m 100% sure people will disagree with my review in some way, shape or form.
2. I know that Sword Art Online has light novels. But in my review, the light novels do not matter.
3. The second season of the show, Sword Art Online 2 (Or Gun Gale Online) will not be included in my review.
Ok, so let’s get this thing started. Hope you enjoy.
______________________________________________________________
Introduction
Video games.
It’s a universal fact: Video games are amazing. Video games have proven time and time again that it can introduce people to amazing worlds. You can explore amazing landscapes and defeat giant monsters in Shadow of the Colossus, you can save a princess while running through colourful and quirky worlds in Super Mario Bros, you can perform death-defying attacks destroying massive bosses 200 times bigger than you in Bayonetta, the possibilities are endless. And heck, the reason we are members of Planet Minecraft in the first place is because of our love of the video game, Minecraft. In the anime fandom, almost all fans of anime are also fans of video games. But a couple of years ago, aside from the anime .hack//SIGN, there was not a lot of animes set in the video game world that were very popular. (At least, I don’t know any popular video-game genre animes) But in the anime summer of 2012, anime company A-1 Pictures released the anime Sword Art Online, which took the anime world by storm and was arguably the most popular anime ever (at least, until Attack on Titan was released a year later.) So, does Sword Art Online live up to its hype as the greatest anime ever?
The answer is no. Not even close.
(THIS REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)
Story – 3/10
Here’s the story in a nutshell: In the year 2022, the world is introduced to the VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) game that has taking the nerd world by storm: Sword Art Online. In this virtual reality game, with the help of the Nerve Gear (basically a better version of the Oculus Rift) you get to actually play inside this RPG world through your eyes, and not through a computer screen. The story follows our main character Kirito, who was one of the beta testers of the game. On the game’s first day of launch, everything is going amazing. Until something happened. The creator of the game, Kayaba Akihiko, teleports everyone to one place to announce a couple of things.
1. You cannot logout of the game.
2. The only way to leave the game is to complete all 100 floors of SAO.
3. You will look like your real world bodies.
4. If you die in the game, your real world self will also die.
And so we follow Kirito as he tries to escape from the game. That’s the beginning in a nutshell. Now I’m sure many of you are wondering why I gave the story of SAO a 3 out of 10, and here’s my answer: It’s handled horribly. Don’t get me wrong, there were a handful of things I liked about the story. First off, it’s set in a video game, which is obviously cool. Secondly, the first 3 episodes were perfect, introducing an amazing world and was paced really well. And lastly, it was really cool how most things we do in real life, like cooking, were implemented in a game setting. But that’s all that’s good about the story. Basically, SAO is split into 2 parts: The Sword Art Online Arc which lasts for 14 episodes, and the Alfheim Online Arc which starts at episode 15, when Kirito does escape, but he must do a task which involves spoilers. Basically, as soon as you watch episode 4, the cracks start to show. First off, the pacing goes way too quickly. For example, in one of the episodes, they were in Floor 11, but on the next episode, there were now on Floor 35. What happened in Floors 12-34? The anime doesn’t explain. Secondly, it didn’t know what genre SAO wanted to be. It didn’t know if it wanted to be an action show, a drama, a comedy, a romance, or even a mystery. Except for the action, it failed in everything. Lastly, the Alfheim Online arc. Even with its faults, I didn’t mind the first arc, but as soon as the Alfheim Online arc started, it turned from decent to horrific. The story was horrible, with most parts ignoring logic to cover up plot holes, includes very questionable content which would make most people uncomfortable, and it has the worst villain of all time. It would be fair to say that the Alfheim Online arc is the worst anime arc ever, and I would go so far as to say that any person that says they like the Alfheim Online arc is lying to themselves. Because of the first arc, it does gain a few points, but I can’t ignore the horrible second arc, which is mainly the reason I give the story of SAO a very low score.
Characters – 2/10
At this point, many SAO fanboys would be flaming me right now, but I’m going to fuel the fire by saying this. I think the characters of SAO are not only horrible, but I also think this is the anime’s greatest weakness. I’ll explain. First off, let’s talk about the main character, Kirito. Kirito was one of the beta testers of the game, and we follow him as he tries to escape SAO. Many, many people love Kirito due to him being a “badass” and having a lot of “character development”. But I disagree completely. I mean, yes, Kirito did look like a badass when he fights, but that’s the only thing I like about Kirito. To put it simply, he’s a horribly written character. If I could describe Kirito in 3 words, it would be “Wish Fulfilment Character”. I say this because he spends all of his time playing video games, is perfect at playing said games and has hordes of females chasing after him. I find a lot of problems with this. First off, Kirito is made to be perfect. But when a character is perfect, it’s impossible for that character to develop. The only way he solves problems is by screaming at it and attacking it. Secondly, every time Kirito is around a female, suddenly the female becomes useless. I thought that was stupid. Lastly, he is extremely powerful in the game, but the anime doesn’t explain why he’s powerful. An example is a scene where 7 adult players attacked Kirito, but Kirito was so powerful, he was regaining health faster than he was getting damaged, which I do admit, was really cool, but the anime didn’t explain how he got to that point. The main female character, Asuna, is even worse. (Sorry, Asuna fans). In the first 2 episodes, she was absolutely amazing, showing a lot of potential as a badass, mysterious, strong female character. But after that, she turned into the most stupid, useless, generic character I have ever seen. Whenever she was on screen, she was probably useless in that scene. Asuna really disappoints me because she could have been an amazing character, but she fails in everything. Other characters include Sachi, the shy girl that was the only female character in the show I actually liked, Silica, the 9-year-old who got on my nerves, Lizbeth, the blacksmith who was meh, Klein, a character that had some character development but never got enough screen time and Yui, who is introduced later in the series and is very annoying and is only used as a plot device. Not all characters were bad, but some were just horrendous. Now I can’t explain about the characters without talking about the romance between Kirito and Asuna. I personally think the Kirito and Asuna romance is one of the worst love stories I have had the misfortune of seeing. It’s so forced and stupid, it’s cringe-worthy. It appears out of nowhere, and they take their relationship way too seriously. Heck, they are both under 18 years old, but they still get married inside the game. Seriously!? If you want an example of an excellent love story, watch Tomoya and Nagisa’s relationship in Clannad. So yeah. Overall, SAO’s characters are horrible.
Animation – 9/10
Now this is the part where I stop saying how bad the show is, and start saying how amazing it is. Even though SAO fails horribly in terms of story and characters, it does amazing in terms of the animation. Throughout all 25 episodes, it was a visual treat. The art style was colourful and smooth, the backgrounds were stunning, the character designs look awesome and the movements looked very smooth. But the best thing about the animation was the fight scenes. Every single fight scene was astonishing to look at. It was fast, action-packed and never failed to impress me. Even during the horrible Alfheim Online arc, the visuals were amazing. The only reason why I didn’t rate the animation a 10 is that there was some scenes that weren’t amazing, just good. So to conclude on the animation, the animation is the only reason I can ever see people love SAO.
Sound – 6/10
The animation wasn’t the only thing that impressed me about SAO. The sound was also kinda good. The soundtrack for SAO was very well done, but forgettable. Whenever there was a fight-scene, it was combined with unbelievable songs. After all, amazing fight-scene + majestic opera music = profit. The songs that played when there wasn’t a fight scene were very good, but quite forgettable. You’ll probably not remember the songs, but when you do listen to the songs, you’ll enjoy the song. Also, both opening songs of SAO are so good. In terms of the voice-acting, in the Japanese sub, it’s great, but not amazing. The english dub tho...so horrible...
Enjoyment – 4/10
This anime massively disappointed me. Although I was always enjoying the animation, sound and the fight scenes, the story and characters ruin everything. This could have been an amazing anime. Heck, it could have been one of my most favourites. I really, really wanted to like this show, but SAO kept on disappointed me. Many people praise the show for being the “perfect” anime, but everytime I hear someone say that, I laugh. But at the same time, many people hate the anime for being horrible, which I disagree. At the end of the day, I thought Sword Art Online was simply “below average”. There were a lot of bad things about the show, but there were also a lot of good things in the show, so it evens out. But even so, Sword Art Online remains my least favourite anime of all time, but not because it’s horrible, but because it could have been so good, but fails in almost everything. But I will say this: I want to see Gun Gale Online. I’m really hyped to see Gun Gale Online. They have only one chance to fix everything. If they fail, I will hate the show more. BUT, if Gun Gale Online fixes its story up and turns out to be amazing, I will forgive everything wrong with SAO.
We shall see.
Final Rating – 4/10 – Bad
_______________________________________________________________
For my next blog, I will compare two “things” to see which is better. So yeah. Can’t wait.
Also, I’ll try to start making skins again. Been too long since I made a skin. xD
Until the next review…
This is AnimeFanFTW, over and out!
Now, a couple of things to point out:
1. Don’t flame on my review. I say this because I’m 100% sure people will disagree with my review in some way, shape or form.
2. I know that Sword Art Online has light novels. But in my review, the light novels do not matter.
3. The second season of the show, Sword Art Online 2 (Or Gun Gale Online) will not be included in my review.
Ok, so let’s get this thing started. Hope you enjoy.
______________________________________________________________
Introduction
Video games.
It’s a universal fact: Video games are amazing. Video games have proven time and time again that it can introduce people to amazing worlds. You can explore amazing landscapes and defeat giant monsters in Shadow of the Colossus, you can save a princess while running through colourful and quirky worlds in Super Mario Bros, you can perform death-defying attacks destroying massive bosses 200 times bigger than you in Bayonetta, the possibilities are endless. And heck, the reason we are members of Planet Minecraft in the first place is because of our love of the video game, Minecraft. In the anime fandom, almost all fans of anime are also fans of video games. But a couple of years ago, aside from the anime .hack//SIGN, there was not a lot of animes set in the video game world that were very popular. (At least, I don’t know any popular video-game genre animes) But in the anime summer of 2012, anime company A-1 Pictures released the anime Sword Art Online, which took the anime world by storm and was arguably the most popular anime ever (at least, until Attack on Titan was released a year later.) So, does Sword Art Online live up to its hype as the greatest anime ever?
The answer is no. Not even close.
(THIS REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)
Story – 3/10
Here’s the story in a nutshell: In the year 2022, the world is introduced to the VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) game that has taking the nerd world by storm: Sword Art Online. In this virtual reality game, with the help of the Nerve Gear (basically a better version of the Oculus Rift) you get to actually play inside this RPG world through your eyes, and not through a computer screen. The story follows our main character Kirito, who was one of the beta testers of the game. On the game’s first day of launch, everything is going amazing. Until something happened. The creator of the game, Kayaba Akihiko, teleports everyone to one place to announce a couple of things.
1. You cannot logout of the game.
2. The only way to leave the game is to complete all 100 floors of SAO.
3. You will look like your real world bodies.
4. If you die in the game, your real world self will also die.
And so we follow Kirito as he tries to escape from the game. That’s the beginning in a nutshell. Now I’m sure many of you are wondering why I gave the story of SAO a 3 out of 10, and here’s my answer: It’s handled horribly. Don’t get me wrong, there were a handful of things I liked about the story. First off, it’s set in a video game, which is obviously cool. Secondly, the first 3 episodes were perfect, introducing an amazing world and was paced really well. And lastly, it was really cool how most things we do in real life, like cooking, were implemented in a game setting. But that’s all that’s good about the story. Basically, SAO is split into 2 parts: The Sword Art Online Arc which lasts for 14 episodes, and the Alfheim Online Arc which starts at episode 15, when Kirito does escape, but he must do a task which involves spoilers. Basically, as soon as you watch episode 4, the cracks start to show. First off, the pacing goes way too quickly. For example, in one of the episodes, they were in Floor 11, but on the next episode, there were now on Floor 35. What happened in Floors 12-34? The anime doesn’t explain. Secondly, it didn’t know what genre SAO wanted to be. It didn’t know if it wanted to be an action show, a drama, a comedy, a romance, or even a mystery. Except for the action, it failed in everything. Lastly, the Alfheim Online arc. Even with its faults, I didn’t mind the first arc, but as soon as the Alfheim Online arc started, it turned from decent to horrific. The story was horrible, with most parts ignoring logic to cover up plot holes, includes very questionable content which would make most people uncomfortable, and it has the worst villain of all time. It would be fair to say that the Alfheim Online arc is the worst anime arc ever, and I would go so far as to say that any person that says they like the Alfheim Online arc is lying to themselves. Because of the first arc, it does gain a few points, but I can’t ignore the horrible second arc, which is mainly the reason I give the story of SAO a very low score.
Characters – 2/10
At this point, many SAO fanboys would be flaming me right now, but I’m going to fuel the fire by saying this. I think the characters of SAO are not only horrible, but I also think this is the anime’s greatest weakness. I’ll explain. First off, let’s talk about the main character, Kirito. Kirito was one of the beta testers of the game, and we follow him as he tries to escape SAO. Many, many people love Kirito due to him being a “badass” and having a lot of “character development”. But I disagree completely. I mean, yes, Kirito did look like a badass when he fights, but that’s the only thing I like about Kirito. To put it simply, he’s a horribly written character. If I could describe Kirito in 3 words, it would be “Wish Fulfilment Character”. I say this because he spends all of his time playing video games, is perfect at playing said games and has hordes of females chasing after him. I find a lot of problems with this. First off, Kirito is made to be perfect. But when a character is perfect, it’s impossible for that character to develop. The only way he solves problems is by screaming at it and attacking it. Secondly, every time Kirito is around a female, suddenly the female becomes useless. I thought that was stupid. Lastly, he is extremely powerful in the game, but the anime doesn’t explain why he’s powerful. An example is a scene where 7 adult players attacked Kirito, but Kirito was so powerful, he was regaining health faster than he was getting damaged, which I do admit, was really cool, but the anime didn’t explain how he got to that point. The main female character, Asuna, is even worse. (Sorry, Asuna fans). In the first 2 episodes, she was absolutely amazing, showing a lot of potential as a badass, mysterious, strong female character. But after that, she turned into the most stupid, useless, generic character I have ever seen. Whenever she was on screen, she was probably useless in that scene. Asuna really disappoints me because she could have been an amazing character, but she fails in everything. Other characters include Sachi, the shy girl that was the only female character in the show I actually liked, Silica, the 9-year-old who got on my nerves, Lizbeth, the blacksmith who was meh, Klein, a character that had some character development but never got enough screen time and Yui, who is introduced later in the series and is very annoying and is only used as a plot device. Not all characters were bad, but some were just horrendous. Now I can’t explain about the characters without talking about the romance between Kirito and Asuna. I personally think the Kirito and Asuna romance is one of the worst love stories I have had the misfortune of seeing. It’s so forced and stupid, it’s cringe-worthy. It appears out of nowhere, and they take their relationship way too seriously. Heck, they are both under 18 years old, but they still get married inside the game. Seriously!? If you want an example of an excellent love story, watch Tomoya and Nagisa’s relationship in Clannad. So yeah. Overall, SAO’s characters are horrible.
Animation – 9/10
Now this is the part where I stop saying how bad the show is, and start saying how amazing it is. Even though SAO fails horribly in terms of story and characters, it does amazing in terms of the animation. Throughout all 25 episodes, it was a visual treat. The art style was colourful and smooth, the backgrounds were stunning, the character designs look awesome and the movements looked very smooth. But the best thing about the animation was the fight scenes. Every single fight scene was astonishing to look at. It was fast, action-packed and never failed to impress me. Even during the horrible Alfheim Online arc, the visuals were amazing. The only reason why I didn’t rate the animation a 10 is that there was some scenes that weren’t amazing, just good. So to conclude on the animation, the animation is the only reason I can ever see people love SAO.
Sound – 6/10
The animation wasn’t the only thing that impressed me about SAO. The sound was also kinda good. The soundtrack for SAO was very well done, but forgettable. Whenever there was a fight-scene, it was combined with unbelievable songs. After all, amazing fight-scene + majestic opera music = profit. The songs that played when there wasn’t a fight scene were very good, but quite forgettable. You’ll probably not remember the songs, but when you do listen to the songs, you’ll enjoy the song. Also, both opening songs of SAO are so good. In terms of the voice-acting, in the Japanese sub, it’s great, but not amazing. The english dub tho...so horrible...
Enjoyment – 4/10
This anime massively disappointed me. Although I was always enjoying the animation, sound and the fight scenes, the story and characters ruin everything. This could have been an amazing anime. Heck, it could have been one of my most favourites. I really, really wanted to like this show, but SAO kept on disappointed me. Many people praise the show for being the “perfect” anime, but everytime I hear someone say that, I laugh. But at the same time, many people hate the anime for being horrible, which I disagree. At the end of the day, I thought Sword Art Online was simply “below average”. There were a lot of bad things about the show, but there were also a lot of good things in the show, so it evens out. But even so, Sword Art Online remains my least favourite anime of all time, but not because it’s horrible, but because it could have been so good, but fails in almost everything. But I will say this: I want to see Gun Gale Online. I’m really hyped to see Gun Gale Online. They have only one chance to fix everything. If they fail, I will hate the show more. BUT, if Gun Gale Online fixes its story up and turns out to be amazing, I will forgive everything wrong with SAO.
We shall see.
Final Rating – 4/10 – Bad
_______________________________________________________________
For my next blog, I will compare two “things” to see which is better. So yeah. Can’t wait.
Also, I’ll try to start making skins again. Been too long since I made a skin. xD
Until the next review…
This is AnimeFanFTW, over and out!
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For me, I'd rate it a 6/10 because after 2 months of not watching, I can still remember most characters, the 'plotline', and the scenery.
If CinemaSins were to do a video on SAO, they'd probably point out the same points as you did. ^^
I can see why you would rate it a 6. The fightscenes are very good. And yes, I did notice the faces. Hope the people that made the faces got promoted. xD
So majestic
I thought Alfheim Online was a colossual failure, with so many errors and plotholes.
The romance did have alot of problems, but personally, I think it didn't need one.
SAO was just average to me. So many horrible things about it, countered by alot of good about it.
I will admit, it was charming, visually anyway. SAO looks beautiful. Sounds great too. Everything else though....eww.
Also, yeah, School Days is the worst thing ever.