I've heard about SAO from many, many people. I hear that it was very mediocre, but I realized lots of people have also praised SAO for it being a masterpiece, so I decided to give it a shot, and it was definitely anything but a masterpiece.
From what I've witnessed over twenty-five episodes, was the concept of an MMORPG being the main setting for an animation. That was the first thing I piqued my interest, and brought me in to watching this show.
Now, we'll start off with the positives, and there really isn't much to be positive about. I thought SAO, while lacking in many
...
aspects, was highly enjoyable to watch. While I know where it was lacking, it seemed quite entertaining.
The music was also very well in setting up every scene in SAO. I thought that was the strongest point of this show. Every boss fight, every depressing scene, was planted very nicely because of this.
The art was, well, it wasn't anything special. It was nice, but it was what we've become accustomed to seeing from A-1 Pictures, time and time again. Still, it was very good.
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Now lets jump into the negatives, and those major two points would easily be the story, and the characters.
Lets start with the story. Other than the first few episodes, SAO did a pretty poor job executing the story-line properly. Time-skips, and subplots, that's pretty much all this was up to episode 14. It was really hard to really grasp the situation they were in at all because of this. What I thought was going to be the main story, was the MC and other characters trying to make a determined effort to escape SAO, surely didn't happen for the majority. Instead, all we got to see was characters make a one-episode stint, and then be forgotten again. It started to feel more episodic than actually having anything story-wise.
All this leading up to episode 14, where, in my eyes, I thought SAO should've ended. Instead, they somehow pull horseshoes out of their a** like it's an everyday thing, and SAO continues onwards into the second arc. I'll explain more in my character reviews about this segment.
After episode 14, this whole thing goes to real crap. I had no real connection to the story-line whatsoever, because at this point, all it was doing was dragging it out to appeal to the fans. Everything from this point was so obviously predictable (Well, the whole story was, lets be honest), especially the sister-brother thing, which is probably the epitome of cliche of late. To top it all off, the ending was almost a mirror image of episode 14, and at this point, I just didn't care.
CHARACTERS. I'm going to try to put this nicely. Such bland, stale, unbeatable characters heading SAO.
Kirito you could hardly feel for, because everything he did was so utterly predictable. I'd be surprised if you couldn't guess what was going to happen with him. I don't know if they were trying build and develop character with the overabundance of subplots, but they sure did a terrible job of doing anything of the sort if that was their plan. All of the scenes where Kirito was grasping for straws didn't have any emotion stringed with them, because at this point, we all knew what was going to happen, and the story did a great job of making that unfortunately obvious.
Asuna. Perfect wife material I guess? Pretty much about it though. She spent half her time cooking for Kirito, which, I found absolutely hilarious. She, while better than Kirito, was still extremely bland. We all knew what was going to happen with these two after the second episode. She apparently was always there to save the day. The interaction and development between these two MC's was so cliche it hurt.
And then, once they reached episode 14, I personally thought this should've been it for them. If they expected to continue on SAO for 25 episodes, they should've split it into a smaller one-cour, two seasons, or at the very least, had a different character take the front (Perhaps Sugu, because she was an MC in the 2nd arc). Instead, these characters defy all odds and are simply unbeatable. From this point moving forward, I had no emotional attachment to the characters, that of course being if there was any to begin with, and I was simply wondering when it'd be over, because I'd already guessed what was going to happen.
Now, this part will be a bit *SPOILERY*, so bare caution while proceeding for this next paragraph.
Sugu (Or Leafa), is your typical sister. I didn't think they'd do this, I actually didn't think they would, so this was a massive surprise for me. They actually had the "I'm not your actual sister so I love you onii-chan!" gag. I was laughing. I don't know what else to say about this. It was just, wow. For SAO, which seemed more directed towards being so kid-like of an anime, I couldn't believe they added incest love to the story.
*END SPOILER*
As for the rest of the cast. Other than the first guild, along with Sachi. They all didn't really serve any importance to the story in terms of character development, or adding to the story in general. Most of them, as I said earlier, had one-episode stints, and then disappeared for the remainder of SAO.
Overall, given all the negatives I've had to deal with in SAO, I'm giving it a 5/10. I don't give anything less than a 5/10 if I actually enjoyed watching it throughout, but due to the major deficiencies in the story and the characters, it cannot get anything more than a 5.
If you want to watch bland characters, and a jumbled up mess of a story, along with you being able to predict every single thing along the way, then SAO might just be your "masterpiece".
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Jul 19, 2014
Sword Art Online
(Anime)
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I've heard about SAO from many, many people. I hear that it was very mediocre, but I realized lots of people have also praised SAO for it being a masterpiece, so I decided to give it a shot, and it was definitely anything but a masterpiece.
From what I've witnessed over twenty-five episodes, was the concept of an MMORPG being the main setting for an animation. That was the first thing I piqued my interest, and brought me in to watching this show. Now, we'll start off with the positives, and there really isn't much to be positive about. I thought SAO, while lacking in many ... 
Jun 22, 2014
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