This is a review for Season 1 of Sword Art Online.
Sword Art Online, an anime that's divided so many people to the point where it might as well be the anime equivalent of a Star Wars movie in terms of reception. Which side of the fence am I leaning on: the lovers, the haters, or am I in the middle? Well, let's find out.
Story: (4/10)
Captures the exaggerated, corny, almost melodramatic dreamlike romantic fantasy storytelling aesthetic of 2000s anime in ways that feel fresh and innovative as well as modernizing a lot of those concepts to fit in with other anime. Unfortunately, however, the over expression
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sacrifices a lot of the series' nuance and genuity, making it feel somewhat manipulative and forced. The romance doesn't serve the story in ways that truly feel organic; it's romance for the sake of romance, and quite an underdeveloped one too: the first part of the season suffers from being paced way too quickly. It doesn't give us much time to breathe and gets to events way too quickly. For example, Kirito and everyone have just joined the game. Couple episodes later, Kirito meets Asuna and the two are not getting along, then very shortly after they're in love, and before you know it, two years have passed. It seemed like the universe at the time didn't even try to solve the problem and instead acted as though these were normal circumstances. Why would this lifestyle be fully accepted by anyone, in a series all about embracing the ideas of control and disconnect?
The second half suffers from contradicting the first. The world hasn't really adapted after the events and trauma seems to be very short term and underdeveloped. You'd think that after something like a popular virtual reality game trapping its inhabitants and threatening them to death, people would be sent to a panic, right? But nope, the video games are apparently a-okay now and no one has really changed. I can suspend my disbelief for people recovering okay after being stuck in a VR game for over 2 years, but I definitely mind the fact that these events were treated with such little attention.
Art: (10/10)
Absolutely dazzling from a visual standpoint, maybe among the most beautiful looking anime I've ever seen. Each shot is bursting with color and personality, bringing the MMORPG to life and fully immersing the audience into the game. The character designs feel very unique from each other, inhabiting action-oriented designs within SAO and fantasy anime-style designs in Alfheim Online. The action scenes are incredibly exciting and add lots of tension to the series, and make fantastic use of the innovation of the game. It truly captures the feeling of playing a virtual reality game and all the excitement and immersion that comes with it.
Sound: (8/10)
Fantastic sound design in terms of effects, editing and mixing, creating unique arrays of sounds distinct to the real world and the virtual world. The sounds function just as how they would in a real video game and even add some excitement to a lot of the action. Everything is smoothly incorporated and you can make out everything well in terms of all of the audio.
The soundtrack is very good as well: it's memorable, enticing, maybe not as emotionally powerful as it could have been but it definitely functions well in the series. LiSA's Crossing Fields is another noticeable highlight, an absolute joy of a song. None of the other songs felt too unique to me, but Crossing Fields in particular defined the series and what it stood for.
The voice acting is decent, serving its purpose and functioning properly in the show. No voice here really stands out, and the subbed and dubbed version are both well enough to be suggested ways to view the series.
Character: (5/10)
Kirito, in all of his lone-wolf, smug, careless nature glory, becomes kind of confusingly motivated once Asuna is thrown into the mix. He rejects the idea of ever joining a Guild but slowly starts to appreciate the likes of togetherness, but aside from Asuna's presence it's never really embraced fully. He just sort of comes across as a fully rebooted character rather than a naturally fleshed out one, and he completely loses his previous personality in just episodes.
Asuna is fine- I feel as though her character improves throughout the series, but in here she does exactly what the show needs her to do: be a love interest to Kirito. Her relationship with Kirito doesn't quite feel genuine, but it has just enough chemistry for it to work on some levels. That, and combined with the rushed pacing, the series never gives you a reason to truly care for its central characters other than the fact that they're fighting for an exit.
Akihiko Kaiba is sort of a wannabe complex villain, a character with interesting motives and ideologies that never get to be fleshed out nor explored in great detail. He's a half baked representation of what this show could have been, and the idea of him having a God Complex and wanting to possess full control of a world created in his image is very thought-provoking conceptually, but it doesn't get enough devotion for it to feel genuine, just like most other aspects of this series.
Kirito's friends and the various other side characters aren't worth mentioning because the series feels that way as well. They exist to come in every few seconds, say something comedic, and then leave the rest of the episode. It kind of focuses way too much on Kirito and Asuna, leaving us with no reason to get involved in anyone else.
Enjoyment: (7/10)
Sword Art Online is an entertaining anime all things considered. It has enough action, emotion, and pretty visuals to keep the attention span of its viewers and gets to the point relatively quickly. However, that comes at a cost as well; some viewers who prefer fleshed out anime would probably wish for this series to spend a bit more time on its worldbuilding and characters rather than jumping from its Point A-Point B type storytelling. It's hard to really get involved in anything if characters start out mildly strong, then train in a dungeon for a little bit of time and walk out overpowered.
Overall: (6/10)
Sword Art Online is a fun series with a lot of passion put into it, but it also feels a bit disjointed and sloppy. It's thrilling at times and is masterfully crafted from a technical standpoint, but the writing is where the series ultimately collapses. It's flawed in its own logistics, morality, and meaning. However, if you're looking for a fun enough time killer and the concept sounds interesting to you, give it a watch and decide for yourself. It's not a bad watch at all.
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Apr 7, 2021
Sword Art Online
(Anime)
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This is a review for Season 1 of Sword Art Online.
Sword Art Online, an anime that's divided so many people to the point where it might as well be the anime equivalent of a Star Wars movie in terms of reception. Which side of the fence am I leaning on: the lovers, the haters, or am I in the middle? Well, let's find out. Story: (4/10) Captures the exaggerated, corny, almost melodramatic dreamlike romantic fantasy storytelling aesthetic of 2000s anime in ways that feel fresh and innovative as well as modernizing a lot of those concepts to fit in with other anime. Unfortunately, however, the over expression ... |
