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Nowadays, there will always be that one idiot anime fan who will come up to you and start a shitstorm of a conversation by saying the following words: "Hey there buddy, have you seen Sword art online?". This type of a comment is usually answered as followed: "Are you a f****ing weeb." and thus a new shitstorm is born into this world. Creating yet another argument over the Critically acclaimed Sword art online.

Being relatively new to anime, i might not have the same experience as some other critics out there but i can say for sure that a surprisingly large quantity of them should share ... my sentiments. So please be prepared as i drop the formalities and dive into the deconstructive criticism of SAO!



So, for anybody out there who has never heard of SAO:

1. What F***ing rock have you been hiding under!
2. This review might contain some mild to big spoilers on the anime. Continue at your own risk.


In a nutshell SAO is an anime based on the light novel series written by Reki kawahara and illustrated by abec.
It follows the life of Kazuto Kirigaya (Kirito) the most overpowered protagonist to ever live. , As i'm sure you already know, it follows him into a VRMMORPG called sword art online, hence the name of the anime. The story revolves around him being OP, a waifu magnet and much more. here is my opinion on it.

1.The art:7

Okay everyone, as i'm sure you have seen, the art style is brilliant especially for an anime that was made in the 2010s. Personally, i really love the whole vibe that I get when looking at all of the fields and beautiful scenery that was placed in the anime and can hardly imagine a setting like that in real life. There were one or two minor hiccups such as the character design maybe or even the way they did the fan service, but on a whole, i truly believe that this is the best part of the anime (not that that is saying very much).

2.The soundtrack:6

Although i cannot say that i am an expert with music and that i go listening to anime soundtracks just for the hell of it, I can say with all honesty that the opening song and end one werent half bad and added something to the anime.


3.The story:2

Okay, in the experience i have with anime, i have seen a decent amount of isekais and can say that they usually have pretty shitty storylines but out of all of them, im pretty sure that SAO takes the cake. It is truly a one of a kind anime. You dont find many with a plot that jumps around and goes up and down like a whores pantyhose.

Okay, so episode 1 and 2 started off quite well and definitely set the anime up for success, so much so in fact, that you would expect the rest of it to do the same right? Well spoiler alert: It F***ed up there.

it starts off with 2 good episodes and then all of a sudden the next 5 episodes are spent away from the main plot. whether it is introducing new characters or building up the fan service, You can be sure that Kiritos character is definitely not progressing and the anime itself isnt using the full potential that it has been given. Instead of continuing with the whole action and death game plot, they decided lets go and make this into a ecchi fucking fan service compilation and add some slice of life and incest to the mix.

Okay, so now we know that episode 3 through 7 were pointless. Hmmm, perhaps they could fix the first arc within the next 7 episodes but... they DONT!!!!
Instead they set kirito up with Asuna who at first seemed like an independant character who could actually do something in the story and ended up letting herself become Kiritos housewife cook ( and who the fuck lvls up their cooking skill in a death game)

And if that wasnt enough, all of a sudden kirito gains some sort of super power which puts him at an advantage to everyone else in the game, they practically butchered the concept of MMOs. But knowing all of the bullshit in SAO, we should have already been prepared for this by now right?

Okay, so we determined that it doesnt go that smoothly after it either, kirito loses a battle, ends up joining asunas guild and next thing you know... They spawned a fucking child. yui had no purpose whatsoever, she says that she monitored them and decided that they were the only people in the game who appeared to be pretty normal. But didnt it already explore the fact that others seem stable too. And thus we have a masterful contradiction from SAO.

Okay, now in the end of the arc with no real grounds for it whatsoever, kirito attacks commander heathcliff hoping that his hunch that Heathcliff is actually kayaba (villain who trapped people in the game)is true. Somehow, it turns out that he is right and ends up fighting him, just as he is about to die once again, asuna somehow manages to use willpower to move from stasus in a fucking video game. I know right, It makes total sense doesnt it? anyway, they end up dying but take heathcliff/Kayaba with them, now we expect an explanation as to why the fuck he trapped 10000 players in a death game and this guy takes the bullshit way to far with "I cant actually remember" as a fucking answer.

Okay, so now you have finished episode 14 and think to yourself " damn, im so fucking happy that it is finally over". Now SAO bitch slaps you in the face with a second arc which somehow turned out to be even more ludicrous than the first. A new villain buys SAO and creates a new game, he traps asuna inside and basically risks being imprisoned and losing billions just to be a pervert with her. And if that alone isnt enough to fuck up arc 2. Kiritos sister adds just the right level of incest to it. But then again who isnt used to incest in anime by now. The whole thing really ticks me off and i think that it is around time i stop talking about it or i might go on ranting about arc 2 for the next 2 hours.


4.Characters:Rating; negative 1000000000000000

1:Kirito- As the main protagonist, we expect him to be somewhat decent and relevant to the plot, however i feel as if pretty much any other character could replace him and make it so much better. Okay, so besides the fact that
kirito is OP, he is some sort of a Coding genius and at the age of 14! He has everything his way and has an easy life. he basically can do anything he wants. However despite this apparent intelligence, he believes that a revival item can bring a player back to life even though he knows that they would be dead in real life, furthermore, too much of his character is built up on Sachi, she gave him a purpose in the game and died creating his "tragic story". somehow he gets unique skills and manages to get to levels which other people cant achieve despite being a solo player. The power dynamic in the game is absolute bullshit. And at one point, he has a regeneration ability which for some reason never works when its actually needed, yeah, i dont get it either but i do know that the whole prospect of him almost dying on a constant basis really pissed me off.

2 Asuna- In the beginning she seems like a rather competant character who is independent and didnt really need kirito. suddenly she turns into the girl in a bra and panties and then all of a fucking sudden she becomes the damsel in distress. talk about a schizophrenic character. She eventually is just there for kiritos white knighting moments and some eye candy for the viewers, i dont feel as if i need to explain any further than that.

3 Sugaha- Kiritos sister was actually a decent character who kind of reminded me of a cross between mikasa from attack on titan and ichigo from darling in the franxx. She had the ability to be a great character but instead was placed there for more useless fanservice and some incest.

4 If there was one other character i felt didnt belong in this anime, it was agil. He is the person who kirito goes to for the rabbit before he sees asuna, although he doesnt get much screentime, i feel as if his character had a significance.

5 yui- The walking deus x machina, kirito and asses child, she is there for no fucking reason whatsoever other than to make kirito even more OP.

6 villain 1- this guy was the piece of shit who trapped them and then apparently forgot the reason... I have nothing else to say

7 villain 2- this guy is there just to continue the story, as i did mention earlier he is the worst villain ever, he risks billions and perhaps arrest just to molest asuna.

8 There are some noticeable side characters like maybe kelin but they are actually of very little significance in the end.


My Big Issues With SAO

At one point i went mad thinking about all the holes in SAO and instead of listing them all, here are the big 5 problems

1 SAO had the potential to be a masterpiece and could have done so if they had just have focused on other aspects such as teens fighting for their lives or the psychological thriller that it could have been. But instead we have an anime which became infamous instead of famous

2 Kirito is set up as an intelligent character and some how can code at 14, has sword fighting skills he didnt learn outside the game and much more.

3 if kirito really is so intelligent how could he go after the revival item and not realise that sachi was dead in real life

4 how did the government not notice radiation hell did they just allow a new person to buy the game after witnessing all that

5 How could the smartest minds in the world not think of just pulling off the helmets really fast to avoid the microwaves from killing people or at least find a way to hack it during the 2 years people were inside the game


In the end i did enjoy SAO but for one reason and one alone. It was fun to analyze it.
If you guys want to see SAO live up to its potential i suggest that you go watch SAO abridged by something witty entertainment, anyway, i hope that you enjoyed the review and can make some use of it

PS the overall rating is 3

Overall rating:8

Shiki is not your typical horror anime. It has a way of creating tension to scare you at just the right moment, the horror element itself is actually very subtle. I can say with all honesty that this is one of the very few anime which i will remember on a constant basis given the fact that this type of horror leaves a lasting impression.

Story:The story itself is pretty decent, the plot is in place and it builds up on itself to create a masterful storyline. In the end, you are left wondering what is right and wrong and feel sorry for the side ... that you initially saw as "the enemy".
Rating:8

Art: The art style used for the anime suits it pretty well. At the moments where attention to detail was required, they compensated with their art and kept delivering new scenes which were made beautifully. Although some people may criticize the art style due to the way that the characters look, i believe that that is a very small detail and easy to look over on the larger scale of things
Rating:8

Sound: Okay, so music really isn't my forte, I seldom listen to it and couldn't really be bothered with most soundtracks, but i do think that Shiki incorporates the right soundtrack for the theme it is trying to convey.
Rating:7

Characters: Shiki has a large diversity of characters and you get to see different sides of a lot of them. You may enjoy the human characters or risen ones but either way, they were created well enough to do exactly what they are supposed to.
Rating:9

enjoyment:Okay, so personally i am extremely biased with my opinion here but i really really really enjoyed shiki on a whole. It was entertaining and fun to watch. i personally believe that most of you will really enjoy it, but just as a suggestion- watch it at night when you are alone, the sense of fear might be slightly greater if you do so and you might enjoy it more as a whole.
Rating:9