Sep 24, 2013
We all know Sword Art Online, and how controversial a show it is, with all of its reviews ranging from 1's to staggering 10's.
In this review i'll give my opinion on the show, where it succeeded and where it...well.. succeded less.
Starting off with the story, the story I feel was a little neglected throughout the entire show, always preferring to fill the episodes with filler instead of proper plot untill the last minute. The main plot of the show (the first half that is) is that everyone that bought Sword Art Online and played it couldn't log out, which the man who created the game
...
always mentions. He also says that in order to leave the game, the players had to clear all 100 levels of the game. Quite an intruiging plot, if it wasn't for the fact that almost half, if not more than half of the levels are actually skipped, which makes it quite difficult to get into the story. After the first half ends, the second half takes a completely (well almost) different direction, and I can't talk about it too much without spoiling so i'll keep it at that.
Now..moving onto the art.
My god is it beautiful. Seriously, sometimes when I watched this anime I forgot it was actually anime, the fight scenes are done very well, and everything looks bright and colorful which makes it nice to view. The show does lose some of its animation quality during the second half but fuck the second half is what I say to you! Also the "permanent death" kicked the show off to a really really good start but it was neglected more and more as the show progressed, which I didn't really like.
The soundtracks and openings for this show are the only things I can say for sure are perfect (again for my taste). The openings hook you into the show, practically forcing you to watch moar episodes just because they are awesome songs like that. The soundtrack fits the anime beautifully, it gets you pumped during the action scenes and its calm where it should be.
The characters are definitely the worst thing about Sword Art Online. Let's start out with the fact that all the characters basically get no background story, and the only characters that develop during the show are Kirito and Asuna and to some degree Suguha.
Kirito (A.K.A chick magnet 2000) is our main character and was a beta tester for Sword Art Online so he knew quite alot about our game here before it even came out, which is significant because he can abuse the knowledge he knows to advance in levels faster than any other player, other than beta testers like himself.
As Kirito progresses through the game, he meets up with our heroine Asuna, which turns out is quite the bad-ass, and the viewer builds up hope thinking she will be an awesome heroine for the show, only for Asuna to be dragged down into being a simple minion of the Kirito Harem Squad (K.H.S for you lazy bastards).
Speaking of the K.H.S, the female side characters get done with faster than hookers, which is absolutely ridicilous. Most of the side characters get only 1-3 episodes on them before being left behind in the dust, which is a shame because they could've done more with the side characters. Also, why does every anime has to have harems in it, it's getting to the point where its just silly seeing every girl that sees Kirito fall to him on the spot, not to mention the K.H.S sails to noactuallovehereville which is a shame I guess.
As for how much I enjoyed this show?
I enjoyed the *insert censored word here* out of this show. It kept me glued to the screen because i'm a sucker for...well just about everything.
The amazing animation and soundtrack, as mentioned before, definitely contributed to me sticking with this show till the end.
Overall, I wholeheartedly recommend this show to you just for the good first half, top notch animation and sound and a high enjoyability factor.
Cheers!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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