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Great manga going on several themes around the quintessential question of "what is love?". It is a story that truly peaks once you reach the middle chapters. I highly recommend readers to at least go halfway before completely making up your mind.

I believe the government notice system depicted in the manga, which attributes you to a lover who best fits your personality, is a sort of metaphor for the high school love or youth love that many give up when facing a career or having to move away. It reminds me of people afraid of engaging in love because "I need to focus ... on my exams", or thinking that "we will anyways get separated when we enter university or start working". People eventually settle for a more pragmatic relationship which fits their career and aligns with their salary.

Koi to Uso goes quite deep and essentially gives a wide array of views on this question, from characters disillusioned by the notion of love (love is just a label we put on sexual desires and egoistic needs, therefore, the government notice free us from the hassle of love), with others fully embracing the "romantic" definition of love (love is uncontrollable, and we should roll with our feelings, because if we don't we will end unhappy, so you should fight against your government notice, if you fell like it is wrong). Personally, I love the many long dialogues exchanging on these ideas.

I was hoping for a much more vivid and structured critique of the government notice, but the story remains relatively neutral on the idea, neither really approving or criticizing it. Overall, it was quite disappointing, not really giving a very satisfying answer, despite some really interesting digging on the question.

I cannot write how impactful this anime was for me, even to my current relationship as a married man.

The pacing is spot on; the balance between the heavy atmosphere of being constantly on the bring of death and the slice of life moments is spot on; the romance between Kirito and Asuna, what they represent, a droplet of hope in the ocean of knightmare that is aincrad, is spot on; the moral of the story regarding the frontier between virtual and reality, how online experiences can truly embetter you and make you grow, the realness of the friendships or even loved ones you might ... make online, that moral at the very heart of SAO is spot on, (saying this as a former MMO player). I cannot understate how beautifully exploited the darkness of the Aincrad world is. I could go on and on how much I love this story and how much I can easily rewatch over and over again, throughout the years, and still cry and cry at each rewatch.

After saying this, it is obviously far from perfect, the OST is very average for example what is proposed in the first progressive movie is better), the second arc is far less good than the first one, let alone the next seasons, the light "harem" was very much unnecessary, some scenes, in particular some emotionaly packed scenes lack proper facial animations. But I would still argue that the episodes from 1 to 15 are most probably the most entertaining piece of anime I have ever seen after watching over 160 different animes. Finally, the romance, I do want to state how the pureness of the love between Kiroto and Asuna, this total chivalric devotation between the two of them, has deeply affected my vision of love, and in some ways, has aspired my love life, which started soon after watching this story for this first time, over 10 years ago.

I really felt cheated watching this.

Essentially, teenage mental disorders are displayed through adolescence syndromes (equivalent of animal curses in monogatari series, but saying this is copyright infringement is utterly stupid). The story relies heavily on these adolescence syndromes to put in a tough spot the characters to make you feel something for them. Of course, this is nothing new as almost every story uses extreme situations, accidents, etc, right in the first episodes to plunge characters in a difficult spot which make the audience understand who they really are, and allow us to quickly identify ourselves to them. But here, the story relies too ... much on them. I felt constantly tricked by the story to force me to cry, in particular at the end with Kaede's disappearance.

The main couple is too "perfect" and too forgiving in their understanding of each other. Some joyful moments like for example the beach scene with Futaba, Sakuta and Runmi (giving a "oh yeah let's enjoy the small things in life" vibe) felt very fabricated. Eventually, nobody is scarred for life, everyone is happy at the end. After saying that, it isn't all bad either. I did found the declaration of love by Sakuta and the episodes about Tomoe quick touching.

But what can the viewer learn after watching this ? Nothing. Where are my tears? Nowhere to be found.