"Why else would anyone write a review on something they haven't seen completely?" A SAO Review

Fuyumachi said:
the fact that it hasnt been taken down reflect how much MAL care about the reviews..

Shih said:

I always look forward to Archaeon's reviews; he hasn't been reviewing much recently though. (Although I didn't bother to read his Shinning Hearts review because I didn't really want to know his opinion on baking bread).

Back to the topic. There are just way too many SAO reviews right now. Not sure if the mods can look over all of them.

Animewolfguy said:
Ok now this guy must be trolling.

Candor said:
And yeah, it seems the mods finally figured SAO is a hopeless case.

GrimYael said:
I'll just put the link below so anyone that wants to read the novel

Candor said:
That guy is obviously trolling, though good enough for me to give it a helpful.

DeathWyhsh said:
I never understood people who watched the full anime then reviewed it 1/10... i mean if it was that bad you would have dropped it at 6/25 episodes or something. Just my opinion; but i mean i guess we can have masochists in the world right? Sure let me just put myself through this anime i have already decided is worse than Hell itself.

YandereTheEmo said:


See, this isn't accurate though because if you think about it really it's sort of the same reason people watched school days. They do it because of the general populous opinion of it. When a very controversial anime like SAO comes out as an avid anime viewer, you're going to be drawn towards it. I didn't think SAO was terrible, but based on how popular it was, I found it to be a huge let down in terms of character development and pacing. The first 3 episodes of SAO were astounding and drew me in so quickly, but after that it just went downhill so quickly. They add a token loli, a harem, and make the MC so overpowered that it's not even funny, and even then I still expected it to be an okay anime. Guess what they did to my assumption? They made me regret it... Incest is never a fun thing to see in anime... Especially when they're using it just to fill up space in the plot. SAO is no masterpiece, but it isn't awful... Overall it's just a "meh" anime with some pretty good graphics. Anyway, the reason people watch it all is because as an anime watcher you want experience with stuff that is deemed popular... That's about it, so it's basically the same reason people watch School Days... Yeah.

DeathWyhsh said:
I never understood people who watched the full anime then reviewed it 1/10... i mean if it was that bad you would have dropped it at 6/25 episodes or something. Just my opinion; but i mean i guess we can have masochists in the world right? Sure let me just put myself through this anime i have already decided is worse than Hell itself.

metamorphius said:

Some of the possible reasons:
- hoping it would improve
- wanting to see the resolution i.e. how it ends
- some of us are completionists and really dislike dropping shows
- wanting to form a comprehensive opinion of the show (which one cannot do if one drops a show after 1/4), especially if they intend to write a review
-a show may have an element that keeps a person from dropping it, even if it is something minor like a side character
- pure masochism and/or desire to have a reason to rage (this particularly apply to extremely popular and/or overrated shows)
- if it's an airing show, some may find it easier to watch something you consider bad on a weekly basis than it's marathoning it
- drawing strange enjoyment from anime that belong to so-bad-it's-good category or so-called trainwrecks (different from masochism as it implies geniune enjoyment from laughing and making fun of a show)
- other reasons unbeknownst to me

I cannot speak for others, but I shall use myself as an example as to why I kept watching SAO even as it kept getting worse. Now, I cannot speak about giving it 1, and reviewing it, as I didn't do either of that, but here goes the story nonetheless so make of it what you will.

First episode was genuinely intriguing and the second was pretty good as well. I felt the third episode was weaker, but eh, I didn't think much of it as it was too early. Three episodes later, I was starting to get annoyed by several elements, and I wasn't keen on the sidestories either. But the fans kept saying it would get better after the sidestories were over and we got back to the main story. Okay, I believed them. Then returned the main story and I didn't notice any improvements. Au contraire. But I still foolishly had some faith left in the fans' words. Several episodes later all my faith was shattered to pieces and trampled on as the show continued to worsen faster than ever. But that was when I was around the half point of the anime and being a completionist myself, I just couldn't bring myself to drop it at that point. It's kinda like climbing a mountain - I can't quit halfway through. So I decided I could sacrifice 20 minutes each week and complete the damn thing. And that's how I finished SAO even though I highly dislike it. Not that I would ever bother writing a review on it, though.

metamorphius said:

- some of us are completionists and really dislike dropping shows
- wanting to form a comprehensive opinion of the show (which one cannot do if one drops a show after 1/4), especially if they intend to write a review
-a show may have an element that keeps a person from dropping it, even if it is something minor like a side character
- pure masochism and/or desire to have a reason to rage (this particularly apply to extremely popular and/or overrated shows)
- drawing strange enjoyment from anime that belong to so-bad-it's-good category or so-called trainwrecks (different from masochism as it implies geniune enjoyment from laughing and making fun of a show)