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Mirai Nikki is kind of amazing. Not because it's good, but because it it does so much wrong all at once that it baffles me. Typically, bad or subpar anime only indulge in a few major "anime tropes" at a time. Even my ultimate nemesis Sword Art Online (which I still think was a worse experience than this one) does not throw as much shit into its story. Meanwhile, Mirai Nikki seems to have every anime trope in the book, and that too, bad ones. Cliche ones. Embarrassing ones that make anime fans go "but wait, anime is not just porn!" Mirai Nikki goes above ... and beyond by having them all. It's an exercise in stupidity. A cacophony of nonsense.

For that reason alone, I'd say it's worth one (just a single) watch. Lessons can be learned from this shitshow of a trainwreck. You could call Mirai Nikki "How Not to Make a Good Anime" because this is one the medium's low points. And yet, this has over an 8 on MAL, is #9 of the most popular anime, and Yuno Gasai is the #1 most favorited female character of all time. Well... there's no accounting for taste. Also, I think my mindset before going into this anime really helped. I knew or at least suspected it was going to be terrible, so my expectations didn't let me down. I don't think I quite consider it a "so bad it's good" thing because there's a distinct lack of charm or appeal for me, but it wasn't totally unwatchable either. Aside from a few filler episodes, the pacing is very fast, so I didn't start getting bored until the end. There were some moments that were unintentionally hilarious too, so at least I got a laugh out of it sometimes. I'm sure it would've been really frustrating if I came into it thinking it'd be decent or good, but thankfully I didn't.

Normally at this point in the review, I would be rambling and nitpicking every little thing that bothered me about the anime, but what do I say when literally almost everything is bad? Frankly, I don't even want to go back and think about it anymore than I already have. In fact, it's actually easier if I just named the few things I liked: 1] there's a few voice actors I happen to really like (Akira Ishida, Norio Wakamoto, Tomokazu Seki, Takehito Koyasu), and 2] Aru Akise is pretty much the only decently written and likable character of the cast. That's it. Honestly, I saw this anime because I can't help but watch the really popular stuff to see what the fuss is about. Now that I've ticked it off, I'm officially done. This review is me metaphorically washing my hands of it.

(You know, if the author really wanted to make a story with jiggly boobs, the gang rape of teen girls, and 14 year olds having sex, he could've just made a hentai. I would've respected that far more, just saying.)

- This is a joint review of seasons 1 & 2 of Baby Steps. There will be mild spoilers. -

Of all the sports anime I’ve seen so far (which is not actually a whole lot), Baby Steps is my first foray into tennis. Overall, I am pleasantly surprised at how good it is. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been watching team sports all this time and tennis is a single player sport, but it does feel like it did something different.

First, let me just say that the main character Eiichiro (or Ei-chan) is not your typical sports protagonist. I mean sure, he’s another "complete newbie"-type who ... gets into a sport for the first time in high school, but unlike many other sports protagonists, he’s also an excellent student. Almost always, a sports protagonist is book dumb or at best average at school. On top of that, he is a meticulous note taker who is incredibly organized. These traits help him when it comes to playing tennis, and in a rather clever way, make it possible for the audience to get educated on the intricacies of tennis game play in a way that feels relatively natural. Watching him analyze his opponents and himself play tennis is easy to follow because of that. Oh, and his notes and handwriting are absolutely beautiful; a real joy to look at (if you care at all about typography and aesthetics like I do). It's really interesting seeing Eiichiro's methodical play style against opponents with wildly different styles and strengths, and in one case, someone who's very similar to him that proves to be his biggest challenge.

All of the rivals and opponents are great characters too in their own right for the amount of screen time they get. Instead of being exaggerated, over-the-top archetypes like they are in most other sports animanga, they feel very down-to-earth and likable. There are no massive jerks or characters who are made intentionally hateable because the author wanted an easy way to get people to root for the protagonist/main team. There are just young adults who are skilled at tennis (and possibly looking to become a professional athlete) but are otherwise pretty normal. Sure, even if some of them are a little aggressive, prickly, or rude, none of them are genuinely bad people. I think that’s a challenge in the sports because it’s not as easy to craft interesting, likable rivals as it is to make douchebags who happen to be skilled at a sport. When all the rivals are likable too, it makes for more compelling matches.

Moving on from the characters, the other good thing is that because tennis is not a team sport and Eiichiro is not part of his school’s team, it also allows for a bit of freedom. Usually, time-wise, a sports animanga moves incredibly slowly because the author (and their fanbase) don’t want their favorite third years to move on before winning. A few might take that chance, but most do not, and those that do (like Diamond no Ace) take a while to get there. That means first years are first years for a long time, and it never gets to a point where playing in college or playing professionally is even considered by them. That’s obviously not the case here and the anime skips through time a lot faster than I’m used to. The pacing of the matches is also spot on. I've seen sports anime where the matches often get way too long and drag the pace to screeching halt, but the matches here never exceed three episodes. That means important matches get as much time as they need without ever feeling too long.

So, the main character’s somewhat unique personality, his rivals, and the actual tennis are praiseworthy, but that doesn’t mean Baby Steps has no flaws. The most noticeable thing is that the character design is pretty mediocre. Either it’s totally generic (all the girls, some of the supporting male characters) or it’s totally gonk (some of the other supporting male characters), and I just wish there was a more consistent style because it’s kind of distracting. In this case, I would’ve prefer that everyone looked more generic because the gonk is just plain ugly. In a sports anime, character designs are fairly important because characters in general are very important, so seeing it fail in this aspect is definitely disappointing. Oh, and Eiichiro’s little dinosaur-like hair spike? Yeah, that looks dumb. He would’ve looked fine enough without it, if a tad plain. To be fair though, the gonk designs happen less and less over time and it becomes more generic looking, which is fine cause it's still an improvement.

The other rather huge criticism I have is Natsuki Takasaki, Eiichiro’s love interest. Perhaps it’s asking a lot for a male dominated sports anime to have good female characters, but since Baby Steps has a romance tag and does at least try to have a slow burn romance subplot, I would expect the main female character to be at least a little well written. Hm... nope. She’s such a generic ~cute girl~ that it’s eye-roll worthy, and OF COURSE she just happens to be most beautiful girl in the grade. It’s way too power fantasy like in a genre and an anime that’s about an underdog. What’s worse is that she literally has no personality outside being the perfect, cute waifu who’s unconditionally supportive of the main character. Sure, she’s a tennis player who plans on going pro, but let’s just say that her entire motivation revolves around a boy. There’s no time spent with her outside of her supporting Eiichiro, not even her tennis playing. You would think that because Natsuki was kind of the one who pulled Eiichiro into tennis in the first place, that would at least discuss tennis...? Well, that doesn’t really happen (again, aside from her providing unconditional support for him).

It is even said again and again that Natsuki’s an ace tennis player and is at the top of the girl’s division, but we barely get to see it aside from her occasionally winning at the tail end of her matches. Does “show, not tell” ring a bell? She’s not a rival, so its not like it’d be revealing too much too early and ruining the tension of future games. There’s really no excuse. Narratively, she’s treated almost like a trophy for the main character. It’s not that the other (non-rival) supporting characters are written a whole lot better, just that, y’know, as the LOVE INTEREST, Natsuki needed way more depth and complexity than she got. It’s not until well into season two that we get even get the slightest glimpse into Natsuki’s character, and even that is pretty bare bones.

This nicely leads to the biggest disappointment of all - the romance. When one half of the pairing is written so one dimensionally, and when the relationship in general is so halfheartedly developed, that will naturally result in a weak romance. The question really is, did Baby Steps even need a romance? The answer is obviously no. Frankly, Natsuki’s so shallowly written that if you remove her entirely, it would baaarely make a difference. You could cut her out, her teeny tiny subplot, the romance, and all of her and Eiichiro’s interactions and lose maybe three episodes worth of meaningful content across both seasons. Then that time could’ve been spent on the more interesting rival characters.

As the love interest, something that would’ve really helped give Natsuki more depth is if she provided some insightful commentary on Eiichiro’s while he's in matches, being a tennis player since childhood, but all she does is say “do your best!” and other vaguely supportive things. If she was NOT a love interest in the first place and was just another supporting character like Eiichiro’s best friend and the megane girl who has a crush on him, then that would've been acceptable. Speaking of those two, they provide better commentary than Natsuki ever does, despite not knowing anything about tennis at all. Hell, even their subtle romance is better developed than Eiichiro and Natsuki's. It's kind of sad when the "pair the spares" ship gets more attention than the main romance. To be fair though, it does get a little better in season two when Eiichiro and Natsuki finally start going out. I can only hope that in future seasons, it gets more proper development. Coming from someone who hates romance in general, it is always weird when I say I want more focus on the romance, but that just means that I hate bad romances even more. Either have it or don't have it - just don't half ass it. The lost potential is a little upsetting... we could've seen Eiichiro and Natsuki advance as a badass young couple getting into professional sports together, but it is exceedingly one-sided. Considering that tennis is a single player sports and there's no need to develop a whole team of 6-8+ guys, I don't see why Natsuki couldn't have gotten more screen time and better writing.

One final rather nitpicky complaint I have is that the anime relies on flashbacks too much. Thankfully, this is tone downed a lot by season two, but still, it's really irritating getting flashbacks to something that happened literally two minutes ago. Also, the first twenty seconds to three minutes of an episode get lost to recapping the very end of the previous episode. It would be a much more efficient use of time to scrap that in future seasons and either skip having a pre-opening scene at all or have a new scene before the OP.

Other than that, I have to say there’s nothing in particular that stands out either way. The voice acting is fine, the music is adequate although it sounds very much like every other sports anime I've seen, and the animation is nothing bad (aside from the creepy CGI puppets of random audience members) but nothing spectacular either. Overall, the production values are about as good as they need to be but do not stand out in any meaningful way, but like a few other things, they do get a little nicer in season two. It’s kind of a shame because aside from great characters/gameplay, the only place a sports anime can really shine is in its production values.

Finally, Baby Steps' highly realistic depiction of tennis is refreshing. There are no flashy superpowers or dumb gimmicks, and the progression of Eiichiro’s skill feels natural and goes at the right pace. The groundedness of the tennis, in my opinion, gives it an edge over a lot of other sports anime. Even if there are unrealistic aspects, it’s disguised well and is not noticeable to people who are not very familiar with sports. Not that it isn’t fun to have super powers or gimmicks, but the realism combined with the superb exposition of the ins-and-outs of tennis adds an extra layer. It makes it easier to compare to and appreciate real life athletes (more for people who don't care for sports irl).

Season two ended on a hook for a very important tournament, and I am really looking forward to the season three. Overall, Baby Steps is a solid 8/10.

Ahh, I see there are no reviews for this yet. Yeah, this anime does not have great ratings and it has a pretty low viewership. Well, whatever, I'll pitch in my opinion for what it's worth. Garo: Guren no Tsuki is the sequel to Garo: Honoo no Kokuin except it's not really a direct sequel. It's actually an anthology series, where the characters, plot, setting and everything else are different except for the common mythology revolving around the Makai Knights and Makai Alchemists and most of the seiyuu return for new roles. Watching the first season is not at all necessary to view this one, ... but it does give a little more depth on the lore. (It's kind of like the live action tv show, American Horror Story.)

So. Frankly. Having seen Honoo no Kokuin, it's almost impossible for me to not draw comparisons between the two. I'm also sure most of the people who are curious about this season are probably people who've seen the last season and liked it. Instead of doing a traditional review, I'm going to be doing a compare and contrast with the previous season.

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Garo: Guren no Tsuki (GnT) is pretty much the polar opposite of Honoo no Kokuin (HnK) to me in many different aspects. I thought HnK's main strong point was its plot - decently written, if a little cliche, but overall well executed. I also liked the CGI integration because it blended in almost seamlessly with the art style, and the action scenes were also pretty damn good. On the other hand, I couldn't bring myself to like the characters with one or two notable exceptions, the art style itself (so pointy) did not look attractive to me, Daisuke Namikawa felt miscast as the main character and finally, the setting (medieval fantasy Europe) was too familiar and boring, but maybe that's just me speaking from a Western perspective.

Comparatively, GnT has lovable characters that I easily got attached to, beautiful art/animation (not just the art style but color palette, shot compositions, etc), interesting setting (medieval Japan this time), and Daisuke Namikawa was /not/ miscast. I only had two complaints, one small and one big. The big one was that the plot was kind of a huge mess. It's not like HnK, which has an overarching plot that never really lets up. In HnK, with the exception of maybe three or four episodes, every episode contributes to the plot.

Contrary to that, GnT is more like a "monster of the week" type show up until the last 1/3rd. The earlier episodes have small bits that set up a plot, but it doesn't come to fruition until episode 16 or so. This may sound weird, but I actually enjoyed the "monster of the week" episodes way more. It wasn't until the actual plot came in that I felt the show got weaker. Yes, look, I really enjoyed spending time with all the characters just bouncing off each other. Their interactions alone and the fantastic fight scenes were enough for this series. But the plot thread just felt... shoehorned in, and more damning than that, it was just not as well written as HnK. It was almost like the writer didn't want there to be a plot, but was pressured to include one as an imitation of HnK's formula. Not to mention, it ends up being pretty similar to the end of HnK's plot but without all the prior set-up.

I think I would've easily given this 7/10 if it didn't even bother with a plot; that's how much I liked those early episodes. Even Douman, the series villain (played rather hamtastically by Tomokazu Seki) being more of a nuisance than an actual threat just ended up amusing me because of how unintentionally hilarious he was.

My other small complaint was that they didn't do the CGI integration as well. Instead of making it blend in as closely as possible to the original art style, they decided to make it stand out with a sort of grainy texture. It still looks great, but I don't like how it stands out from the rest of the animation.

One more thing I wanna bring up is praise for the newbie actor Masei Nakayama who played Raikou, the main character (MY SON). Unlike some other newbie actors (*coughsSatorufromErasedcoughs*), he has shown some incredible potential. I'll be keeping an eye on him from now on. Well, I think that's pretty much all I have to say.

TL:DR; Animation/characters/action = good. Plot = bad. Result = slightly better than average, but quite enjoyable up until the plot kicks in.

- Overall [5.8/10 rounded up to 6/10] -

It's done, and all I can say is... good. Finally. I originally started watching Erased because I heard good things about it. I wanted to give it a chance, but it ended up disappointing me. However, I also won't say this anime is trash or the worst thing ever. It's pretty bad, but not offensively bad. I don't like being overly cynical, and I wanna give credit where credit is due. So, let me finally go into some detail and explain myself. Vague spoilers be ahead.

- Story [4/10] -

Oh, Erased... You had so many good things going for you: Interesting premise, nice animation, good ... direction, etc etc, but ya blew it, didn't ya? I think this is the category where Erased dropped the ball the hardest. It started off strong, though perhaps a bit shaky, but not too long after completely lost itself. The main issue here (which has been noted over and over again) is that Erased sets itself up as a mystery and then utterly fails to live up to it. It also tries to be a thriller, but it half-asses the mystery element so badly that the thriller element suffers heavily as a result.

I think the author wanted to keep everything from Satoru's point of view as the unreliable narrator of the story but also didn't understand how to create a competent mystery with multiple suspects and red herrings. Nope, it's easy as pie to figure out, and it's exactly who you think it is. I had 'em pegged by episode 4. The author tries but doesn't succeed in any capacity. You just can't have your cake and eat it too unless you're legitimately that skilled at writing.

One other major problem is that the pacing is terrible. From episode 10 onwards, it gets so incredibly rushed. This should really have been a 24 episode show, and it ends without covering a lot of details it brought up earlier. I'm sure there's even more things like plot holes and whatnot, but I don't care enough to figure them out. Anyway, enough of the story, I'm getting annoyed just thinking about it.

- Art [8/10] -

The art direction is one of two things I'll say is good in /most/ cases. The art style itself is pretty nice, albeit a little too cutesy for this kind of story. The animation is also pretty dang good and consistent overall. If there's one complaint I had to make is that it completely lacks any subtlety. I mean, really? Glowing red eyes to indicate murderous intent? The villain even gets a crazy smile after revealing that he's evil. That would be excusable if this show was a genuinely good mystery, but nope, it just comes off as cheesy and laughable. Subtlety is not always necessary, but for something in the mystery genre, it is crucial.

- Sound [7/10] -

Sound is the other thing which I think qualifies as good. By good, I mostly just mean "competent with no major issues". The music is fine. Almost all of the seiyuu do well enough for what they were given. Once again, I have one issue, and that is the newbie seiyuu who voices adult Satoru. He's just so monotone and boring all the time. Like yes, I understand he's new, but he really is not showing any potential with such a limited range. Thankfully, much of the time is dedicated to child Satoru, so it's not like it's just adult Satoru all the time.

- Character [5/10] -

There were two characters I can say I actually liked and got invested it. The first was Sachiko (Satoru's mom). She's the best mom, alright? The other was Kayo, whose arc ends 2/3rds of the way through. That's it. Satoru is boring, Airi gets shafted hard after the first few episodes, and Kenya is not a child, he's an automaton. The teacher, Yashiro... well, he has a nice character design and seiyuu. Uhhh, basically what I'm saying is that I thought he was cute, but that doesn't really make up for a badly written character. (I'll be looking for him on pixiv though)

- Enjoyment [6/10] -

Eh, I can't say I hated watching this. In fact, I was really enjoying the beginning, but from the halfway point onwards, things started getting increasingly bad from a writing standpoint. Still, it never got to be, like, unbearable or anything. At least it was short. And yes, I know, I said earlier this show should've been twice as long, but that just means it would fix the pacing and maybe get rated slightly higher. I don't think more time would fix the author's lack of writing skills.

- Overall [4.8/10 (D) rounded up to a 5/10] -

I think I've said all that I wanted to say (at least without giving away more spoilers). I think I'm being fair when I say this show is as average and forgettable as it gets. It's not good. It's not terrible. It just has almost nothing about it that stands out to me. Just go ahead skip on this one, especially if you like mysteries.

I recently decided to give Daily Lives of High School Boys a rewatch because... well, I wanted to rewatch a few of my favorite anime and wanted to pick a comedy show. Daily Lives was the perfect contender as it may just be my favorite (pure) comedy anime.

In fact, it's one of two comedy animes that I rate a nine, which is an accomplishment in itself. The majority of comedy shows I've seen, even the best ones of recent times like Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun and Barakamon, top out at a solid eight. That means Daily Lives has something special, and two qualities it has ... that makes it stand out is:

1] Consistently funny in every sketch. Don't get me wrong, some skits are certainly funnier than others (which ones are the funniest is a matter of opinion), but none of the jokes go below a certain level of funniness. I was always smiling, if not laughing my ass off. I'd even sometimes go "aww" for the rare heartwarming moment. I can't say there was a moment in the show where I wasn't enjoying myself.

2] All characters are lovable. I won't go into details, but I am very fond of the Daily Lives characters even two years after I first watched it, particularly Hidenori (it really doesn't help that he's voiced by one of my favorite seiyuu, Tomokazu Sugita). There are no unlikable or boring characters, which can't be said of most other comedies I've seen.

As for the other categories: the art, animation, and sound are all adequate, of course. The simple style works in the show's favor, and the voice acting is perfect all around. Not much else to say except it's great.

So. I'm going to be honest. I loathe this anime. Unfortunately, I had a good friend recommend this to me (sorry, but there's almost nothing but criticism ahead), so I went in with high expectations and fell far to end up with such a low opinion on Sword Art Online. However, I will explain myself and break down point by point why I hate this anime. Prepare for a long ass review.

First, let's get the very small amount of "good" out of the way:
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ART/ANIMATION: 8/10
Hey, you can't go wrong with A-1. Their standards of animation are high, and it's no different with Sword Art Online. ... The scenery, art design, and everything is pretty and nice looking. The only reason why this category gets 8 instead of a 10 is because the character designs for the protag and all of the female characters are bland looking and fall under "generic cuteness".

SOUND: 6/10
Well.... the soundtrack is okay. It doesn't stand out or anything, but it's decent enough. It fit the anime itself and that's that, and the two theme songs are pretty catchy. Basically what it comes down to is that I don't have an issue with it, and that's one of the best opinions I can have for SAO.

VOICE ACTING: 7/10
This is not a category by itself, but I don't like stuffing both the acting and the soundtrack/music under one category. The voice acting is all around good. Though there were only two or three standout voice actors (and for minor characters, too). None of the voice actors for the main characters were good enough to actually improve their characters, but they did what they could.
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Now, the bad (oh, there is so much of it):
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STORY: 3/10 (first story arc) + 1/10 (second story arc) = 2/10 overall
This is arguably the part of SAO I feel saddest about. Not mad, like how I feel about the characters. Because honestly, the first story arc (Aincrad) had a lot of potential. It could've been amazing. But no. It was thrown away in favor of silly filler episodes with one-shot characters who do nothing and contribute nothing and have no presence or personality.

And let's not even get started on the second story arc (Alfheim). It makes the Aincrad arc look like solid gold, it's seriously that bad. It's awful and cliché, like many things in this anime. The story that the first arc had to offer was more than enough for 25 episodes, so the second story arc was never even necessary.

There were a lot of pacing issues with both arcs, but especially the first arc (plot twist, this is one thing the second arc did better) because it felt like there were large chunks of story and development missing between each episode.

In conclusion: First story had potential, but threw it away with awful execution. Second story arc was awful in all respects and never should have been made in the first place.

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CHARACTERS: 1/10
Like many reviewers before me have said, THIS is the part of SAO that is, by far, the weakest. I'm going to cover the main characters individually and then cover the other characters in groups. Sorry, this section is going to be a little long. Some minor spoilers ahead.

A) Kirito (male protagonist cause this is shounen, and they're always male).
Long story short, he's a Gary Stu. He has no flaws. He has no weaknesses. He never falters, never makes a mistake, is never unkind or selfish (except for in maybe the first two episodes). He's boring and is one of the least compelling protagonists I have ever seen. He gets little-to-no character development and it's just so hard to get invested in him. Unless, of course, you put in yourself in his place as a self-insert. Sorry, but that sort of thing is only acceptable in real video games. And when you think about it, it really puts you at a disadvantage if you're a female and straight. Anyway, enough about Kirito. Though he's the most boring protagonist I've ever watched, I don't actively dislike him. He's just dull.

B) Asuna (female lead/love interest)
She's also a Mary Sue. Except tsundere. Initially, she's... kind of decent. She's badass, at least, but it's also so typical that it doesn't mean anything. She still lacks any sort of individuality or identity. Unfortunately, it gets a worse when she becomes friends with Kirito.

But you know what, I didn't actively dislike her character until the second story arc. You know why? The writers thought it would just be a fantastic idea if she was further stripped of her identity and agency and turned into some helpless damsel in distress who's there just for Kirito to rescue her. How insulting. I can't go into detail, but what they did to her was pretty disgusting to me. Way to turn an already weak female character into something utterly useless and use detestable tropes to make the audience feel more sympathetic for her. I can't tell you how much I hated the Alfheim arc because of this. This accounts for half of my anger, actually. The other half lies with the next character:

C) Suguha (talk about incest subtext)
My main question is: Why was she even needed?
My second is: Why does she need to be in love with Kirito?
Look, let me make things clear, when it comes to incest, I have almost no opposition to it in fictional works. But here, it makes no sense and only serves to make a useless love triangle. Considering how she was raised to think that she was Kirito's sister for 10 years, this shouldn't even happen (look up the Westermarck effect). But apparently the writers couldn't let one major recurring female character not be in love with Kirito, so. If she was just a sister character and they developed her relationship with Kirito without her being in love with him, she might've been decent. Maybe. But probably not because as you know, good female characters are just impossible to write.

D) Yui (the odd surrogate daughter)
Okay, so I'm just going to briefly touch on her character and say that it's stupid to me how she's the surrogate daughter of Kirito and Asuna. One of her purposes is to be cute. The other is to be an exposition fairy, and she is quite literally that in the Alfheim arc. I suppose one should be grateful that she's not in love with Kirito, but she's still another useless female character and her entire role tastes like diabetes. It's just that saccharine and syrupy sweet.

E) Other Supporting Female Characters
It's really annoying how almost every single major (as in, gets a decent amount of screen time) female character falls in love with Kirito for next to no reason. It's one thing to have a crush on him because he's cute, but every female (bar Yui) is almost instantly in love with him. What's even worse is that they usually need him to save them, so they're mostly damsels. Unfortunately, because this show is shounen, female characters suffer that much more. They're all generically cute and in love with Kirito, and none of them actually do anything except serve to boost Kirito as a ladies' man. They don't really have much personality either. Well, at least they have more than Kirito does, but they have so little presence that it doesn't matter.

F) Supporting Male Characters
Well, there's Klein. Whom I personally dub as "the only SAO character who matters". Because, yes, he's the only one I actually care about. It's amazing, he's only on screen for about 15 minutes total, but he still brings so much life and personality. The other male characters are pretty cool too. Agil, Heathcliff, Recon in the Alfheim arc (though he gets very little screentime), etc. Even though they're there even less than the female characters, they're at least memorable and unique and in Klein's case, downright loveable. But, as expected, they frequently get tossed aside in favor of some female character or another to fawn all over Kirito. But I enjoy them when they're there, so it's nice that they at least exist.

G) Villains
The villain of the first story arc is actually pretty decent. He's the only other character I find interesting besides Klein, but he's there for such a short amount of time that it was impossible to attach myself to him. Oh, but like the plot, he had potential. He was good when he was on screen. I'm always wishing he got more development and screen time.

The second villain though... I can't tell you how bad he is. He's a cartoony (albeit, more risque), cardboard cut-out villain who has no depth at all. He's awful as both a person and a villainous character, so you can't even enjoy him as an over-the-top villain because they made him just that unlikeable.

H) Character Relationships (not a character, but needs to be addressed)
The second biggest problem with the characters aside from the fact that they're all so poorly written. No one relationship gets development. No, the writing pretends that it gets development, but there's almost none. For example, there's a lot of time spent with Kirito and Asuna, but their "romance" is as forced and cliche as can be. Actually, almost every relationship feels forced and cliche. Basically, if you were expecting development, don't expect to actually get it except in the most superficial way possible.
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Whew. That was long. Alright, I'm done. I don't want to talk about the characters anymore.

ENJOYMENT: 3/10
I have mixed feelings because I feel differently for each story arc. The first one, I would probably give a solid 5/10, but the second one is more like a 1/10 because it offended me so much.

I guess that averages out to a 3/10, so I'll stick with it.

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OVERALL: 3/10
If I average all my scores together, it's actually a 4, but I'm lowering it one more point because I hated the Alfheim arc so much. If it was just the Aincrad arc, I would ease up and give the show a 5/10, but the second arc just utterly destroyed that, didn't it?

Sorry, but no dice SAO. Congrats on being the worst anime I've seen all the way through, though.

In conclusion:
- One point for Klein
- One point for the animation
- One point for the voice acting

PS- I'm really sorry if you read my unedited, ranty, angry spoilery review.
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BONUS SECTION: HOW SWORD ART ONLINE COULD HAVE BEEN GOOD

A) Cut out the Alfheim arc out all together, instead have all 25 episodes be about Aincrad.

B) Have a protagonist who isn't a Gary Stu. Have interesting, nuanced characters whose relationships are well developed instead of just skimmed over.

C) Take time to develop the plot. In fact, have a complex, progressive plot instead of random episodic filler.

D) Have good female characters who aren't written in a sexist and insulting way.

and

E) Klein is either the main character instead or has a lot more screen time.