Story 7/10: As I mentioned before, the manga had an very strong start, and got me hooked in the first few chapters. However, most of the plot is very rushed, and it's not clearly explained. More than once I had to go back and reread some bits to get a better understanding of what the chapter was about, and even then some of the parts were unclear. Also, the ending is the epitome of unsatisfying. Instead of having a few chapters after the climax, or even one, the author stuffs the climax, resolution, and ending all into around 20 pages, hardly enough to explain all the **** that went on the other 10 pages. A lot of the concepts were also unclear. Despite having a decent foundation, the middle and end fail to satisfy imo.
P.S. This is not necessarily the manga's fault, but the chapters were updated so slowly that I forgot most of the plot by the time the next chapter updated, making me reread the entire thing.
Art 9/10: The art is fantastic, but there were a few flaws such as cluttered pictures and some intentionally messy bits that made me just skim over it.
Character 6/10: Almost no character development, save for maybe 2 characters. The characters weren't captivating, and I can really only say one character made me feel anything. The dialogue just seems a bit too fast to be realistic.
Enjoyment 8/10: This maybe coming off my SAO high, but I really enjoyed the beginning of the manga, and had high hopes for it. Maybe I just don't understand it well enough, but it fell off in the middle and died in the end.
Overall 7/10: It's not completely horrible, and it's worth about 20 minutes of reading or so out of your day if you have nothing to do, but it is by no means a masterpiece. Anyone who absolutely loved SAO (and I mean like figurines and plushies and pillows and whatnot) should definitely enjoy this. However, if you're anything like me, the manga is slightly above mediocre at best.
