For a typical anime like this that's based off of a younger target demographic, and a specific toy or item that is presented in real life; it's actually pretty entertaining. I wouldn't call it amazing, but if your looking to get into shows like this or are already into these types of anime then this might be the show for you.

I'm not going to lie, I was hyped when this show first came out and throughout the series I was still excited. I can only say now that I was blinded by my dream of having a show about characters trapped in a video game.

The show is horrible. The characters are bland, the entire second half of the series is just the 2 main characters throwing I love you's across the board. The art, animation, and music is okay. The actual game sucks and holds many questionable concepts like the the item that brings players back to life (only if used within 30 seconds). And the entire sexual assualt/rape of Asuna was just offensive.
This series took an amazing idea with what could have been decent and maybe even good characters and turned it into the piece of crap it is today.

The animation is over the top amazing and should be reason enough to watch the show. It certainly gives a slight twist on the whole idea of terrorism... The music, art, characters, animation is superb, although it lacks a little bit as far as the story goes.

It's hard to rate shows like this because they're so long. But I can say that I adored the first half of this series, but as it got further and further into the plot the artistic value seemed to have dropped along with its exciting story.