For those who experienced it, were SAO, and SnK huge when they aired for the first time? I mean in a revolutionary kind of a way?
| I didn't watch SAO or SnK back when they first aired, but I remember the times. For SnK I think the most I heard were a few people being like "Hey, this is pretty cool anime you should check it out" but not really any big hype. For SAO if I remember correctly it exploded pretty fast and was popular even when it just started. This could be of course just around the community I was a part of back then and not the worldwide opinion. But what I remember anyways. |
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| i wasnt into anime when sao was airing, but during the time when aot was new like around 2013-2014 it was definitely huge as far as i remember,now its on a whole new level of popularity considering anime has become mainstream media of sorts but i remember watching aot as it was airing and it was still huge for that time |
| The oldest anime I remember being around for as it was airing is No Game No Life, and yeah it was a pretty big hit even at that point. Although I wasn't on MAL by then, the communities I was part of couldn't stop mentioning it for 10 minutes. Missed AoT and SAO sadly. |
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| SnK was pretty popular when it first aired. It's been something people won't shut up about for years now. SAO was pretty popular when it came out too. I'm not entirely sure on how huge it was exactly but I remember people talking about it a lot. |
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| Revolutionary? Nah, but they were pretty big. I remember every person I met was a SAO fan and wouldn't shut up about it. It was like Twilight for teenage boys, honestly. I didn't watch it until years later but I knew a lot about it just because there was so many people talking about it in my acquaintances circle. People weren't as obnoxious about SnK, but I remember it taking the world by storm as well. People were talking about how it was the "next big thing" before the five year hiatus came... |
| attack on titan was extremely popular when it first aired. I still haven't seen anything come close to matching it's popularity at the time. |
| "were SAO, and SnK huge when they aired for the first time? I mean in a revolutionary kind of a way?" Yep, I felt like Nikolai II the Passion-Bearer. |
| Yep both were big. I remember being surprised by how much people were anticipating SAO before it started airing |
| I'm not from the early 2010's, since I don't even know what anime is up to that point. But I'm certain that both are really popular while they were airing, although SnK is much more popular due to it being trending worldwide. And up to this point, SnK is still much more popular than SAO. |
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| I watched SnK season 1, during its hype, and I have to say that it definitely seemed like one of the leading factors of mainstream media developing a wider appeal for anime. SAO was huge as well, but only among anime fans. There were already some pretty polarizing opinions about it, during its hype. These are just anecdotal takes though. It's from what I saw on a couple sites, at that time, and from the high school I used to go to. |
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| I wasn't even watching anime back when Attack on Titan and SAO's 1st seasons first aired but people all over the internet seemed to be talking about them. I remember walking into a teacher's class once (pretty sure I was delivering something to them?) and they were showing Attack on Titan (episode 1 I think, but I'm not sure, since I still haven't watched AoT) in class, for no other reason than that they were a fan of the show. lol |
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| ahhh no. but i remember when the second season for aot came out and everyone was freaking out "ITS BEEN 4 YEARS ITS BEEN 4 YEARS" |
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| aot was huge when it came out. don't know much about sao though.. |
| Aot was definitely popular. It was almost everywhere (it still is). Even Pewdiepie, Jacksepticeye and Markiplier did a video about it (and Markiplier even had some animation about it on YouTube). There was also a time when Marvel did a crossover with it. |
| I never watched any anime at the time Attack on Titan was airing (I properly got into anime last year), but I remember hearing a lot about Attack on Titan in 2017 when season 2 came out because a lot of people were talking about it, I even had people in my swimming class talk about it and I also remember my swimming instructor talking about Attack on Titan as well. I also remember a lot of people talking about it on the internet as well due to how popular it was. So I can say for sure that Attack on Titan attracted the attention of people outside of the anime community. |
Zackack99May 1, 2021 1:23 PM
| SnK was MASSIVE when it was first airing. Every single season, people were begging for season 2 to come out and it was crazy when it actually happened. It got a lot of normies into the community and it felt like everyone knew about it. |
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| Attack on Titan was very popular, however not as popular as people think. It was treated more like an anime flavor of the month, like for a while people did say it was a must watch, but it's popularity was more akin to Devilman: Crybaby than something like Game of Thrones. Devilman: Crybaby, like the first season of Attack on Titan, had pretty far reach in popularity, however it wasn't like Game of Thrones where people treated it as a modern classic and a cultural phenomenon like they are today (well, before GoT's last season). SAO on the other hand absolutely was a phenomenon, for those of you that were here on MAL during those times you could not go to a single thread without seeing at least 3 people with an avatar and/or signature coming from SAO. There's a reason why so many people hate it solely for it's popularity, it's because it actually did explode in popularity. The fact that it's mellowed out so much has made people forget about how big it really was. This show dominated practically everything, you couldn't go to a popularity poll without finding Kirito or Asuna right at the top. |
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| Yes, both were massive. In fact, SAO was actually popular and not "controversial" during its first half. The negative opinions only got louder during the fairy dance. SNK even escaped the anime community into the mainstream media (although obviously not to the degree it does nowadays). |
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| comparable with demon slayer or re zero i guess |
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| I don't recall either being revolutionary. They both did what they do well enough and added some of their own flare to stand out for different reasons. I know SnK was popular not like it is now but you could sense it was going somewhere. SAO was popular but it got a lot of attention from youtubers that disliked it for various reasons one in particular was posted around a lot and that kind of took off and although that feedback was negative I think it made it more popular because even bad advertising is still advertising. I think it gets more hate than it deserves. |
| They were enjoyable but I don't think they are revolutionary at all. |
 (っ◔◡◔)っ 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓭𝓪𝔂 ♥ |
| I watched both as they aired, and during that time I was still in high school. A lot of people at my school liked AoT and I'd see people cosplay from it (went to a pretty nerdy high school) Also tumblr was just loving it and there was so much fanfic/fanart/content made by fans for AoT series. Besides that going to conventions during the height of these two series, there were soooo many cosplays/meet ups/general events surrounding the two. I think AoT was revolutionary in the sense that people who didn't watch anime watched that particular series |
| desu desu binches |
| snk was just a survival anime in the first season, it had some cool fights but that's it, nothing revo, why was snk so popular is a mystery to me even now. don't know about sao but people were talking about it and it had a rating above 8 on mal, I think it was a decent trapped in a virtual world anime but then again, people were shitting on the alfheim arc. |
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| I wasn't around watching it at the time but I heard the name "attack on titan" way back then so I would assume it was massive |
 ManWild |
| I didn’t even know what anime was in 2013 but even then I was still hearing about Attack on Titan from friends |
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| AOT back then was a hype train, similar to how it is now with Season 4. It was like the definitive hype anime at the time. Then sometime around the end of season 2 or so, the hype sort of died down, and people started calling it overrated because of bad story, bad characters, etc. this was before Eren’s dramatic change. I don’t remember much about SAO when it first aired, but I remember it was talked about quite a lot. It was no nowhere near as hated as it is today. I don’t think either anime were considered “revolutionary” though, at least from what I’ve seen people say back then, but they were very popular. |
| If either of those was "revolutionary," it was Attack on Titan. It was much more different visually than the other anime of the time, and it was a lot better at appealing to both hardcore anime viewers and newbies/normies. SAO was certainly popular when it came out, but it wasn't radically different from its contemporaries. For those of us who were old-timers at the time, it came off as "Oh, they brought back the 'trapped in a video game / can't log out' mechanic from the .HACK// franchise." And while many could appreciate the gaming/MMO components and find characters that appealed to them, it had a lot more "anime" elements that limited its mainstream appeal, such as Kirito's harem, the infamous tentacle scene, and the "sister-like cousin" incest stuff with Suguha later on. |
| From what I remember, yes and no? SAO was hyped but got a lot of hate when it finished airing, so it didn't pick back up in popularity until maybe a year or two later when new Anime fans watched it and loved it. It was still consistently popular but as far as 'legendary' status goes, it was more 'infamous' up until that second wave of fans. I wouldn't call it legendary, though. It's not really something I see non-Anime fans mention. MHA has that role filled. AoT was hype when it aired, for sure. In fact, I would say it's one of the key points that helped Anime become mainstream in the past few years. It didn't have any of the typical tropes which made it have mass appeal. Even coworkers of mine who didn't know a thing about Anime watched it. I saw its impact through the years first-hand. |
| Both were big, however AoT wasn't as big as people think or remember. It was very popular, however not huge enough to make huge waves from just it's first season. It was popular enough to be talked about and recommended even to people outside of the anime community, but not enough to change the anime landscape. The popularity only began to pick up steam with the second season when people realized it wasn't just a one-off experience. Just the first season wasn't enough to convince people the series had sticking power. SAO on the other hand was EVERYWHERE. Asuna and Kirito profile pics all over these forums (that's right, Kirito was popular), and every single popularity poll that was anything about female characters would have Asuna in it and most likely #1. For a short while, studios like A-1 and J.C. Staff were making anime that had the EXACT same artstyle as SAO that it was straight up confusing, not knowing which anime screencaps were from SAO and which were just from a new anime attempting to capitalize on it's popularity. The most mind boggling thing was the fact that people that hated SAO were VASTLY outnumbered and dogpiled on when talking about it, hating on the show wasn't cool back then as you'd just be seen as nothing but a contrarian. |
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| Both of them were basically the biggest show of their year. If you were an anime fan at the time, it was impossible to not hear about them. Pretty sure they were so popular that they were the gateway anime for a huge influx of new fans, which made anime overall more popular. If that's revolutionary, then maybe? There were always huge seasonals tho. I mean, I got into seasonals because Death Note and Code Geass were so popular in 2006-2007. The funny thing is SAO wasn't hated by the community at first. I think Digibro was one of the first to shit on it, then people started to do a 180. AoT didn't explode to insane levels of popularity until the anime aired. I remember hearing about the manga beforehand, but I don't recall it being that talked about. I think it's similar to Demon Slayer in that way. Their anime adaptations pushed them to the forefront. |
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| SAO was extremely popular. I clearly remember when I was in high school, even my friends who rarely watched anime knew about it. It was already super popular when the first episode came out; everyone loved the cool new concept of VR and thought it was going to be one of the best shows ever. I myself was so excited for the upcoming episodes. But it went way downhill by the second half of the show, which is when the hype and love for it began to die down. Shingeki no Kyojin was popular too, but not nearly as much as SAO by the first season, if I recall correctly. It was probably similar in popularity to Akame Ga Kill. But its following increased by a large margin around the time the second season came out. I believe everyone was going crazy on the reveal of the Armored and Colossal Titan. I'd only call either of the anime "revolutionary" as far as SAO being the one to popularize the isekai genre (which is everywhere now) and Attack on Titan being one of the contemporary leading shows in attracting new anime watchers. |
XiaoJul 7, 2021 12:25 AM
  "As promised, all that you seek, all that we desire, is prepared up there. On top of the Tower." |
| I don't remember much form those years and I only vaguely knew that anime existed, but I do remember I heard the name Attack on Titan somewhere when it was airing and watched some footage of it. So I guess it was pretty popular. I didn't know about SAO until I actively started watching anime tho. |
| Both had massive impacts on the community and normies. If you went to a con while either was first airing, all you would see is a sea of Kiritos and AoT cloaks. They were indescribably big. |
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| Wait, some people here say Aot exploded bigger and some say SAO, so which one exploded bigger? I had this doubt for a long time and finally someone asked this here. |
mr_modest said: Wait, some people here say Aot exploded bigger and some say SAO, so which one exploded bigger? I had this doubt for a long time and finally someone asked this here. SAO was immensely popular when it came out,if you played any online game you would see a lot of people naming their characters Kirito or Asuna,you would see a lot of people making SAO mods for a lot of games like Skyrim and you even had companies like IBM promising us that they would develop a full dive vr headset like the one in SAO but at the end of the day SnK exploded bigger it helped anime reach people that were not into anime in the first place,it showed entertainment companies that anime in america,middle east,africa had economic potential so SnK peak was higher than SAO but that doesnt mean SAO had a small impact,its just that SnK impact on the anime community was bigger. |
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Erdgeist said: So, SNK had bigger impact on the anime community.mr_modest said: Wait, some people here say Aot exploded bigger and some say SAO, so which one exploded bigger? I had this doubt for a long time and finally someone asked this here. SAO was immensely popular when it came out,if you played any online game you would see a lot of people naming their characters Kirito or Asuna,you would see a lot of people making SAO mods for a lot of games like Skyrim and you even had companies like IBM promising us that they would develop a full dive vr headset like the one in SAO but at the end of the day SnK exploded bigger it helped anime reach people that were not into anime in the first place,it showed entertainment companies that anime in america,middle east,africa had economic potential so SnK peak was higher than SAO but that doesnt mean SAO had a small impact,its just that SnK impact on the anime community was bigger. But SAO had impact on gaming community and the companies you mentioned above. |
ItsMuZe said: I didn't know about SAO until I actively started watching anime tho. This was my own experience with Sword Art Online. |
| その目だれの目？ |
| They were both enormous. In SAO's case the source material was popular and what the anime did was twofold. Firstly it reminded everyone that the Isekai subgenre can be revitalised. And secondly it caused such a controversy that it stayed in people's minds, regardless of whether people liked it or not. In SNK's case the manga was apparently nothing to write home about, but the staff and studio performed a magic trick, which involved actual magic. Creating a modern classic in the process. SAO will not be remembered because of how omg it was, but because of all it's successors that have been coming out since it aired. And SNK will simply be remembered. |
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| SAO was definitely really popular, did wonders for the isekai genre and for a lot of people it made them realize or wish that the game was actually real. just a whole lot of "i wish i could be in that type of world too" or be able to play with their whole bodies, like the characters did - minus the whole dying irl part. although, i'm sure some wouldn't mind that part either. probably adds to their fantasy. and though VR at the time was rudimentary, i'm sure SAO had an impact on progressing its improvement... i've seen some recent VR gameplays and they are strikingly realistic, i'd bet in 10 years, all that clunky-ness of the headsets and etc. will be gone too. technology will come around. the concept wasn't new by any means (.hack), but it indeed sparked life and fresh interest into it. at the same time, SAO itself as an anime and franchise isn't recognized for being superior in utilizing and exploring a virtual game isekai to new heights IMO. i'll know when and if i see it in the future, it's not SAO. as for SNK, the anime production was what skyrocketed its popularity. the manga started in 2009, the anime aired in 2013. it's weird when i think about how it's been ACTUALLY 8 years since 2013, it seems like it was just yesterday. but anyways, i remember when the first few episodes dropped, i was in my older brother's room and he came in. he was like "you have to watch this," and gave me the link to the site he was using, which was surprisingly free of advertisements and its roster consisted of solely baby SNK. i was into it, and he went "told ya' it was good." the best way i can describe the experience was that SNK felt very fresh, and always had some sort of blurred horizon on the edge surrounding it. like an impending doom/nearly apocalyptic mood, that humanity was trying to fight against. the music, op's and ed's were awesome. people loved it so much that there was a ton of complaints about when another season was going to come out, and even i thought it was a bit unnecessary to keep the fans waiting for a whole 4 years when it had such a strong backing behind it. some worried about it losing steam before a second season would be announced. i wasn't a following fan though so, eh. tldr; influenza of green aot cloaks and kiritards, game isekai and dystopian |
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