Few redeeming things about the worst anime you've watched

CakeMan-kun said:
SAO has good openings and good character designs

IrrelevantGuy said:

Can't agree more with your statement. The whole show sucked but at least the concept was cool and the animation was pretty decent.

TadanoMari said:
Diabolik Lovers - Really, only the art was pretty and that's it. Would never touch it again.

I'd like to defend SAO ;-;

IrrelevantGuy said:

Sure, you can. As long as you give well constructed statements and maintain a peaceful discussion, you absolutely can defend SAO.

TadanoMari said:

Sure, I'm anything but forceful and I'll try to sound coherent lol. I'm glad you're not being defensive and saying no :)
I also don't mind if you hate it, pretty justified tbh. ESPECIALLY if we're talking season 1 only.

What can I say XD? It didn't SUCK, but it wasn't outstanding at first. It had good character designs and like you said, a decent concept and animation. It gets better with every installment I feel.

1-As far as ideas go, Aincrad was interesting despite the bad execution, but SAO Progressive fixes that. Alfheim...not redeemable much :P. GunGale was okay too, and if you liked it you could check out SAO Alternative which, despite the title, barely has anything to do with SAO. And Underworld is really cool with the whole soul translator concept.

2-Characterization gets better the further in you go (not counting the easy initial harem that was made in 5 eps). Examples:

• Kirito is kind of a great character because you can understand his motivations in doing what he does. He IS the good guy character, though he snaps sometimes too; like the Sugou scene, and has his troubles; like the killing in Aincrad (that got discussed in GGO).
  
• Asuna gets fleshed out more, with her getting great amounts of screentime in both Mother's Rosario and Alicization. I really liked her moments in Ordinal Scale too; she reacted normally to whatever happened and not in a cliche way.
  
• Sinon gets ample time for development, so she has a clear past, a coherent present, and an imaginable future.
  
• Yuuki has a great backstory that is presented well. Her character as a whole is well-defined and it's easy to get attached to her.
  
• Eugeo starts out as a nice guy (again) but he's different enough that he doesn't feel like a Kirito rip-off and he was honestly a breath of fresh air. And development happens.
  
• Alice has a season where she's literally the main character and Kirito is barely present.
  

3-It has a lot of action for those that love seeing that.

4-Plot, well...is there, it exists. Yes, stuff happens, though some plot points are cliche, and I guess if you're not in SAO for the characters (which you probably aren't) then it's for this. Since the initial concept was great they keep tying everything back to it while also diverging far enough from it. The plot moves fast and has a lot of cliffhangers too. Alicization is arguably the best arc so far.

5-World-building is actually great since they establish just how far developed they are technologically and then show what complications would arise from such. You get to see many different point of views towards their world.

6-The art was good initially but recent seasons' art and animation levels have skyrocketed! It's really beautiful now.

...And I guess that's it.
If you actually read all of that, you're amazing man! Kudos to you, and thanks for reading!

IrrelevantGuy said:

Well, I actually read all of that. I would say that you've greatly described the points you are trying to make. But try to see this from the perspective of a man who has only seen the first season of SAO (I forgot to mention).

I have heard a lot of great things about the latest arcs of SAO. Even the youtubers who absolutely hated the first 2 seasons of SAO are praising it for the gradual improvement it had over the last few years. But in my opinion, the first season of SAO, as a standalone anime, was pretty bad. I will elaborate why I think so. And keep in mind that I'm only talking about SAO Season 1 here.

The side characters are poorly developed

It's probably the biggest flaw of SAO. The side characters aren't properly developed in the first season of SAO. The side characters don't receive much development/depth throughout the entire season. They didn't have much significance in the main story. It feels like even if they were entirely removed from the anime, it wouldn't put much effect on the story. In my opinion, SAO should have given more time to develop these side characters even though they aren't the focus of the anime.

The protagonist is too unrealistic and overpowered

Kirito seemed too unrealistic and overpowered to me. The things that he did in the first season were extremely difficult to do for a 14-16 years old guy. But Kirito did those things very easily. The scene where he saves/revives Yui within just a few seconds made no sense to me. How was he able to pull off that sh*t literally within just a few seconds?

The protagonist feels unrelatable to me

A relatable protagonist is very necessary in anime like SAO. Even if the protagonist is overpowered, if the viewers can relate to him, I would say that he is a good protagonist. But Kirito didn't feel relatable to me. I couldn't relate to him at all. I have heard that most of monologues from the original light novel (I haven't read it myself though) have been removed from the anime. It makes it even harder for the viewers to feel relatable to Kirito. But in the end, this matter is entirely subjective.

An abundance of plot holes

I think we all know that SAO consists of several plot holes. As an example, the psychological elements of this type of situation weren't explored in the anime. The way that the players reacted to the situation they were suddenly put in weren't realistic. If people were stuck in a situation where they couldn't escape from the game and death in the game meant death in real life in a real life scenario, they would certainly suffer from a lot of mental stress, anxiety and depression. They would suffer from catastrophic mental problems. They would be thinking about their families and friends and try their best to somehow return to the real world. It would have taken a lot of years for them return to their normal state. But in SAO, it looked all the players instantly moved on from their mental problems and didn't have any discomfort with the current world they were living in, which definitely shouldn't be the case.

Absolutely unnecessary harem around the protagonist

The harem in SAO had no point to the story whatsoever. The girls who fell in love with Kirito only appeared for 2-3 episodes in the entire anime (Besides Asuna, of course). It felt like they served only one purpose in the entire anime which was to be a part of Kirito's Rejected Women's Club (As a famous anituber who absolutely despies SAO once said). It would've been a lot better if they were given more development and actually served purpose to the story.

There are also other reasons why I think the first season of SAO was pretty bad. But for now, I think that's enough.

Even though I didn't like the SAO Season 1, I will watch the other seasons of SAO just to make sure I am not missing out on anything.

If you were able to read all of these things I've written, I would have to give you a big THANK YOU and say that you are way more amazing than me.

TadanoMari said:

I must say, it's great that we're discussing this :D emphasize on peaceful discussion.
Oh you're talking about the first season only? My bad, didn't cross my mind that you were XD

I read the whole thing and it's really hard for me to disagree because the first season was just that bad :P and I admitted that it's very justified for you to not like it.
If I rate something like bland Isekai Smartphone with a 5, then the generic harem that is SAO season 1 gets a 6 from me. Which it did.

The only thing I could probably reply to (cuz I agree with everything, and to a certain extent I agree with this too) is how unrealistically OP Kirito was. From the start we know that Kirito is an avid gamer and they actually show us how he's also a technology wiz with him reading articles about it and all. But yeah, it still needed me to suspend my belief for a bit.

You were very articulate and thorough in expressing your opinion, I got your points and agreed with them too! You don't have to force yourself to watch the rest if you're not interested; I like SAO but I get why many don't. You could try finding something else you'll truly enjoy?

epyon4light said:


I always try out 90% of series first before looking at comments or reactions as peoples taste is all over the place.

pandaeatboo said:
Well Domestic na Kanojo was so bad it was pretty funny to me at sometimes, so I guess there's that.

Also the OP, Minami's "Kawaki Wo Ameku" is such an amazing song, by and far the best part of the show.