When I finished SAO not long ago, I was, I must admit, very confused. I'd just seen an anime full of faults and holes and yet I found myself being entertained beyond my expectations. I've been searching for a way to best describe that anime and how the hell is it possible to like something with so many shortcomings so much, when the perfect thought hit me whilst chewing on a burger at some obscure booth near a bus station.
SAO is exactly like a cheap cheeseburger. You know it's nothing special and that most of the ingredients' quality is questionable at best, yet the huge
...
amount of good sauce they add drowns everything else out and, as long as you like the sauce, you find yourself enjoying every bite and licking your fingers clean.
If you haven't stopped reading my review despite of my rather cheesy (heh heh) metaphor, I guess you won't mind me sticking to it while I get to the bottom of things and write a bit about each of the aspects of the anime
1. Story - the meat: 6
SAO's plot makes me think of someone getting a really fine chunk of beef, nice and juicy... and then not really being able to prepare it well. I loved the idea for SAO even before I started watching and some of the plot twists that happened later on I found very involving... but there were just too many shortcomings and a great potential was, for the most part, lost. The pacing was very chaotic, the romance motif was nauseating at times and the introduction of the second arc was incredibly cumbersome and just seemed forced. Thankfully, it got a bit better after the initial "shock" and in the end I guess it wasn't a bad arc (I found Sugu's story to be surprisingly touching), but still it could've been executed better. Bottom line is, SAO's story was like an apetizingly looking patty with good taste, but chewy and with plenty undercooked spots.
2. ART - the bun: 10
Just like when eating a cheeseburger, the first thing you sink your teeth into when watching an anime is the art style... and SAO's art style is really, really good - fresh from the bakery. The background scenery is breathtaking, the character designs - interesting and the fight scenes - beautifully animated. This is the only aspect of the anime I honestly have no issues with, which I guess is a good thing but then again, if the best part of your burger is the bun, you might as well just get yourself a peanut-butter-jelly sandwich instead.
3. MUSIC - the cheese: 9
Like delicious cheese that melts and seeps through the rest of the burger, the music in SAO is truly spectacular. It might not be anything extremely ambitious from a musical point of view, but then few anime OSTs can be called true masterpieces. What the soundtrack should do is make uplifting moments more uplifting, touching scenes more touching and epic fights more epic. SAO does a really good job in incorporating the music into the action and it plays a huge part in building the represented world of the game and well, basically, if the main theme didn't have you swinging a non-existent sword while Kirito was kicking ass then, well, you're probably lactose intolerant.
The opening and ending songs were very fitting to the anime as well (I particularly enjoyed the second ED) and the VAs also did a great job, so in terms of music I have little complaints. Even if you don't like SAO, you gouda at least admit it has a good soundtrack.
4. CHARACTER - the veggies: 4
Oh man. I don't want to go into rant mode, so I'll just say that the characters, for the most part, are like a bunch of frozen vegetables with hardly any taste quickly thawed and carelessly slopped into the burger. OK, they're not impossible to like, but all it takes is to chew on them for a little bit longer to analyze them more and they fall apart, mostly being water.
Seriously though, the characters are definitely SAO's weakest point. I didn't read the light novel but I've heard that the anime really waters their personalities down. (Yeah sorry, I'll rant for a bit, please bear with me) The main character, Kirito, is your typical quiet yet OP protagonist who struggles with many personal issues. He's the type of character that's meant to be so likable and relatable that there's hardly any interesting personality in him left. That can be sort of overlooked, I mean in an adventure anime that concentrates mostly on entertaining the viewer, that kind of character usually works, but what really irks me is that nearly every female character in the anime has a thing for him, which is annoying. That brings us to Asuna, the main female character or, as I like to think of her, waifu template. Quiet and badass at first, like Kirito, later on she becomes quite the opposite when she falls for Kirito and turns into a hopelessly love-struck plot-device girlfriend which hardly suits her character (I don't even think that's a spoiler, with both of them being arguably the most popular anime pair. If it's a spoiler, forgive me... but really, it's obvious from the first moment). Also a character that is possible to like... but hard to appreciate.
I could go on about each and every one of the characters, but that would take to long. Basically, the characters have little depth, the second antagonist is evil to the point of being ridiculous (he literally licks up someone's tears at one point, I'm not even kidding), the secondary characters - interesting, begging for some character development and much more likable than the main cast (at least for me. And at least Liz) - appear and disappear at the writers' whim and it may be hard to get attached to them for some viewers. Basically... yeah. The only character that I'd say got a decent amount of development and depth was Suguha in the second story arc. Her and Kirito's relation, though I had doubts at first (you'll see what I mean), turned out to be really touching. Sugu is basically a slice of fresh and juicy tomato among the watery main characters and not-yet-thawed secondary characters.
Bottom line is, the anime would arguably be more entertaining with no characters at all c:
5. ENJOYMENT - the sauce: 9
The secret ingredient, the sauce that the SAO cheeseburger is literally swimming in is what makes it worth checking out... and what made me love it.
Like I said at the beginning... SAO has it's faults. Quite a few of them. But if you like adventure, action, romance and comedy and begin to watch SAO with an open mind and not expecting the best animu evar... you'll find it hard to really hate it.
It's just... incredibly fun to watch. You might roll your eyes or facepalm a few times during the entire series (especially during the fanservice moments), but the story is involving, the fight scenes paired with the music simply epic and the whole anime, that big greasy cheeseburger, incredibly satisfying.
If you've stuck through this entire gastronomical review, you have my respect and thanks. If you're here, please allow me to just add my personal opinion: I don't care if an anime has mediocre pacing, characters lacking depth or cheesiness. I want animes to entertain me, to suck me in, to make me cheer on the main character while they destroy their enemies to save the one they love. SAO did just that. I have my issues with it, but I still love it. And so might you, so disregard everything both good or bad you've heard about it (though if you do, then technically this review is pointless D: ) and just give it a go and see for yourself.
All (9)FriendsRSS Feeds |
Sep 29, 2014
Sword Art Online
(Anime)
add
When I finished SAO not long ago, I was, I must admit, very confused. I'd just seen an anime full of faults and holes and yet I found myself being entertained beyond my expectations. I've been searching for a way to best describe that anime and how the hell is it possible to like something with so many shortcomings so much, when the perfect thought hit me whilst chewing on a burger at some obscure booth near a bus station.
SAO is exactly like a cheap cheeseburger. You know it's nothing special and that most of the ingredients' quality is questionable at best, yet the huge ... 
Jun 28, 2014
No Game No Life
(Anime)
add
When I started watching No Game No Life, I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't ever plan to see it, hell, I didn't even know it existed and was airing (I'm still not used to keeping track of new animes coming out). Thankfully, though, my friends told me about it somewhere around episode 7 and after I got convinced and caught up with the episodes, I had the great pleasure of watching it as it was aired, getting sucked into the story, holding my breath and uttering screams of protest at the cliffhangers with the rest of the Internet community... and basically just
...
|
