Apr 22, 2013
Sword Art Online starts off with a relatively well-built and engaging story. With the launch of a new, virtual reality system, suddenly everyone is trapped inside the game with dire consequences for death. While not the most original idea, Sword Art Online manages to portray the idea in a way that becomes very appealing to the average anime fan. At the start of the story, Sword Art Online seems to be a very promising anime. With an enormous society of what would be, lets be honest, mostly nerds, Sword Art Online would have countless opportunities to examine how society evolves or devolves in such a
...
shockingly new environment... right?
Spoiler alert: Wrong.
This is what I believe to be the ultimate downfall of this anime. All of the big questions go unanswered to satiate the "average anime fan's" desire for a moe protagonist that can mysteriously do any task set in front of him. It's the pure amount of wasted potential that makes me angry. On regards of story, Sword Art Online gets a 4/10.
Moving on to art and sound, I can actually say that this is one thing that this anime did right. Without going into a lot of detail, I can just say that if you have a good budget, you get good quality. Art and sound get 8/10.
Characters, oh characters. The second biggest downfall of Sword Art Online. I wish I could go into a lot more detail here, but the guidelines don't want me to give away spoilers, so I'll keep it simple.
Kirito, the protagonist: I can only assume was designed in the image of Jesus. The ultimate Gary Stu, he is literally able to do anything he wants with pretty much no consequence.
Asuna, the leading female: I assume is a poorly designed tsundere that just ends up going really dere. I don't really know what the idea was here, but something went wrong, because no one acts like this in real life. Seriously.
Suguha, Kirito's sister: The bipolar sister with some other problems that I can't mention because of all the spoilers. Seriously, you'll just have to watch the anime for this one.
Of course there are a lot more characters to mention, there just isn't a lot of point to it. The fact of the matter is that every character, even the big burly guy, was made with the word "moe" in mind. I know that this is supposed to appeal to a lot of anime fans but... they just went so far overboard that they're on a different ship. For characters Sword Art Online gets a 5/10
Overall, I give Sword Art Online a review of 5/10.
I would like you to keep in mind that I do have my own biased that has brought me to dislike this show. It became painfully obvious to me that the show was designed to sell rather than to entertain, and I found it infuriating. In case you're still wondering how some people come to hate such a popular show, I'll break it down a little bit further.
Sword Art Online is marketed towards the average anime fan. This creates overly moe characters and unrealistic scenarios. For some people, these situations become too obvious and ruin the show for them.
If you don't have a tendency to be picky about what anime you watch, or you don't pick up on these little flaws, chances are you will enjoy Sword Art Online, since it is marked towards, well you. If you like battle scenes, romance, moe characters, and life-or-death situations, Sword Art Online might be worth checking out, but only if you can ignore some plot-holes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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