OK this is the big one.
Every once and a while a anime comes along that completely divides the fan base. On one side there are the people who love said anime unconditionally, and then there are the others that hate this anime with a fiery burning passion. In the 2012 anime season, this anime was Sword Art Online.
Before I get started, I am going to need to through up a SPOILER WARNING. There are some story elements that I am going to talk about, and one might consider some of these said story elements spoilers.
Story
The first three episodes are, by
...
far, the best episodes in the anime. It introduces the entire story very well, and I really liked how they dealt with the finality of death in these said episodes. Its a damn shame that it is immediately followed up by what amounts to filler. I don't care that it was just following the light novels; besides the merchant that we are introduced to in the beginning of the anime, we never see the characters that are introduced in these episodes outside of their own respective arcs. Now, these filler episodes do really mess up the the pacing of the story, but the honor of throwing a monkey wrench into the the entire story goes to episode 14. In this episode(SPOILER WARNING) the entire story of people being trapped a Virtual reality MMO ends, and it comes out of nowhere. From this point the entire anime goes down into a downward spiral of mediocrity, that is better to just watch than to read some guy on the internet write about.
4/10
Characters
Our main protagonist is Kirito, a power gamer who prefers to play Sword Art Online solo; there really isn't much else to say about him besides that. No need to beat around the bush so here we go; Kirito is nothing but a wish fulfillment character. I think someone at A-1 Pictures must have realized that most of the people that watch anime are also avid gamers, and most likely have played a MMO at some point. Everything just seems to go Kiritos' way, he completely over powers everybody that he encounters. He solos most of the content in SAO, something that never happens in any MMO. He can pull of feats of strength that are considered impossible by the set limitations of the game, and are we given any kind of reason as to why he can do all these awesome things? No, he can do what he wants because he is Kirito bitch. He even manages to get his own harem by the end of the anime, and it includes the generic loli, cat girl, and his cousin(No, I am not exaggerating). Kirito also has next to no character development. The only character development he does receive in episode three, and all he turns into is the generic, "I will protect everybody," shonen character.
There really isn't much to say about side characters either, there are only two worth noting. One is Asuna, who seems like she might be a somewhat important character, but just turns out to be a generic tsundere, and even gets demoted to a plot device in the latter half of the show. The other side character of note is Leafa, who Kirito meets in the second half of the show. Not much to say about her either; in all honesty, her main purpose was for fan-service and to guide Kirito through the second half of the show.
Also, special shout out to Sugou Nobuyuki, the antagonist in the latter half of SAO, who was one of the most generic villains I have seen in years. So much so in fact, that he became some what of a parody of himself, and bumped the enjoyment level for this anime up a few points.
3/10
Art
A-1 Pictures knocked it out of the park with this one. The art work is beautiful, and the animation is great. Honestly, one of the main reasons I made it through this anime was because of how well the fight scenes were animated.
9/10
Sound
Yuki Kajiura did the sound track for SAO, and while it is not one of her best works, it's still Yuki Kajiura. SAO has two openings and endings, and the only one worth mentioning in the first opening. It's not that the opening is really anything special, but the song just kind of grew on me, and I never skipped it.
8/10
Final Verdict: 5/10
Sword Art Online was extremely disappointing, and I think this has something to do with how hyped this show was. To give an idea of exactly how hyped up it was I will give a example, it was on this websites top 100 list BEFORE IT AIRED. So to say that expectations where high is a bit of a understatement.
I will admit that the first half of the anime was not bad by any stretch of the imagination; in fact, it was slightly above average. But, the bad pacing and the horrible second half, kind of ruined it.
The only reason I would recommend SAO to anybody is the animation, and the second half of SAO. Not because it's good mind you, but because it is so hilariously bad that I had decent amount of fun watching it.
Sword Art Online is available in it's entirety on Crunchy Roll for free. At the time of this review there is no DVD or Blu-Ray release yet, but with how crazy popular this anime is, I imagine that there will be a release buy the end of the year.
Well that was my first review and I hope that whoever is reading this found it at least some what helpful.
Jan 15, 2013
Sword Art Online
(Anime)
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OK this is the big one.
Every once and a while a anime comes along that completely divides the fan base. On one side there are the people who love said anime unconditionally, and then there are the others that hate this anime with a fiery burning passion. In the 2012 anime season, this anime was Sword Art Online. Before I get started, I am going to need to through up a SPOILER WARNING. There are some story elements that I am going to talk about, and one might consider some of these said story elements spoilers. Story The first three episodes are, by ... |
