There are many sources from which anime spring. Though many are new series with original story lines and characters, others are adaptations of other media. Common sources include manga, movies, novels (light and otherwise), visual novels, games and even other anime. Some adaptations prove superior to their source material, others are shadows hinting at what could have been, and still others twist original story lines and characters into something that, through the producers' attempts to draw in viewers, has become more of a perversion of the original work than a mere adaptation.
Sword Art Online is one such adaptation, though it doesn't quite fit into
...
any of the types I described above.
A quick note: this review does contain a few mild spoilers, though not as many as some reviews for SAO that I've read.
An introduction to the plot, for anyone that hasn't either read the novels or begun watching the anime:
In the near future, technology has advanced to the point where new games are played through total immersion in virtual worlds created and maintained by the games' servers. Sword Art Online is the newest and by far the most advanced game of this new genre. For the grand opening of the game, roughly 10,000 players log in and create their characters. The game director appears during the commencement ceremony and announces that the players are unable to log out of the game and additionally will die in the real world if their characters die in-game. The only way to escape from the game is to clear all 100 levels of the game's dungeon.
As a premise, SAO's story is at the very least intriguing and promising. The "trapped in a game" genre has been done before, but not extensively. The first episode of the anime plays out excellently; beginning the entire series with the problem at hand is an fantastic way to hook viewers. The second episode then follows through on the high expectations set by its precedent. Then the series begins to lose this initial focus.
I would like to point out that I am a huge fan of the original Sword Art Online novels, the source material from which the anime is drawn. Their layout is conducted in a somewhat different manner from the anime. The first novel is the Aincrad arc. The second novel is a series of side-stories that occur during the Aincrad arc. The third and fourth novels are the ALFheim Online arc. Though there are more novels, the anime covers the events of these first four.
I can only guess at the motivations of the producers at how they altered the structure in which SAO is presented. Perhaps they believed that sticking to the novel layout would lose viewers, perhaps they simply wanted to attract additional attention. Regardless of the reasons, the producers decided to mesh novels one and two together. This means a presentation of all the events in the Aincrad arc at once, rather than first solving the main plot and then going back for the side stories. As a production technique, this is perfectly understandable in theory, but in application it probably would have been better if the producers had instead cut out novel two altogether.
At its core, SAO is a romance story and an adventure story. It is NOT a harem. The two main characters are Kirito and Asuna, and it is inevitably between these two that the romance occurs. SAO novel one, in addition to plowing its way through the main plot line of the Aincrad arc, oversaw the beginning of and development of the relationship between Kirito and Asuna. SAO novel two added new characters for each of its side-stories in order to make them more interesting. Unfortunately, in each of these side-stories, the new character around which the subplot revolves is female.
This is the first area where the anime fails to match up to the novels. By integrating the side-stories with the main plot, the anime adopted a harem feel. Kirito begins to develop friendships with various girls (who inevitably think he's the greatest thing that ever existed) before Asuna is fleshed out as a character. As a result, Asuna feels more like the "harem candidate that wins" than the main heroine, at least for a while.
One of the things that bothers me the most in many review I read are terms such as "Mary-Sue," "Gary-Stu," and (the worst of the lot) "Deus Ex Machina." I sincerely believe that over time, the true and original meaning and intent behind these terms has been twisted and abused to the point where every strong male character is a Gary-Stu, every strong female character is a Mary-Sue, and every plot device that wasn't absolutely what the viewer expected or was desiring becomes a Deus Ex Machina. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to argue why events in anime were not, in fact, poorly contrived and executed Deus Ex Machina and how just because a viewer doesn't either like or expect something that happens doesn't mean it's stupid.
That being said, it is worth pointing out that Kirito is practically a Gary-Stu. He has zero flaws. He has prior knowledge of the game, he's one of the best players, he's the object of attraction for most of the girls in the series, he always wins (at least when the fight is fair), he's given privileges and abilities that other players don't have, and he defies the logic of the game engine. These types of characters rarely bother me, and I respect and enjoy the way they are utilized. But if a viewer is looking for a protagonist with major flaws, or if a viewer desires the type of character that starts out weak but becomes high-invincible by the end, then SAO probably isn't a good match for that viewer.
Additionally, the Aincrad arc does in fact throw in one of the most annoying Deus Ex Machina events I've ever seen. It would have been so easy for the producers to put in 10-20 seconds of dialogue explaining this event away and so prevent its classification as an obnoxious magical plot-solver, but unfortunately, they don't. I've created my own justification for it and so can mentally dismiss it as a simple lack of clarity in the writing, but it's still there, and it's still bound to annoy viewers.
The second area where the anime doesn't match up to the novels (in my opinion) is the fan service. Make no mistake, it was present in the novels. But the anime (as most do) takes it a little too far. This is likely a byproduct of the current demand for lots of H in anime, but it's annoying nonetheless. In particular, the obsessive attention payed to the bodies of Suguha and Lyfa is, to say the least, obnoxious. If I want excessive H, there are plenty of doujin manga, H anime and adult games that I can turn to. I can't stand when something becomes over-sexualized that previously wasn't. Still, I can't deny its power to pull in the fanboys, so if emphasis on curvy bodies is your thing, then you will love the second arc.
One other feature that is guaranteed to agonize some viewers is the time skips. There are several throughout SAO, and after each one occurs there are inevitably several changes that are not explained; characters will have new gear, relationships will have been formed or strengthened, floors will have been conquered, and revelations will have been made. As viewers, we are not privy to much of this information. Like I said, this will bother some viewers to no end, but others (especially fans of very vague anime like Haibane Renmei) will realize that what happened in between doesn't really matter. Yes, at some point Kirito changes from his Queen's Nightblade to his Elucidator, but do we really need to know how he got it? Yes, there's a huge skip between the fight against the boss of floor one in episode two and Kirito's sudden position as solo player representative in the lead group, but do the events in between really matter? We're all familiar with many mainstream shounen anime, and we know how anime with a fight-of-the-week plot are structured, so we can accurately assume what has happened on floors two, three, and so on.
Despite my criticisms, I have to admit that I enjoy the anime immensely. Not quite as much as the original novels, but the feeling is there. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure, considering how many things I can identify to myself that I don't care for about it. But regardless, it's a very enjoyable anime. By far not the greatest of the thousands of series floating around, but definitely worth the 20 minutes of my time per episode.
I'll very briefly touch on some other areas, since I know many viewers have a limited interest in production techniques and plot subtleties and instead prefer to analyze things like animation and musical score quality.
Let it be known that the musical score is done by Kaijura Yuki, which practically by default means it's fantastic. The music is also used at the proper times and is well-suited to the scenes in which it appears. The OP and ED themes are nice enough to be enjoyable, but not to the extend that I wanted to get them for myself.
The animation is good quality. Not fantastic, but nothing to complain about, either. I like the character designs, the backdrops had a good amount of attention put into them, and the battle scenes are good enough to impress me. Colorful, but not garishly so. Not the most realistic art style I've seen, but its clean, proportionate and detailed enough that it doesn't look like a kids show, either.
I hate summarizing, but I know that many people won't bother with the wall-of-text and will just skip to the numbers instead, so:
Plot: 7 (courtesy to the TRUE plot, not the side-stories that became common filler in this adaptation)
Characters: 6 (nothing new here, but not awful either)
Sound: 9 (gotta love Kaijura Yuki)
Animation: 7 (generally good quality, but not many "wow" moments)
Enjoyment: 7 (enough to always keep me hooked, and enough to hang around in my mind for hours after each episode)
Overall: 7 (7 simple means "good," and good is what SAO is)
If you have time to waste, watch it. You may not jump on the bandwagon, but you likely won't regret watching it.
Jan 7, 2013
Sword Art Online
(Anime)
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There are many sources from which anime spring. Though many are new series with original story lines and characters, others are adaptations of other media. Common sources include manga, movies, novels (light and otherwise), visual novels, games and even other anime. Some adaptations prove superior to their source material, others are shadows hinting at what could have been, and still others twist original story lines and characters into something that, through the producers' attempts to draw in viewers, has become more of a perversion of the original work than a mere adaptation.
Sword Art Online is one such adaptation, though it doesn't quite fit into ... |
