Mar 16, 2016
I feel compelled to write a review for this hot steamer. Perhaps this is because of the hype train this thing SOMEHOW managed to conjure up. This is really just so I can get this off my chest, but I will be breaking this thing down by each category. For your sake, stop now. What lies ahead is not a pretty sight.
All you need to know is this:
Overall: (2/10)
Are you still here? You're a brave soul... I hope you're ready for this.
Let's get the "good" stuff out of the way first.
...
Art: (6/10)
The artwork is at its best during the battle scenes. It's not bad. It's not fantastic. You look at it and you think "Oh! those are pretty colors," then you forget about it. It doesn't do anything to enhance the atmosphere. It's there simply for you to gawk at.
Sound: (6/10)
Just like with the animation, the sound direction is fairly average. It's not bad. It's not fantastic. It's just there when it needs to be. There isn't anything particularly memorable about it. There was never a moment where I thought "Wow this music is really powerful!" It serves its purpose.
Okay, well that just about sums up the "positives." Now we can move on to the fun stuff.
Story: (2/10)
The first two episodes of this show are actually good. It does a good job of setting up the whole "you're stuck in a video game" idea, and the boss fight is exciting. It's after this point where the entire show falls apart. Basically, the writers told us we were getting cake, but little did we know the filling was made from regurgitated feces. You take that first bite and you think "Oooh that's some yummy frosting!" But by the time you get into the meat of it, it's too late. The plot from here on can be summed up as a harem anime. You thought you were getting a cool action show. Instead you get incoherent time skips, filler episodes, forced cheesy romance, fan-service, and a tentacle monster.
Characters: (1/10)
You thought the plot sounds bad? The characters are detestably cliche. The main protagonist, Kirito, is unstoppable. He's the best at everything. He never loses. He has zero depth, and due to all the time skipping the viewer is not allowed to grow with the character at all. One episode ends in one place, and in the next you have no idea what is going on. You feel like you've missed dozens of episodes worth of character development. It's infuriating.
Asuna isn't any better really. She exists solely for the purpose of serving Kirito and contributes nothing beyond that. All of the side characters and villains aren't even worth remembering because they are completely insignificant.
Enjoyment: (2/10)
At this point, I don't really need to explain how much I "enjoyed" this do I? Maybe if you haven't had any time to develop your taste, you may like this show for the setting and animation. But that's a huge stretch. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. The most surprising thing to me is how popular this show is. It's immense... I just don't get it. My friends love it... and I feel like a jerk when I tell them how awful it is. Am I a bad person for thinking it deserves only contempt? For me, the absolute worst part about it is how the anime community makes me feel like I am in the wrong, when I know just how loathsome it is. It just makes me feel totally crazy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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