The anime as a whole interestingly enough (and without giving away anything) is very much reminiscent of Gurren Lagann. SOA's actually scene are enjoy and progressively more grandiose, it's pace is little spastic which may annoy some but I personally enjoy spitfire plot developments interlaced by subtle world-building/character development breaks.
Though it suffers a little from the smell of harem lingering around the corner it never oversteps its boundaries and it's central romance is actually one of the more enjoyable I've seen. It also has one of the more restrained execution of tsundere, for what it's worth. SOA does unfortunately only have one joke when it comes to awkward and/or misconstrued romance and it's the same joke every other anime has ever had.
The world and the art is what really starts setting SOA apart from others. The base layer fantasy world is solid in and of itself but when layered with the MMO tropes (and occasionally humorous jabs), well placed and unapologetically dark tone, the lingering dissonance between reality for the characters and the fun exaggeration of MMO politics, SOA becomes far more compelling than the sum of its parts.
The biggest weakness in the end for SOA is probably that it plays it's strongest cards too early and ends with an unfortunately ridiculous and possible rage inducing villain (usually you'd think would be a good thing but nope).
I would recommend it but will say that you will enjoy it a lot more if your familiar with the MMO genre.
