SAO has a bad reputation, and for good reasons. It's a flawed series that could have been outstanding. So why give it a 7? All flaws aside, for me the world as a whole allowed me to dive in and leave the knit picking for after the credits rolled.
First, what are the major problems that kept this show from becoming a masterpiece.
The Pacing. The pacing of this show was so fast in the beginning I thought I missed an episode. Finally after about 3 or 4 episodes the show becomes steady and much easier to follow. Unfortunately the damage has already been done. You can't feel that these characters have been trapped as long as they have been, and it takes away from conflict of progressing through those early levels of a game.
The characters. The characters in this suffered the opposite fate of characters in other anime. For instance look at Angel Beats. Where Angel Beats only had 13 episodes to flesh out the characters, this had 25 episodes to flesh out the characters, but instead ignored that and focused on getting in that 2nd pointless arc. Which leads me to my next point.
The 2nd arc (ep 15-25). Pointless. Need I say more. Instead of using the extra episodes to flesh out the characters and story, they put in this pointless second arc to create more suspense (I think? It's hard to tell.) Frankly even if they had ended the show the way it was at ep 14 I would have liked it better. The ending of the 1st arc (kirito leaving the hospital) is powerful enough.
Then you have other problems. Like I never felt any real suspense, I was only surprised by the story once or twice, other than that everything was predictable. The Romance was dull and generic, and as much as this show was an action/adventure, it was more of Romance than anything else, especially with that second arc.
But what makes the story work? It's one saving grace was the overall concept, and the world of SAO. It is such an appealing idea, and the world of SAO is so immersing that even with it's flaws the show captures you for 24 minutes and leaves you wanting more. It's a shame that this show had to have so many flaws because the concept behind it and the world were so great that it could have made a spectacular Action/Adventure or Romance.
So what the show does well, it does really well, and that's enough (at least in my case) for me to recommend this show. And on a personal note I hope that one day someone will come back to this world and fix the mistakes. Because if someone can fix the mistakes of this show, and give us a story and characters to really enjoy (as well as getting rid of the 2nd arc) then maybe we'll have the phenomenon this show could have been.
