Naturally, the relationships in this show are nothing short of a harem, as Kirito essentially attracts every female character he meets (more pandering and self-insertion). The main female character Asuna had some actual potential to be an interesting character, until she partook in the horribly forced romance between her and Kirito, even becoming just a “damsel in distress” at one point.
Naturally, there are plenty of convenient plot contrivances in which Kirito actually breaks the rules of the game without any explanation as to how. Deus ex Machinas become used so often, that Kirito himself even begins to believe that he is beyond the games rules, when he literally tries to penetrate an invisible boundary, even after just being told by an admin sprite that the boundary is impenetrable.
Naturally, the fan service in this show is constantly exploited using deliberate camera angles to get an “ass shot”, if you will. If the writers wanted you to take the relationship between Kirito and Asuna seriously, then why did they continuously show unnecessary angles of her ass at every opportunity they had? Because they have no respect for your intelligence, they know most people just eat it up, and the story is not interesting enough that you would feel distracted from something actually important happening.
With all of this aside, there is something to be said about the excitement of the concept holding some real potential. As an avid MMORPG player myself, I understand that there was some actually interesting gaming allusions and innuendos such as the ambiguity of genders, beta testers, quests, dungeons, raids, and parties. I mean there is nothing ground breaking or revolutionary here, like many people claim, as the idea of “virtual reality game meets anime” has been done before (shows like .hack and Accel World). But, some of the scenery and animation is done beautifully.
Though the animation lacks at times, it can also be quite good. Some of the boss fights and action scenes were animated well with a good variety of bright flashing colors emitted by the skills and magic spells. Also, the bosses designs were pretty epic and the usage of CGI made them really pop out. The soundtrack was decent, though not very memorable, while the openings were very well done.
