Seen the whole thing, a few times now, most of us know how the anime works [Video game, trapped, beat the bosses yada yada yada] so lets find out what I think...
to be honest, I hate being forced to choose number ratings, I feel like it makes my quantify my bias but it is what it is, and im actually going to start by writing my thought on the Enjoyment category
Enjoyment 10/10
I loved SAO, and its still one of my favorites... but just like most people out there, I hated the second arc, and I [obviously] didnt reflect that in the score... For the simple reason that Suguha was a problem, incestually invading Asuna's territory, Sugou was a complete bastard [hated the guy, but I loved to hate him, if you know what I mean] and Asuna being stripped of all her power in the second arc, it was a failure... and I was hoping things would turn out better when she escaped her cage... Arc1 enjoyment was much better, I found the boss fights thrilling, and the music enjoyable and fitting... Pacing issues... I didnt really care, things seemed to flow smoothly enough for the most part... tho I think a little more transition from the first boss to the black cat guild would have proved more satisfying
Story 8/10
Entertaining story... it made me genuinely hope one day that I could experience wearing a nerve gear and actually play a game in such a fashion... and with swords too, how cool. I definitely enjoyed watching the frontliners progress through the levels, watching them make plans, mal-intentioned guilds getting in the way, solving mysteries etc... The little romance side story was also nice to watch... a little break from the action, and watching kirito and asuna enjoy themselves was definitely a welcome part of the show... [Second Arc] scored really low... battles werent interesting, objectives werent getting accomplished [not that there were many objectives in the second arc] and it overall felt like watching someones road trip from home garage, to grammas house 1500 miles away with maybe an encounter or two with an angry rapist truck driver [sugou]... tho, I loved watching him get what he deserved...
Art 10/10
Fantastic... if you havent seen it yet, just go watch the preview or half the first episode or something, youll see it too
Sound 10/10
Good quality, the music rocked, and fit the theme of the show very well, and I still like to listen to some of the music even when im not watching the show...
Characters 10/10
Suguha should have played less of a role... she can keep her incestness and her pet Recon too -.- but again... thats second arc stuff... First arc saw characters be scared for their lives, acts of bravery, and many triumphs and failures ... thats good points in my book
Overall - I hate to say 6 but... its a 6
First arc alone scores a perfect 10 in my opinion, and since thats what I enjoyed thats what I usually rate it as... however in a true overall rating, the second arc weighs it down... there were moments I enjoyed in the second arc, such as any beating sugou got, and kirito fighting his way to the top of the tree [and doing it to save asuna at that] but all in all it was flat...
Other notes
If anything, I think the second arc was unnecessarily long to "say what needed to be said" and probably would have benefitted a lot if it were just 3-5 episodes... just shortening it still would leave things to be fixed, but even if it were just abridged, I think it would have gone over a lot better
