Story: The story is one of the biggest cockteases I have ever seen in my life. It starts out soo promising, with a vesry strong opening and first arch, but ultimately carries on way too fast with too many sideplots and simply boring archs (Talking about the honeymoon arch) to actually make it possible for the viewer to enjoy the mainplot. But all of that could be forgotten if the whole story didn't go bullocks after the first half of the anime. I really enjoyed SAO with it's lolicons and it's whatevers but the second half, ALO, was boring, predictable and stupid. Though I have to mention the awesome setting of SAO. That was it. 4/10
Art: Now this is one of the two things where SAO shines. The artstyle is beatiful, with interesting settings (though one is a little too girly) which really give the feeling as if they really are in a mmorpg. Characterdesigns are awesome, every piece of armor having that typical medieval but still japanese adapted style to them taht people love about mmorpgs, which spawned a million SAO cosplays over the past two years. The monster designs are interesting but not too surprising or innovative. But hey, it's a mmorpg, what do you expect :D. The dungeons between the "maps" are the most interesting part of the environment, especially the "Zebra" dungeon. But the crown jewel of this anime are the action scenes, especially the bossfights being so well coregraphed and beatiful-looking that you wish you were a part of them. 9/10
Ps: But the most important part of the art is....
Sound: ...that it's in prefect sync with the beatiful soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura. The opening is maybe a little girly but nevertheless good for a few hours of repetetive listening while playing WoW, Aura kingdom, Guild Wars or whatever you like to play. but the opening is nothing compared to the well timed medieval soundtracks in the towns, the highly orchestral pieces out on the fields, inside dungeons and in bossfights. Seriously, you feel, sorry for being repetetive, as if you are in an mmorpg. I know I say that too often but I think that's what the soundtrack and the art should deliver here. 9/10
Character: Again, this is one strike to the balls (Or the ovaries, depending on which gender you are). Let's go through them chronologically: Kirito, the main character, is a lone wolf who somehow manages, by being a total dick toards most people, creating a harem. No idea what the girls see in him: "OOh, he's soo alone but he actually looks okay and he's cool because he's the only one wearing black. I think I want to f*** him". Something like that. It's just soo unrealistic, especially in the world of gaming. Moving on: Asuna. She's the incarnation of this whole anime. Really awesome first half, shitty second half. She seriously has negative character development, evolving from a very interesting, independent and stong female character to your generic moe blob that can't do anyting without her bf. This is a sad day for female leading roles.......anyways next: The Harem consists of a lot of uninspired female characters whose archs are mainly solved within one episode, including the shy scared one, the hyper one, the one you wish to be your little siste, the actual little sister and the ....daughter?! Ehh, I'll be honest....I love Yui because she's the only haremgirl that neitehr want to fuck him nor want to be his wife. She simply loves Kirito and Asuna and I think that's something awesome, though her arch was boring as fuck. Also, her voice is by Kanae itou.....I love Kanae Itou........anyways there are still a lot of characters to go, but I don't want to refelct on all fo them. The first villain is awesome, the second one is not. The first love is awesome(at least in the first half), the second one is not.(Leafa/Suguha was forced into this anime way too much)
I love the fact that they even included this background dude that actually acted like he was a girl but then turns into the 30 year old creep :D
The last thing I must mention that it's awesome to see how the gamers are completely perplexed and mentally crushed after they heard that they are stuck in the game and slowly develop to find a liking to SAO and it's daily life, much different than Log Horizon f/e where everyone except for the maincast falls into a deep depression and the maincast is just like "So....we're stuck in this game, huh? Okay.". Realistic, but overall mediocre. 5/10
Now my personal Enjoyment: I really liked this anime and I enjoy rewatching it every three months. It has some fatal flaws and yes, the long awaited OVA was just a beach episode with Asuna having a stupid haircolor which made me think of her as Nerine from Shuffle! the whole time but taht doesn't matter. I don't know why, but I'd recommend this anime to anyone, though I realise it has some really great faults and stupidities and so on, but....this is it. This is the dream many of us had for years: Being able to live in a game, I would seriously give up all i have to do that and I think that's why I love this anime so much. Enjoyment 8/10
Well, this results in an overall 7/10, there are some animes out there that are a lot better, but no one who enjoys playing videogames can deny that this is a dream. A dream that will hopefully come true soon enough for us to still enjoy it. I think that is also why there are so many people in the community that call this the best anime ever without taking any criticism: Because they don't want their dreams to be crushed. So everyone out there who reads this: Don't be to harsh one those who believe this is one of the best anime ever.
