During the first of the two arcs, the Aincrad Arc, a world with some beautiful moments is created. I can't deny that SAO has a good premise. Aincrad is dark, yet beautiful, and doesn't have a bad feel. That being said, things aren't flawless.
Aincrad's monsters are anticlimactic, invoking little fear and bringing nothing "gasp-worthy" to the table. The world is also not as good as some great MMORPGs out there, but that's to be expected.
The second arc - the Alfheim Arc - has its fair share of flaws. The already faulty seriousness of the story plummets. Some very likable things change, and the main source of tension is taken away. Aincrad was truly over too quickly. If it had been longer, many things such as pacing and character development problems, could have been smoothed out. Ultimately, I feel that the anime was hurt.
SAO does, however, excel animation and art-wise. The style, itself, is fairly basic, but does manage to stray from the norm a bit. The animation is nearly flawless. I like the choice of colors for each of the worlds, and how epic the battle sequences appear. Some flaws, however, include the monsters, which have little detail to them, the fairly plain character design (just not enough detail for someone who plays MMORPGs), and the crazy "insane faces" that seem to look a bit wrong to me most of the time.
Out of everything, my favorite aspect of SAO is its music. The music in SAO is very well done. I'm fond of the openings and endings, as well as the OSTs, which come in at just the right time without being overwhelming. I even looked the soundtrack up on Youtube to listen to in my free time. The voice acting in both the dub and the sub are well done.
The characters get the lowest rating for a reason. The characters in SAO often come across, and sometimes just fall, flat. Our main character, Kirito, has serious personality and development issues. He is overpowered, that's a fact, and he's also loved almost unconditionally by most that he meets.
I can tell that the anime aimed to make Kirito a very likable character. But they missed the point. Making a character likable doesn't mean that they have to be flawless. Despite this, they attempted to give him better character development. We can see hints of what they try to do, but it often falls short. In the end, he becomes inconsistent, and at times changes drastically - but we don't see the development that leads up to this, making his character a sluggish and poorly done one.
The main girl in this anime, Asuna, doesn't fare much better. Again, we can see where they wanted to go, but it didn't get there. She started off as a pretty good heroine - strong-willed and feisty, though underdeveloped and flawless. By the second arc, she purely became a damsel in distress, and again, her character changed. All of the character development that could have happened just didn't.
Another problem is the fact that all of the girls have an infatuation with Kirito. They have all seem to have unconditional crushes on him, leaving us with one question - "Why?"
The characters in SAO are promising. But they aren't handled well. There are some intriguing characters here, and yet, most of them are pushed out of the way before they can even get good. The ones that aren't have pretty good moments, but not enough screen-time or importance is put on them, so they ultimately disappoint.
The romance in this anime is just as undeveloped. We don't see much of that beloved "buildup" in it - their relationship is just there. While there are some (sickeningly) sweet moments, the romance is overwhelmingly superficial at times. But I guess that's how all teenage love is.
Despite not being a technically great anime, Sword Art Online has its times of enjoyment for me. The battles, good music, half-hearted suspense, and sometimes sheer ridiculousness of everything made Sword Art Online enjoyable, once I realized that I shouldn't expect too much. If you watch Sword Art Online, I hope that you go into it lightheartedly, because you might just enjoy this anime for what it is - or what you, personally, think it is.
