As I look back on SAO, the story was pretty bad. The one dimensional main character shits on everyone. A harem was built in two episodes to be left without further development for the entire series. The main girl, a fierce-tsundere-turned-helpless-princess has no development either, apart from being raped a couple times. WHY did i like this then? WHY are there so many SAO fanboys (like me) who give this anime endless, seemingly undeserved praise?
Look at it from our perspective. Most of us are gamers, bad at socializing, so we isolate ourselves in our gaming/anime worlds. Without girlfriends.
THen comes along Kirito, who perfectly fits in our mold: gamers, bad with people, without girlfriends. And this guy-- hes a badass. He shits on everyone, his dick is a vagina-magnet, and he defies the admins because hes a badass, and thats just how it works.
Asuna is the seemingly perfect girlfriend. THough she has ZERO character development, she: 1. is hot 2. is an awesome gamer too who 3. also needs saving like a damsel in distress and 4. MAKES KIRITO SANDWICHES. Come on, every guy wants a girlfriend who he can say "make me a sandwich" to. So while to you, cultured anime watchers who can see through these 4 points, Asuna is a walking pile of cliches, to us fanboys she is PERFECT. SHE MAKES SANDWICHES. PERFECT.
So, back to my point: SAO is a people pleaser. Though it has good art and sound, it has a bad storyline, bad characters, too many cliches. But it's still a people pleaser. And it pleases lots of people (like me). We are nerds who don't know any better and fall into the role of Kirito--who, due to his one- dimensional nature, anyone can fit as. We fall in love with the pile of cliches, we enjoy our undeveloped harem, and we watch as Kirito shits on everyone. And in the end, we enjoy the anime, worship it on forums, argue with the haters... etc.
Ultimately, SAO is a blatant people pleaser. As an anime noob, I fell for it, like the other fanboys, i enjoyed it, and it became one of my favorites. The more experienced anime watchers saw the cliches, wondered "why the fuck do these people worship SAO???", posted their valid opinions, and were labeled the "haters". Here lies the controversy in Sword art Online.
