Now that we have that taken care of, let's move on.
"Sword Art Online" takes place in the distant future, where the video-game market has become huge thanks to new technology called, "NerveGear". It's a system that fully scans your nerves and all five of your senses and connects them into an online world where practically anything is possible.
The story focuses on the release of the first MMORPG for the NerveGear system, "Sword Art Online". Kiriyaga Kazuto (Kirito) is one of the beta-testers for this game and was able to easily get his hands on one of the limited 10,000 copies sold in Japan. When all seems to be going smoothly, things take a "deadly" turn when the video-game's creator, Kayaba Akihiko, forces players to keep playing until someone manages to beat the game. In order to do so, players must defeat 100 "bosses"; each on it's own level in the game and each more powerful than the other. If players die in the game, or someone in the real world attempts to take off the NerveGear, the NerveGear's micro-wave safety system will turn off and it will fry their brain, killing them in real life.
The first three episodes were absolutely incredible! It completely draws you in to the story, the characters are all so diverse, and the incredible action sequences have you hanging on the edge of your seat! There is so much at stake, and everyone is sacrificing so much to ensure that the game will be beat and everyone gets out alive. The series also grows tense as trust between people grow thin, and players start getting killed by other players.
Each of the characters was completely unique because they all had their own strengths and weaknesses, forcing everyone to work together in order to survive. One of the most notable side characters is Asuna, an attractive and shy girl who really knows how to wield a sword. She manages to help Kirito defeat the first boss as if they both did it before. I didn't have a doubt that she would be a very strong character that would help Kirito throughout the series.
I also absolutely loved the animation of the show and it's incredible soundtrack! It truly brought the show to life and made me want to hear the music over and over again.
The train started to move really fast, and everything was going fine. That is, until episode four. That's when the series completely "jumped the shark" and became what I hoped it would not become; a harem romance series with a worthless male protagonist.
Starting at Episode 4, the series starts to skip a lot of levels, skipping out on a lot of the story and action. And it's starting at Episode 4 when it starts to slowly sink in that Kirito isn't all that much of a nice guy.
Kirito may be strong, but he only cares about himself and becoming the most powerful character in the game. He hides secrets from his allies which lead to their inevitable deaths, he puts the lives of strangers on the line just to get a more powerful sword, and often uses other people as a means to help him grind his way up the rankings.
What makes this character even more despicable is how many girls are attracted to him and how he treats those girls.
It is a given fact that girls are attracted to strong, independent and cute guys, even if they are completely heartless. Yet once a new female character is introduced into the series, they are only shown for one episode then completely forgotten after the next episode.
In other words, not only are there far too many side-characters in this series, Kirito doesn't care about a single one of them. Not many people who watch this series notice this, though, and that's why this show is completely over-rated (because a good story doesn't really matter, right? As long as you got great animation, music and a lot of babes, right?)
This anime was definitely rushed. It could have gone on for much longer and included a lot more action sequences. Yet it's as if they cut out all the good parts and left you with what should have been the occasional romance episodes.
To put this into perspective, imagine cutting out all the action sequences and plot development sections in "Fairy Tail" or "BLEACH", and all you have is romance episode fillers. That's exactly what this series is.
But that's okay, at least we got Asuna to make the series worth watching, right?
WRONG!
By the time the series ends, Asuna goes from being a strong and independent heroin to a damsel-in-distress who can do nothing without Kirito around. The writers completely ruined Asuna's character just to please the large crowd of fanboys, and that's unacceptable!
And by then end of the series, nothing is explained.
There is no motive to why the game creator trapped people inside SAO, or how Kirito managed to come back to life after he was killed for a short moment in time only to somehow kill the final boss (which was suppose to be immortal) with ONE STAB.
I honestly thought that this series was going to be worth watching, yet I regrettably kept watching it hoping to find some good action or character development. Unfortunately, all I found were terrible romance fillers and even more useless side characters.
AND THEN THERE'S THE SECOND HALF OF SAO, which is when "Alfheim Online" gets introduced. It's as if the writers made the second-half of the series just to please the fan-boys and further throw SAO's potential out the window. It really would have been best to have just stopped SAO as soon as the game was beat, yet they decided to keep the bandwagon going and make the second half.
This section of the anime is even hated by the most die-hard SAO fans for a reason; the suspense and action from the first part simply isn't there anymore. The second-half just throws cute girls in your face and the series becomes extremely awkward and annoying, especially once Kirito's sister gets introduced (and if you've watched enough anime, then you know where this is going).
If I were to compare this show to another television show, it would definitely be the series LOST. It started off with incredible potential, then it just went downhill and never came back up.
In conclusion, "Sword Art Online" had incredible potential as an action series, and the first three episodes proved that. Yet it ended up to be another version of "School Days"; pathetic love story, hardly any plot, despicable lead and a lot of cute girls to keep the targeted audience interested.
I honestly despise this anime with all my heart, despite what the large crowd of fan boys have to say. Not just because of the terrible character development and the worthless plot, but what this series could have become. It could have been an incredible action series if they did it right, but they flushed it's incredible potential down the toilet and replaced it with video-game boy fan service!
This is why I believe that Sword Art Online is not only one of the most over-rated anime's in existence, but one of the biggest wastes of incredible potential in history.
THE VERDICT:
+ Excellent Music/Action Sequences
+ Colorful Animation
- Worthless Plot
- Incredible Potential Wasted
- Terrible Character Development
- Despicable Lead
- Pointless Second Part (Alfheim Online)
- Harem Replaces Action
- Too Many Girls
SCORE: 1/10
DO NOT WATCH!
