Let's start with story, which is 3.
Story had great potential, despite the whole idea of being stuck in a game is pretty old. There are two arcs by the way, the first one has 14 episodes. The two episodes were great, and learned us more about how the MMO works and set us up with solid characters. But there it stops. The remaining episodes of the first arc are unnecessary side character episodes, fillers and time skips. Conclusion of first arc can be summed up in three words; 'Deus Ex Machina' Yes, the first arc of the anime had nothing to do with the actual plot. And it only becomes worse in the second arc. Suddenly the game changes from 'SAO' to 'Mario'. Our main hero has to save his waifu from a castle, while expanding his harem on the way. How he saves her? WITH MORE DEUS EX MACHINA! Also, incest sub-plot and tentacle rape. All logic disappears and our main hero becomes pretty much invincible. However, I guess it's then still an improvement from the first arc since it focuses more on fighting and adventure rather than unnecessary episodes. So, there is also a romance subplot which is no better than Twilight. It feels really unnatural, forced and kind of disturbing considering our main hero has an entire harem by his side.
Well, moving on to characters... a 1.
So, there is a lot of discussion about whether the main hero Kirito/Kazuto is a Gary Stu (FYI, a Gary Stu is a perfect guy) or not. I'm not looking to start a flame war here so I'm not going to give my opinion on it, but it is true that he is pretty OP, never dies, all girls want to have sex with him and defeats MMO bosses SOLO. In the first arc he doesn't have much personality neither, and it only improves slightly in the second arc.
The main heroine is Asuna, who on first sight looks like a badass female gamer... (And a bit of a Mary Sue) She also is for the first episodes, but later she pretty much becomes Kirito's waifu and is completely helpless. She becomes a boring, tsundere and worthless plotdevice that cooks. Yeah, I'm serious, instead of fighting she cooks.
The other characters? Let's see, hmm... Yui is pretty much a cheat device, Suguha is the sister who loves her brother Kirito too much, aaaandd... I completely forgot about the others. The other girls are just there to expand Kirito's harem and the villains are hilarious. (in a bad way)
Art and sound are 8 and 7, nothing wrong here. Bosses are very nicely done, backgrounds are great and shading is nice. Music is fitting.
Enjoyment is 4. Okay, nobody likes main heroes who can't do anything. But nobody likes heroes who beats MMO bosses solo in a minute either. Why? Because it's boring! You can't relate to Kirito or any of the other characters. Some unnecessary episodes will make you facepalm, the villains will make you laugh and sometimes you will even feel disturbed!
Overall is 5. It isn't that bad. Some episodes ARE enjoyable, but not enjoyable enough to make up for all the bad ones. The characters are bad, boring and mostly serve no purpose. If you're a hardcore gamer and think you will enjoy this, think again. This anime will just make you facepalm due to the lack of logic and the overuse of Deus Ex Machina. Best to avoid this, it's not as good as some people make it out to be. The 'strong female character' Asuna is just a big lie.
This is only about Kirito and his OPness and harem.
