Art: Starting with the positives, I don’t think that it can really be argued that this show looks very good. Characters are well designed and are animated well. Action scenes in particular are especially flashy and really craft some memorable moments. The only occasions when the art quality was in question would be the use of CG. Whenever incorporated, the CG parts would stand out awkwardly and not mesh well with the action occurring around the CG. 9/10
Sound: The sound of Sword Art Online is also top notch. Background music is fitting and atmospheric, the voice actors do an impressive job pouring emotion into their characters’ words, and special praise for both openings for being amazing. 10/10
Story: This is where things get very messy. The show does hit the ground running with an extremely compelling concept. The story involves thousands of players who have just logged into a new virtual reality massively multiplayer online role playing game (VRMMORPG) realizing they have been trapped in this virtual world with no means to escape other than to beat the game. The show however seems to forget the fact that it was trying to tell a compelling story after the third episode as the plot diverts into a slew of romance sub-plots that not only feel forced but also pointless as they ultimately serve no purpose other than to pad the show with more cute girls. Then when the show remembers that it needs to actually progress the arc abruptly ends. The game of Sword Art Online is completed and it comes out of nowhere only to have a second arc begin right away with a significantly less interesting damsel in distress storyline. 3/10
Characters: For all intents and purposes there is only one character really worth talking about and that is Kirito. Kirito starts off likeable enough. He’s somewhat shy but is willing to help anyone who needs it. At least, Kirito is in the first episode. From that point on however, Kirito really loses a majority of his personality in favor of just acting like a badass. Now this isn’t a bad thing in principle. There are plenty of beloved characters that are badasses. Kirito, however, is a badass for all the wrong reasons and that’s because everything is just handed to him with no explanation. Every girl falls inexplicably in love with Kirito, Kirito just happens to have the ability to dual wield though it’s unknown if this skill was even programmed into the game since no one else has this skill, and worst of all time skips were used to just get Kirito to the point where he completely over-leveled even though he’s a solo player that should have a really hard time surviving in high level regions. Every other character can honestly be summed up in a phrase since either they get next to no screen time or they lose all sense of personality at some point. Asuna is the tsundere, Klein is the goofy sidekick, Agil is strong and reliable, Silica is the loli, Yui is the more annoying loli, Oberon is the comically evil guy and it goes on. 2/10
Enjoyment: I won’t lie. After a certain point I found myself getting angry at this show more than I was enjoying it. Some of it has to do with the derailing story and complete lack of complex characters but I think most of it has to do with the fact that this show promised a story about a VRMMORPG and it never actually felt like a game. As a game what can actually happen is limited to what is possible to code and you want me to believe Kirito can just pull dual wielding out of nowhere. You want me believe that Kirito is capable of collecting the best loot and being by far the strongest player in the game even though he fights solo and shouldn’t have the means to fight the stronger mobs. You want me to believe that these people who went out to buy Sword Art Online on the day of release are really insane enough to turn into cold-blooded murderers and become PKers. As someone that has quite a lot of experience in MMOs I could say these things do not happen. So without the video game gimmick keeping me interested this is just any other fantasy show. 2/10
This show could have been great. That’s what makes me feel somewhat sad to see how Sword Art Online has turned out. What we are left with is a below average story with uninteresting characters wrapped up in a package of great sound and animation. If anyone really does want to watch this show I suggest just turning your brain off and just watch the pretty fight scenes.
