The story of SAO is not a complicated one, but it was interesting enough to grab my attention mostly because I play MMORPGs and I quite enjoy them. This puts me directly in the target audience for this show. The story begins with the successful launch of a new Virtual Reality fantasy MMO, and things immediately go to hell on the first day. The game's creator removes everyone's ability to log out and sets their gaming hardware to kill them when their avatar's hitpoints reach zero or they disconnect. You die in the game (or tamper with the hardware), you die in real life. The only way out is to conquer the bosses on all 100 floors of Aincrad (the game world). The story concept isn't bad. My only complaint is that it seems to derail itself almost immediately. It hops back on track long enough to remind the viewer that people are being killed in this game before careening off somewhere pointless and coming back just in time to finish off the bad guy. The romance portion of the story between the two main characters is at times the only thing holding it all together and even that isn't always enough.
The characters of SAO are a bit of a sore spot for me, specifically the two main characters, Kirito and Asuna. The world of SAO had a lot of potential for some great characters, but instead we have Kirito who is about as plain as you can get. He's a bad ass solo player who's more powerful than any other player in the game (which doesn't happen in any MMO I've ever heard of) and other than that, he really doesn't have much of a personality nor does he seem to develop one through the course of the show. I understand that the reason was to make him easier for viewers to identify with, but that doesn't make it right (a certain series about sparkly vampires did the same thing with the main character and that wasn't good either). As for Asuna, I really liked her when the show started. She was a competent, capable female lead, but her character quickly degenerated to tsundere and then later to a plot device/tentacle bait by the end of the show. The rest of the cast gets very little attention and only make brief appearances to move events along with the exception of Leefa, from the show's second half, who steps in to fill the role left open by Asuna. Leefa, despite some glaring flaws of her own, was probably the one character I liked. (who ever hasn't already stopped reading, likely stopped right there.)
The music for SAO was pretty good. Yuki Kajiura composed the score and though it doesn't quite match up to some of her other works, it is still quite pleasing to listen to. Each piece compliments the events on screen quite well be it a quiet melody in a darkened inn room, high energy percussion for combat scenes, or choir for epic raid battles. I also quite enjoyed the opening theme, Crossing Field by LiSA, from the first half of the series.
The artwork and animation was quite good. The character designs were detailed and pleasing. The backgrounds varied but some were truly quite good and did an excellent job of portraying the vastness of the SAO world. My personal favourites were the platform landscapes in episode one and the free-fall scene in episode seven. The action and combat scenes however, are where SAO shines. The fight scenes were executed very well. The animation was fluid and though there were some slow-motion sequences, they were not over-used and did not take away from the excitement of the battle as they so often do.
My final thoughts:
SAO is one of a handful of shows that has achieved an almost complete polarization of opinions among those who have seen it (and even a few who haven't). I also realize that the current popular thing in the anime community is to trash this series. The truth is that SAO is not a bad show, but it's not a great one either. I enjoyed it mostly because it was a concept targeted to people like me who played MMO games. I could get excited watching the boss raids, understand a lot of the terminology, and know what Kirito really meant when he said "having someone good tag along makes this easier..."
Sword Art Online is kind of like the cheeseburger value meal at your favourite fast-food joint. It's not gourmet, it never will be, and comparing it to the main course at Chez Fantaisie-Pantalon is just plain pointless. But that doesn't mean that it can't be tasty. I went into SAO understanding it for what it was, I enjoyed it, and I recommend it. If you are an MMO gamer, or an anime connoisseur capable of putting down your Grey Poupon and picking up a chicken nugget, you will likely find some enjoyment in this show.
