I missed the initial S.A.O. craze that happened when it was first released because I didn’t really get into anime until the summer of 2013. I actually had never even heard of it until I saw that it was airing in English on Toonami. After watching the first few episodes I was really excited about the show. It’s just too bad that the show didn’t finish as strong as it started.
Story:
The story is about a group of gamers that get trapped in a virtual MMORPG (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online. The story revolves around Kirito, a hardcore gamer who also happened to be a S.A.O. beta tester, and Asuna, daughter of the CEO of RECTO Progress (the company that ran the S.A.O. servers). The story is the most disappointing part of this series. As I said earlier, after the first few episodes I was really excited, and couldn’t wait to see what else was going to happen in the story. I didn’t really have a big problem with anything, except for the random time skip they threw in after episode three, until the first arc ended. The biggest problem I have with Sword Art Online’s story is that half of it doesn’t even take place in Sword Art Online. Not only does this change the overall setting of the show, but it also changes the show’s entire atmosphere. In S.A.O. if they died there, they died in real life. This created a constant tension and sense of urgency. But when they switched to ALffheim Online, that urgency wasn’t there. The story tried to recreate it by adding more and more things into the plot, and it wasn’t nearly as successful this time around. The change was so drastic it felt like the show switched genres. The first arc felt like a fantasy, action, and thriller series with romance thrown in. But the second arc felt more like a fantasy, action, and romance anime. It was a typical rescue the princess story, and wasn’t anywhere near as entertaining or interesting as the first arc. All of this could’ve been avoided if they didn’t use the time skip. By using the time they just skipped over they could’ve given us a lot more character development from the main characters, as well as given more information about the supporting characters.
Animation:
The animation is some of the best I’ve seen in anime. Everything from the characters to the scenery looks beautiful. The fights scenes are also wonderfully animated. The animation is probably the best part of this entire series. The great animation combined with the sound is enough to make this anime enjoyable even with a mediocre story.
