The premise is great because it ticks a lot of boxes in the target audience: It talks about MMORPGS, it reminds us of how great fully immersive virtual reality should be, it raises the typical questions about identity, behaviour and personality in virtual environments and with the danger element added in the first episode in essence it adds more depth merging the virtual reality of the game with the value of real life. Addressing most of this stuff lightly or not should be easily 9-10/10 material, too bad the focus is lost so easily.
As other reviews have pointed out, the main problems with SAO are in the atrocious way the story develops (pacing and deus ex machina elements mainly) and in the bland personality of the characters (see Kirito's jacket joke) but in my opinion the problem wasn't after the first 2 episodes but rather at the very first, after the villain appears. Why? because after that point we already can see how SAO isn't aiming for proper depth or consistency. The lack of purpose is clear when after such an important announcement the story just focuses on Kirito brushing aside anything about the real world, their connected bodies, the impact on everyone else, and everything else such setting can offer.
What happens next is an afterthought, a few episodes later Kirito is already the strongest player in the game, acts like a poor man's Kenshiro, gets every lady he meets fall in love with him due to his strength in the game (I guess it's not that outlandish as they're teenagers after all, but every single one?), falls into artificial love with Asuna, a case study for character involution (and it's a poorly done romance too) and defeats the villain with a textbook Deus Ex Machina (Willpower vs God). Everything is mildly enjoyable at best, the world was fun to watch but makes little of the opportunities it really had and the comments about a virtual reality world and how it affects the player never go past three lines so 5/10 I guess, but that's not the end.
After SAO is finished for some reason they decided to adapt the second part of the light novels to the anime, on hindsight a very poor idea. This part introduces a new character, which being female naturally falls in love with Kirito. It also shows how great Kirito is at this, rescuing his love interest in a new, different MMORPG in a single week. The anime does try to make sense of this but it fails miserably, the holes are just too big for the arguments to withstand any basic questioning. Once again cute world and all but at this point we endured 24 episodes of the same frustrating stuff, which really hinders the enjoyment you can get from it.
When it finished I was left with tho sensations, the first one being the Virtual Reality and MMORPG things were there for the sake of it (which is quite a shame, the idea is really good) and the second one being the idea that I could make a better story based on this premise myself. Most likely thing is I can't but, was this so badly executed that it actually encourages those feelings in most people? apparently yes, based on reviews here.
What a wasted opportunity
Story 3/10
Art 8/10
Sound 7/10
Character 1/10
Enjoyment 3/10
Overall 22/5 = 4.4
You should watch at least = With 4 episodes you can already see how everything it's going to be.
