First off- I enjoyed that they kept the relationship between Kirito and Asuna pretty well known and evident, but then he meets Sinon and for a moment my heart stopped thinking that this little sniper girl will get in the way of one of my OTP's. Glad I was wrong there, overall meeting her wasn't to bad and she turned out to be a great add on to the ALO grouping.
Secondly- I had no idea that there was going to be anything beyond the GGO arc, since the hype was so built up that I literally thought that was what the whole season was going to be about, but wait. That wasn't the case at all. Once they defeated death gun and moved on they moved back to ALO where they re create some memories of SAO and airncrad. This leading into some back story about Asuna and Her family life- slmething I really enjoyed since we never really got to know about any of that in the first half. This also bringing us to meet another group of good characters, Zekken aka yuuki almost being able to be titled the strongest swordsman in ALO including that of kiritos reputation was an Intresting and fun twist, until the feels. Now I don't want to spoil it for anyone reading this review but let me just say one thing, and for the record this is part of the reason I love this series, but - meeting new and love able characters to add to the story is always wonderful, especially if you like that said character, but word of advice for anyone watching this series, be prepared to be emotionally ruined and have your heart ripped out at any moment.
And thirdly, my last and final statement, this anime series will always be close to my heart and I hope they continue on and make more anime for us to love and grow and feel too. Overall the first half of season 1 will probabaly always be my favorite but with all the build up and hype everyone puts on this one, I'm glad it lives up to its reputation.
