What starts off to be a promising starting point in terms of how we are introduced to the overall story but this soon goes downhill and things get a bit cliche. The initial impression is that players of a vrmmorpg are unable to log out and are forced to go through 100 floors to beat the game and escape, catch is when someone dies in-game they die for real and never come back. I enjoyed this problem that the players were faced with, because with this it would allow the watcher to become more immersed and allow for a deeper understanding on the value of life and death which they were faced with. However one of the early problems that appeared was the time-skips that happened in the anime, which seemed to be to sudden and became evident later on that they did this because they were rushing things and never really told the audience what exactly happened or what was going to happen. Another problem was lack of tension or challenges faced, which affected the whole "death" factor, as Kirito and company just seemed to somehow come on top in the end, sure there was that one moment were he faced struggles while with that guild he temporarily joined but besides that they make it seem like he's struggling but in the end comes on top and really becomes a predictable outcome most of the time. Another Issue I had was the second arc, which was the alfeim arc, this whole arc seemed kinda pointless, yes they were saving asuna (aka princess peach) but they again rarely faced struggles and for some reason tried to have the whole incest crap going on, like Saguha was basically just another cardboard cutout and was your generic tsundere character. Overall the story had potential, yet failed to execute at crucial times and became predictable and lacked some tension.
Art: 8
This is one of the areas were the anime excelled, the animation was truly stunning at times, whether it was watching the environment and background or seeing how good it was during the fights which made the anime more appealing to the eyes. Not the best animation I've seen but it is definitely one of the anime's strong points.
Sound: 8
Another strong point to the anime. The first opening's and ending were very enjoyable and definitely made watching the 90 seconds of it worth it, the second opening and ending were alright but not memorable like the first ones were. The Japanese and English actors were also very good, in both versions the voice actors did an exceptional job even though the Japanese version was the better one, the English was definitely enjoyable however. Overall a very enjoyable opening and ending with some good soundtracks to suit the situation and the voice acting was also a strong point.
Characters: 3
This was definitely one of the most disappointing areas of the anime. The characters overall lacked diversity and were very generic in most cases. The Protagonist Kirito was your classic "lone wolf" who people seemed to look up to and acted too much like a "knight in shining armor" and for some reason he was hailed a prestigious figure just because he was a beta player, like seriously, someone trying to solo dungeons never works and you usually go in parties most of the time and being a beta player doesn't make you somehow better than other players. Your main Heroine Asuna started off promisingly and seemed to be more than just a damsel in distress and was able to cope by herself, but it all went downhill fast when her relationship with kirito started, she started to rely on her boyfriend (aka "Knight in shining armor") all the time, she also spent majority of the second arc stuck in a cage, which affected her character development a lot. Most of the other characters were cardboard cutouts and mostly had 1-2 episodes before the were quickly forgotten and cast to the side. The two antagonist's in the story also lacked a bit of creativity, the first who seemed like a mystery man and we had very little information on, besides the fact he was the creator and was the one who trapped them in the game, without any real motive. The second was Sogou, a man that was elected to marry Asuna and one of the prestigious players in Alfeim Online, he was fairly one-dimensional. your classic bad guy who has an obsession with the main heroine and seemed to be power hungry. Overall the characters were fairly One-Dimensional and lacked creativity, which was very disappointing considering I had high hopes while watching it.
Enjoyment: 5
Overall:6
The anime is fairly average and considering how popular it is, some would say it is overrated, which is a fair point considering the amount of quality anime that don't get the credit they deserve. The anime has great sound and art but lacks in the important areas of the story and especially the characters. So giving it a 6 is probably generous but that doesn't make it not worth watching, however it is far from a masterpiece.
