STORY- 5/10
Of course, the first three episodes were everyone's favorite, character development, world introduction, formalities done. And then it feels kinda like filler for 2 episodes and then straight into the romance. People say this is the worst thing ever, but I think that what happened was that the creator tried to combine shounen action and slice-of-life romance and comedy into SAO, and ended up with a mess. Then the second half occurred. It's biggest problem was that it was too serious. In Aincrad, people took it seriously because one could legitimately die. Here, Kirito just acts like an idiot and near-sacrifices himself multiple times to save his friends, when all he's really doing is saving their ability levels. That and Eugene's entire army betrayed him :P
ART- 8/10
Nice fight animations, good character designs (or at least they look cool), nice coloring, everything you expect out of decent animating.
SOUND- 9/10
I've heard a few anime veterans say that Yuki Kajiura kinda disappointed in this show's OST, but I think it's pretty good. Decent voice actors (and a half decent dub, as far as they go), great music, memorable opening songs, SAO did this part well.
CHARACTER- 5/10
Another point of hate among MAL viewers- Kirito is a generic overpowered badass and Asuna is a tsundere that's useless without her boyfriend (in the immortal words of Gigguk, long may he reign). Kirito does get a bit more character development than people say he does (like, a bit, not a ton), but this section was kinda disappointing.
ENJOYMENT- 7/10
I'm so glad comments aren't enabled for reviews, or people would butcher me so much for this. SAO wasn't a show you would enjoy if you thought too much, so you could kinda compare it to a Micheal Bay film- good music and effects but bad story and characters, except this maybe wasn't as bad.
OVERALL- 6/10
Like most anime reviewers you'll find on the internet, I would say that SAO wasn't as good as the fanboys say, but not as bad as the haters bash. It had its good and bad, and people just pay attention to the bad apparently. Worth a watch, but don't expect too much out of it.
