You all know what the story is about but lets look at it again. In the near future they manage to create a full virtual reality MMORPG in which a bunch of people get trapped. To get out they have to complete the game, but if they die in-game they really die in real life. We are presented the main character Kirito who is one of the people trapped in this game, he is in a better position than the majority as he was part of the beta testers. He becomes very good, joins the lead group, falls in love with Yuuki Asuna, makes a lot of friends and a personal harem,…
Well the story itself is quite interesting, but the problem is that it tries to tackle too much in it’s two story arcs of the first season. The first arc depicts the time of about two years and so we only get to see a very small fraction of that time. Because of that we encounter huge leaps in time in which we have little to no insight. I goes to show it is an adaptation of a extensive light novel. The anime also seems like it wants to tackle several different genres and jumps around from one to another. This lac of direction means that there is precious time spent on things that could have been left out. On the other hand this brings a sense of uniqueness to SAO as I have yet to see an anime that includes such diversity in subjects. That might be one of the reasons for SAOs popularity as most people can enjoy at least one of these segments in the story. The game aspect of the anime was in my opinion very well done, but I am not a big fan of MMORPG’s so I am not qualified to judge that aspect.
That brings us to the second arc in the first season which many claim is much worse than the first one and I have to partially agree, as did not find is as entertaining as the first. The story focuses more on relationships between characters and the aftermaths of the first arc and in my opinion occasionally moves a little to slowly. All in all I found the story interesting, and while I stand more on the side of the fans defending SAO I can understand why some people might dislike it.
Our main character Kirito is just your stereotypical hero, strong, brave, honourable and good looking. I have heard some people criticise this, but I don’t mind it, because even if he is a bit one-dimensional, he still manages to be memorable and he still gets his fair share of development throughout the sereies. Next we have his soulmate Yuuki Asuna who is portrayed as a very skilled and independent woman. We can see her and Kirito slowly fall in love through the first couple of episodes and I have to say I found this pretty darn beautiful if a bit rushed. Her attitude changes severely in the second half, but her position was changed as well so I have to say I did not mind it. The second part introduces another important character, KIrito’s sister Suguha, not to spoil the second half I will only say that she is a decent character, but with her comes one of the worst aspects of the anime, wannabe incest. There are plenty of peasant side character that bring a bit of diversity into the story and brig several memorable moments to the show. The antagonists are both disappointing, as the first one while interesting never gets explored enough for us to know his motives, while the second one is just pitiful.
The visuals are just superb, the backdrops look beautiful and the characters are instantly recognisable and relatively unique. The battle sequences have this flow that really makes it look as if it was a video game and that greatly helps establishing the feeling that we are watching people trapped in a virtual reality game. The visuals in the second part only improve and I would have to say that this anime features one of the best animations I have ever seen.The soundtrack to the show is masterfully done and fits it perfectly. The openings and endings are all great, even if I prefer the ones from the second season to these, but they did not bother me and I have to say I never felt the urge to skip them as I was watching.
I don’t understand why people bash SAO so much, I admit it is no masterpiece, but it is very easily accessible, caters to a large audience and actually manages to please most of its viewers. As for my score I have to say that it realistically deserves an eight, but as the anime that started it all for me, I believe it deserves an extra point. I think this is a great anime to get a friend into anime as it is quite easy for them to find something they like and they have a it is easy for them to pick a theme they like and then look up more anime of that genre.
As I am still new to reviewing all feedback is greatly appreciated.
