The Story:
At first, the story seems to start off great. The pacing is very well done and the story has the twists and turns that we watch the episodes to see. As the story takes place over varying lengths of time, the farther along in the series it got, the more confusing the anime became. Certain episodes were too rushed while others dragged on as fillers when there was no need for them at all. Overall, the story did not impress me. I loved the idea of the series but the way it was portrayed made it very boring at times.
The Art:
One of the best parts of Sword Art Online is the art style. It is beautiful, the design of Aincrad, the characters, the armor and outfits that they all wore. The art is amazing and is a lot of the reason why I watched the entire season.
The Sound:
The music is by far the best part of the series. Crossing Field, the opening song, is one of those songs that gets stuck in your head. By far one of the best anime opening's I've listened to. The atmospheric music throughout the show as well, along with the main theme "Swordland" are beautiful and make you feel as if you really are in the game itself.
Characters:
Character development was very poor. Kirito is the only character who is developed and it was done in a very poor manner. He is also the stereotypical teenage boy with no defining qualities to make him stand out. They could have really made him more unique with his abilities with swords within the anime if they just would have developed his character more.
Asuna had a lot of potential but unfortunately, they changed the path of her character completely right in the middle of the show. She did a 180 in personality, attitude, behavior, everything. It made no sense and made her characters likability go down drastically for me.
Overall:
Even though I have a lot more to say about this anime, and a lot of not positive feedback about it, I have to say that I did enjoy it when I was watching it. The idea was a great idea but the execution of it was horrible. I would rewatch it but only until the Aincrad Arc ended because that is when the show completely lost me. I only truly finished it because I invested so much time in it already.
A lot of people have a lot of differing opinions on this show. It is a very controversial anime with many different points of view. I would say to watch it yourself and decide where you stand with it. It is definitely worth watching at least once.
