Aside from the art and music, which I will admit are really good, this show fails in some of the most important things a show needs, good characters and a good story. This kind of show should be driven by it's characters as they work their way through the mysteries of this world or how they interact with the world and people they've been trapped with. Character's should grow through their experiences and make the viewer care about them.
Sword Art Online fails in all of these areas. The first mistake this show makes is Kirito, the main protagonist and edge-lord supreme. Mister Only-Wears-Black Cloaks over here fails to be anything close to a likable character, being an gloomy lone wolf at his best and a misogynist at his worst. His character never really changes throughout the series, maintaining his "I work alone." mentality for the majority of the first half of the series until dramatic character change between him and Asuna which primarily sprung within two episodes. (Yes, it's obvious they were going to get together from the get go but at least put effort into it. Not mention it was extremely out of character for her.)
Another problem with this show is the constant time jumps. You cannot be connected to a character if you cannot empathize with their experiences. And the majority of their experiences in this show happen off screen, in bits and pieces of story that the show just skips over. We never get to see them get stronger, we don't get to watch the climb the tower and bask in their victory. It happens off screen and we're left watching them in the aftermath of events.
Do important things happen on screen...yes. But these events have little to no tension to them, because we know what's going to happen. Kirito comes in and saves the day because he's OP as shit do to training and events we haven't seen at all. And when other people die in this show it leaves little to no impact because most of the characters we see show up maybe once or twice, and after their primary episode are left with maybe a minute of screen time for the rest of the series.
Maybe I wouldn't have a huge problem with Kirito and the other characters if it even seemed like the other characters existed. They are all flat archetypes of characters who are really just their to sing Kirito's praises. You've got your comedic best friend, shy girl who gets picked on, tsundere waifu, sad girl who's obviously going to die because she's sad. Oh, and if you're a male chacter you probably just shouldn't show up because the show doesn't give a shit you exist unless you have exposition or need to fight something.
Speaking of fighting ever notice how if you're a a good fighter and you're fighting some creature, you'll do pretty well against it...until Kirito shows up. Then you get a case of the spaghooter legs and forget how to hold your damn sword until Kirito mops up the rest of the bad guys (You are 1000X times as likely to have this happen to you if you are female, named Asuna, and are stuck in a cage.)
I've now currently wasted way more time than I wanted to with this review. Overall this show gets a 2/10 from me (only because I think some of the fight scenes are well animated). Trash, and not even the enjoyable kind.
P.S. Ever notice how dragon girl in the first half of the show is essentially a younger Asuna...because you know we needed the Loli fanservice.
