You'll notice that I gave the story an 8, but overall it's a 2. Now I'll admit that a 2 is a little lower than the score it deserves, which would probably be a 4, but the reason why I gave it a 2 is because the story is so good. The first episode did a great job and a terrible job of establishing the premise. Great because the story sounds incredible and you get the impression that an epic adventure filled with action and heartbreak is ahead. Terrible because that's the exact opposite of what really happens. It just disappoints me so much that they had a fantastic setting and beginning of a story to work with and messed it up so horribly. In reality, the show becomes a mushy, poorly developed romance with overly sexualized, 1-D female characters. And about halfway through, it gets even worse.
THIS PART CONTAINS SPOILERS
So now the episode-by-episode analysis begins. In the first episode, we learn a decent amount about Kirito. In real life, he's a bit of a loner with not much going for him, but he comes to life while playing video games. Already, he's relate-able, but that's going to change drastically later. The first episode also does a lot to establish the premise: they're trapped in an MMO, and if they die, they die in real life. In my opinion, that's the perfect premise for and epic adventure full of action and heartbreak, but as you all know, that's thrown out the window only a third of the way through the show (I'll touch more on that later.) So after the long exposition, our hero takes off with his comedic sidekick... no wait... our hero abandons his comedic sidekick and takes off to become OP. It was at this part I thought that Klein would probably show up later, rejoin Kirito, and play a major part in at least the second half of the show. He showed up again, but boy was I wrong about the rest of it. Now I'm not hater or anything, but I have no idea why the writers found it necessary of Klein to say that Kirito has a cute face, unless they would later develop him as being gay, which they don't do... or even develop him at all. (I'm going to be hard on the writers for being hard on Klein) Episodes 2, 3, 5, and 6 are where the show shines the most (I'll get to 4 later.) It's in those episodes where we meet Asuna, who everyone knows will be the main female character and love interest. She's first introduced as a generic tsundere, but she shows promise for more depth later in the series. There're also plenty of people who hate the beta-testers for getting an unfair advantage, which includes Kirito, who could pose a problem for Kirito and his friends later in the series. It's established that anyone can die at any moment. There's an overall sense of dread in these episodes. Of course, the people hating beta-testers and constant fear of death are immediately abandoned. Episodes 4 and 7 are useless and only serve to expand Kirito's harem. It's also established that Kirito is way overleveled, but he doesn't lose any credibility from this considering he fights on the front lines and there are still players stronger than him. He's going to lose that credibility later. The show throws itself 6 feet underground with the introduction of Yui. After she "dies" she's "brought back" by Kirito. What this does is show that SAO is a series where death doesn't matter, because it's never going to effect the important characters. For a show where the entire plot revolves around a video game with ultimate perma-death, that was an absolutely horrible move. Also, Kirito loses all of his credibility when he brings Yui back to life. Him being an overpowered player in the game is believable, but him converting Yui into an item is the (2nd) biggest bull**** I've seen in any anime ever. What it says is that Kirito got access to the game's main database, found an AI program, (the MOST complex program possible) and turned it into an in-game item that could be accessed from outside, in a matter of seconds. Kirito now has Ultimate God-Mode Plot Armor with an SSS level enchantment that grants his every wish. Plus, why did he have full access to the game's code? And why didn't he use it to restore the log out button? He could've done it in a fraction of the time! Now enough with Yui, I'm going to talk about Asuna's death. Now you're probably thinking, "but Asuna didn't die!" and you would be right, but also wrong. In some episode, I forgot exactly when, a "bad guy" comes out from a portal. Asuna gets scared and runs behind Kirito. There you have it. Your strong, independent, female lead character was reduced to an over-sexualized boob joke. And then to make it even worse, in the final battle only halfway through the series, Asuna says that she would kill herself if Kirito dies. As if she wasn't 6 feet under already. And Klein's there! ...but who cares? Then the worst possible thing happens. Kirito dies and comes back to life. I don't even know how to explain it, and I don't think I need to, but just know that it's the #1 biggest bull**** in any anime ever. Another bad thing is when Kirito and the bad guy (I forgot his name) are watching the world fall apart and Kirito asks him why he did all those bad things, and he says that he forgot. In case you don't know, that's Japanese for "the writers were too lazy to make a villain with depth." After that, everything that the show should've been has been lost. There is now no possible way for it to become an epic adventure full of action and heartbreak. I'm not going to say anything about the incest thing, because it doesn't make the show any worse in my opinion, but I am going to question Asuna's dad marrying her off to that creep. Suddenly the credibility of the setting outside of the game is lost as well. It was pretty obvious that it took place in 21st century Japan... except arranged marriage without the daughter's consent is legal. Now, I don't know much about Japan, but I'm pretty sure that both parties have to agree before getting married! Then at the very end, possibly the part that was the hardest on me. Kirito sees the original bad guy again, and this time he says something like, "if you have any feelings for that world besides hatred..." The reason why watching that was so hard on me is because it showed me that it COULD'VE been amazing. It COULD'VE had depth, it COULD'VE had 3-D characters, you COULD'VE been fearing for the main characters' lives... but it wasn't. Ultimately, the reason SAO is so bad is because it lied to you. It said that it's going to be amazing, then wasn't amazing, then said it could've been amazing, but chose not to. And I still don't understand why it's so popular.
