This show makes a lot of people's top ten lists. It's by no means bad. It is good. But, it's shortcomings are where it pretends to be something it's not. Let's start with the overall story. A massive MMO game driven by virtual reality technology takes a bizarre twist when the players are locked in and made to fight for their very lives. You die in the game, you die in real life. Good emphasis is placed on this. A month in and thousands are dead. This is gripping stuff. We get main characters that are likeable enough to get behind, albeit cookie cutter at times, and the idea of the long journey still ahead makes us wonder who will be left when all is said and done. The atmosphere is set. And then they ruin it...
The story shifts gears VERY abruptly and it succeeds in destroying what promise it had story wise. The stakes are decidedly lower and it becomes a simple "damsel in distress needs to be saved by her knight in shining fairy wings" tale. A fairy tale? Tee hee. By the time you get over the change up and into what's new, the show is over. Such beauty in each world. They definitely put the "Art" in "Sword Art Online". And yet, the creators of the show chose to barely use these great and limitless concepts, selling themselves short on two occasions. They crapped the bed on the story and then cut the legs out from under the art. Still, good art.
When the story changed, the characters, too, lost their edge. To quote Thomas Paine, "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; tis dearness only that gives everything its value." I cannot feel the same about characters when their challenge has become considerably less risky. They are less endearing. And adding in some basic romance and a little twist involving the dangers of on-line avatars isn't gonna help. Checking the score, they messed up the story, sold the art short, and took all the momentum from the characters. And they act like this is supposed to be great because we have some good SFX, pretty good fight scenes, and a standard musical score that just adds choirs to make it sound more epic. The Sub vs. Dub battle here was actually a good one for a change. I really liked both performances from both casts and felt they gave it their all. In my opinion, you could watch either one and get a good experience. But, I prefer the Japanese cast just a skoshi bit more than the English.
Let's be honest here. Stop pretending this is anything special. A fantasy world with swords and magic that has decent characters and some okay story telling. Been there done that endless times. The irony of "Sword Art Online" is it did to the viewers what the game did it's players. It sold us a bill of goods, promising an experience like none other. Then it trapped us into something we didn't sign up for and it was a struggle from then on to salvage our enjoyment and save ourselves from the death that is disappointment. This is a good show pretending to be a great one. Like any MMO, you can try to pretend to be something you're not and for awhile it's fun, but at the end of the day you have to come back to a less impressive reality. And it's that let down that kills "Sword Art Online". 7/10. Still worth your time to check it out. Cheers!
