MINOR SPOILER AHEAD! BE WARNED, WANDERER!
Story -6- Ok, let's start with the story. I will not summarize the plot because I think that everyone knows more or less the premises of the show
I was amazed when I watched the first two episodes. I was expecting so much, an epic story with great plot twists, battles with monsters and "red players"...the core idea of the show is just so fucking good that I still can't understand why they put it apart to transform it in a general romantic story
The Aincrad Arc was ok. I give it a 7 but is just...ok. I mean, it could have been much better, as I was saying. The story jumps to his conclusion too early: for example, it would have been interesting to actually see the first days of imprisonment in the game.
We have a brief narration that tells us about this period. Why, in the name of God???
Let me see it by myself! Why you should skip maybe the most important part of the story??
Let me see the way people reacted to what happened! They have been trapped in a fucking game for God knows how much time....let me see how people started founding Gildas in order to survive and complete the game, let me see some badass players who decided to stay on themselves, let me see people crossing the event horizon and committing suicide for the shock! Damn, let me see how Kirito has managed to survive all this time. I want to see the protagonist struggling with his fear, I want to see him fighting the desperation and the shock, as he is only a teenager stuck in a deadly game who progressively becomes a badass, the way he interacts with other players...but no, we skip the first months of the story because...who knows?
And sadly, the series skips almost all the interesting plot hints that it gave us in the first episode. We have those so called red players who kill other people to loot them. There is a gilda, called Laughing Coffins that is actually devoted to doing this. Well? No epic battle between Kirito, the other players and them?
The story focuses to much on the relationship between Asuna and Kirito. And it could have been ok for me, if it wasn't the only thing that mattered for the way the story unravels itself.
If the series showed me the two main characters fighting countless battles side by side before falling in love, I would have liked it much. If secondary characters have had more development and screen time, the ending of the first arc would have been breathtaking and tearjerking. For the way the show skipped all the interesting sub-plots that could have been interesting, it was just...good. I liked it but I felt that I could have liked it waaaaaay much.
The Alfheim Arc is terrible and it lowers the rating.
Also there, main plot points are skipped or badly developed to skip to the conclusion. The relationship between Kirito and his step sister, who is in love with him, could have been very sad and deep. But the show doesn't develop it this way, it rushes everything. The fact that people cannot die for real in Alfheim, also, really kills the atmosphere of the first arc, that was the main point of the story, in the first place
So many wasted potential here. Sure, the story is not so bad as people say in their reviews. But, in the end, when you have finished the last episode, it leaves you with the feeling that it could have been endless better and not just "ok"
Art -9- Nothing to say here: the art is by far the strong point of the series, altogether with the sound. Action scenes are just great, the characters are well-rendered and animated and the scenarios give a redefinition of the term "Scenery porn". Also, in the first arc, the concept of the city of Aincrad is awesome: the first time I saw this castle flying in the middle of nowhere, wow, I liked the idea so much.
The best moment by far, under this light, is the ending of episode 14, where we see the virtual world falling in pieces in the lights of the sunset. Fantastic.
Sound-9 -SAO features some of the best opening and ending theme in anime's recent memories. "Crossing field" is great, you will found yourself singing it (well, trying to singing it unless you know Japanese) since the second episode. The background music is powerful, the sounds during action scenes are convincing. As for the dub, I'm from Italy and I have no complains about the Italian dub of the series, every character's voice, even the secondary ones, feels right for them
Character- 7-Another criticism that is often associated to SAO is the fact that "There are no characters except for Kirito and Asuna" and that "Kirito is a dull protagonist"
"There are no characters" is an exaggeration: background characters do their job, nothing more, nothing less. They could have had a deeper characterization, a better development, yes, but, as I said, since the story rushes to the end without a complete exploration of the many possible subplots and of the relationships between the great part of the characters, wel...
It's a shame, characters such as Klein or Argyle are there, screaming "GIVE ME SOME MORE SCREENTIME! GIVE ME A BACKSTORY! I CAN BE USEFUL FOR THE PLOT, YA KNOW??" but instead they are demoted mainly to extra. The show works more or less anyway, but this is another feature that I wish the authors had considered and explored more
I didn't felt that the protagonist was dull, instead.
He is a loner who act by instinct, with a convincing tragic backstory (his gilda was destroyed to his fault and so he doesn't want to get close to anyone), he is the good guy who helps out people around him. I wasn't expecting a lot more, he is still better than a lot of main characters from more acclaimed animes and I didn't felt for a moment that he was "Dull", "Not characterized" and so on
And an interesting thing that no one noted about him (and thatI found interesting) is that he never openly says that he wants to complete the game, he just says that "he will survive in this world!" before he gets in love with Asuna. Then, at that point, his goal changes. In multiple occasions, Kirito is shown to be at ease in this virtual world. He doesn't give the idea that he is craving to get home, before, as I said, he finds a reason to get back to real life
Asuna, the other main character, is not the generic tsundere as I thought she would be (in the first arc, at least) she is pretty badass, considering that she is one of the few characters who kills on screen a person in the series...I don't feel either that she was a bad developed character, she is quite good for me
Enjoyment- 8-Honestly, I enjoyed SAO. I don't regret watching it.
The fact is that I don't usually analyze every single problem that a show has when I start watching it, unless those flaws are really unbearable and ruin the watching experience
And, in my opinion, this one is not so bad that you cannot enjoy it.
The action scenes are awesome.
The setting is great.
All the flaws that I have analyzed before, are reflections that I carried out after finishing the show. After all, I watch movies and anime to relax and enjoy myself, not to criticize every single thing that I don't like in it. There are indeed series that are so badly written or stupid that you eventually stop watching them because you can't even find a good thing in those. But this is not the case and who hate this series so much that he gives it a rate below 5 is probably missing the point of animated shows
The only part that got me shaking my head was the Alfheim Arc, there were some moments that were just...weird or bad and got me saying "C'mon, what is this crap?" aside from that, the series is enjoyable, if you can just ignore his flaws wich, belive me, are not so horrible that you cannot unsee them
BONUS - Aincard Arc ending (MAIOR SPOILER ALERT)
And now, am I the only one who was really thrilled by the revelation that Heatcliff was the bad guy? Seriously, that is one of the best moments in the show, one of the few things that couldn't have been better. And also, the final speech of Akhihiko Kayaba, when he states that "he doesn't remember why he created Aincrad"
Why so many people hated that part and felt that it was stupid?
He was a genius who created his own world. A world where he can be God, where he makes the rules. He was so lost in his delirium that he put the lives of hundreds of people to jeopardy just in the desperate pursuit of the meaning of creating life. And, in the end, he is satysfied because somehow Kirito defied the laws of his world, such as sometimes men defies the laws of their very world. This was the meaning of his speech. I didn't found it stupid nor incoherent with the series, it actually was pretty deep
So, said this, the conclusion
No, this show is light years far from a masterpiece. It could have been one, yes. The premises were that good. But in the end, it has to many flaws. The main problem is the linearity of the plot, the lack of a tangle of subplots and the scarce exploration of...well, pretty much everything. It can be reassumed in "We are trapped in a game. We beat the game. We are save"
I could spend hours listing anime from where SAO could take inspiration to create a more dynamic and engaging world.
HOWEVER...
The show itself is not trash, either. Is pretty enjoyable, nevertheless. If you reduce your expectations before watching it, you would probably not be disappointed like many people were. Give it a shot and decide by yourself, after all, not every anime series has to be a introspective and perfectly written piece of art to entertain his public
Ah, also
I deeply reccomend "Sword Art Online Abriged", also. It's a sort of parody/revisitation that you can found on Youtube, on the channel called "Something witty entertainment"
It got me laughing my ass of and, in a couple of cases, copes with the problems of the original show :D
