Sword Art Online is Hunger Games: The Anime. It's about a life or death game in which people are trapped. Despite or perhaps because of this, a love blossoms between two characters. Also like the Hunger Games, it doesn't get into the more psychological or depraved possibilities of this world the way, say, Battle Royale might.
STORY
Starts with an episodic structure that zooms pretty fast through some other characters and conflicts, for the purpose of fleshing out the main characters. This is so it can get to it's main point: the love story. Everything else kinda takes a back seat after that. The love story is good, starting with some minor flirting, then into some major validation of life and my strength is your strength stuff into finally some star-crossed lovers. A little predictable at times though.
7/10
ART
Clean, detailed art. Good character designs, and quite beautiful backgrounds and locations. Some of the action is relegated to stills, but when you do see a sword swing, it isn't in the same patterns over and over. Also, there's 3D stuff that is in no way intrusive and adds to the overall experience.
8/10
SOUND
Nearly perfect soundtrack. Very fitting and quite beautiful. Occasionally some odd sound effect choices.
9/10
CHARACTER
If, by looking at the cover art or by watching the opening, you've deduced that there is a lively cast of characters... you'd be wrong. There's really only two characters: the male lead and the female lead. Everybody else comes and goes for 1 or 2 episodes at a time (making them hard to relate to). Usually to never show up again, sometimes by dying. The leads are certainly passable but some may find their lack of flaws a deal breaker. They are literally perfect, hero and heroine to the max. On the plus side they are both strong and confident, on the other hand this makes them somewhat unrelatable and you're never worried they'll fail. They make for great wish fulfillments but bad audience surrogates.
(a little biased because I am not a wish fulfiller) 5/10
ENJOYMENT
This anime is definitely enjoyable to watch. It's just a matter of how enjoyable is it? I'd say it's mostly just good. Nothing is blaringly bad, but it also takes very few risks. A lot of additional enjoyment can be derived from speculation on the nature of the world. Just realize that your questions will most likely not be answered. I still find myself waiting for upcoming episodes, so i give it a nice friendly, somewhat sterile enjoyment rating of...
8/10
OVERALL
The main thing about this anime is not to go into it expecting something, since you are probably wrong. It is a love story, with occasional action and a high-concept world that isn't really looked into much beyond its establishment. I'd give it a 7.5, but with the system that's in place I'll have to err in favour of the anime because I did have a slight bias due to my preconceptions going into this series.
8/10
Now, of course, keep in mind that this only covers the first arc (most likely first half of the story) and it could definitely change in the future. Oh, and cryptic spoiler: the arc structure comes back to the Hunger Games comparison.
