Sword Art Online is a good anime. It really is. It's the not the greatest anime in the world. It doesn't make you want to convince everyone in your circle that they must watch it, but it is something you'd recommend to someone when they're bored on a rainy day with nothing else to do.
The plot had me hooked. I love the idea of people being trapped inside a virtual world and forced to participate in a death game, where dying in the games means you die in the real world. However, the characters leave something to be desired. I mean there really isn't any character development but the characters are still likeable, I guess.
I suppose I like characters where part of the driving force of the story is the characters overcoming their faults. But it's like the main character has none. And mid-way through the story, I started thinking that the story had veered off course but apparently the overly sweet romance episodes were actually meant to be part of the story.
Actually, that's kind of what this anime does: it switches half-way through into a romance series. The over all goal of returning to the real world is still an objective and focus is brought back to it but it becomes painstakingly clear that anime turns into romance story. That was sneaky.
I'm not a fan of romance animes, per se, and this anime lured me in with action and slapped me in the face with a lovey-dovey couple half way through the first arc. I hate when stuff does that but in any case, I kept watching because, you know... I'd already made it through half the first arc.
The second arc, in my opinion, was kind of unnecessary. But Kirito's confrontation in the real world towards the end was actually pretty good. But then I didn't really care for the last episode. It resolved nothing, in my opinion, in regards to his sister's feelings towards him. But like I said before, the characters were not developed at all. You just have to take them as they are.
Overall, the music was pretty good and the art style good as well. I'd recommend it on a rainy day because while the anime isn't that great, it isn't that bad either.