Sword Art Online is surely the anime which divides the most this year. But I think one thing brings people together in agreement, this anime had an amazing potential. Only by seeing the first two episodes you’ll see it. The plot is well introduced and really interesting. Having the consciousness trapped in a perfectly modeled virtual game, and with only one possibility to escape from that: finish the game, is quite captivating.
Then come the development of the story, when Sword Art Online definitively lost a part of the viewer. Why? To me, because some people didn’t expect what the producers wanted to describe in the show: the feelings. Love, fear of death, friendship, treason…. Yeah this show has a considerable part of describing feelings by scarificing some action scenes. And I don’t think everybody was disappointed by that. Anyway, if you’re going to watch this anime, have that in mind: you won’t watch a show full of action, fighting scenes and hard trainings.
Let’s talk about the action now, in one word: sloppy. Come on, fighting scenes against bosses, apart from episode 2, are like two minutes long, what’s that? We just begin to appreciate the fight and it finish hurriedly. The fight with the suspense the most appreciable exactly takes 1min15, and it has at least 20sec of thiking of the protagonist. This isn’t the strong part of the anime, you’ll understand it. As the fights, the story is a little rushed. Kirito sometimes up 10 levels between two episodes, it personally didn’t disappoint me, but I can understand that it can do, so it’s important to say it.
Fortunately, the romance catches up the anime in extremis, but not everyone agree with me I think, let’s develop for people that plan to watch it. Yeah it has 5 ‘loving’ story in the 25 episodes (even if for me 2 of them are more a male-girl friendship), but only one is reciprocal. And it isn’t a harem or something like. It seems to be a lot, but it really deserves the anime, and his purpose. Once again, it’s possible that you disagree with me, but I just share what I think.
So if we’re talking about relationship, let’s have a look at the characters. The protagonist, named Kirito in the game, is firstly a reclusive person, who prefer stand and play alone. What is really great is that we will see how, in facing challenges and risking his life, he will grow up in mind. Firstly thinking that he is overpowered and super-skilled, he will become disillusioned, and will see that he is nothing but somebody fighting for his life, like everybody in the game. The meeting with Asuna will really change him. Asuna is another main character, a girl that wants to escape the faster possible this world. Why she is well made? Surely because she make the dream of any MMO players come true. A girl playing a massive multiplayer game, beautiful, and really skilled.
I can’t really describe others characters since it will have more spoils than information. Moreover, some characters only appear in one episodes, but it once again deserve the anime, more precisely the setting here. We’re in a game, so it’s quite normal to meet somebody one day, and never see him again.
For the art & sound now, I’m not an expert, so I just will say that it was not that bad. It’s smooth, clear and detailed. The only thing I blame on the graphism is the character design, that could have been better, but it’s just my point of view. For the sounds, I really really enjoyed the fighting theme. It fits so well that it’s a shame to make all this work for only a 2 minutes fight. Openings and endings are really good, and even the lyrics are really well made for the anime, I mean it really represent what the show want to bring to the viewer.
In summary, Sword Art online is not as bad as a lot of reviewers say. It just follows its own path, surely different from what would be great to do for them. I’m aware that this show has a considerable number of lacks, but what you should ask to yourself is: Am I watching shows for all the work put in it, or just to spend a nice time? To me, the enjoyment is the more important thing to rate a show. Once again, don’t be outraged, it’s just my point of view.
