I guess it is fair to say that SAO is the most prominent, or at least hyped, anime of the past 2012 year. And I can see why. It starts with a blast. The first three episodes made me think that i'm watching a masterpiece that will definitely be one of the best shows I've ever seen. Only later to disappoint.
I'll start with what I really liked:
The concept of this anime: showing a life in a virtual reality. We've seen it before in Matrix, but here the virtual reality is a game and the world was an Avatar (the movie from 2009)-like eye-candy (as you may suspect from VLMMORPG universe). SAO shows implications of a large group of people trapped together in virtual reality for a long period of time and sometimes poses deep questions (for example whether they should face death trying to break from this world if they are so happy inside SAO, in my opinion the fact that i paused the show for a moment to think what i'd do, proves the quality of this part of SAO). If you are a gamer you’re going to love the parts when they talk about common issues with online RPG, such as beta-testers advantage. Also the fights and actions sequences: it’s a shounen where heroes live in RPG so one has to expect epic boss battles. I was afraid that they will add too much of them but fortunately all the battles were very relevant to the main plot.
What went wrong.
The whole romance thingy. The bond between Kirito and Asuna felt cheesy and pushy. But that’s nothing compared with other semi-romantic relationships with almost every met girl including his own sister (yes, yes I know she isn’t really his real sister just a cousin but they lived together as siblings, btw. What’s with siscon is anime?). Every girl falls for him instantly. Some reviewer called it ‘episodic harem’ and I really like such a term, because to my dismal, in one episode I felt like I’m watching a harem ecchi. Let’s add unnecessary fan-service (including almost a tentacle rape) and top with [SPOILER] his sister falling for him in RL and then again in VR in game.
Inconsistent plot. Among many issues I have: the main characters are too strong. Kirino admits that SAO world is fair and logical but he is way too strong compared to others especially for a solo-player that doesn’t always fight at the front-lines (=highest levels achievable) and makes lots of detours. It really felt like the author had a great concept to start a show but run out of ideas and decided to throw generic anime settings and deus ex machinas (ass-pulls) to fill the gaps and created an adolescent fairy tale.
Two cents about the main characters:
I don't have many issues with Kirito. He is supposed to be a lone hero, an outsider who perfectly fits into an MMO virtual world and as such he does the job. He is the hero that i guess many players would like to be or at least experienced his journey. His portrayal went too far with his allure towards the feminine part of population, basically he was a chick magnet for no apparent reason.
Asuna is a lost character. At first she is strong-willed, determined, gorgeous (Asuna is very pretty even by anime standards) girl who could become an anime Katniss Everdeen (heroine from Hunger Games). But later in the story she became a winner of Kirito's harem (i exaggerate but i think one can get the point), his girlfriend and wife with super improved cooking skills and nothing more... and she could be so much more.
And villains: Disney-like bad guys with no depth whatsoever (especially the villain from the second arc).
Overall
I've read somewhere that Sword Art Online is the most overrated and underrated anime of 2012. Overrated by zealous fans who claim that this is the best anime 'evaaah' and underrated by community critics who bash obvious shortcomings (btw. The same goes for Naruto – just a thought about the most popular and the gateway anime). And it’s true: the faults are clearly visible for anyone who’s not totally new to the genre but it’s really not that bad. I was captivated by the main part of the story and I did enjoyed it. Overall I can give it a generous 7, which represents what Sword Art Online really is – a slightly disappointing, but good nevertheless anime.
