Story- The story isn't something unique, the whole "If you die in the game, you die in real life" scenario has been done before, but does not having a unique story make it any less impactful or good? The answer is no, take a look at something like clannad where the story in a sense is very generic, boy meets girl, they fall in love, and then something tragic happens. Certainly not a unique story at all, but look at how impactful it was, I've honestly never been that torn up over something in my entire life. What makes a story good is not necessarily being unique, but rather how the story impacts you. Will you remember these characters or certain scenes months or even years down the road? Will it be something that impacts you in a certain way, or make you realize something about yourself? The answer is yes to all of these questions. Don't get me wrong, this anime has plenty of faults, and it pains me to say that because this anime could have easily been a 10/10 and made it's way into my top 5. It had so much going for it, and yet it felt extremely rushed in the first couple of episodes, some characters weren't around long enough to even care about, even when certain scenes made it clear that you were suppose to care. It's hard to care for a character when you've really only had an episode or so to get to know them, it's certainly alot less impactful in certain areas than what it was suppose to be. Then in other areas it's extremely impactful and has done things that I personally haven't ever seen done in an anime, a few scenes in particular. This is why i'm so on the fence about this anime, some scenes were so wonderfully done, and other scenes fell extremely short of what they were going for. Even with it's faults this anime is still an 8/10 for me, at the beginning it was registering about a 4/10 for me, but then the anime picked up and really started showing it's charm, how amazing it could be and just how much potential it had. I was definitely happy watching this anime and it was certainly not a waste of time like most people seem to say it is. After the first couple of episodes of this anime and the way things seem to be going you might have a general idea of where things are going, and you couldn't be more wrong. It's alot more morbid than you would first believe, and the ending scene of the "first season" just shows how morbid of an anime this can be at times. It also a very romantic anime, it one of the best couples I've seen in a long time. The story starts off slow, then really starts to pick up after the first couple of episodes, and I mean really pick up. It's a wonderful, yet morbid and sometimes loving story that I think people look over because of it's very obvious faults at the beginning.
Art-The art style is really good for the most part. All of the weapons, armor, and environment seem very much like something that you would find in a traditional mmo. All of the fight scenes are animated very well, nothing more to really say.
Sound-The musical scores hit where they are suppose to, whether it be fast paced music for fight scenes, or something soothing and mellow for a sweet scene. The opening and closing songs are really quite catchy and match the atmosphere of the anime very well.
Character- The characters are really well done, for the most part at-least. As I said in the story section, some of the characters aren't well fleshed out all that well, it's not that they where wrote badly or anything, you just didn't get to know them at all. You can't really feel any sort of emotion towards someone you know hardly anything about. The main characters however are done really well. Kirito and asuna in specific are wrote very well. You see them grow throughout the anime and learn from their mistakes. Their personalities even change for the better and they grow as humans. They seem very organic and very much alive for fictional characters.
Enjoyment-My overall enjoyment at the beginning was very minimum, besides the first episode. The first episode really draws you in, but then it gets very jumpy the next couple of episodes and makes it feel like you where missing whole out on alot. It even feels like some episodes where missing or something. After a rocky start things start to pick up, and it starts really showing off it's charm, and naturally you start enjoying yourself more. It had really enjoyable fighting scenes, and really touching emotional scenes.
Overall-Overall this anime could have been alot better, but at the same time it was alot better than I had originally though it would be. The way people are writing and talking about it make it seem like it's one of the worst things ever composed, almost like it's an abomination that should not be seen by human eyes, for fear of blindness. Sure it had some issues here and there, but overall it's a very well done (albeit rushed in some parts) anime. It had some really emotional and rather awesome scenes that I will definitely remember for years to come. Some of the scenes with kirito and asuna are just amazing, I don't see how people can talk so bad about it after witnessing such scenes. It might not have been perfect, but it definitely was a overall well done and entertaining anime. If you are wanting to watch a really good action anime, with a rather unique romance side to it then I reccomend this to you. You definitely won't be disappointed.
