Story: What started off interesting quickly took a turn for the worse. The story is riddled with inconsistencies and inconveniences, almost as if intentionally. One moment The focus is on beating the game, the next moment we have "romance" for lack of a better word just shoved into our faces. Protagonists devolve from two of the most powerful players sure to beat the game, into a prepubescent married couple adopting a child and living in a cabin out in the woods. And it gets much worse. The ending to the first arc is one big slap in the face, no valid explanation given or clever twists to lead into the next arc. The second and final arc is basically a save-the-princess type scenario. All the same problems are present here, except worse.
Characters: Another major problem with SAO. Every single character is so one dimensional. First off we have the male protagonist, Kirito, who, unlike in most shounen anime, doesn't become stronger over time or gain strength from protecting those around him. No. He just pulls power, abilities and stats out his ass with no explanation. It's even worse in the second arc when he goes into the new game and somehow has the same stats in the first arc, while everyone else is level 1. He's just completely bland and uninteresting. Ofcourse he's a solo player that wears all black because he's so dark and mysterious and so cool...not. He's a "solo player" who mostly ends up fighting alongside others. He is essentially what most guys want to be; handsome, mysterious, girls fall for him without even trying, has prettiest the wife/girlfriend, strongest in the world, etc. Basically everything is handed to him. Every trait Kirito has is there to serve as pure wish fulfillment so that any guy could see themselves just waking up as Kirito one day. Moving onto Asuna, the first arc's female protagonist. She actually starts out promising. One of the strongest players and a girl?! But ofcourse she quickly becomes nothing more than fan service fodder for Kirito's lust, serving only to be his wife and cook. Oh, and the mother of their adopted child...Then we have Suguha, Kirito's sister but really cousin. The typical incestuous "romance" / love interest. Every single other character is just there to serve as a love interest for Kirito or an enemy for him to defeat. Basically every character is there as filler for Kirito to be seen as God like.
Art/Music: Just about the only acceptable part of this anime. Aside from the single still frame combat sequences, the landscape is quite nice, just what you'd expect from your modern MMORPG, massive forests, brightly lit up and decorated towns. The sound track are nothing to be scoffed at either, especially the battle theme when Kirito goes into bad ass mode (with little to no effort.)
Overall: Just like with any game, as most gamers agree, graphics don't amount to much if the game play and community are steaming hot pile of...rubish. SAO suffers the same fate, while it has some qualities such as a decent sound track and art, they pale in comparison to how frustratingly terrible everything else is that they are completely overshadowed and any benefits gained from them are negligible. SAO, lucky to even receive a 1/10.
