Lambasted, skewered, and negatively criticized for being unable to achieve and fulfil the expectations of many of its viewers, SAO, had unassailably deserved being done so. The major flaws are undeniably obtrusive and, of course, had been highlighted by many reviews that I’ve come across. But I must say a word of fairness here, the reason why people have been so objectively criticizing SAO is because of their expectations. We expected many and we received little and thus the controversy.
Before SAO was airing, thousands and thousands have been anticipating the series, knowing that this is the next big thing; no doubt. We expect it to be good, plot wise, character wise, and so on. Then a couple of episodes were aired, and I must say, it was entertaining. But then as the story goes on, it turns out to be detached, plot wise and character wise. It then goes on to be, to some extent, episodic. The second half of the series was desperation at its worst. It attempts to include a character of a significant role and expectedly failed due to the lack of a stable groundwork of the first half of the series. The emotions were artificially drawn on the facade of the characters, as there are no genuine inner emotions that were being stirred. Despite its flaws, it has been entertaining, maybe because of the visual effects.
Now, I’ve come across many reviews have made a point that the side characters played no part in the main plot, but why must they? It could be that the creator was focusing on the individuality of the protagonist, why must we have this thought that everyone should play a part in the main plot so that it would be complete? You might then question the purpose of side characters and their role. Let me put it this way, plot devices are meant to keep the plot going. They have a certain amount of time on screen and when the plot moves on, they probably will not appear again. The only difference of the utilization of plot devices by SAO and other anime is the amount of time given to them. But, I must admit that by giving the side characters such a pitiful amount of time has left a lot to be desired.
Still, SAO have many deplorable shortcomings, such as the protagonist, who is a few inches away from perfection. Suave looking, undefeatable, intellectual, spontaneous; seriously, what more can you ask for? But to have such a character in the story means a formulaic plot. In some way, the protagonist was a selling point as well. There is a good portion of people that fantasizes about such a character; flawless, compassionate, and so on. I wouldn’t want to even mention that such a character would also affect the realism of the series, since SAO is a futuristic gaming series.
Anyways, let’s look at what SAO has achieved. If you have noticed, SAO has done quite a bit in making sure that the protagonists are three-dimensional. They are well-developed, but many don’t feel that way because we have the thought of him, being perfect, in our mind. So this is actually, in some way, very contradicting. The effort exerted has no effect whatsoever.
To sum all this up, the downfall of SAO is that many viewers are unable to follow the logic of the progression of plot. Many of what have been attempted seems pointless because at most of the time, it negates its own attraction. But somehow, it has been entertaining. Maybe it’s just like reading a fairy tale, always nice to have protagonist of near perfection every once in a while.
