Sword Art Online (Season 1) - 7/10
Despite what many users and critics would have you believe, I advise anyone interested by the prospect of the series give it a chance before writing it off entirely. In fact, I was planning on doing just that after reading a few of the reviews posted by members on here. I started watching anime on a fan level at the very start of this past Fall 2013 season, and like many was dragged in by the momentum of Attack on Titan. A coworker tried to get me to watch SAO and I kinda feigned interest and said I'd get around to it. I had already made up my mind not to watch the series because of the criticism it's received. A few months later (or last week for me) a few friends attempted to get me to watch the show, and so I started. And watched some more. I downed the entire first season in a week, and I can honestly admit happily that I enjoyed it much more than I hated it. It seems as though there are two types of people who review here: the guys who think everything is awesome, and the guys that'll nitpick each episode for inconsistencies. It seems the more popular a show gets the more it needs to be scrutinized. If this were merely some underground fan favorite I doubt people would take it as seriously. I'm going to try and be the in-between guy who chooses to stay unbiased, and will review the series for all it's merits and all it's downfalls, and I'll stay away from determining whether it's worth the praise it receives or not. That being said this first season was FAR from perfect, but I've yet to watch a perfect television series. And seriously, at the end of the day, this is a cartoon. If you've yet to see the season, spoilers follow.
Part 1: Aincrad Saga
The year is 2022. Ten thousand individuals login to the just released VRMMORPG (virtual reality massively multiplayer online role playing game) Sword Art Online, and then the worst possible scenario for anyone with a fear of virtual reality becomes their new reality: they can no longer logout. Nor can they remove their Nervegear helmets, or else the system will kill them. And worse yet, if they die in the game, they die in reality. Their goal is to reach the 100th floor and after defeating the endgame boss, they can all be set free. 2 years later and 40% of the players have lost their virtual and literal lives.
I will admit that I am an avid fan of MMO's and love the idea of just leveling up your character, getting him stronger and stronger ad infinitum. There was a time where I was more than addicted to World of Warcraft. Had a character that had a play time of over two months! But SAO is a very different beast. The approach of having 100 floors was interesting and new. It felt like a classic game with 100 stages, but stuffed into a futuristic MMO. But I had two problems with this setup. 1) The show never explained how big each floor was. You just assumed each floor had special stuff only located there, like towns and forests, and lakes... And 2) they skipped so much of the game within the first few episodes of the show. This was particularly upsetting to me, because I'm all about the linear storytelling going on from battle to battle. I eat up all that filler stuff. Instead they skipped from the boss of the first floor to two years later when they're on floor 74... What?! I understand the purpose of this however, and that's because the story they wanted to tell took place primarily at that last month that SAO was still active. I feel they really could've delved deeper into the lore of the world instead of focusing so much on character woes. This saga should have lasted the entire 25 episode run so as to iron out certain potential plot holes and encourage character development with some of the tertiary characters. Another strange case about this MMO is the lack of character class. An RPG without magic?!?
I'm surprised that so many were upset by the love story that blossomed between Kirito and Asuna. It felt extremely natural and I felt they spent an appropriate amount of time on their tale. It didn't fall short for me. Much of what they as characters were experiencing by the second year was surprisingly relatable. Although the primary objective was to free themselves from Aincrad, they had become so accustomed to living in this world that they considered it more real than reality itself. It's only natural then to find yourself in love with another that you party with on a daily basis. I found their relationship occasionally very touching to be honest, and was fully invested. I wasn't a huge fan however of their "daughter" Yui. That was a plot point I just could not stand.
I was constantly amazed at Kirito's blatantly overpowered stats. I was sure that it would become old soon, but the more it was showcased the more I digged it. The mysterious way in which he was given the special ability to dual wield... Excellent. Knowing in retrospect that it was actually just the GM granting him special rights simply to spice things up a bit and have a bit of fun is amusing, and a satisfying reason in my opinion. From the beginning I didn't consider the GM a villain, because it didn't seem as if he had much of a motive other than the fact that he could just do it. It struck me more so as the work of an eccentric visionary, who's bored and lonely. When Kirito lost that duel, due to what appeared to be a glitch or hack in the system, I thought for sure it must be the GM or someone in cahoots with him. I'm surprised it took so long to realize it.
That last battle was interesting to say the very least. I can understand why many didn't care for it. The way I see it is that these guys are stuck in this virtual world for two years, getting brain-fed data constantly. After that long you'd expect there to begin to be strange anomalies when the game interferes with heightened levels of emotions. Yes, "the power of love" strikes again, but I think it's more than that. I think it's the will to beat the system, and nobody had more will than Kirito. I'm surprised this was one of the first moments where glitches were realized on screen. You'd expect them to be just slightly more commonplace. And as to why they weren't dead at the end... Well the GM congratulated them on jointly beating the game. Enough said really.
Part 2: Fairy Dance Saga
An RPG with magic!!! Finally. But now it's full of fairies... Interesting. The premise of the second half of the season begins with Kirito waking up, but somehow Asuna didn't. We find out that somewhere near 300 players from SAO didn't make it out for whatever reason. And worse yet, some creepy dude wants to marry Asuna while she's in a coma! Kirito soon finds out there is a new VRMMORPG called Alfheim out and he gets a tip that Asuna is trapped inside this world. He goes in, gets the unknowing help of his busty step-sister, and attempts a rescue mission.
As an MMO, Alfheim feels far more organic than Sword Art Online did. Perhaps it was the ability to log off. Perhaps it was the racial choices and magic capabilities. I'm not sure. But because it felt more organic didn't necessarily mean the show benefitted from it. Where my issue with the first half of the season was that they sped through over a year and a half of story, this second half of the season takes place in, what, 3 days? The tone becomes drastically different, and in many ways it feels like a completely different show. This threw me off balance quite a bit. I liked the idea, but not the execution and I'm sure others felt the same. If this is the true source of people hating the series then I can't argue with you there. It angered me too. But I didn't let it affect my view of the overall arc too much.
The stakes are far different in this half of the series. In the first half the big issues were not being able to log out, and if you die you die. But in this half you CAN log out AND you get to respawn. You just lose all your gear (or something?). This wasn't fully explained, or maybe I missed it. Instead the real stake only existed for Kirito and Asuna. She was trapped by some horny maniac, and he was determined to save her before she got married off. Because the story didn't have enough breathing room it all felt more unrealistic despite the more realistic game. Again, this could have been fleshed out far better over a full season.
One thing I really did like was that Kirito's stats carried over into this game from SAO. Basically he was the best before he even began. Makes sense he'd be far stronger than the strongest player in this game due to the fact that Alfheim had only been going strong for about a year. And you know what, despite not liking Yui's character in the first half of the season, she was ridiculously cute throughout the second half. Seriously. She slept in his pocket.
The second half of the series, although inherently not as violent, had far more fan service, and weird sexual stuff all around. I don't consider Sugu's strange love for her adoptive brother to be incestual, but it's definitely... strange. Regardless, although the subject matter was out there, it felt organic and natural, and the resolution with the real world confrontation was probably the most emotional scene the anime offered. You couldn't help but feel bad for her. And yet she still aided him in his flight to victory. (See what I did there?)
The rape scene was particularly unsettling, and I didn't care for a second of it. I hope that's what the creators of the series intended because that's how it came across for me personally, and hopefully for other viewers. It was disgusting. But that's when the original GM intervened, becoming the god in the machine, allowing Kirito admin access, and the ability to beat the system. Perhaps I'm a sap, but I'm not used to watching stuff with happy endings. The season was given a nice ending.
Part 3: Sword Art Online Extra Edition & beyond
I won't get too caught up in the Extra Edition synopsis, because there's not all that much to it seeing as how it's mostly a synopsis of the entire first season with swimsuits in-between clips. But if it tells me anything, it's that the first and second half of the season were two very different storiess, with many differing strengths and weaknesses. It may not be a popular opinion, but I do believe it would be a far stronger series if the two arcs were each given a full 25 episode season. I'm sure that would lead to criticism of filler episodes, but if it would make the series a stronger one in the long run, I'm all for it. And it wouldn't feel like such a weird switch right there in the middle of the story.
I was very confused with the resolution of the world seed. Essentially everyone has access to this world seed, so everyone can make their own world with their own rules? I don't see how that's a good thing, seeing as how the first two worlds were run by madmen. And there was an interesting tease to the future of the series. But hopefully they explain better in season 2, which was snazzily introduced earlier yesterday. The Phantom Bullet saga eh? I hope this one gets a full run of episodes as well. Space out the story a little bit. In conclusion. It's a flawed series, but it's by no means unwatchable or bad.
Don't get fooled by the first episode. This show is pretty bad (at least if you expect quality writing out of it).
The main problem for me was the lack of story. They setup a life or death siutation but instead of showing the players coping with it we get a timeskip and a chronological adaptation of the source material (light novels) which means lots of irrelevant side stories. The stakes are mainly ignored and hardly anyone works toward the goal of completing the game (clearing all 100 floors). When the SOA story arc comes to an end it is abrupt and makes no sense at all due plotarmor. The second arc is still airing but luckily it'll be over soon. All changes have been for the worse.
Another issue are the characters; cardboard cutouts and personality changes on demand. Most of the women (or better girls) tend to exist to form a harem for our MC. Speaking of which, this show goes full-shonen as far as his powers go. It is ridiculous what he can pull off (getting his own skills in an mmo, hacking, highest leveled player in the game when all you see is him idlying and helping lowlevel players.. it get's even worse in the second arc).
Given that it is an action show you would at least expect the fights to be good. Unfortunatly these are a letdown. The bossfights usually look rather bad. Not only because of the CGI but the way they animated it. There is hardly a battle choreography and they overuse still frames. You can literally see that the only things animated are the flashing lights which are supposed to represent sword strikes.
Add to this the ever increasing fan-service, silly dialogue, unbelievable romance and countless things that make no sense.
Due to reasons I cannot understand this show is popular and sells really well so a second season could happen.
Honestly, this series is really a mixed bag when you look at it as a whole. There were some really great moments and the pretext of the Aincrad arc is purely phenomenal material and world building, with a pretty neat set of plot twists built in. I could spend a lot of time picking out the little points that I was annoyed by or hated, but there are plenty of other reviews that do that with very similar opinions to my own. This Anime will always have a bit of nostalgia for me and its a big part of why I enjoy Isekai as a genre. The series really is worth a watch and there's a good chance you'll have some enjoyable moments, but there are a lot of parts where things are honestly really dumb, riddled with holes, or should have been left for hentai.
If you want to watch what I might consider the "ideal" parts of the series, this is what I enjoyed the most:
The Aincrad Arc: S01 Episodes 1-14
Alicization Arc: S03
War of Underworld Arc: S04
Although I include the Alicization stuff because there were some really good moments, there were also a plethora of extremely poor moments that I only considered acceptable because the animation and soundtrack in these seasons are quite splendid.
Im a fan and i agree that SAO has it's flaws in the first season with the ALO arc cause even I feel bored watching that arc and why is there a tentacle rape scene, it is so disturbing. But hey nothing's perfect. I'm pretty sure many people were expecting too much from the first arc and then disappointed with the ALO thing and lastly all of them end up being a hater of SAO. But i did not stop there and continued to watch the next season because im not the type that drop an anime that fast. Season 2 is fine and it's not as bad as the ALO arc. GGO part is great as well as mother's rosario arc because you get to see Asuna as the main protagonist that time. But maybe the Excalibur arc is not that interesting for me since it's just a story about their quest on getting a rare weapon. It feels like watching a filler episode but whatever.
After that comes the movie,Ordinal Scale. The movie is super good even though there is not much of a connection between the season. It's like a filler but in a movie form but goddamn the animation and the soundtracks is super goood. After that comes, season 3 with it's Alicization arc also with the War of the Underworld which is the best season off all SAO. Every episode was interesting, the fight scene is really good and the music is super good and I don't even know why some haters still hate SAO even though it had a lot of improvements. I guess they can't move on with the disappointment that they had in the first season. Haters gotta hate. Anyway, I recommend to watch it, just don't expect too much in the first and second season but the movie and the seasons after is a banger and worth a watch!
I really like this show, but I also understand some of the hate for it. Though I don't think those people understand where SAO came from.
Imagine if I told you there was an anime about a guy trapped in a video game. He falls for this girl who is a high ranking member of a guild which helps people. Together they form a sort of a power couple. The fearless leader and the rebel those in power keep trying to hold back. They discover a little girl who becomes their child, but she turns out to be an AI designed to monitor the mental health of the players, and is being controlled by another AI that is trying to assert control over the whole game. And that when he finally logs out, they are able to meet in real life.
That's not SAO. That's .hack//SIGN, and SAO started out as a .hack fan fic, kind of like how 50 Shades started out as a Twilight fanfic. But, the problem with .hack was, after its first season, they began a different story with a whole new cast. We all wondered what happened to the original cast. And then the third season, again, a whole new cast, with no one from the first two. SAO answered that question. Instead of erasing the existing cast, it worked the existing ones into the second arc. It did, to an extent, follow .hack's second season, Legend of the Twilight, with its second arc, Fairy Dance. Like Fairy Dance, Legend of the Twilight focused on a pair of "not really siblings but cousins" with a complicated, pseudo-romantic relationship, and the main character has his girl taken away from him early on, like Kirito lost Asuna in Fairy Dance. Even the realisation that Tsukasa (Kirito's basis) was really a girl was recycled in SAO II when Kirito is given a feminine avatar. In .hack, Subaru (Asuna's basis) was handicapped, which is reflected twice in Fairy Dance. One with her being in the birdcage, and two with her needing physical therapy at the end that Kirito clearly didn't. Most of the rest of the characters match up, too. Bear became Aegil, Krim became Klein, and of course Aura became Yui. (BT didn't seem to become anyone, but Leafa resembles her. As for Sora, the player killer, Recon from the Fairy Dance arc is probably the closest equivalent, the awkward kid who just doesn't seem to fit in.)
But SAO didn't plagiarize .hack. It isn't a carbon copy. SAO light novel author Reki Kawahara changed enough so that it isn't a direct ripoff. Most fans wouldn't see the connection unless you pointed it out to them. After that it's quite unmistakable. They took a great idea that maybe wasn't executed so well, and they made something better out of it. I'm not sure how the courts would come down on it if a lawsuit was filed, in Japan or the US, but since no suits have been filed, it's just a big win for anime fans. We get the full benefit of both series. We can choose one or the other, or we can choose both.
Whether you like SAO or not, if you have a strong opinion on it, I implore you to go to its own "World Seed" and watch .hack//SIGN. It's a good anime, but it is very slow going. You will notice that the music is incredible (Yuki Kajiura composed the score to both .hack//SIGN and SAO, but she also composed the songs that play throughout), the character design is simple yet endearing, and the world design is inspired, though not nearly as detailed as SAO. It's a much more moody show, as Tsukasa (Kirito) being the only one who can't log out. Also, he's not a swordsman at all, he's a Wavemaster (wizard), but really, he's a mopey loner who only finds a backbone at the very end. There's almost no action, and the characters spend most of the time talking about a mysterious item called the "Key of the Twilight" which may or may not do any number of things, including allow Tsukasa to log out. It's not a bad show, and in some ways it surpasses SAO. The music, for one, is far and above anything I've ever seen in anime — that is, until I saw Kimi no Na wa (Your name). It's that good. (Noir was kind of the same way. Yuki Kajiura worked on that, too.) The story, while long and drawn out, is actually quite good. However, it's never been released in HD, so DVD and 480p is the limit. I generally prefer to watch anime in English, as that is the language I understand, but the .hack//SIGN dub is simply not very good. I recommend watching it in Japanese with English subtitles. (Meanwhile, SAO has a great dub.)
After you watch .hack//SIGN; that is, after Tsukasa logs out and the emotional real-world scene, skip the Return and especially the Gift OVAs, and watch the Liminality OVAs. They follow the .hack//SIGN story in the real world.
Once you're done with all of that, please watch SAO again. You'll see where SAO's writer got his ideas, and what he had to work with, and really, the monumental task he had of taking an existing, fairly well liked show and making it better in every way he could. Did he succeed? SAO does not exist in a vacuum. It's not an original work, and it's not really fair to judge it as one. If you're watching SAO at all, that says you're a fan of the video game genre, and you should at least want to know where SAO came from, especially if you want to understand how high it really soars.
I don't know the mind of Reki Kawahara and what he sought to improve most from .hack//SIGN, or even how much .hack//SIGN influenced him, or what other series I may or may not also know about influenced his work. If I had to guess, having seen both series, I would say it was the changing of the cast with each season. He could have dismissed Kirito and Asuna at the end and then focused on Leafa (who may or may not be Kirito's sister) and other people, just like .hack did, and it probably still would have been decent. But Kirito and his love for Asuna is central to his story, and it's part of all five arcs (or six, if you count the Ordinal Scale film). So I'd say that change is the reason for SAO. Because characters are important. Kirito's assertion in SAO, echoing Subaru's assertion in .hack//SIGN, that people are who they are regardless of whether they're in the game or the real world, and Kirito's enduring effort to fulfill his promise to protect his friends serves as the backbone of the series. If you take Kirito, Asuna, and Yui out, like .hack did with its second season, it's just another .hack clone.
Review by VallarisBlockedParent2018-08-27T12:39:54Z— updated 2018-08-29T12:35:46Z
9.5/10
As a child, I've always found the concept of living in a game that revolves around sword and sorcery fascinating, so the main idea of this show has been appealing to me since the beginning. However, after watching the first few episodes, I was kind of disappointed: All I got to see was a person with an enigmatic character, who was completely over-leveled and wanted to rush through the game all by himself. Instead of showing captivating and engaging boss fights, all I got to see was the main character virtually one-hitting all the enemies because of his high level. Instead of gaining an insight into the main character's personality and background, I was merely left with a very vague impression of him. At that point, I was doubtful about whether it really is worth it continuing watching the show.
Fortunately, I did continue watching the show, and I was glad to see that most of the aforementioned negative aspects didn't prevail throughout the show. Finally, we were introduced with a second main character and therefore also learned more about the sentimental side of Kirito. In the second part of the first season, we also got to understand his family life and relation to his sister better. And furthermore, boss fights no longer were finished in a matter of seconds; instead, we saw how many players work together to defeat the final enemy in bitter and long-running battles. This is when I started to really fall in love with this show.
In conclusion, while the beginning of this show is rather poor, it gets better and better with each episode.