Sword Art Online. I'm sure you all know about it by this point, so I'm not going to go into any details about it so as to familiarize you with it like I would most other anime I would write about. By far the most popular title in 2012, if not the past 5 or 6 years. I've talked to many of my NON-anime watching friends who tell me they have seen SAO. Of course with this kind of popularity usually comes extreme opinions, and SAO is no exception. In fact, I think SAO is a great exhibit that can be used to showcase the anime community and what they have become.
Sword Art Online is such an extreme example of diverging opinions that you almost never see people rating it anything between 4-9, it's always 10, 10, 2, 1, 3, 10, 2, 1, 1, 1... etc. For some reason, all those who would normally give it a mediocre rating, instead decide that they hate the show. Why? Because so many other people love it, and they can't comprehend that. They then notice that many of the people who love it are those also love Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail, and other mainstream anime. SAO then gets branded as a mainstream anime, and gets shit from a whole chunk of the community. They go into it with a closed mind, and after coming out they only see what they expect to see and proceed to rant about how terrible every single aspect of the show is. And such are the ways of the anime community, which unfortunately in everywhere except Japan, seems to follow whatever ideology /a/ tells them to.
In case you haven't realized, I am of neither factions. I am neither a rabid fanboy, nor someone who thinks the show is absolute shit for no justified reason. I think it is, at best, mediocre. I also think, at worst, it is mediocre. To me, this anime represents a couple things: a) It epitomizes mediocrity, and b) The convoluted demographic anime is now aiming for. There is nothing particularly good about it, but on the flip-side, there's nothing particularly bad. The story is kind of well written, but has many flaws. The characters are for the most part pretty flawed and poorly written, but not so much that it detracts from the show. They certainly don't add anything, but they don't detract either. The art looks quite nice; some of the landscapes are beautiful. However, I felt that the action sequences left some to be desired. I would like to say that the sound was great, as it featured some solid voice acting along with an OST composed by Kajiura Yuki (!!!), yet there was nothing for Kajiura's tracks to highlight, and none of them stuck out particularly. So while the sound helped set the overall tone of the anime, much like the rest of the show, nothing stood out.
Yet, with all that being said, without question, it is an enjoyable watch. For those of you debating whether or not to watch it, I'd suggest watching the first few episodes and then deciding if you'd want to continue. I realize that this is what most people will suggest when watching ANY anime, but for many shows the first couple episodes might not give you enough. You might end up dropping a show that could have become your favorite. A personal example for me would be Shinsekai Yori. Honestly, I found the first couple episodes kinda boring, and forgot to watch the next couple. It was only when I picked it back up on a whim a few weeks later did I realize that this was something more than what I had thought it was. Shinsekai Yori is now one of my favorite anime, but if I were to have done the "3 episode trial" with it, I probably never would have finished it. With SAO, this is not the case. The first 3 episodes are a wonderful example of what is to come in the rest of the series, as there is never really anything more than those three episodes, but nothing much less either.
SAO is split up into two overriding arcs, each taking place in two different video games. Sword Art Online, and Alfheim Online respectively. Many people bicker about which arc was better, so I'll share my thoughts on this as well. I thought the first arc, SAO, was much better than the second arc. It wasn't really as much about what the first arc did right, but more what the second arc did wrong. The plot for the second arc seemed to be mainly be a feeble excuse to get them back in some different game. While the plot for the first arc seemed to be relevant and remained interesting throughout, the second arc seemed to be mostly a rehash, where everything that made the first arc work taken out. Without the plot points that made SAO work, they had to create new ones. And so a much more superficial plot was created, complete with some good ol' cousinly incest. For the most part, the second arc just bugged me. It however, through some miraculous force of will, remained entertaining.
The last thing I want to leave you with is the thought that when it all boils down, all you're doing is watching a 16 year old kid play video games. Honestly, you can do that on youtube so much more easily, and instead of 25 episodes there are tens of thousands. I personally don't enjoy watching people play video games, so my enjoyment of the show was cut a bit as a result. If I were rating this on a bell curve (Which I normally don't, but for the sake of this review, I will), I'd give SAO a 5/10. Not a particularly great story, feeble characters, relatively nice art, and one of Kajiura's poorer works. Yet all together, somehow creates something of an enjoyable experience.
tl;dr SAO was okay, and people need to learn to calm their tits. 5/10
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