Sword Art Online Review

Mini Review

Pro: Animation and Music, Interesting start

Con: Characters, Story, Utterly unsatisfying and mentally degrading conclusion (basically everything that matters)

Final Thoughts: I have an unusually high dislike for SAO, for a number of reasons. Surely many of you may notice this throughout my reviews. Let me clarify why and how this almost hatred has become what it is today. As I write, I currently have the first opening theme "Crossing Field", on my ipod and listen to it occasionally. I also come face to face with people at bookstores reaching for Sword Art Online and Nisekoi manga debating on handing them a Ranma 1/2 or Log Horizon book while telling them "They do not have to keep living their lives this way." Even so I stand corrected that Sword Art Online has fabulous A1 Pictures animation throughout the series with well put together action sequences. It also has some epic music with a top notch first opening to match. The premise for what it is, gets off to a decent start with hope that it will get better. And then, the "whats popular and will sell" shit hits the fan with a horribly written "romance", black hole of garbage second "arc" and with two main characters being the most annoyingly shallow creatures to appear in an anime in recent years.

Kirito= lone wolf "plot fulfilling badass" Asuna= uncute tsudere "Princess Peach"

In all honestly though, my hatred really streams from its "fans" or as I like to call them "lost lambs". They usually are also newbies to the anime industry and do not realize that they have had "wool" pulled over their eyes making them think that what they are seeing is the top of the pyramid when it comes to anime entertainment. They do not know that tsuderes, wish fulfilling characters, trapped in a video game trying to get out scenarios, lone wolf heroes, and all the girls loving one guy situations have been done time and time and time and time and time again in anime as well as in other forms of entertainment. Sword Art Online does not do these common things for the story, they do it to make money. And unfortunately they have, as I write SAO is one of the most mainstream anime here in America. Thankfully anime veterans like myself as well as others have not fallen into the mainstream newbie circle and can look at SAO as being a big disappointment both story and character-wise. Final Score: 2 generous stars MUCH BETTER Recommendations: Accel World/Log Horizon/Full Metal Panic

#swordartonline #sao #review #2stars #summer #2012