Rant: Sword Art Online

Spoilers abound, obviously, since I'm going to basically going to go over why I'm not feeling like finishing the anime, even though I've already decided I will to please some friends who are basically yelling at me to finish it, and to give a more complete opinion of the anime (not the manga, which I haven't read, nor do I plan to)

Spoiler

I finished the first season already: decent, but the romance (after thinking it through) was honestly written terribly, and it had a lot of throwaway plot points that didn't build Kirito as any more likable...not to mention, he's a terribly boring protagonist so far. Asuna's my favorite character so far, but still, she's linked to the rushed romance plot point. And the whole parenting thing between her and Kirito towards Yui? Terrible. I was in disbelief they were actually going with that plot. Not to mention the pacing makes no sense to me: it may say that they were in the game world for 2 years, but it feels like we've had maybe 2 days worth of actual character development.

I'm currently on episode 21. The second season sucks so far. YOU DON'T TAKE AWAY THE WEIGHT OF DYING IN REALITY IF YOU'RE TRYING TO UP THE ANTE OF A DRAMATIC SERIES. And the whole semi-incest-but-not-really romance sub plot with Sugu? Built up over the second season from it's beginning, AND RESOLVED IN LIKE 10 MINUTES!? I keep being told to just finish it cause the last 2 episodes will, apparently, "make up for it all," but I think that's a terrible excuse.

Oh well, at least the animation is excellent, and I like some of the more humorous scenes, but when it tries to be dramatic...it falls flat to me.

 

I felt the same about the show when I finished it.

Spoiler

The first season was alright with decent action and a flimsy plot, the only thing I remember about the second part of it was that it involved fairies.
I don't see why the show got so popular...

 

I liked it. I will admit I think the first "season" was better. But SAO had kissing in it and for whatever reason I enjoy seeing anime characters kiss each other.

Hope I didn't get too deep there​

 

Not gonna lie, the first time I heard people talking about it I thought it was some documentary streaming online about the history of Japanese swords .

 

This. As I gather more information about this series I draw closer to the conclusion that it is overhyped trash.

 

I don't think so low of it to say the series is trash, but it is definitely overrated. It's worth maybe a 6/10 for me.

 

I don't believe there will be any change in your opinion if you finish the series or not. I personally liked the ending. Then again, I liked the series.

If you don't like the show after twenty episodes then the series finale won't change your mind. You are one of the few people I've seen who doesn't like the show. Most are going on and on about SAO and how awesome it is. I liked the show, but seriously -_- it gets old. (Sorry Hector, Gabi, and Cat. You guys are cool ^^)

But yea. Good show if it's your kind of thing. If not, you move on into another series. Try accel world. It's similar to SAO in style of animation and I think it's got a decent appeal. The story plot is basically **** but overall I was glad I watched it.

 

I tried to sum up my opinions on SAO the other day but this is a 10x better explanation than mine lmao. Agreed completely.

I will say the last two episodes make the second arc more satisfying. It definitely doesn't redeem the plot going eh, but it was the best possible finish for that season imo.

 

I agree that it's very overrated and I really don't see why it got so popular. It's nothing special. I think the fact that they end up in te game and fall in love, then Kirito goes through whatever to be with Asuna again is what gets most people :/

I like the anime and all, but really, people need to stop preaching how amazing it is and how it's the best anime ever. It's not. It's good, but nothing horribly special.

 

This sums up a lot of my thoughts of the show. It's not terrible, but it really did drop the ball a lot. Even with that, I can see why it's popular.

And I actually liked Sugu for some reason. She was probably the most developed character in the show and it seemed her voice actress went in 110%.

And the 22nd episode, it made me laugh. It was stupid, ridiculous, and filled with gaping plot holes. In a sense, it went full ******. For some it worked, for me it didn't.

 

I reeeeally want to see what Cat has to say about this

 

It is written. It will be done.

But really, I haven't even finished SAO. I gave up two episodes into the "second season" and I felt like it lost its best plot points. The world of Sword Art Online is vast: as enchanting as it is deadly. That was something I adored about the first half (which also included the no magic thing; imo that was a great way to make things more "realistic" in a fantasy setting).

Spoiler

But then faries. They had to go and throw fairies into the mix. I mean, sure, I can understand that they'd want to leave a more serious VRMMORPG setting and give him a new place to explore, but Alfheim Online falls flat to me.
I felt like their romance was quite rushed, but it had its beautiful and touching moments (like when they're lying in the field and Kirito tells her about the weather setting before they fall asleep THAT WAS A GREAT MOMENT TO ME). Maybe if they hadn't rushed the whole "oh look here's a kid who's not really a kid but they want to get married irl and YOU WILL THINK IT'S ADORABLE" thing, it might've seemed more fleshed out, but the ending of Season One was spot on. Say what you will about filler, which you could really do with any anime, but that last episode where he fights the creator one on one touched me in all the right places. Forgetting the rushed romance for a moment, you can see that they really are crazy abut each other, and the harsh reality that they'd tried to forget about in the fantasy world hits them suddenly: they wouldn't get out. How could they? He just lost the person that mattered most to him. It gave his fight purpose, and it made the scene overlooking SAO's world all the more heart wrenching.

Say what you want about it, but I stand by this.
And the animation is just gorgeous. 11/10 animation>plot

 

Another point I want to bring up about the anime: the worlds. The first season's world feels...alright: it shows quite a few characters with their own goals and plots, even if most are just one-episode throwaways that don't seem to build up to anything that'll be carried on or show characters really developing. The second season's world, however, seems like it's populated by FIVE CHARACTERS: Kirito, Asuna, Sugu, green-hair dude, and the villain. WHAT IS WORLD BUILDING? By having so few characters acting out the plot, it feels like the world is tiny, and thus the events unfolding in the story lose a lot of weight.

And I've said the same to those who've argued to finish the series before I even give an opinion. It's as if they think my opinion is void just because I haven't seen every little part of it.

Read up here.

 

Well it is based on a light novel series, so taking into account that certain aspects of development are usually lost in translation between the media (unless you are a high school romcom light novel-based anime for whatever reason), and the fact that the pacing was apparently all over the place even from what the light novel fans have told me, you have that. The first chunk of the series was quite alright; nothing groundbreaking, but I found it entertaining and -- dare I say -- sweet at times, as well! And then the second chunk was what made me drift away. Though if you wish for a better taste I would recommend looking at the light novels for comparison (avoiding a certain special half pseudo-"chapter" of sorts, cough cough). It may give you a better framing of everything that happened, although the light novel media in itself is something you would need to get used to if your reading world is dominated by equal parts narration and text-heaviness.

 

I dunno, Baccano! and DRRR!! came from light novels and they turned out all right. And imagine what a train wreck they must have looked like on the cutting room floor, all those side plots and errant strands of exposition. I don't think that alone explains it. Unless the SAO light novels are also trash, which could be the case if it's the character development that's lacking.

Also I never got why they're called light novels are they for pansies who can't commit to reading a real book

 

Quit reading after the first 'hate' post made by a user named Anime_Troll. I don't like that site too much anyway. I only use it sometimes when I'm in a bad way for a new anime. Other than that I don't care for it. I'd prefer if opinions weren't posted on sites like that for a few reasons. One of those reasons is you can't tell who's just trolling or making a legitimate statement about their opinion of the show. Another reason is it's less of a debate and more of an 'I don't like this, therefore it's complete crap' kind of deal.

I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who honestly don't like the show. You're just one of the few I've had the pleasure of running into. Maybe it's just the 'hypers' are overshadowing them, or something.

 

SAO was interesting enough for me to watch. The fight scenes were great, the animation was lovely, and I was genuinely interested in what would happen at the end. The execution of it all was just ... bad, imo, and I disliked all of the characters aside from Lisbeth [ yes, even Asuna. I can not stand her. ] None of the romance really made any sense to me except for maybe the incest, but of course the incest was not 'real' incest, pff. ​

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It feels incomplete to me, and it is, so I don't know if there's more to come. I don't know how it got so blown up. It was nice to watch [ and I watched it with someone else which made it more interesting/fun ], but nothing extraordinary, as stated. ​

 

Welp, just finished the series.

Spoiler

The last two episodes were by far the best since the first season's end, and it actually had some genuine weight to it, with the whole pain sensors being turned off (doesn't match up to death though...) and Kirito being attacked by the..villain dude in real life (seriously can't remember his name.) Also nice to see Akihiko make a comeback and show a new dimension besides lunatic with a God-complex. Still, I felt that some of the intentionally dramatic scenes (like Asuna being mutilated) were handled poorly, with out-of-place music when silence could easily have made it even eerier. And when the two meet, it felt a little...empty, but not completely. Nice to see the side characters from SAO make a comeback, but I'd have preferred even new characters that brought something new to the story instead of what we did get: one decent character in Sugu, a bland psycho villain (though his last scenes were decent-ish,) and a throwaway sidekick of a green-haired dude.

Kirito still strikes me as a terribly bland character, and Asuna, as much as I liked her, came off as a generic good-girl without flaws. Sugu became my the heart of the series because she showed some actual depth, but it was thrown away in like 10 minutes (as I've said before)

It seriously felt like, until the last two episodes, Sword Art Online was two separate series: SAO, which was decent, and ALO, which was nearly unwatchable at times. In all, it was alright, but I still find it to be one of the most overrated anime...probably ever. The world is neat but practically unexplored, the characters are bland save for Sugu and the idol chick, the animation and fights were absolutely superb, the music was pretty good (though nothing memorable to me), the voice acting was good, the plot was a mess, and the romance was some of the worst I've seen in the anime I've watched (admittedly few compared to my friends, but still)

 

I want to know why we're using spoiler tags for stuff like "I thought it was decent"

It's not like you told me someone dies or anything... in fact, the first two didn't even have plot points in it.

Reviews aren't spoilers. Vote no on prop 492

 

The first spoiler I use talks about a big dramatic element that changed between the seasons, and the second one I use talks about a few specific events.