Plot Synopsis: In the near future virtual reality video games are a possibility. Our hero Kirito enters the new big hate VRMMORPG to battle his way through the games beautiful world. Soon after logging on players begin to realise that logging off is impossible. The games creator, Kayaba Akihiko, tells the players that death in the game results in death in reality. The only way out is to win the game.
Story: 6/10
Sword Art Online has a decent story. Nothing we haven't seen before but it's a fun premise. The first few episodes of SAO have a blistering pace. I loved the first three episodes. They me hungering for more. SAO settles after this however. Filler episodes combined with a forced romance damage the story. With the second arc the storyline is further damaged.
Characters: 5/10
Patchy. Whilst Kirito is actually fairly likeable, the shows insistence that he become male wish fulfilment is an irritant. Asuna starts off as a really interesting female secondary but the romantic subplot is really bad and it robs her of all that made her interesting to begin with. Laefa is annoying. The rest of the cast (minus the harem characters) seem mildly interesting but get very little screentime. The villains are very disappointing.
Art/animation: 9/10
The animation is very good. Really quite nice. The character designs are pleasant to look at and easy to tell apart. The battles are a feast for the eyes. If we had more battles this could have pushed for a 10.
Voice acting, music rating: 8/10
The soundtrack is really good. It takes awhile for you to start enjoying the tracks but soon you will find yourself absent mindedly humming the themes. The voice acting is solid.
Overall: 7/10
02-21-2013, 09:59 AM
Kāito
Re: [TV Series] Sword Art Online
Well i don't agree only about story rating of yours.The plot have many good points,comparing to other crappy anime i've seen recently it deserves more than 6/10 ... personally i would rate it like 8/10 .Wanted to give more but.... not now,my final rate will be when 3 arc will be released (hope so)
As for the characters i'd would give 7.5 (of course mostly for Kirito and Asuna),personally i don't find Laefa annoying... her appearance makes SAO more dramatic and gives more ways to develop the story.I agree about villains here` second season "boss" just pisses me off :/
Graphics: 10/10 Imo... even without more epic battles anime deserves exactly this rate as i wrote
Music/Voice acting: i can say nothing about voice acting (honnestly dunno what and how to rate it) but soundtracks just fine for me i'll give 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
02-26-2013, 12:41 PM
Rylingo
Re: [TV Series] Sword Art Online
Everyone is going to have different opinions on shows. On reddit I was criticised for not being harsh enough, would you believe. At the end of the day, my reviews are based off my subjective opinion. I do not pretend and will never pretend what I say is fact.
As long as you enjoyed the show, Kaito, that's what matters. You enjoyed it and you didn't feel like it wasted your time which is good.
03-07-2013, 07:10 PM
TheDeathGod
Re: [TV Series] Sword Art Online
SAO was a great show and Im sad that it stopped.
03-08-2013, 03:30 AM
Edo-Madara
Re: [TV Series] Sword Art Online
I liked it very much :D specially the fiht scenes and that he sacrificed himself with asuna to free everyone of the game :D
03-24-2013, 12:02 AM
fnaticnoob
Re: [TV Series] Sword Art Online
i think this is one of the better anime releases of last year.
i would give it at least a 8.5
:awe::awe::awe:
03-24-2013, 12:45 AM
TadashiED
Re: [TV Series] Sword Art Online
IMO, first arc was good, then the second arc shit the bed. I honestly believe it gets more praise than it deserves. There are even people dubbing this as "best anime in recent years" and such lol.
03-26-2013, 09:38 PM
KazuYuki
Re: [TV Series] Sword Art Online
lol loved the video review and you are absoutely right the second season killed it for me :/ wasn't epic like the first season. the part about it having a romance just as bad as twilight made me laugh xD i was never one of those Kirito x asuna fans at all i somehow didn't like her all that much.. :x
04-15-2013, 11:06 AM
zilverkakashi
Re: [TV Series] Sword Art Online
lemme try and watch this...
04-16-2013, 12:02 PM
duckz
Re: [TV Series] Sword Art Online
Sword art online is good until halfway of the series, its cool to imagine a mmorpg that can actually kill you in real life when you died, afterwards, plot weaken and imo just become another save the princess plot anime.