What do you think of Sword Art Online??

[Winter night]

awesome<3 I love its plot<3 and characters^^

[XXXO]

I've actually just started last night and I'm only on episode 8. It's pretty good, IMO.. but not ALL that. It's lacking a bit of.. thrill for me, and that's something I look forward to in EVERYTHING.. i.e., Anime, Movies, Books, and stuff.

[Forbichi]

I've actually just started last night and I'm only on episode 8. It's pretty good, IMO.. but not ALL that. It's lacking a bit of.. thrill for me, and that's something I look forward to in EVERYTHING.. i.e., Anime, Movies, Books, and stuff.

Its probably the most overhyped anime of the season.
Since everyone had such high expectations it can dissapoint a little.

But i'd still have to say its one of my favorites... though im not quite sure why.
Probably because it tries to be everything haha, an action anime, a romance anime, an adventure anime. Etc etc.
... The action probably, i really like the action haha.

[Forgotten Show]

SWEET JESUS THIS SHOW IS GOOD.




(Been over a year since I've logged in, and I did so to say how much I love this damn show. 1 week to Ep 24, 2 weeks to 25.)


Edit: Not sure I'd classify it as a romance, though - certainly could be tagged such, but that's not its primary genre.

[Forgotten Show]

Ep 24 was excellent. Those writers need a damned Grammy for knowing how/when to end an episode. Other animes should take notes.

[Forbichi]

Not sure I'd classify it as a romance, though - certainly could be tagged such, but that's not its primary genre.

Its based of a light novel and even though thats primarily directed at a younger audience (teens) I do think it should be qualified as a romance.

Also as an action anime... and adventure anime... and slice of life anime.... It basically tries to be a lot xD IMO.

[Forgotten Show]

I suppose your right. In my mind, I see a genre as a predominate feature; while love is certainly a predominate theme, I'm not sure it's technical importance is greater than its action/adventure aspects. Personal bias talking.

I just found the light novels, which I'll be reading shortly. I've only found two mangas (one the first arc, the other an outstanding parody). Supposedly there is some awesome full-color work being done (seen only one teaser pic), but I have no earthly idea where to look for it; I'm not typically a manga reader and largely prefer anime to manga. There are a couple scenes in the SAO anime, though, that make me suspect the manga (or light novels) will provide detail that wasn't in the show.

[Forbichi]

Well im not sure about the manga, but it seems that the light novel has way more detail than the actual anime. Some parts from the light novel are excluded in the anime.
So if you want to know a bit more i'd suggest you read it.

As for the full colored pics... i have no idea either haha.

[cherrichuu]

I've never seen it before but I do love Asuna's character. Youtube has bad quality videos of this anime but I did see a funny incident between Kirito and Asuna. :3

[Forgotten Show]

Why use YouTube? Plenty of decent streams out there.

Last episode of the season tomorrow. I'm not sure I've been excited enough to stay on a show like this before. Weirding myself out.

[cherrichuu]

Why use YouTube? Plenty of decent streams out there.

I use Youtube because I don't know any decent streams out there. Youtube is pretty decent itself with many anime companies on there such as Funimation. I haven't seen Sword Art Online yet but that's because I haven't been looking for it.

[Forbichi]

So guys, by now probably quite af few people here have already watched the last episode of this season right?

I thought the ending was predictable... but that doesn't matter at all actually.
In the end i liked the first 13 episodes alot. Which took place in Aincrad, but after they moved to Alfheim ... it lost its spark to me.

I do hope that in Gun Gale Online (The place where the next adventures will take place(Or atleast, in the light novel that is, or is it already sure there will be a 2nd season?) will be more like the first 13 Eps.

What are the thoughts of the rest of you all?

[Rainbow Crash]

It was alright. I also agree that the first half was more interesting than the second half. The first half was filled with hope, love, strength, and you could see his accomplishments and struggles. The second half was just his whiny butt trying to get to Asuna and then the brotherXsister complex which was annoying. I thought the ending was boring and lacking. Though I did like the meeting at the end

[Forbichi]

I couldn't agree more, when i watched the first 10 eps i was like "If they can maintain this throughout the entire series, then it'll be so good, soo good!"
But when i found out they didn't. I got quite sad.

 

After defeating the guild leader already on the 74th floor or so!?

Something that also annoyed me a bit .. Kayaba Akihiko... he was the main villain in the first part. But in the end... he was showed as some sort of hero right?
That bugged me a bit, since he killed hundreds, if not thousands of people.


Talking about something bugging me, that Sugou guy bugged me. A lot.

[Forgotten Show]

I loved the SAO arc. I liked the Alfheim arc. It was too rushed in my opinion, but in standard anime scheduling they had less than half a season to transition into a new world and plot, then conclude it tactfully. I'm not rightly sure they should have saved Alfheim for season 2, only because I really don't know how much longer you could reasonably extend the SAO arc without it feeling drawn out or overplayed; it built a lot of momentum that would have been really hard to maintain down the stretch of another 10 episodes. In fact, they probably would've needed to let the momentum die down a bit to bring it back up for an SAO-arc finale, which would then have felt a lot like High School of the Dead where you know there's a continued story, but have to wait for the next season to be made and hope it's kept the same writers, artists, animation quality, and scheduling. I think they made the best compromise that could've been made, really.

The finale was actually pretty darned good, and though predictable it was completely appropriate for the story being told. Happy endings are starting to become rare in popular media and this is a good story for one.

The show could've done without the sibling complex, certainly. It added nothing to the show where depth is concerned. But I have to admit, they approached it more tactfully than I've ever seen it done in anime before, and even address it in the story itself (a shocking rarity). I really would've liked them to conclude it with the sister getting over and moving on, but hey, error carried forward; they managed it pretty for having introduced it in the first place. I'll never understand the Japanese obsession with the brother-sister complex.

As far as Kayaba Akihiko goes, yeah, I'm surprised to see him being vaunted as almost a good guy. While he didn't directly kill anyone (that we know of), he directly contributed to the deaths of some 4,000 people. He should have been demonized and 'cast down' in the eyes of viewers; Yui could have been easily used as the vehicle to deliver the World Seed. Or, at the very least, the 'copy' of Kayaba could have made a conscious effort to demonstrate that it was just a program running in the world architecture, not the real deal. Sugou was properly portrayed as a despicable person, but again the Japanese fixation on bad guys needing psychopathic God-complexes to be bad guys detracts from what could've been: a friggin' creepy and heartless bastard who you could hate completely since there's no 'crazy' to blame his actions on.


All told, great show for me. Scores high marks and only has two real negatives.

[Femme Fatale]

I disliked the second game and agree completely with BA on this one I also disliked his sister alot. Well I kinda just disliked the whole alfhem arc. The only thing I didn't think about happening is making the old gamemaster into a hero.

[The American Kayaba]

I loved it but they say there will be 3 seasons so far. I don't understand how it could be dragged out that long. But season 1 was fantastic. I think it's probably the best thing I've seen since future diary. And that was my number 1. Was being thanks to SAO.



By the way those of you who are wondering where to watch animes, use Hulu, or www.animeonhand.com, or www.animefreak.tv.
Also the apps crunchyroll (iphone and android), and animeFTW (android only). However Hulu and crunchyroll both require payment (crunchyroll offering like the first 4 episodes of every anime free). I hope this will help everyone in their anime watching experiences.



I did forget to mention that the Alfheim part was not nearly as good as the Sao part. also as this has been said so many times, this is really a moot point. However I felt like stating my opinion on this.

[Razermane]

I love it! I heard the second season is supposed to be coming back in in February or March!

[ladymulti]

I liked the show over-all. I loved the 1st story arc; the 2nd (the fairy one) was not as interesting. Still, though, I liked the show.

[DenjaX]

It was actually a good anime if I put aside my critique side and enjoy the show. xDD

Too many flaws, plot holes and dues ex machina moments but it is still enjoyable. xDD

[Gyzra]

I loved SAO. It was a bit too fast for my liking though, we didn't spend much time getting to know the towns etc but I've always been a massive Dot.Hack// fan so I couldn't resist loving this series. It was interesting to see the same kind of plot told in a completely different way, however there were a lot of interesting similarities (character designs, character names, town designs etc) which annoyed a lot of .Hack fans. Personally, I was just happy to see another MMO inspired piece that was animated and written so well. =]

[DarkMoonPrince]

I thought the show was quite interesting to some extent. although there were some parts that i didn't understand.

[LOR Online]

The show was enjoyable to watch and the first arc was fairly good.. but throw in plotholes, deus ex machina, flaws in adaption and my biggest gripe the over powered and over hype main guy... it doesn't live up to ALL the praise it's been given.

[Laursuka]

One of the best anime I have seen ^_^

[Syndicate]

Beginning was okay, thought it was dumb how they re-entered into another game. overall 7.5/10