Series Name: Sword Art Online
Year of Serialization: Jul 8, 2012 to Dec 23, 2012
Author(s): Tomohiko Ito
Artist(s): Shingo Adachi
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Game, Romance
Current Status: Completed
Moment of Reviewing: episode 25 (Completed)
Other Formats: A light Novel series written by Reki Kawahara
Series Summary:
This anime is about a virtual MMO-RPG that is called Sword art online in the year 2022, with a helmet called nerve gear that stimulate the users senses by using there brain. One can literally feel,see,hear,touch,and taste everything through this world. When the game is first released it gets famous and backed with many players, but after all this when the players enter the game they soon find out they are unable to log out. The creator of the game informs everyone that the only way to log out is to finish the game and defeat each boss in every floor, which is a total of 100 floors. The catch is if you die in the game, you die in real life as well. Our main character Kirito who was actually a beta tester of the game is a very skilled player and is determined to beat the game and return to the real world.Critical Review:
Now like I explained in the summary this anime is about a virtual MMO-RPG where people can literally interact with one another via brain. Now I'm sure I'm not the only one who has thought of something so cool like this, actually play through a game with my five senses and actually be in the game. Its awesome but I never really thought that someone would actually make a anime out of this topic. SAO tackles one of the most famous subjects in gaming which is virtual world gaming. So I was curious to see how they would make this anime and I had high hopes that it would be a very nice anime.Well to start of this review I want to introduce our two main characters first because this anime revolves around them the most.
Kirito: The main protagonist, in real life he is a super hacker and absolutely loves MMO-RPG, he is very familiar with a computer and knows his way around it, when he was first introduced to the game he was a beta tester basically his job was to see how this game is and if it works properly. Though he also ends up getting stuck in the game he is a very skilled player and when he was a beta tester he went the farthest in the floors. He ends up becoming a solo-player meaning he doesn't stick with a group and he works pretty much alone.
Asuna: She is also a main character and the main heroin of the series, another very skilled player her nickname is "Asune the flash" . She turns out to become a vice-commander for the strongest guild or group. In the begging of the anime her real life story is hidden all the way near the middle, so I won't spoil everything like that for you guys.
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Now where do I begin, to start off this anime has one of the best action scenes I have ever seen. Really its amazing how great the fights are portrayed in the anime. Amazing sword fights and extremely fast pace fighting. The best fights are always the boss fights which always seem to be where everything is at its best. But its not just how the fighting is but more how the anime portrayed it. Basically the animation quality is spot on, Its clean and has amazing looks to it, and whenever the fighting is shown the animation just seems to go hand in hand with it and makes it look like I'm watching movie quality anime and now just regular showing. Lastly the soundtrack, I'm not one to really care about how the anime sounds but it does help the feel to this anime, but to say in short again just like the anime, the soundtrack seems to go perfect with the fighting and has an amazing feel to it, It uses a chorus during the fights which seems to be the best choice of action anime when playing the theme.
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The plot after the 5th episode is just ruined. The writers raises our hopes and just shoots it back down to the ground. Like I said after it hits the 5th episode the anime just goes down. I will try to explain everything as good as I can.
The character developments are bad, especially with Asuna and every other female in this anime. Let me get to Asune first, In the begging looks as if she will be an epic bad ass character and no one will stop her but after her a Kirito get together she ends up becoming weak and seeming unable to do anything serious with out Kirito around. That goes with every female, Its like the anime shows that no girl can move on without Kirito some how saving them.
Now to go about with Kirito despite him being a skilled player and the anime have awesome action it never tells us how Kirito obtains his power and its almost as if the plot just gives him the powers with out explain how and why. Which leaves you thinking to much while watching this anime.
In short Kirito never loses he always seems to find a way to win which just doesn't make sense and leaves the fighting to seem so predicable its not even funny anymore.
Another problem is what this anime tries to become. When I was watching this anime I loved the action and how they made it but after Kirito and Asuna hook up they completely forget that they are stuck in a death game and need to get out. Instead this anime shifts from a awesome action to a terrible romance anime which is something you just can't do, you can't change the plot and forget about everything else what is going on. I don't want to get in detail to this anime but its just how it is.
The last thing I will mention for what is bad about this anime is simply the pace of the anime after the 4th episode. It slows down to much and some episodes you realize that they are completely useless to the plot. And when we get to the second part of this anime, everything is just...I'll let you guys figure it out.
Now yes I have criticized this anime but that's my job, but I still think you should go watch it. Why? because it is a fun watch and great to pass the time, it has some humor in it and lets not forget the action sequences are just awesome, so give it a go and enjoy, don't think to much while watching it though, Just enjoy the anime for the fun of it.
6/10 Rating
[video=youtube;szoyfP_Wfx8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szoyfP_Wfx8[/video]
I don't like the PART 2!!
