Ok so, that was an anime. Was it good? Yeah. Was it GREAT? Haha, no. It’s SAO, what do you expect? I’m onna break this down a bit to make it simple and not spoil much. That being said, there may still be some, so proceed with caution.
Characters: (I’m not gonna do all of these, else this would be a hella long section) Let’s start off with the protaganist (Karen), because y'know…obviously. She was awesome and had just enough quirks to be really enjoyable. One of which, I find incredibly tasteful, and that’s her height. It doesn’t tie into the story too much, but I think it’s great they represented tall girls in anime/cartoons for once, because lets face it…tall girls have it REALLY tough in social circles for sure. She’s generally really shy and distances herself from others because of this trait, but as time goes on she really develops well and gorws a strong bond with certain smaller characters.
Next up we have ’M’. Yknow…I really liked this guy at first. Now obviously because of spoilers, I’m not gonna talk about alot of stuff here, but I will just say he was awesome and level-headed in game, but was a total psycho/creeper/weirdo outside of it, so he loses alot of points for that shit. And by alot, I mean he only gets a 2/10 now. And of course…Pitohui, ohh boy I have some choice words for this girl. Most of which are something along the lines of “F%^& you, you’re a lunatic and don’t deserve to walk among society” I know I didn’t wanna spoil much, so if you’re here and haven’t seen GGO:A, skip ahead. Spoilers HERE -> Pitohui is a sadist, and not you’re average ‘I kinda like making someone have a bad guy’ kind of sadist, we’re talking like, completely and utterly mentally ill. This made her easy to hate, which in turn makes her a very good villian. Her personality can easily be described as mentally unhinged, manipulative and creepy. If I ran a guild in a game, she’d get kicked out of my guild day 1. Spoilers END
Plot As with every iteration of SAO, it was pretty predictable and full of plot holes, but at the same time it laid it’s foundation and had lots of foreshadowing early on, which I really appreciate in any show. They introduced the characters well, and paced the beginning in a strange but very lovable way. The only thing that always REALLY bothers me with SAO though is how a total noob player in each game can always manage to spend a week with the game and beat the living $#%$ out of every Professional player in the whole game so effortlessly. More or less, you can chalk it up to what I like to call ‘Magic Anime Bullshit’, but I personally just hate that. The themes of the plot are pretty common across the rest of the series, namely betrayal, chaos and character building. However, the way these themes are implented is really unique in the SAO series and that’s a nice breath of fresh air. The resolution of everything was a bit disappointing, but again, this is SAO we’re talking about.
Art style and Tropes I feel like I don’t really need to talk about this, but it ties in alot with some of the stuff I wanna say at the end. Lolis. Why? Just…why? This is something I ask with almost every bullshit ‘randomly selected avatar’ in the series, as that system makes zero sense, but at this point, I feel like its just the writer forcing tropes into the anime through this apparent game mechanic in the story. Also, if that avatar type is so rare, how the hell did Miyu just HAPPEN to also get an avatar like this? It’s highly unlikely and the effect of the general style of the animation is not enough to compensate for this plot hole. General art and animation quality: Pretty good, not great by any means, but its not bad. I really like how characters looked in this one and M’s avatar was 100% badass, there’s not much else to say though, as most of it is just SAO with new characters.
Final Thoughts and Final Rating Now, I really like SAO but holy hell does it get really out of hand each time, there’s some stuff that’s just not ok, and alot of has to do with the Loli avatars that the MC’s had. Specifically, one part where a character described wanting to grope one of the MC’s avatars after said MC was defeated, which would leave the avatar in a compromised position. That s%#^ was not cool given the loli thing I mentioned previously, and then there was also a part shorlty after where a minor character basically traded ammo for a kiss from this loli avatar, that was whack and 100% uneccesary. I’m calling the cops on whoever writes the series. Also is it just me or are like…75% of the characters in SAO actually just psycho in some minor and major way? Like, we’ve had Laughing Coffin and all its members, Elizabeth, Kayaba, Kirito (somewhat), Creepy ALO Guy (forget his name, probably for the better) Sinon, Deathgun (player as well as Shinkawa), and now M and Pito. Alright this is getting too long now. SO lets get to the final verdict. Art and Animation: 7/10 Plot: 5/10 Characters: 8/10 Humor: 2/10 Suspense and Tension: 8/10 Special additions or deductions: Tall girl Rep (+2) References to SAO2 (+3) Awesome insane bad guy (+1) Universe Expansion (+3) Creepy Messed Up Stuff (-6) Polot holes (-2) Total Points: 31/50 Rank: B TLDR; It’s aight. You should watch it I guess. It wasn’t that good, but it wasn’t bad either. I am probably going to get shit for this.
I’ve never actually seen someone complain about Alternative before.
As with every iteration of SAO, it was pretty predictable and full of plot holes
Sword art online doesn’t have many plot holes. And most people that say it does have just missed something, something wasn’t fully explained in the anime etc. I never know, because absolutely no one that says SAO has plot holes ever mentions any.
The only thing that always REALLY bothers me with SAO though is how a total noob player in each game can always manage to spend a week with the game and beat the living $#%$ out of every Professional player in the whole game so effortlessly.
This has never happened in Sword Art Online. Certainly not in Alternative where the only person that’s even fought a professional player is Pitohui and she was eliminated from the BoB without even seeing her attacker. One of the top teams in Squad Jam is a middle school gymnastics team after all.
LLENN starts playing GGO in August and the squad jam is at the end of January.
The soldiers in episode one were only fighting at baseline human ability instead of using the game to it’s fullest so they don’t count either.
The resolution of everything was a bit disappointing, but again, this is SAO we’re talking about.
Why?
I ask with almost every bullshit 'randomly selected avatar’ in the series, as that system makes zero sense, but at this point, I feel like its just the writer forcing tropes into the anime through this apparent game mechanic in the story.
You can customize your characters for money. A system which requires micro transactions to give you anything other than a random character should make sense in 2019.
Also, if that avatar type is so rare, how the hell did Miyu just HAPPEN to also get an avatar like this?
While you’re obviously right the writer just wanted another loli type character Miyu has a lot of dive time which gives you a much higher chance to get a rare avatar type (see Kirito in GGO). Karen had to re-roll over and over and over.
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