-This review will contain spoilers.
-My experience with MMORPGS is none, besides one I stumbled upon years ago, where I was a big tit anime girl, beating the living crap out of other big tit anime girls so there is that, I guess.

For years and years, no matter where on the internet, I've heard about how Sword Art Online is one of the worst, if not THE worst anime of all time. It wasn't just one person, thousands of people online constantly talked about how it was an abomination, the end of good anime, a disgrace, and because of all that discourse, I spent years avoiding the show like the plague. I am all for not letting other fans or people ruin your experience with an anime, but I was younger and dumber as fuck back then. About a month or so ago, I was bored and decided to finally watch it in order to hopefully remove it from my plan to watch list. As soon as I was about to begin episode one, I shit you not, my computer began lagging so damn bad that I had to restart it. I thought, "well shit, I sure hope that isn't a bad omen." After installing the seventh windows update that did jackshit, I watched the episode and well, even now after finishing the whole anime I don't understand at all why this is supposedly the worst thing of all time. No, I am not surprised people hate this, because everyone has different likes and dislikes, but with the amount of hatred and videos this series got, I expected something way worse, but it never really happened.

Sword Art Online can get pretty boring sometimes because the characters just fucking love to sit and chat, but it really is not that bad. There are also a ton of things that make no damn sense but it never managed to downright offend me unlike a different show I recently watched . SAO has plenty of strengths to it, and while it does have a lot of things I personally hated, I would be lying if I said it was horrible. There are plenty of good and even downright amazing animation cuts here and there, particularly in the second half, the soundtrack is fantastic ( the tracks in episode 9-10, 12-13, 22-23 were nothing but gorgeous), and all the girls are pretty cute, which is unexpected since everyone has pretty much the same fucking face. Probably one of the worst things about SAO, for me, is the pacing. The whole first arc felt like it was speeding to get somewhere and had a bunch of stories that would eventually lead to the group of friends Kirito makes by the end of the show's run. The problem is that everything went by too fast, and this made me just not connect with the characters or care about them as much as I could have (The one exception to this would be Lis. She was introduced and then said goodbye to in a single episode, yet I was able to care about her because I think the execution of her story and then her rejection after having fallen in love were done pretty well.) Because the show goes thru these short arcs fast, there is never enough time to care about a character before he or she gets killed off. Episode 2 introduced a man named Diabel, only to then kill him off in the end, and for it to get seen as a sacrifice he made. This felt very weird and I still don't know why his death was even necessary. Kirito formed a party in episode 3 with other players, yet in that same episode they all died in a dungeon, and then the leader of the group committed suicide right before Kirito's eyes. While these deaths clearly have an impact on Kirito's state of mind, it is very hard for me, the spectator, to care since I only knew any of the deceased for 15 minutes or so. This happens again later in episode 12 when Yui "dies" and we had met her for barely an episode, so it all felt very hollow (even her reunion with him in Alfheim made me feel nothing. Yui and Kirito reuniting with Asuna in the final stages of the Alfheim arc was done very nicely though).

The characters of SAO are a mixed bag for me because I don't hate them, but I don't love them either. Their tropes are clear to see and they work for the story they are in if anything. The character designs are simple, and the color combinations are easy on the eyes. None of these characters have many layers to their personalities, and this is mostly because the show doesn't really go all the way in things it could expand on, such as Kirito's PTSD, his initial antisocial tendencies, and Kayaba's backstory to mention a few. Overpowered characters, gary stus, whatever you want to call them, aren't my most hated trope. Kirito is every single trait that I would think a self-insert MC has, but I don't really hate him. He is a teenager that suddenly got stuck in a virtual world where if you die, your life in the real world is gone too, that had a shit ton of people die before his eyes, and who had pretty much nobody but himself, since he was a loner. Most of the time, the way he acted made sense, and he wasn't really annoying, even if I did want to fucking slap him every time a girl flirted with him and he didn't tell them he already had Asuna. Most of my issues with Kirito as a character, and with the whole show actually, is that some of the actions he takes or interactions he has are just dumb as hell. In episode 3, he went through hell and back to gain an item that apparently revived players. Then after he read the rules of said item, and realized there was a time limit, he got depressed and decided to give it to Klein, since it was useless to him now. Sachi passed away in June, and Kirito tried to revive her in December. Did he not think her body would decompose in that time? shit, what do I know? That last scenario repeats again in episode 7 when Kirito is shocked after Asuna tells him there is a time limit to them being in SAO. Did Kirito never take Biology in school? it is almost like bodies won't hold up as well if they are living on gastric tubes. Besides taking a few "wtf" decisions, Kirito is pretty much just okay but there are some bits where I am left thinking, "Why did they think this was a good idea?". I get that Kirito is an overpowered badass, but how the hell am I supposed to believe that he can hold his own in a kendo match against Suguha when most of his "experience" comes from having played SAO? not an MMORPG, but none of the GTA games ever fucking taught me how to drive. Moving on to Asuna, she is ok. She was a "no BS taken" woman at the start, then softened like any other tsundere, and became a bit of a damsel in distress, but overall I didn't hate her, I just was confused about who she was supposed to be until I decided to stop caring. I still think she should have been the one to kill that Dragneel dude and not Kirito since he had offended HER first. As for the other characters, they aren't really impressive but let's talk about Suguha since she was Kirito's companion for the second arc. I like her character design in Alfheim online, and I do find her real self cute as well, however even when ignoring the incest subplot, I cannot forgive her for giving me intense second-hand embarrassment when she confessed to Kirito. He looked uncomfortable and rightfully so. She was probably the first female character in the series to not ask for Kirito's help, but rather assist him, so she is not completely terrible, but if you changed her incest plot to maybe growing closer to her brother or cousin in order to help him heal from his trauma, it could have made a better subplot.

The villains in this show are average and while they do serve their purpose, which is to antagonize the main character, that's about it. Kayaba's reason for wanting to do this mass killing wasn't explained cuz he himself didn't remember, and the show never really said why he was so obsessed with the castle or at least show us what his life was like. Sugou was even worse, and I'm not just talking about him being a potential rapist but he was even more lackluster than Kayaba. I did laugh when his admin power was removed and Kirito beat the shit out of him. Way deserved in more ways than one, although I wish Asuna had been able to at least punch him once.

Many things in SAO make no sense, such as kids being in the game (did the game have a rating for all audiences? wtf?), Asuna waking up from her comatose state looking healthy as fuck even though Kirito woke up looking emaciated, Yui being able to be transferred to every game, no staff in sight at the hospital when Kirito and Asuna woke up from their coma or when Kirito got ambushed at the parking lot, you name it. All of this and more, yet the only thing I am still dumbfounded by is the fact that I don't remember there being an item drop in episode 12. Yui saved Kirito and Asuna from a boss, yet no item appeared and I don't know if it is because Yui was an immortal object, but then if she was, and was in possession of Kirito and Asuna at that time, wouldn't it be like they casted a spell or used her? wouldn't they get an item then? thinking too hard about the game mechanics just gives one a headache and it is best to try to avoid doing so.

TLDR; Sword Art Online is not the worst anime I've ever watched, but it definitely had the potential to be better. The show looks decent and the art style is simple but cute, and it has some nice backgrounds. Most of the issues for me were the terrible pacing for the first arc and the fact that the characters sit down and talk in almost every episode. If they talked outside and took advantage of all the other locations in-game, maybe it wouldn't have been dreadful to get thru most of the exposition scenes. Not the worst thing ever in my book and overall an average anime.