SAO started off with a selfish MC. He went through an entire anti-climatic journey, but did he change to be any less selfish? On the surface yes, but deep down no.
If that was what the show really tried to pull off, maybe it isn't all that bad since having an entirely hateful MC is refreshing once in a while. However, the show tried to make viewers like the MC in a pitiful way with so many poorly executed tropes they didn't work at all.
Why it didn't work was simple: a rotten selfish delusional MC + a decent capable female lead forced into damsel in distress + an OP but empty villain + boring support female cast always swooning over MC for no logical reason + a disgusting perverted villain = trash plot + characterization.
What's more? This isn't even the case when it's so bad it's good... Everything was half-baked and filled with poor, overly cliched tropes that it's just distasteful. The only thing that kept me watching it till the end is my curiosity of its popularity. It left me a horrible aftertaste so much that I still have to rant about it at every chance I get.
Art was ok, probably the reason why it still retained 10 points out of 100 from me. However, the plot, characters were disastrous. Animation was decent, but how could I enjoy meaningless fights when I didn't feel anything for those involved? All the supporting cast were glossed over. Only MC's potential waifus had a little more stories to them. Of course, stories were all centered around MC, so I had no idea why they were what they were.
Soundtracks were unimpressive and pretty common for the virtual game genre. Concepts and themes were not clear. At the end of the day, I still can't understand the anime's message. Was it superficially saying that virtual games are evil or would be used for evil goals? Or anyone and everyone in power would be corrupted or gullible? I just don't get what they tried to say since in real world, the greatest creators of virtual world so far have been inspirational leaders, They may not be all black and white good, but clearly they won't be as simple minded as those in this anime.
Finally, the worst thing was obviously the ending(s?).
How this anime was so popular remained a mystery to me until this day. My life was forever wasted on watching and investigating this.
50.5 out of 71 users liked this review
