Sword Art Online provides a beautifully inspired science-fiction world where virtual reality gaming has truly taken off to become a full-body and mind experience where you can realise the JRPG hero you always wanted to be without real-world penalties. Seeing the swords swinging around, terrifying monster battles and insane landscapes and architecture is beyond astounding.

I've officially watched Sword Art Online twice, having very fond memories of this series from when I was about fifteen. With a whole set of other sequels around now, I believed this show deserved another go. In the end, the flaws are glaringly obvious, but it will always have my heart. As I will cover, the parts of this narrative the plot skips in favour of cooler scenes devoids this show of anything I can really attribute to the grander story, but I see now that I have always loved it for its characters, and they are the one thing I can commend this show for.

Kirito and Asuna, and all the characters in between, have the chemistry amongst one another I fondly remember. Kirito's perspective is a labour of love, developed throughout the entire first cour. We understand how he feels a lot of the time, but his power within the world is one left up to an awful lot of mystery that no amount of Kirito's raging face animated in beautiful high definition can really explain. Kirito also beautifully interacts with a neglectfully undiverse set of characters who all aim to teach him a lesson or two and push him along to beat the game. I feel Asuma got the shortest straw of all, for someone with so much character longevity, and one that promised great things. Don't get me wrong, Asuna and Kirito's romance makes me shed tears to this day. I'm a sucker for an established romance between two characters who blend well (throwing Yui in there for good measure), and the ending scene in Asuna's hospital room wrecked m after all the interactions with her new suitor in the second cour creating empathy for both of them for that scene to really punch you in the gut when the time came around. Yet, Asuna still feels like a far greater shell than any main character deserves. I understand now that she is the underlying catalyst to really identify Kirito's sense of belonging in the game (even if in an underhanded way), and more so for Kirito to understand his importance to the world around him (unfortunately later replaced by the MacGuffin that is Kayaba Akihiko), but I can't help but notice her relevance to that plot device is dwarfed immensely by Kirito's sister, Suguha. Suguha put into perspective the true effect of Kirito's emotional involvement in Sword Art Online and had some serious emotive character development herself in a far shorter time than Asuna's two cours, and that teaches a really important lesson as a short-lived character. Other than ASuna being a romantic interest Kirito is motivated to save at all costs - sometimes, I feel, more than the ten thousand trapped players -- she's left to go quite stale by the time of Elfheim.

This nicely leads into my only real criticism of this show, and not without understanding of the producer's financial, time, goal, or otherwise restrictions during production. The amount of glossing this show does is the elephant in the room - it is something you felt was missing while you enjoyed the incredible animation, incredible fight scenes and all the adventures Kirito experiences. Easily distracted by those factors, but not at all without a very real presence. There are so many important things this show fails to acknowledge - Asuna's involvement in SAO - Kirito and Asuna's initial attraction - the almost episodal switch between Kirito's depressive state and finding joy in the game - the world's reaction to the ten-thousand players not responding for two years - SAO's political state only briefly touched on during the Elfheim cour - and so many more. All these things work towards bringing the viewer's emotional attachment to this show in line with the characters own, and this is where I was still left a little disappointed no matter how much I adore or fondly remember this show. I felt like I was watching just that - a show - lacking real immersion and true empathy for this world of people who're experiencing a really traumatic event in their lives, in and out of the game.

Sword Art Online lives up to the nostalgia, but suffers from severe macguffin instead of actual narrative.