There are many people I've met, you who read the review are probably not one of them because you came here out of curiosity or to seek my opinion or to seek knowledge, but many people say "Sword Art Online should have focused on Aincrad only", "Kirito is a poorly made character", "SAO has bad characters, story without direction, got lost after Aincrad" or the ones who just didn't like it from the beginning.
And literally all these people I questioned, literally, they all only watched the anime. They didn't read the LN.
If you're one of those people, you've full morals to criticize the anime, I criticize it as well, it's a terrible adaptation, really really bad, one of the worst I've ever seen; but you have NO MORALS to criticize SWORD ART ONLINE WORK, SWORD ART ONLINE SERIES. You should only criticize the anime, in my point of view.
However, in the end I don't blame you too much, unless you're arrogant. I blame the director, I blame the anime staff who didn't present Light Novel SAO in the right way, didn't deliver what the source material actually has to offer and how it's a fantastic story that presents messages of freedom, overcoming and who you are.
If you've read the LN and still disagree with me, if you've read it and still think SAO is genuinely bad, then yes I completely respect you.
I say that because the anime has many flaws when adapting the original, and Sword Art Online is a very popular work worldwide, so there is a great mass in the west (precisely because the west doesn't consume Light Novel like the east and Japan) that criticize the series as a whole, but out of ignorance they don't know and often all their arguments are actually refuted by the Light Novel itself, but that due to incapacity or bad adaptation, the anime wasn't able to do well the development of the world and characters. So it's completely justifiable that you don't like the anime, because I don't either. But if you haven't read it and don't like it, you shouldn't exactly judge those who like Light Novel Sword Art Online.
And just answering, no, SAO is not exactly a harem. People that think SAO is a harem need to watch actual harem shows.
Not only is there a canon relationship, the other girls acknowledge and accept this. They are seldom all together with Kirito. Nor does the plot ever focus on it unless it's for comedy.
Alright, it was an outburst, now I would like to talk more about the Light Novel itself.
This review contains MINOR spoilers like characters background
Honestly, SAO is an inconsistent story. It starts with potential, but it's not amazing, it just starts at the good level. And then it becomes reasonable. Aincrad I consider it good, Fairy Dance too, in short, I consider all arcs at a good level. What makes the difference then? Alicization. This is where Sword Art Online totally changes levels, and I like to say that everything in Sword Art Online before Alicization is built up for Alicization. It's easily one of the best arcs I've ever consumed, if not the best.
But before we talk about the great climax of SAO, I wanna talk about pre-Alicization strengths.
1.
Kayaba Akihiko, the man who wanted to play God.
Kayaba is one of the best villains I've ever seen, and the best antagonist in the series. Kayaba wanted to play God. He had something like a God complex, or delusions of grandeur, if I may say so.
Kirito is very similar to Kayaba Akihiko, who had no ability to connect with people and ended up looking for another world, creating another universe to seek out those connections. Perhaps this is the real reason why Kirito was chosen by fate, to be the one who would seek the answers that the scientist himself could not. There was a metaphor of the floating castle about Kayaba, that he went every day and after a while he couldn't get close anymore. Swap the castle for the connections between the people he had before he left home and started studying and excelling everyone else for being a brilliant scientist and ending up not getting real human contact anymore.
And that's exactly what Kirito goes through for the vast majority of the series.
2 .
Kirito's development.
One of the best character developments I've ever seen. Sword Art Online is an extremely complex story (neither merit nor unmerit), so the development of this character is very in-depth.
In the beginning, Kirito was just like Kayaba. Someone using the virtual world to escape/ignore reality. But in the end he becomes something better. Kayaba abandon the real world for the virtual world, while Kirito embraces both worlds as a part of his life.
Not only this is a part of his development, but also the fact that we can divide the character into two phases. He is different BEFORE Aincrad and AFTER Aincrad. He manages to evolve as a character before we reach the climax of the series, which is Alicization. But he still had a long way to go. Before and during Aincrad, we'll encounter a closed off, antisocial, solo player Kirito. After Aincrad, we will meet the sociable and cheerful Kirito.
I didn't even touch on the issue of the title "black swordsman", I see several people misinterpreting it, acting as if Kirito actually used that title, when in fact he never even liked to hear someone saying it.
If you watched S1 or already finished Aincrad, you'll remember the context of this image. This is one of the pillars of Kirito's development - for the rest of the Novel, fundamental in Alicization.
If you've read this far, you understand a little that it's a very well-crafted story, but that it leaves a lot in the wild. This causes a bit of inconsistency as well. A lot of things author Reki Kawahara wants you to think about, he doesn't leave concrete. I like more concrete series, so I consider the story inconsistent but that's ONE OF THE REASONS, and it's my personal opinion. It's a little dangerous to leave a lot implicit because it can exactly cause what happened, of many saying that certain characters in SAO are poorly worked, but it was because they didn't realize that the answers were there all the time, but no one ever saw them, because they were implicit.
3 .
Fairy Dance.
Personal opinion. Fairy Dance has a great character development for Suguha. I pretty like the adventure too, she was a deuteragonist, and deuteragonist is a thing I like a lot (Eugeo too).
And thus, what made SAO a masterpiece.
Kirito's entire development will reach its peak through an adventure with the best character in the entire story of this Novel and one of the best characters ever: simply Eugeo.
Kirito's best friend, and something Kirito always wished he had. Someone his age, who could have a great level of intimacy to expose his weaknesses. Neither Klein nor Agil, only Eugeo could be so close to Kirito.
Kirito didn't exactly consider anyone a close friend other than Eugeo himself. You might be disappointed at first because Kirito's way of treating his friends Klein, Agil, etc.
But then I realized something, Kirito is a guy with several problems inherent to a good part of the Japanese population, which is introversion and social inability to relate to people. Now think about this, if you're a closed person, it doesn't mean that you hate others, but that you simply can't break through the barriers of your inhibition and be able to really be you for others. Not being able to create true bonds. When he started playing in virtual world, he couldn't even sympathize with anyone, as he'd never done so before, in a bizarre way, he was a complete noob when it came to friendship. Then, when he ended up in relation with others, it was basically because of his monstrous skill within the games. Everyone who gathered around him ended up 'labeling' him, assuming he was 'the guy', always expecting great things for him, but nobody never assumed he could be a kid with problems, and it wasn't their fault after all, that was the image that Kirito passed.
And since he's never been in a situation like that, he hasn't really been able to open up to them for fear of losing them, you know? It doesn't mean that he considers them pseudo friends, on the contrary, he just acted that way, hiding his feelings, because he didn't wanna walk away and didn't know how to deal with it (Asuna is a totally different case, because she and Yui are the pillars of support of his life).
All Kirito was looking for was a connecting link that would help with this issue, and Eugeo is that link. Seeing him as he really is, without assumptions or labels, teaching in a way, what a friendship relationship is like, pure and simple. A friend of your age and of the same gender, a confidant. All of his other friends have always been girls of varying ages or adults.
Tell me now, you can relate better to someone your age and gender than you can to people who aren't, can't you? I'm almost sure it is.
Well then, Kirito needed a 'parameter' like this, to be able to open up with the others in his circle of friends. So, in fact, he needs a best friend like Eugeo, to be able to be really real with his other friends, or dear people, as he himself defined them.
And that's why Kirito is very similar to Kayaba Akihiko. But our black swordsman ended up preferring to unite everyone, saving them, than discarding them as Kayaba did, seeking to create a whole new world. This was a reflection and to show that Kirito cares a lot about people, he just can't be strong enough to open up. And if not, why did he almost collapse when he learned that he was being 'judged' by the self-styled Death Guns? He felt completely responsible for everyone. Everything about him is very poser, except the strong feeling of having everyone as friends.
It's a great metaphor of Japanese life.
That's one of the things that is explored exactly in Alicization, all of that is in Alicization. This whole relationship with his true friend Eugeo, their adventure together. In the anime Eugeo seemed just another character to me, but in the Light Novel it's something so natural, it gave me pleasure and satisfaction to see them together, Eugeo is amazing. What a bromance.
Speaking of worldbuilding, Alicization is flawless. It is indeed the peak of SAO in any respect. The world is extremely detailed and well done.
There are two phases in Alicization, from volume 9 to volume 14, and then from 15 to 18. This first phase is the first part of Alicization, and the other one is the second part. Alicization is split between these two phases, but explaining it in more detail is a major spoiler, so I won't do it. I particularly like the first part better, especially Vol 14, which is my favorite Volume of the entire series, the climax of Alicization. The climax of one of the best arcs I've ever read. I like this first part better 'cause it was a great journey, I particularly like journeys a lot. You'll slowly get to know the entire Underworld system, how that world works, who those characters are, what they do, what characterizes them and what objective Kirito will have with Eugeo. In the second half it's more shounen, action, but I prefer adventure.
I said that SAO is a complex story, and yes, even in that its peak is Alicization. Its greatest complexity lies in Alicization. Whether in the origin of A.L.I.C.E, the Alicization project, the character Alice, among other things.
In fact, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Project Alice is something that's developed outside the Underworld (Alicization's world), inside the Underworld there'll be several other problems that Kirito will face, including the antagonist of the first half of the arc.
And yes, it's not just limited to Kirito and Eugeo and Alice, a lot of other characters are really cool and well-crafted during the Light Novel.
Curiosity Alicization spoiler: Spoiler, click to viewclick to hideAlice Synthesis Thirty and Alice Zuberg are different characters. For sure it's a thing you'll only understand reading or if you've read.
Unfortunately, Alicization is where we've the worst anime adaptation for Sword Art Online, as there was even a director change and it ended up being a ridiculous director. Alicization anime is really one to forget. If you've watched the anime, you're pretty sure that almost no one likes the finale of the last season, which, ironically, is one of the best parts of the entire LN, Vol 18. Just read it and then you'll understand. The only good thing the anime delivered was the soundtracks, Kajiura is really fantastic. I recommend reading with Alicization Soundtrack.
Alicization's grand finale concludes Kirito's development as a character, a development since the beginning. The story, if Kawahara wanted, could have ended there, but there are still a few more things in the work to be answered, so there is now the Unitial Ring, current arc in the series.
In conclusion, Sword Art Online is a very well done work and it was supposed to be a normal work, not highly criticized by the mass as it is. When in fact, SAO is a very above average and very well written work, which has unfortunately been tarnished by the West by ignorant people who believe they know what they're talking about but are easily refuted.
Alicization is the peak of this story, being the best of SAO in absolutely every aspect. Characters, world, development, arc presentation, arc conclusion and climax.
The best volumes, in my opinion, are Vol 9, 14 and 18. Curiously these Volumes are the presentation, climax and conclusion of the Alicization arc.
I started reading SAO's Light Novel in 2017, 1 year before the Alicization anime, and I finished reading it in march 2020. It was one of the most unforgettable experiences I've ever had.
SAO is inconsistent, it has its problems, it's not good from beginning to the end, but it's a story that gets a lot better with time and it's clear how the author evolves his writing.
"Kirito, you must believe. In their own love, in the love they have for you, in the hearts of many people."
>"Who are you? Why are you here? With what right are you in front of me?"
>"Am I someone?
>The brave who descended to the underworld? No
>The knight who defends the human Empire? No
>The hero who won the death game? No
>The black swordsman? The Dual Blades? Definitely not.
