This reviews the entire series, not just Season 1. I will be talking about each season and there arcs prospectively, so take the time to relax and enjoy this review.
Oh boy... where do I begin? SAO was the 2nd anime that I watched right after No Game No Life. Meaning I also watched this back at 2016. I originally was preparing for the Ordinal Scale movie, but then I just moved on like it was nothing. Then we fast forward in 2020, where I actually got the chance to watch the movie, and also discover Alicization.
Being as the 3rd popular anime on MAL, you might wonder why that is. Well, to be completely honest, it is actually easy to get into if you are a newcomer of anime. And to be honest, it really was. I discovered SAO due to a friend recommending me to watch it, so I took his request and decided to watch it. Taking it back from my perspective on it in 2016, I actually enjoyed it.
~~however, there were some parts of SAO that made me regret watching it back in 2016. again, my 12 year old self was stupid at the time.~~
But now that opinion has changed, and I now have mixed feelings on SAO. Some parts of me still find it good to this day, while some other parts of me felt like it was rushed.
#_
Plot is the most important factor of the anime in order for it to progress further. However, that was not the case for SAO. To me, the plot was exceedingly rushed and I felt like the producers went in and just simply made it and moved on. That's what it was like for me.
However, I never found the plot to be bad in some way. Another part of me felt like they couldn't just adapt the whole thing for some reason, hence why they only chose that part of the scene and moved on to the next. I could compare it to the Index/Railgun series. The plot felt rushed, but it wasn't bad. That was the same feeling that I had with SAO. Kinda weird if you asked me.
Well, if this was an honest opinion, this is what I think it does do at best:
God damn. SAO has some great animation quality tho. The effects of the battles was really what carried SAO. A-1 Pictures really did put some care into each scene, and as the series gets a new season, the animation quality would increase. I wouldn't mind ditching the plot just to see how good SAO's animation quality is.
Another one could be Kirito vs The Gleam Eyes from Season 1 - Episode 9. How Kirito pulled of the starburst stream most especially. You were in for a treat once he pulled those two blades out of him and started saying the name of it himself. It gives me the chills, even to this day.
One Last example would be Kirito vs Vector in SAO: A - WOU Part II, episode 8. In which, that gave me the chills the most, even more than what Him vs Gleam Eyes did. It was really a survival for the test of Kirito, and it was jam packed with pure epicness. I couldn't really put this into words, but you'll get what I mean if you take a look at it.
Characters for the most part get minimal character development. Most especially Kirito. His character development was very minimal in Season 1, but it grew as the series moved on, most especially Alicization. I don't get why people just consider Kirito to be an edgy god, but (And this is just what I think) wouldn't you relate to him? He grinds to get levels and become as strong as possible. Think of it like Pokemon, where you need to save up levels in order to battle the gym leaders. Yeah, can you relate now?
Also, kinda unfair indeed that they gave the side characters no care at all, but it eventually grew better in the movie and Season 3. Side characters indeed got the treatment over there.
Another thing that carried SAO was the OST. God damn it, Yuki Kajiura really did set up the mood for the anime with the OST. And that's just background music were talking about, the OP's and ED's as well are absolutely phenomenal. From Crossing Fields, Ignite, Adamas, Resister, Anima. Each and every one of these singers did a great job with the OP's.
And that is pretty much all of what SAO did best. Now, in retrospect, it seems as if I'm giving SAO praise for all of the things I mention. Well, you are correct, but I do have some different opinions on each arc of SAO. So I'm a say them here:
The Aincrad arc, for the most part, did a great job setting up the mood for SAO. This was to prepare you on what SAO was all about, "The main protagonist getting transported into a video game, but then soon figures out that he and other people can't escape the virtual world and would die if there HP got drained to 0, so he must clear the game in order to set everyone free." Quite generic to set the tone for SAO, but it works for the most part. What kills it on becoming a 5/5 is the fact that soon after Episode 3, it would dial down a bit, and.. I prefer the events of SAO to give at least some interest. The only episodes I found interesting was Episode 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, and 14. Episodes 4, 7, 11, and 12 sorta fell flat on me, by becoming a bit "eh" at my part, for the gest of it, it gets a 4.
After the events of the Aincrad Arc, 300 other players are seemingly still stuck in another virtual game "Alfheim Online", hence, Kirito goes on ahead and tries to find out. Now this is the part where I actually talk about Asuna. You see, Asuna was a good enough character in the Aincrad Arc, for the most part, she was able to be strong in order for her to survive, But then she turned into a damsel in distress, became trapped in a cage and was forced to become Sugou's fiance. I feel bad for Asuna, she became one of the best characters in the Aincrad Arc, only to be brought down one arc later. Characters for the most part ultimately also became a dunce. Man, if they actually took the time and consideration to rework on that arc back then, it would've been better.
SAO Season 1 gets one bonus point for the last episode of both arcs, which is pretty heartwarming if you ask me. I would wish to go into detail, but I'm not gonna spoil it. I know there are some of you that are reading this review that hasn't watched it yet, so do a solid and watch both the last episodes of both arcs. (This would mean that you would have to suffer at the Fairy Dance Arc...)
SAO 1 did great for the first half, but then flopped hard on the 2nd half. The last episodes of both arcs luckily made up for it.
I'm sorry, but I got bored with this one. What was the motive? Where was the character progression? WHERE WAS THE FUCKING PROGRESS??!! Looking back at SAO II, I would honestly cringe at everything that had went down with the Phantom Bullet Arc. It is, for the most part, ultimately boring. "A gun that can shoot you from the virtual world to the real world" my ass. Yeah, you can tell I was bored on this one. I really did not like this arc at all. I will, however, give a plus point to Sinon, who luckily got character development as the series progress. You see, she tends to have a fear when holding a gun, however, in GGO, she wouldn't feel that at all. (I mean, after all, you would feel different when playing a video game more than irl). It also gets another plus point for the animation quality, which, luckily, still retains to the exact same style of SAO I. Other than that, everything just sucks.
THANK GOD THIS ARC EXISTED! Remember how in the 2nd arc, I said that Asuna was brought down from the 1st arc. Luckily, she progresses in this arc! Mostly, the 1st half of the 4th arc is just filler, which is a bit boring, but the 2nd half of it made up for it for introducing Yuuki Konno, who was a girl who would only have a limited time left in the real world, only to die soon after due to her having AIDS. Asuna stands up for herself and decides to mature. For the most part, her mother wouldn't let her date someone like Kirito, rather, she would want a man that is rich and worthy enough for her to protect her, and even transfer schools, but a few episodes later, she stood up for herself and denied it, then would later eventually show her mother something that could remind her of their grandmother. I'll let you peep that one, again, best if I don't spoil it. Although great, it would've been a 4 if there was not any filter to the 1st half. Would've done better.
The 3rd arc just simply sucked, and SAO II was saved with the 4th arc. This is my lowest rating on my AL so far. (Alongside another anime, in which I rather not talk about)
Ordinal Scale was a step up from both SAO 1 and 2. Now, this wasn't intended to be part of the main lineup, but I assume that the producers wanted to take a step up and decided to make something that would exceed the both of them. For the most part, it did great. The Augma, which allowed the possibilities of virtual reality to become... well, reality, was just an ultimate bluff to prepare a project, which was project Yuuna. The game "Ordinal Scale" is a game where you can earn bonus items and climb your ranks up to Number 1 to prove who is the best, however, if there was one that was an SAO Survivor and the HP drops to 0, the said SAO Survivor would unfortunately lose there memories of SAO, and only remember what happened in the current events. This unfortunately happened to Asuna, who got her HP drained down to save Silica. (Same with Klien, but he was just beaten up by Eiji, poor guy.). I would talk more, but let me just get to the point. SAO - Ordinal Scale did a great job with stepping up from it's predecessors. However, I wouldn't call it perfect.
(Note, I haven't watched SAO Alt: GGO Yet. Might watch it soon, but idk)
Oh, my, god. This arc was something else. Alicization Beginning, Rising, Uniting, Invading, Exploding, Awakening, and Lasting are all great stories to be brought from the table, and the anime adaptation was done exponentially well. Yeah, yeah, it still focuses on Kirito still, but this time, it's not just Kirito, it is also with Eugeo and Alice. The three of them were childhood friends (In a virtual worlds btw.) and they would often hang out with each other. However, their bonds would be tied, when one day, when the tree of them went to the ice caverns just to get ice for there meals to be lasting longer (Yes, that was the scenario), they got lost and found another route which led to the Dark Territory. The three had witnessed a battle between Integrity Knights. and when the knight in Dark Blue tried to reach out to them, Alice went in to reach that hand, however, she tripped and by the tip of her finger, she "entered" the Dark Territory. One of the Taboo Index's estated that one should not cross that territory, so yeah, Alice was doomed. A day later, she was taken away from the Integrity Knight for questioning and execution. Both Kirito and Eugeo tried to save them, but ultimately failed when Eugeo felt something in his left eye, which was the Code: 801 Error, a barrier that prevents one from making a wrong move. Thus the story started there. Alicization got my attention and it literally became #19 of my Extended VIP List. It would be a 10 or a 9.5, but there were scenes that indeed made it felt rushed. Everything else was on top of the chars.
And that is it for this long review. Good god. I spent a lot of time thinking and collecting my thoughts on the entire lineup of SAO. SAO is nowhere in-between, it is either good to some, and bad to others. I don't need to talk about the voice acting, it did great, and this series is also the reason why Yoshitsugu Matsuoka is my favorite male Seiyuu. I appreciate this guy so much.
In general, this series is a 73/100 for the most part overall. Like I said, it is nowhere in-between the lines of good or bad. To me, I liked the series, despite there being parts of SAO that made me cringe. But I'll always go back to it and enjoy it none-the-less. Let's not forget that this is the series that revolutionized the word "Isekai". SAO was the one that did the best job of representing Isekai in general, and it's name will indeed live up to be the most popular names of SAO.
If you have made it this far, I feel bad that you had to read the entirety of this review. I am sorry, but there was a lot to say about SAO. And I know another person would say the same thing about it, there is a lot to talk about. As a 2nd time of me making a review? Yeah, I legit went in and thought about it honestly. I might make more reviews in the future. Maybe one on my VIPS... Idk, I wanna do it in random order with my most favorite anime to be the last one I review (Yeah, you should know by now.), so expect that in the future.
And of course, this is all MY opinion on the series, nothing else more.
And with that, I thank you (And apologize).
See ya!! =)
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