Sword Art Online

#Sword Art Online Review – 3 Years Later - Written on 18/3/2016
####(Edited on 21/08/2016 to correct spelling errors, phrasing and typo's)
Now, that is an interesting title, isn’t it? What on earth do I mean by, three years later? As I write this, here is something I thought I would never actually bother re-writing or even re-watching. I had an opinion of it about 3 years ago, my first review actually, back when I was around 14, going on 15. I reviewed the show shortly after it aired, about 6 months after, and well, let’s just say I was quite harsh on the show, the characters, and some of the plot points. 3 years later, as I am just shy of turning 18, I decided to re-watch it. And I did, both seasons, and within a week or so. Do yeah, kind of like a weird, split binge watching thing.
Look back and reading the review I wrote then originally on MAL, which I brought over here, I have to be honest. It was pretty terrible. Not just the writing, but after re-watching the series, I realised in terms of several factual pieces of evidence I used were, well, how shall we put it. Kind of wrong…. Mainly it was only concerning the first half in which I had issues with the problems with the facts I brought being slightly factually incorrect, but I also felt I was too brief on my talking about the second half of season 1. I have yet to review season 2, so that will be done later I gave it a much higher score, so I won’t feel any need to edit or modify it. I feel, in my idea of expecting way too much of it when I first watched it, due to the terrible thing we call ‘over-hype’, as well as the fact that I feel being younger, and much more influenced by popular opinion, and my annoyance over the fact of just how amazing it could be, slightly skewed my review, and my general thoughts on the show. Also, I never thought I would be saying this, but dear god, I felt I was a little too harsh on Kirito. Yes, I said it, and sadly he has to jump off my hated characters list. And, so I decided to re-write it. Given the show, this is going to be very different from a review I usually do. It is going to be much longer and in a totally different format. It is kind of not only a review, but a discussion of the basis for the fact that I changed the score I originally gave for SAO season 1.

__Score 2013 – 6/10
Score 2016(after re-watch): 7.4/10
__

As you can see, that is a fair bit of a jump, and since changing a score like that is quite weird, I felt like I needed to pen my thoughts on this particular issue. Forget the hate, forget the love, forget popular or unpopular opinions. This is purely my own thoughts, and something I felt I had to write given what a polarising show this was when it first aired, with the haters, with the lovers, and those in-between. It was an interesting, and sometimes quite, ahh, shall we say, ridiculous thing that happened when people started arguing like little children over in reality, what was in fact, fiction. A made up story, meant to watched, to be enjoyed, whether you enjoyed it or not is beside the point. It was what it was, and whatever you say is not going to change that. The past will not change, but it will affect the future in some ways. That seems like not only a very vague and weird statement to utter in a review of what is in fact, fiction, nothing that is really important to the world, or the grand scheme of things. But it illustrates the point I am trying to make. There is no use crying over spilt milk, we just need to make sure we don’t knock it over again. So, settle down, it’s a long read, and hopefully it will be an interesting one.

##Plot and Story:
So, we know the setting. Any geeks, I am joking, of course, I meant any gamers wildest dreams and something frankly I would love, just utterly love to be a part of. Virtual Reality, specifically speaking, a VRMMORPG, or in layman’s terms, a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. What a mouthful. We will just call it Fantasy World, because that is pretty much what it is. Or we could use the game actual name, you know, Sword Art Online. The latest craze, the anime’s version of World of Warcraft, or League of Legends. People line up for days, spending time that could definitely be spent doing better things, but screw it. Let’s play some Virtual Reality games.
And so, when they load in this wonderful world, oh, how magical it is. Until fate decides to turn it into some sort of warped survival game. Yes, the creator locks them all in the game, removing the logging out button, and essentially turning the concept of death in a fantasy world to reality. When you think about it actually, from a product standpoint, the NeverGear was terrible. Everything from being able to be hacked, to being able to kill you thought microwave signals. You would think they would work out kinks like this before the sell, but I guess not.
Enter our main protagonist, our ‘Lord and Saviour’, Kirito. Or Kirigaya to use his real name. I am obviously joking about the Lord and Saviour part (see obvious quotes), but given how OP he is made during the entire run of the show, it might as well be true. But that will be discussed later. Said Kirito is a loner, an introvert of sorts who locked himself away in a virtual world, only to be quite shocked when he ends up being trapped in one. He is also a Beater, or a Bata-Tester, hated by several in-game players, who are all now trapped as they believe they left them alone to die and took all the good places.

Clearly, they were all utter idiots. Anyone knows that Beta-Testers are the main reason we can sometimes have games with several kinks worked out, having pre-gained knowledge for all the new characters, as one specifically points out. Anyway, I am meandering a bit here, but the goal is to clear all 100 floors, progressively getting harder until they beat the final level, and gain salvation and freedom, being able to escape the game. That is essentially the story more or less for the first half. And before I go into detail in the meat of this thing, let me just say, with only the first half of season 1, this would be scored higher than it already is, around something like an 8.4/8.5. So we quickly go through some brief one-episode character arcs from episode 2-4 roughly, and episode 7, introducing four new characters, despite the fact that only three of them actually got a mini-arc/episode dedicated to them.

There is Silca, the Dragon-Tamer, slight stereotypical Tolkien like character, Sachi, who has a few emotional moments, Kline, the swordsman who sadly we don’t get to really see much of in terms of a story arc, and finally, the blacksmith Lizbeth, or as it should actually be, Elizabeth. More or less, for one reason or the other, they fall in love with Kirito by the end of their one-episode arc. Knowing how the plot is going to go given how simple it is to guess, you know they have absolutely no chance of ending up with the main MC. They, as much of a stereotype as some of them were, still ended up being enjoyable characters, and ones I frankly wanted to see a lot more of. More of that on the character part. They more or less disappear for the rest of the show, while we focus for the episode 5-6,and 8-12/13 episodes on our main duo, Kirito, and Asuna, and generally the romantic plotline between them. It was actually pretty decent, if not a bit rushed and feeling forced at certain points. We then conclude the first half with the climatic and rather interesting ending between episodes 13 and 14.

We then move onto the second half, Alfheim Online, or Fairy Dance. Here is where I feel things started to go slightly downhill. Due to spoilers, certain events happening at the end of the first half, Asuna is more or less relegated to a supporting role, and we focus heavily on Kirito, and his cousin, Suguha. Slightly spoiler territory below. As weirdly common in a fair few anime, no shit, she likes her brother or cousin. They keep on using the words interchangeably despite the fact that they both know that they are in fact, loosely related. I still to this day find the whole idea of this sibling/cousin love, call it what you will. To this day, I seriously consider asking myself, ‘Is this a common thing in Japan, this idea of forbidden love?’ I know they are not related by blood, so it isn’t really, but still. It made to wonder, sometimes, why? Is it normal Japan? Doing things, the full Oremio route and going with the vague, ‘incest is wincest’ mentality? It does not apply here too much, given they are cousins, but they still are family? I felt they could have actually kind of explored that idea, but we all know, regardless, she had no chance in hell, not with Kirito fawning over Asuna, seemingly blinded to the fact that he is indeed, rather popular, and being dense, he fails to see so…. That’s nothing new, so I won’t elaborate. So it ends, on episode 25, and SAO S1 is done, and Asuna through the plotline is relegated back to the main character. So, now onto the most interesting thing. The characters themselves.

##Characters:
The characters, like Kirito’s love interests, come in all shapes and sizes, with varying degrees of attention paid to them. Apart from the falling plot in the second half, the characters are where some of the major problems lie. With Kirito’s OPness, how they slightly ruined Asuna’s character in the second half, and how underused the supporting cast was. Of course, by supporting cast, I am talking about Silca, Lizebth, Kline. You will notice I missed one. Spoiler-wise, something happens which renders her not to be put in the same bag as the rest of them. That is a spoiler if I told you.
My problem was the fact that they were slightly interesting characters, and they could have been fleshed out much more. As far as I know, yes, I know their arcs are actually compressed all into one light novel volume in the original source material, but go that extra mile. Why did we see so little of them? Putting season 2 aside, where we do eventually see more of them, but apart from the ending episode, we don’t see them. Not at all……….

That frankly was a shame. They could have really been interesting characters, ones I could have liked and connected with, yet they were ignored. They were given one episode, one god-damn episode, and the shelved. The dynamic between them and Kirito, while predictable, was still a dynamic of some sorts that I enjoyed. When you create characters that have the ability to be seen as possibly being interesting people, and then you ignore them, what the hell was the point of adding them? To make Kirito get a harem? To help him get over his introverted self? To help heal some past wounds? Give me a point god-dammit. I want to know about these characters.
What about Kline. Sure, he pops in here and there to make sure we know he did not die, but still, why not have a short arc for him Why not have him and Kirito go on some adventure, some quest to help clear the game in the first half? Why did we choose to ignore him, to not see any of him? They could have easily made the first arc, SAO, longer, and fleshed out these characters. Sure, Alfhiem Online might have had to be pushed in later, but then why not make it longer than 25 episodes. I have not read the light novels, so I do not know if this was a material adaptation issue, but they could have spent more time in SAO, fleshing out the world, the characters, making it feel more alive. They could have done that, and they didn’t.

Even in the second half, when they have mostly all escaped SAO as the game was cleared by Kirito, they never appear. I know it is meant to focus on Suguha, Kirito and Asuna to a lesser extent, but why not at least give us more of these characters before the ending episode. We know they won’t be love interests, as Kirito only has eyes for Asuna, so why not give us some character building. Give us some reason to believe, maybe even vaguely that they have a chance. Maybe they felt like they could not play an MMO for a while, but given how acted in the final episode, clearly, that was not true. Even if it was, why did we not at least get some good, real-world experiences with them? They were trapped in the game for 2 years for crying out loud. It was a simple thing that could have been great, but we were never given it. And to me, that was a true tragedy.
Onto a lighter note, the dynamic between Kirito and Asuna was actually pretty good. I really must have had my eyes closed the first time, as for some reason I felt they hooked up and fell in love in just two episodes, but there was a variety of scenes that occurred in the six episodes before the final two that show them working more with each other, and growing closer. I do feel the ending of that thing was slightly rushed, but it still was enjoyable to watch. Despite my distaste for Kirito being too OP, they were an enjoyable couple to watch. There I said it, I actually enjoyed the romance slightly between them. It was nothing amazing, but it was not terrible either. They played off each other a bit, even if it did feel like they were playing House for a while, in like episode 11 and 12, where they introduce a new character, Yui. While there were some emotion scenes with her, I found it nice to see that in only two episodes, I slightly felt an attachment to the character, so much that I felt sad at a certain point when shit hits the fan regarding her. I know she is a core plot device to further both Asuna’s and Kirito’s relationship, and that is why she was given at least two episodes, but even if the other side characters mentioned above were given just two episodes each as well, it would have probably been much better.

Even our villain, the creator of SAO, even masquerading as one of the players in the game was an interesting and decent villain. I do feel they did not give him the credit her deserved, though. I expected them to go more into detail into his reasons behind SAO, but they just lightly beat around the bush and end it there. They did go a bit into the meanings, and the reasons behind his actions, but they could have gone much better.
The thing is, for all that I complain about the problems, the benefits, the great music, the amazing art outweighed that. The interesting, but ignored characters take a hit to the score, but the awesome character of Asuna and the tolerable character of Kirito gives it bonus points. My only beef with him and the light novel author is how terribly OP they made him, to the point of the only thing you think about is, ‘How is Kirito going to win’. Because him losing for some reason, does not compute… It made it so much harder to connect with him as a character. He acted more like an object, a plot device to move the story along many times, rather than actually being a life, breathing character. He had some of his moments, but they were greatly outnumbered by his OPness, and the ability to magically cheat the system many times. It is not believable if he always wins…

The second half is where shit hits the fan. Mainly for four reasons. Asuna, Suguha, and our terrible, terrible, melodramatic villain, and a plot that matches such a terrible character. I don’t know how the light novel was, but if it was the same, I fell, it is kind of sad. For one, the plot line itself is so cliché, it’s not funny. It really isn’t, it’s just downright nauseating. Not only that, they ruined some of the characters. Asuna goes from being an awesome, OP badass person to someone who has to be saved by her man, Kiriro, and pretty much delegates to the Princess Peach role. That is meant to plot, so I can slightly forgive the anime as it is only following the source material, but still, even given the story, they could have done it in such a way that it did not downgrade the character. What about that rape-esque scene near the end of season 2? We know the villain is kind of like a sexual deviant, a crazed one at that. It just felt melodramatic to me. Like it was shoved into the make the thing seems more serious, or to anger Kirito? I don’t really know. To me, it felt really like a forced way for you to just hate the main villain more. More on him later.
Now moving on to Suguha. I don’t have too many problems with her, but rather the same thing as the other supporting characters. We see her relegated to just another girl in Kirito’s harem by the end of it. And through the course of it, it is her coming to terms with the fact that her cousin/brother is indeed in love with someone else, and that she is not even close to a relative competitor for that affection. To be fair, it is nice she realises this at the end, which is good, but why was this the plot device that we needed? Could they not have done it in a more interesting way? Yes, I still enjoyed the episodes of Fairy Dance, almost all of them, even with their problems, but it could have been a much more interesting, a much more dynamic story than just another day in Kirito’s growing harem of girls who clearly have no chance of getting together with him.
So why do they only focus on a romantic point of view? You know, male and female, they can be friends without this thing called ‘Love’ getting in the way. The characters are clearly aware they have no chance, so why did they not explore them in other ways, other avenues? I can’t fault them for not doing in SAO, as they had to make time for Kirito’s and Asuna’s relationship, but that was not an issue in the second half. It was established what the status quo was, so why could they not be brought in alongside Kirito and Suguha. You could still focus on her plot line even with allies, friends, not love interests working together, playing off one another, keeping a team dynamic. Given some of the relationships between these supporting characters and Asuna, would it not make more sense to have them help with the plot-point of the second half? Those who have not seen it ​will understand when they watch it, and for those who have, I am pretty sure you know what I am talking about. Which two characters I am talking about.

Now, onto the final point of this part, and the end of the review before the conclusion. If you have stuck around this long, well, I appreciate you taking the time to read it. The villain for the second half who shall not be named. What an utter retard! Seriously, he fails fundamentally as a villain. He is the main reason for the second half taking a downward spiral, and the way the plot also plays a role. A villain, no matter how evil, needs to be effective. To be effective, they need to be believable. To be believable, they need to have a motive. The villain for the second half lacks each and every single regarding that point. If the show just wrote off his actions as a crazy, psychopathic, sexual deviant, I could understand. There would be no reason, he is just plain crazy. It looked like they tried to do that, but I doubt it. I might be giving them too much credit. I would have no problem with such a motive, you know, just being crazy, but we need to know why then. What made him into the deranged individual he was? What made him act the way he did, do the things he did. If that is not the case, then what, pray, is his motive? We never learn this, we never get this explained. All we are told is he is evil, and that’s it. So, why? He comes off so cliché that it is laughable, pitiable. Especially with the pseudo-rape scene at the end, why? It was just another way to say he is evil. Or look, he is doing this bad thing, and this bad thing, and this terrible thing too.
I will not mention them, as they are plot spoilers. If you want an effective villain, he needs to be believable. To be believable, he needs to have what we call a backstory. We don’t get one. He is evil, simply because he is evil, and that is all there is to it. That is the problem. A lot of the second half revolves around stopping his actions and his final goal, and that is it. End of story, drain the plug, close the flood-gates. There is no need to learn how a dam is built or works, right? All you need to know is what it is used for. That is not right, and that is perhaps the biggest, monumental plot hole the entire second half has. It is the main reason the score was knocked down because of the second part. Because, without context, without reason, it simply makes little to no god-damn sense. It feels really nice to get that out on paper.

##Conclusion:
You will notice I omitted the Art and Sound portion of this. There is no reason to talk about it, as it is A-1 Pictures, so the art is as you would expect. One of their best works, with a soundtrack to match. Amazing visuals that I could watch all day. That is all you need to know about it.
So, my final thoughts are this. It was a decent series. It was not as bad as some made it out to be, and nowhere near as good as the people who praised it like the sun. It had good, it had bad, and it had terrible. But at the end of the day, I would still recommend someone to watch this. Why? For one, to see how certain aspects can prevent a show from shining like a diamond in the rough. The other thing I could sit down here and write a much longer essay in detail on the bad, and the good.
The thing is, there are good things in this series, things I really loved. It is just there is unfortunately negatives that simply get in the way. The reason why I recommend it is because, even if you find problems with it, even if you see it’s flaws, at the end of the day, I would be lying to you if I did not say I enjoyed pretty much most of the episodes. I enjoyed, I had fun, and I don’t feel my time was wasted. I can complain all I want, but at the end of the day, that does not change the fact that I enjoyed it, the fights, the characters, the art and sound, and several plot points and elements. My only regret is that it could have been so much more. I don’t know if it was the studio, the source material, or both, but it had the potential to be one of the most amazing shows released in the year. Sadly, it fell far from my that, and that, ladies and gentlemen, and readers of this long review-ish thing, is truly a shame and a tragedy. So, if you stuck around this long, congratulations. Go see it if you have not and make your own decision. It had its problems, but at the same time, I won’t say my time was wasted watching it. Because it wasn’t, and despite the negatives, I did enjoy it.