Tentacle-Free Anime: "Sword Art Online" (2012) Review
One day I would like to consider myself a hardcore gamer again, but until such day I've personally demoted myself to casual. But that's okay, I have a lot going on in my life right now. However, I don't wish to find myself trapped in the game in such a way where if I die in the game I die in real life. That would be pretty unpleasant. So let's talk instead about others that had this happen to them, in a fictional world playing a game in a fictional world. The world known as Sword Art Online.
One of these days I'll get through all the more popular anime of the last few years. The ones that people really don't stop talking about. I think I have Madoka Magica and Kill La Kill as the last two really big ones to get through? Either way, I finally got to sit down and watch Sword Art Online, the biggest hit to give the virtual reality game genre in stories a well deserved revival since the launch of the original .hack//Sign. This is an anime I would jokingly call “not .hack//” since some people like to jokingly refer to other anime of this genre as “not Sword Art Online.” All of it is in good fun, but did I enjoy Sword Art Online in the same way most people did years after the fact? One thing I heard a lot before going into this was that first arc is great, the second arc is most definitely not.
Yeah, there are warp gates in SAO that you can take to reach different floors, but on each floor you have to travel the dangerous roads to get anywhere safe. You can't just teleport in an out from world to world. At least that's how the show portrays distance and travel. And I'm okay with that. The characters are all pretty likeable as well, which is a very good thing. Kirito, the main character, has the advantage of being a beta tester for SAO and thus a stronger player than most in SAO. I probably would've preferred Kirito to be a sort of novice and train his way up, but it wouldn't of worked with the pacing this series offers up. Which we'll get to in a moment. Asuna, the main female is probably my favorite character of the show. She holds her own in a fight, and she pushes the ranks to be one of the top fighters in the game. However she's also a girl and acts how I feel some girls would. And even during their days “married” Kirito and Asuna don't lose the fight in them and remain pretty badass. There are other side characters, but the other main character I'm going to discuss is Suguha, Kirito's little sister. I like Suguha... I hate her story. This is coming from someone who put Oreimo in his top 5 favorite anime, I really disliked her storyline and the writers choosing to force a little sister route into the show. It was unnecessary and did not fit the story at all. 
Kirito, the hero.
One of the biggest issues that I do have with SAO is its pacing, and not in the way I feel most people dislike the pacing. You see, the first 14 episodes of this show takes place over the course of 2 years in real time while the characters play their way through the game. And the remaining episodes take place over the course of like 2-3 days and take place in another game entirely call Alfeim Online. I actually didn't mind the time-skipping for the first 14 episodes, it was a little jarring but it didn't really bug me. In fact, this approach probably would've been handled better had SAO's complete 25 episode run been spent in SAO only. Instead we get two episodes afterwards of Kirito “dealing” with having returned to the real world, and we unfortunately don't get a good representation of PTSD, something that would most definitely effect players who just had to fight for their actual lives to get out of a game. My biggest peeve with the pacing was of the second arc, the ALO storyline, where the story very clearly takes place over more than just a couple of days but each character matter-of-factually acts like it's only been 2. 
Asuna is waiting in Alfheim.
Like I mentioned before, the PTSD isn't handled well at all in SAO. We get plenty of characters in game who are torn apart by the idea of dying in a game for real, but once they're out of the real world nothing about their psyche has changed. Even though later Kirito explains that if something happens in games, it generally effects you the player on a personal level. Which he isn't wrong, but I do wish the writers would have stuck to that ideas as well. The villains in SAO are pretty weak too, with the first villain being a somewhat viable one with his intention of building a world only to meddle in it. The second villain really didn't belong in the series, and I'm not sure why they chose to go that route. Especially with him being such a disgusting creature as a character. I'm just not drawn to villains who are evil for the sake of being evil anymore, and that's all SAO really has unfortunately. The action this show is great, I will admit. There are plenty of moments where I find myself very impressed with the fight choreography. It exemplifies the wonders that one can achieve in a world where pretty much anything is possible. I like Kirito's dual-wielding samurai style, I like Asuna's rapier fencing style, and Suguha's kendo style. Each character has their own style of fighting and like that a lot. There is an attention to detail the animators and writers put into the fighting system, and how these characters approach each threat. It's refreshing, and it's a nice juxtaposition to the admittedly and equally wonderful quite moments. If there's one really good thing this series does right is showcasing people who randomly meet and find something in one another to latch onto. For survival, or even for a sense of belonging. Because when you're faced with every step you take possibly being your last, why would you want to spend your days fighting with others? 
Against the Gleam Eyes.
I do like Sword Art Online, I think it is a pretty good entertainment overall. It's not incredibly perfect, or even somewhat close, but it has its merits. There is however, one last piece to discuss. The Extra Edition. SAO: EE is a special movie length episode that is ¾ recap of the series with some extra footage and then a little original adventure tacked on at the end. As it's own thing, it isn't awful. And even though I'm not big on recap films, in fact I very much dislike them, I've seen much worse than this. At least we get a reason for the recap that fits with the story, and we get new footage along with rather than just a straight up “here's what happened last time on SAO.” This is also the story where the series feels much more like a harem than it really should, with whole scenes dedicated to four girls talking about Kirito and I just wasn't a fan of it. That's my least favorite thing about this episode, oddly enough. The final, original adventure is a lot of fun. It was nice getting to see everyone have fun and complete a quest in the game. One that's been newly discovered, and also leads to pretty epic scene between the Kraken and Poseidon of Greek Myth. There's a lot of worse shows out there, and for all its blatant flaws Sword Art Online can still be worth our time. It isn't bad, and I found myself enjoying more than not. There's also a second season (series?) out called Sword Art Online II that just finished up not too long ago. It features an entirely different genre for its MMO, more like Call of Duty than World of Warcraft. I haven't watched it yet, and I figured I would tackle it by itself. So yeah, Sword Art Online, go check it out. Final Score: 3 Immortal Objects out of 5 Have you seen "Sword Art Online"? How did you like it? 
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