I think I should elaborate on my
earlier post. I will talk about exactly why I said "sao sucks" in a review of the first arc of Sword Art Online.
Sword Art Online is a very popular anime, although it has received polarizing reviews.
SAO follows the story of the teenage boy, Kirito, after he is trapped inside a virtual reality MMO along with ten thousand other innocent people. If you die in the game, you die in real life. Your only hope for freedom is to beat the game... but chances are, you are going to die, as reaching the end of the game is a frighteningly difficult challenge. However, even though all hope seems to be lost, new hope is found within the world of the game - A working society grows within the game, players fall in love, and other players are killed in the process of trying to beat the game. There are happy moments, sad moments, downright tragic moments, moments that will leave you on the edge of your seat, and more. Though the show does receive much criticism for many reasons, most people would agree that its premise is great, the world it creates is captivating, and its visuals and soundtrack are quite good.
So why the criticism?
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is pacing. There are many time skips, and while time skips are not necessarily a bad thing at all... It fails at properly transitioning through the time skips. For example, let's take a look at the character Asuna, who is the second main protagonist of the series. In the second episode, she is shy and withdrawn, obviously not able to cope with being trapped inside the game. However, only two or three episodes later, she's a stern leader of a group of people set on beating the game - obviously not withdrawn anymore. Now, I understand that several weeks passed between the events of the two episodes, and obviously she would have changed in that time period. But the viewer did not see it happen. In one episode, she is this, and two episodes later, she is that. Very little transition here. And you might not guess it, but this exact same thing happens
again just a few episodes after that, where she transforms from a stern leader to a cutesy, semi-typical anime girl after falling in love with Kirito (not to say her character in full is a cutesy, semi-typical anime girl, but still). And again, there's little to no transition.
Overall, my main criticism is that the entire first half of the arc feels disjointed with fast pacing that even itself is unable to keep up with.
Other issues I have include the majority of the side characters being uninteresting and forgettable (especially that Silica girl, who even likes her?), an ending that comes out of practically nowhere, and other things that I feel are slightly too nit-picky to put here.
In the end, though, the first arc of Sword Art Online is... good. It has decent writing, amazing presentation, great fight scenes, good romance... but a plethora of flaws that prevent it from being truly great.
So when I said "sao sucks", it was honestly more of an exaggeration than anything. The first arc of the series is quite decent, as I covered in my review. Most of my feelings of "sao sucks" are more directed at the second arc of the show, Alfheim Online. Alfheim Online sucks dick. Gun Gale Online is pretty great, though. I could write about those two arcs if you guys want me to. :^)
