Intro:
Sword Art Online (SAO) was one of the most popular animes of its season; it was close to the point where everyone was watching SAO whether they loved or hated it. While not particularly hateful, SAO had distinct issues that might make it difficult for the audience to fully immerse into its world.
Setting:
SAO is the name of the Virtual Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (VMMORPG) that the story is set in. In this futuristic world, SAO is the first fully immersive VMMORPG that allows players to literally be the characters they create. Players logged in the game with glee to fully test out its system, unbeknownst to them that the creator added a few special “features”. The thousands of players are quick to realise that inability to log out of the game and worse of all, if they die in the game, they die in real-life. Thus, the players must band together to clear the hundred floors and beat the game while surviving traps, bosses and sometimes each other.
While the concept of dying in means you die in real life is hardly new, SAO biggest fault is its failure in taking full advantage of its MMORPG setting. As a reviewer described, the death “feature” effectively made SAO a fantasy anime with some gaming mechanics. Save for the occasional HUD, life bars and skills mentioned, there really was too little game mechanics. SAO does at least treat the gaming culture with some respect, rather than making fun of it like most media are guilty of.
Plot:
As story telling goes, SAO suffered heavily at the start. It had mini-arcs that lasted two episodes with time skips aplenty between them. Without a coherent sequence of events, it was near the point where you could watch them out of order and the story was unlikely to be affected. Additionally, these first seven or so episodes were akin to an anthology of the male protagonist’s adventures, with little impact on the overall plot.
Credit where it’s due, there were stories that took advantage of its death setting and even explored its after-effects, such as survivor’s guilt. While perhaps slightly heavy-handed in execution, its treatment of character death felt quite real and made for some interesting dynamics, albeit sparingly.
When the story seemed to finally pick up steam and advance the overall goal of finishing the game, it suddenly stops by letting the two main protagonists effectively go on holiday. While a plot-relevant character is eventually introduced in this sequence, it is so out of place and disconnected that it might have been better to do away with it entirely.
Characters:
As far as characters go, Kirito is about as cliché as one could expect. While his motivations and character developments are under-developed, his interactions with the other characters and reactions in several parts of the plot were his strengths. This made him likeable if a bit bland. His defining quality is his ridiculous, but still entertaining, stand to solo the VMMORPG. Being a beta player of SAO (played before its official launch), Kirito has knowledge that apparently gives him an edge over other players. Aside from a passing mention in the intro episodes, this is never brought up again.
Now, while soloing an MMORPG is all but impossible in real life, it was fairly enjoyable seeing Kirito dominate enemies, presumably through pure skill and stats. Some may find this rather boring to watch since, like any main character, he’s obviously going to win. The key here is the execution which was quite enjoyable to watch. This is especially so when he reveals his trump card and eventually reaches a point where even his trump card is no longer enough for him to fight solo. It was a good sign of character growth when he started to rely on others towards the end. That is, until he breaks the game…literally.
Our token female protagonist is Asuna, whose initial battle scene is perhaps one of the most memorable in SAO, laying decent groundwork for her action girl status. Throughout the story, she was able to maintain her role, holding her own in the battles and not getting side-lined by the plot, which is far more than can be said for any member of the female cast.
Whether Asuna’s development into a more feminine character is a step backward is up for debate, but even if that were the case, she certainly feels like a character with more depth compared to any other character, Kirito included.
The side-characters are side-lined, even by supporting standards. Most appear once and are never mentioned again, with scenes that are hardly memorable. This could be more a fault of the storytelling/plot rather than the characters themselves. However, even the more “regular” supporting members do little in affecting the story or fellow characters. When the anime decides to utilise its death setting, one of its strengths, its weakest link were actually the characters; character development would have given everything more weight, those scenes included.
Extra:
The above review is only referring to the 1st major arc in which the characters are in Sword Art Online. The subsequent arc is based in another VMMORPG called Alfheim Online (ALO). Whatever saving grace SAO had, ALO did not. The characters in ALO are even less developed than SAO’s. The “new” female lead Suguha is possibly less developed than SAO’s supporting characters, her only trait being she loves her cousin Kirito. Since Asuna was unfortunately converted to a damsel in distress and side-lined for the entirety of the arc, the focus on Suguha and Kirito was not to the anime’s benefit. Along with several other flaws, such as a lousy antagonist and poor execution of game mechanics, this arc was anything but enjoyable.
Overall:
Save for ALO, which should be burnt in a fire and all memory of it wiped clean, SAO was generally enjoyable to see. Like any entertainment, its purpose is to entertain and in spite of its flaws, SAO still achieves this well. Special mention to the OST composer Yuki Kaijura who still produces amazing music pieces. Even if for nothing else, watching Kirito and Asuna fight to her pieces makes the anime worth at least a single run.
#SSSguiltypleasure