This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.
Sword Art Online is great because in the first episode we’re introduced to the main character. He’s wearing a blue jacket and has kawaii black hair. He walks around and then he fights mobs (that’s short for goblin) before meeting a new friend!
Interesting Premise
The light novel’s (upon which this anime is based) author took a look at .hack and said, “What if I made this good?” and so he did.
10,000 people get locked into a virtual game from which they can’t escape.
Sounds pretty cool, right?
Execution
The show delivers on its promises in spades. People die… a lot.
This isn’t .hack’s “lol people are temporarily in a coma” bullshit. People’s bodies are atrophying in a hospital bed somewhere and their brains get fried when they die in the game or any attempt is made to remove them from the game. Fuck yeah, consequences.
MC-kun
Kirito is a pathetic protagonist done right. He can’t trust others, most people he gets involved with die, and he’s filled with enough self-loathing to make Shinji blush. But he doesn’t (well, hasn’t) spent ridiculously long periods of time moping about. The people working on the show figured out that people don’t want to watch someone sit around and cry for an entire episode. Instead the show lets us know what he’s been up to.
For example, in episode 3 MC-kun’s love interest dies. After that, it cuts to a new scene with a little line of text at the bottom simply stating the date. Then a character comes along and says “I heard you’ve been training quite a bit recently.” If you’re not fucking stupid, you’d figure out that Kirito was so distraught at her death that he launched himself into a six-month long training regimen just so he could kill a boss to get a rare item that may resurrect her even though he knew he’d probably die doing so.
And it doesn’t end well, which is what I love about this show.
This is not a show for idiots, so if you got to episode 3 and didn’t understand what was going on, wait until you’re older to watch the show or kill yourself. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a shounen that doesn’t pander to the lowest common denominator and I’m fucking enjoying it.
Overall rating: +K+G
“This is not a show for idiots, so if you got to episode 3 and didn’t understand what was going on, wait until you’re older to watch the show or kill yourself. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a shounen that doesn’t pander to the lowest common denominator and I’m fucking enjoying it.”
Its a fucking mindless harem what are you talking about?
I wrote this right after watching episode 3. I had thought it was going to turn out better than it did. It’s an Archives post; there’s a reason I didn’t post it before.
Also, harem? What?
Asuna, Sachi, and Liz = harem.
Count of three = harem
Im pretty sure thats going to triple in the upcoming seasons
The fuck? There’s a fucking harem now?! BUT HE FUCKING MARRIED ASUNA
Edit: Unless something changed, Sachi’s dead, Liz gave up, and Asuna got her man.
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/images/thumb/7/7d/Sword_Art_Online_Vol_03_-_301.jpg/421px-Sword_Art_Online_Vol_03_-_301.jpg
You were warned -.-
Oh fuck everything about that
That image doesnt really count. Since its just other women hitting on him in another game (alfheim online)
But its true about the harem though. What I’m listing isnt much of a spoiler but its the definite list of his “collection”.
Asuna (main gf),
Liz (blacksmith girl),
Silica (beast tamer girl),
Suguha (the cousin whos like a “sister”),
Shino (other girl he saved in another game),
Yui (the adorable AI daughter)
and Alice (who will be introduced much much much later.)
So you finished it? Hm.
Just wait till you see the next 12 or so episodes coming soon and you;ll see what I mean(If you cant tell already…)
Lol, you probably think that SAO is awful now. Episode 14 was one of the worst episodes of the season and the year.
I think I watched up to episode 9 and then read the wiki before realizing it was only going to get worse.
At least it’s not as bad as your most anticipated show of 2012, Arcana Famiglia. And it’s not like Arcana was the worst show of the year or anything.
Oh wait.
I’m not altogether good at predictionating.
I’m totally disappointed with Arcana too.
Oh well, after the first episode everybody knew on /a/ that it’s fucking shit. CRAWLING IN MY SKIN
Too bad about this one eh? Too bad…
I actually did think it had promise in terms of the setting but wow, the execution was just SO BAD that it couldn’t be saved from itself. Much like the other hugely hyped pile of shit from this author, it’s an interesting premise that has a complete breakdown when it comes times to write characters and details. Awful, just awful, and the legions of people that hyped this to hell and back before it aired should cut off their hands so they can’t use the internet anymore, because they are BAD PEOPLE who should be ashamed.
I need these hands for fapping. Please understand.
Well novel-wise volume 1 wasnt too bad. Especially if you pretended that none of the latter materials existed. It would have been great if he left it there.
But then the author had to go milking the rest of it by creating the side-stories and then continuing/extending/milking it for all its worth.
Nah, it’s pretty nice shounen with cool fights, just don’t think too much about it or you’ll see how bad it is. Shows like that are needed.
Yeah the show is all right for what it is. My main problem is that were a metric fuckton of people before it aired making it out to be the best thing since they invented porn. And it’s not, it’s an average shounen show at best.
Actually, I was a little disappointed with SAO’s fanbase as I expected something like second Guilty Crown but they stayed rather quiet compared to pre-season hype.
I think the execution of anime would’ve been better if they started by volume 1 and have done flashbacks, than the chronological order.
SAO was pretty much “Wasted Potential: The Series” for me. Oddly I might have enjoyed it more if I didn’t agree with you that the concept was damn, damn good. It is a chance to do a real hard scifi, realistic situation, with pretty near-term relevance. With such a strong concept potential stories practically write themselves.
Unfortunately the author, and in turn the adaption, simply wasn’t up to realizing that potential. It’s disjointed, it doesn’t really explore consequences very well, blah blah blah. I can only recall a few other instances where I really thought “Damn, that COULD have been so incredible”. Oh well, it was still an OK ride I guess.