Okay, this is basically a review of link (SAO) based soley on the first six episodes. I may đăng lên a final review once I finish it. On the other hand, I may not.
.......................
If there's one thing I know, it's that I'm weird. Unusual. I have long since come to terms with the fact that there will always be things that practically every other member of the human race understands that will be Mất tích one me. For example, why on earth are cockroaches so disgusting? I mean, WHY?! I just don't get it.
This goes for anime as well. Some of the shows I've enjoyed the most, from a critical standpoint, are better off at the bottom of a bãi rác, dumpster than airing on television, but despite how easy I am to please, every now and then I'll watch an extremely được ưa chuộng show, and think, "What makes this so darn great?" SAO is one of these shows.
I had heard many a person sing their praises to this anime, so, despite my usual laziness, I forced myself to check it out. Quite honestly, very few of the shows I've seen have failed to live up to the hype as much as SAO did.
Story: 3/10
The story begins innocently enough. The new virtual reality game, Sword Art Online, has just being launched. link, our main character, was a beta tester, and already having a taste of the wonderfulness that this game is, is pretty darn excited about it. To play the game, one wears a helmet, and while "sleeping", may enter the game.
Soon after entering the game, Kirito meets link, who, after discovering Kirito was a beta tester, asks him for help with training. Things seem to be going well, but then the two of them realize - they can't log out of the game. Suddenly, all of the players are teleported to a town square, where a Game Master, who reveals himself to be Akihiko Kayaba, the game's creator, announces that they are trapped inside of it. What's worse, if they die in the game, they die in real life as well, via evil-microwave-doom-thingies in their virtual reality helmets. This also goes for if someone outside the game attempts to remove the helmet. Kayaba tells them that the only way to escape the game is bởi clearing all of its one hundred floors.
That's the first episode in a nutshell. Is the plot creative? No. Does it still have potential? Yes.
Unfortunately, the writers decided to take any potential it had and throw it out the window. In the tiếp theo five episodes, Kirito floats from floor to floor, meeting and assisting other players along the way. This could have been exciting in a spunky, episodic, link-ish way, but alas. Since there are a hundred floors in the SAO game, I certainly can't expect there to be an episode for every floor, but the pacing was so incredibly dreadful, they'd probably be better off just skipping to when Kirito arrives at the final floor. Time skips are okay in some cases, but when they're poorly excuted, and in between every episode at that, it's just painful to watch. It wasn't at all unusual to see Kirito twenty hoặc thêm floors farther than he was in the trước đó episode.
Animation: 7/10
Even if a show's story is equal in quality to that of a crappy Yaoi OVA, A-1 Pictures stands out in my mind as a studio that always delivers in the phim hoạt hình department. It's easily the best part about SAO. Though there is some obvious computer animation, and the movement isn't always smooth, the art itself, especially the character designs, are beautiful.
Sound: 5/10
The âm nhạc of SAO earns a 5/10 for its sheer mediocrity. None of the tracks stand out as being amazingly good, not even the opening hoặc ending themes. However, none of them stand out as being amazingly bad either.
I haven't watched enough to form a solid opinion on the voice diễn xuất in this show, but from what I've heard, it's the same case as the soundtrack; none of it stands out as particularly good hoặc bad.
Characters: 4/10
When I first saw Kirito, I thought of a young link, but with looks, personality, and tổng thể epicness down eighty percent. In all honesty, he doesn't chịu, gấu much resemblence to the Black Reaper at all; the only real similarities are their outfits and tendency to float around in the background, despite being the main character. When it matters, he's a good enough character to play the role of lead, but not unlike other aspects of this show, he isn't memorable in the slightest. The secondary characters are average too, though I'd give them points for a couple of them actually being interesting.
Point is, Kirito and the secondary characters aren't thrilling hoặc anything, but they're certainly not the reason that I gave SAO a 4/10 for characters. The reason for my choice was how the hiển thị chooses to treat its minor characters.
My stance on minor characters is that they should either a) float around in the background throughout the course of an anime hoặc b) allow for bạn to become emotionally attached to them, but only stick around for one hoặc two episodes for one reason hoặc another.
The writers must've considered minor characters to be, rather than characters, something like, well, súng thần công, pháo fodder. They aren't made relatable in the slightest, and tend to die in the same episode in which they're introduced. It's clear they're only there because there's supposed to be 10,000+ people in the game, not only Kirito and a handful of others. In fact, it was so hard to sympathize with these characters, there were multiple times that I, despite myself, found myself laughing hysterically at their deaths. It really is sad.
Overall: 3.75/10
Despite its rave reviews, Sword Art Online has so far failed to impress me. Though it gets some points for its animation, all in all, it's coming off as a rather weak anime so far. However, I do plan to continue watching it, riding on a small speck of hope that the staff will come to their senses and realize they have to change something. I'll hopefully have a review on the complete series written bởi the time it ends (not super late like this one). Anyway, if you're interested in sharing your opinion on SAO, hoặc this review, please do. I'm open to all [constructive] criticism.
.......................
If there's one thing I know, it's that I'm weird. Unusual. I have long since come to terms with the fact that there will always be things that practically every other member of the human race understands that will be Mất tích one me. For example, why on earth are cockroaches so disgusting? I mean, WHY?! I just don't get it.
This goes for anime as well. Some of the shows I've enjoyed the most, from a critical standpoint, are better off at the bottom of a bãi rác, dumpster than airing on television, but despite how easy I am to please, every now and then I'll watch an extremely được ưa chuộng show, and think, "What makes this so darn great?" SAO is one of these shows.
I had heard many a person sing their praises to this anime, so, despite my usual laziness, I forced myself to check it out. Quite honestly, very few of the shows I've seen have failed to live up to the hype as much as SAO did.
Story: 3/10
The story begins innocently enough. The new virtual reality game, Sword Art Online, has just being launched. link, our main character, was a beta tester, and already having a taste of the wonderfulness that this game is, is pretty darn excited about it. To play the game, one wears a helmet, and while "sleeping", may enter the game.
Soon after entering the game, Kirito meets link, who, after discovering Kirito was a beta tester, asks him for help with training. Things seem to be going well, but then the two of them realize - they can't log out of the game. Suddenly, all of the players are teleported to a town square, where a Game Master, who reveals himself to be Akihiko Kayaba, the game's creator, announces that they are trapped inside of it. What's worse, if they die in the game, they die in real life as well, via evil-microwave-doom-thingies in their virtual reality helmets. This also goes for if someone outside the game attempts to remove the helmet. Kayaba tells them that the only way to escape the game is bởi clearing all of its one hundred floors.
That's the first episode in a nutshell. Is the plot creative? No. Does it still have potential? Yes.
Unfortunately, the writers decided to take any potential it had and throw it out the window. In the tiếp theo five episodes, Kirito floats from floor to floor, meeting and assisting other players along the way. This could have been exciting in a spunky, episodic, link-ish way, but alas. Since there are a hundred floors in the SAO game, I certainly can't expect there to be an episode for every floor, but the pacing was so incredibly dreadful, they'd probably be better off just skipping to when Kirito arrives at the final floor. Time skips are okay in some cases, but when they're poorly excuted, and in between every episode at that, it's just painful to watch. It wasn't at all unusual to see Kirito twenty hoặc thêm floors farther than he was in the trước đó episode.
Animation: 7/10
Even if a show's story is equal in quality to that of a crappy Yaoi OVA, A-1 Pictures stands out in my mind as a studio that always delivers in the phim hoạt hình department. It's easily the best part about SAO. Though there is some obvious computer animation, and the movement isn't always smooth, the art itself, especially the character designs, are beautiful.
Sound: 5/10
The âm nhạc of SAO earns a 5/10 for its sheer mediocrity. None of the tracks stand out as being amazingly good, not even the opening hoặc ending themes. However, none of them stand out as being amazingly bad either.
I haven't watched enough to form a solid opinion on the voice diễn xuất in this show, but from what I've heard, it's the same case as the soundtrack; none of it stands out as particularly good hoặc bad.
Characters: 4/10
When I first saw Kirito, I thought of a young link, but with looks, personality, and tổng thể epicness down eighty percent. In all honesty, he doesn't chịu, gấu much resemblence to the Black Reaper at all; the only real similarities are their outfits and tendency to float around in the background, despite being the main character. When it matters, he's a good enough character to play the role of lead, but not unlike other aspects of this show, he isn't memorable in the slightest. The secondary characters are average too, though I'd give them points for a couple of them actually being interesting.
Point is, Kirito and the secondary characters aren't thrilling hoặc anything, but they're certainly not the reason that I gave SAO a 4/10 for characters. The reason for my choice was how the hiển thị chooses to treat its minor characters.
My stance on minor characters is that they should either a) float around in the background throughout the course of an anime hoặc b) allow for bạn to become emotionally attached to them, but only stick around for one hoặc two episodes for one reason hoặc another.
The writers must've considered minor characters to be, rather than characters, something like, well, súng thần công, pháo fodder. They aren't made relatable in the slightest, and tend to die in the same episode in which they're introduced. It's clear they're only there because there's supposed to be 10,000+ people in the game, not only Kirito and a handful of others. In fact, it was so hard to sympathize with these characters, there were multiple times that I, despite myself, found myself laughing hysterically at their deaths. It really is sad.
Overall: 3.75/10
Despite its rave reviews, Sword Art Online has so far failed to impress me. Though it gets some points for its animation, all in all, it's coming off as a rather weak anime so far. However, I do plan to continue watching it, riding on a small speck of hope that the staff will come to their senses and realize they have to change something. I'll hopefully have a review on the complete series written bởi the time it ends (not super late like this one). Anyway, if you're interested in sharing your opinion on SAO, hoặc this review, please do. I'm open to all [constructive] criticism.
Copyright 2015 Dominic Sceski
