BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

renaycu I was swept away in the game, it was so cool. I'm new to anime, but I just it!

dayronsanchezarias Honestly, I dont dabble much in making own reviews, English is not my primary languaje and mostly if something has already been said I dont feel the need to say it myself. In this case I felt the urgency to cast a stone because: all good reviews I ve read are fanboyism and all bad reviews seem from college graduate anime critics who seem to have been somehow personally aggravated by the producers. I really cant understand if bad reviewers hate this anime so much how come they made such an effort?? I ve read two pages bad reviews of SAO!! An from people who admit to have watched it twice!!! Come on!! I dont think SAO is perfect, no anime is (except for FMA:B, of course) I wouldnt put it in in a top five but IT IS IN MY TOP FIVE, I think thats the poblem with the great difference in opinions about this show, that peoplo who like it, reeeeally like it and people who dont think their main purpose on earth is to discredit the series and its followers. And the reason why it is in in my top five is because all the things thar are clearly wrong about this anime dont care to me, and the things that might be wrong about this anime (things that you wont like, but thats your personal taste) in my opinion contribute to the strong points. So I will list 3 categories, clearly wrong , relative and strong pointsClearly wrong: the villains, the are either to short seen (the creator of SAO), confusing and unconvincing (Death Gun) or honestly a joke (elf dude in Alfheim) the passage betwen SAO and Alfheim, its a letdown, definitedly. I can dig the borderline incestuous onee-chan, that feels so Japanese, but going from certain death to waste-time-having-to backtrack actually feels like the wiped something in a hurry to go on with the show Mother´s rosario arc: the actual story behind the knigths is gritting and emotional, but upfront it just seemed dum.Relative stuff: Harem: I personally dont like it, if this was a harem show I wouldnt like it, but as a shounen with harem, specially where the harem does not hurt the main strong points, I simply dont care. Yes, Kirito is the ladies boss, so what, in real life hot girls are the bosses everywhere so its a match Combat system: When you have a 900 episodes series like Naruto yo expect to understand the mechanics behind every move and jutsu, SAO is a anime for gamers, as Warcraft live action movie is for WoW fans, if you dont know the subject you might come to like it but you wont have as many details laid in from the start. For example, a gamer would know from the start everything related to an MMORPG, classes, skills, weapons, party formation, strategic and battle tactics, items, quests and side quests, etc, etc. Obviously you dont get an explanation of oll this in the series. In fact, Warcraft movie also has the same haters/lovers mixed reviews, maybe its common to all shows aimed to a specific segment, thats what we get after GOT mainstreamed high fantasy in cable TV. bland characters, this is tricky, I reckon characters in this show ARE bland, and not only side chars, but mains as well. I could have put this in clearly wrong section but again, having bland characters (specially inside the games) is a part of the critical condradiction that for me is the golden heart of the show. there may be more but Im tired of typing The strong points: Evasion. This is an anime about teenagers living in a world where they can escape their reality, do things they cannot do in the actual society. This is of course no new topic and is also very Japanese like since you can see that phenomenon actually there; but in some way modern society outside Japan is also turning into that. People are transforming human relationship skills into social networking skills; now is more important the selfie you took than the things you experienced visiting a place, peoplo have more friends and are most times more sociable online than in real life. The characters in this show (I mean the actual humans) are anti social, traumatized, repressed whilst their avatars are popular, strong, loved-all-around. If you hadnt "bland characters" you wouldnt get that yuxtaposition. And the silver lining is that in the end, this boys and girls that went to a digital world to evade their sad reality made friends and found love and brought that love to their actual lives. To me is like the endind in "Neverending story" where the boy tries to bring to his stranged dad the water of life but it vanishes as soons as he leaves the fantasy world and as his tears roll down his face his father reckons he actually brought back the water of life. For me thats powerfull, maybe because I see myself there, bu then, when have you actually felt something if you dont see yourself in that place. Emotions: Emotions in this show are real, characters may be bland, but their backgrounds are well stablished and their emotions as events unfold are visceral. The confusion when they cant log out of SAO, thats brilliant The horror when they find out they find out abuout perma death, the mixture of bravery and stubborness of kirito of fighting front line in spite of the danger, the crush between kirito and asuna may not be very elaborated but the loving relationship they describe afterwards is actually touching, the digital parenthood of Yui and their pain when they loose her, kirito´s sister forbbiden and hopeless love for him, shinons trauma (epic). The sad story of terminal patients in mothers rosario arc. All these may be ill connected between each other but no one can deny they are deeply touching. The music: Again, not in my favourite 3 (SNK and FMA) but i had never seen two intros as good as Crossing fields and Ignite son close to each other. Most series have one outstanding theme, FMA has maybe two or three scattered in the two version but SAO is a two shot seasons anime with epic intros to begin each of them....."Untill my voice reaches you, Im going to keep calling your name·."Aim at this contradictory world, and press the trigger without hessitation", daaaamnn

heidewexellkate I would give this selection a 9 out of 10 first the first arc, particularly the first fifteen episodes. The concept of the show was great, and although I am aware of the 'If you die in the video game, you die in real life' concept, it is a very fresh perspective on what this is like. It has a very interesting psychological side to it, showing the mental impacts that the game is taking on players and explaining just how everything came to be, even if something that occurs to the characters isn't necessarily mentioned before in the series. When characters commit suicide, it shows just how, and why, and why characters are murdering their own spouse. It shows how Kirito is afraid of being in another guild after he lost his own, and why he is hesitant to let Asuna partake in the big boss battles. The rules to the game and the player interaction with the system is interesting to watch, viewing how they eventually fall into a rhythm with their life inside of the game and how they choose to live out their lives. Not to mention, the story of Kirito and Asuna is one of the greatest love stories that I've ever seen, just because of the drama of all of it, and how they are able to overcome opposition to be together. As Yui said, they were different. It amazed me that through it all, the series was giving hints as to what was to come, and even though it showed this tough guy fighting bad guys and kicking butt, it had him emerge and the show emerge as something deeper. Just the surrealness of it all was breathtaking. They were meant to be from the start as partners in their first boss battle, and when he first laid eyes on her true form and called her by her name, it was destiny. I'm a sucker for romance, and although there were a few flaws with their relationship, such as the lack of kissing. I mean, they were married, and in the first fourteen episodes, they kissed all of one or two times. Still, the fact that they met again in that meadow, and it proceeded with them becoming friends, spending the night at each other's houses, risking their lives and positions for each other, to getting married, buying a house, sleeping together, murdering for each other, having a child (sort of), and committing suicide and dying for each other, that takes some real guts and a sort of love that I can't imagine. Plus, they were only sixteen and seventeen. I personally was very drawn to this show and the characters in it. For the most part, the characters were fairly developed. The only things that I didn't quite like about some of the characters were that Kirito and Asuna were liked by way too many people. Honestly, I don't know how Kirito was so popular with the ladies. He has more of this rough and tough prickly personality, and therefore the fact that every girl that met him had a crush on him (including his own sister/cousin) was kind of silly. Alfheim Online was okay, and it seemed to be an interesting video game, with Kirito falling into more of this dull trance, not really building onto his character very much. Still, it contributes to the love story of Kirito and Asuna (and yes, I know that his name is Kazuto, but I like his name of Kirito), which is what I was really looking for, to begin with. The graphics and soundtrack for the anime are lovely. I think that the landscapes and different floors in Aincrad were stunning, and their oil painting backgrounds were beautiful, especially during a sunset. The style of drawing used in the show is nice, and I like the clothing and figure of the characters. The characters don't all look the same, for one. The soundtrack, using a variety of woodwind and string instruments, particularly violin, piccolo, and piano, is lovely, and I always liked listening to the scenes where Kirito and Asuna were in their woodland house, because the music was great. It has a very soothing tone, and the music is always appropriate for their situation. I highly suggest listening to the soundtrack online. Overall, I loved Sword Art Online, and thanks to the length of the episodes, I was able to finish binge watching their time in Aincrad and Alfheim in about two days. It's a fascinating story with a cool concept and I couldn't bring myself away from the television.

endadoyle WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS I first watched SAO when I was starting Secondary school (Around 6th grade for Americans) The hype for this show was skyrocketing in my school and I was one of those die-hard fans for the show. That was 5 years ago, and my opinion of the show has drastically changed. SAO starts off REALLY strong as it's hard enough to engage an audience with such an over-saturated genre. However SAO had a very unique sense of horror and dread going from a happy, light mood to complete panic and unknowing. Thats what hooked me on the show originally, the characters throughout the WHOLE show either wanna f*** Kirito or are bland filers who are to further the meaningless plot. Although there are two exceptions (Klein and Yuuki) and I'll get to that. Anyway after the first episode, here comes the adventures of edgy Jesus! who is about as deep as a matchbox. Another HUGE flaw of the show is its pacing, you can't write something then ignore everything that happened before it! Let me just give some context.Episode 2: Beat the first bossEpisode 3: Floor 50To me, this is nothing but laziness. But before I move on I'd like to mention even after re-watching I did REALLY enjoy this arc. Believe it or not the show has a great soundtrack and is animated so well I can't help but enjoy the Aincrad arc.Aincrad arc: 7/10 It's entertaining....need I say more?The second half of the first season was a dumpster fire, nothing short of fan-service between furthering a relationship everyone is a little sick of. Oh did I mention Kirito's Sister/Cousin wants to f*** him? To me all their is to say about this arc is Asuna went from cool sword wielding bad-ass to Sloppy damsel in distress who sits in a cage waiting for her narcissistic boyfriend to come save her. Also she gets assaulted sexually...Family friendly content!ALO arc: 2/10 Ruined the whole show and gave it a bad name...Not much to say about Gun Gale it had a really interesting plot and Sinon had a nice developing character from start to end. Then again, she wants to f*** Kirito.....So that kinda kills it. DeathGun is a bad-ass. Even though he doesn't say much in character Ignite was a great opening too. It really brought what the arc was about to life.Gungale: 6/10 Unique and interesting but then again kinda fell flat with the other part of the plot leading to it slowly becoming irrelevant.Mothers Rosario was a beautiful way to sum up season 2 with the main character (Edgelord) being replaced by Yuuki a bright bubbly character with a helluva fighting spirit. The show did everything right it was beautifully written and the ending made me cry my eyes out for a couple day straight. Probably my favorite arc, the development of Asuna and Yuuki's relationship was so special and adorable.Mothers Rosario: 9/10 I love this arc and I just hope they can make season 3 like this.Overall I'd give the show a solid 5/10 as it just lacks consistency but it is a show I will never forget. You should watch this show and forge your own opinion of it though, after all I'm not Jesus, and I'm certainly not edgy Jesus ;)