Wolfe reporting.
Sword Art Online, SAO, ソードアート・オンライン, call it what you will. I discovered SAO in my social media wanderings, ever watchful in my hunt for good anime. Since then, I have determined that SAO is, to some varying degree, "popular". Having seen it myself, I am not too surprised that it's popular, but rather than discuss the social elements that likely made it so, I will instead review the anime itself.
Firstly, ソードアート・オンライン is actually a really close translation (similar to Chaos;Head), and definitely has English influences on this one. There's ソード (sword), アート (art), and オンライン (online). For giggles, listen to オンライン in a translator. Transliterated, the entire thing is pronounced "Sōdo Āto Onrain".
Remember, for my rating system, I intend to slowly transition into a mark-down and mark-up system (starting with perfect), with a combination of professional and opinionated responses across the field. It's not perfect and never will be, but it's getting closer. So if I speak down on something in a category but give the category a high/perfect score, it's because I thought other elements outweighed the negative one[s]. It's still a work in progress.
SAO was a pretty good anime, in my personal opinion. It's 25 episodes long, but in retrospection, the anime felt incredibly brief. This is likely due to the intensity of the timeline, but I'll discuss more on this under "plot". Genre-wise, it's labeled as thus: Action/Adventure, Science fantasy, Romance. Personally, I think the label of "Romance" is ill-fitting here-- while the main character's actions change depending on his attachments, this isn't a kiss-kiss cutesy anime. It was appropriately dark without being bloody or disturbing. This anime feels "new" and sharp, clean and well-cut.
I give it a 11 / 13! (=84.6%)
Concept: The concept behind Sword Art Online is simple and brilliant. There's a game released called Sword Art Online, and it's one of the first "full-dive" games, where one dons a helmet, the body goes to sleep and the mind gets to go to the video game realm. The main character, Kirito, played the beta, and is now playing the full release, along with many others... when he realized that he cannot log out. For more, refer to "plot".
Introduction Sequence: 0 / 1. Yeah, that's right, I'm marking down the introduction big-time. I was close to giving it a 0.5, but the faults weigh it down too much. What faults, you ask? Spoilers!! Coming into an anime, I think it's unreasonable for massive spoilers to be in the introduction sequence. Especially in this anime, it took a lot out of it for me. There was eye candy, and that was nice. I guess this sounds harsh coming from the guy who rates so highly, but this is, to me, an example of what shouldn't be done in an introduction sequence. It all boils down to Asuna and her appearances with Kirito. This caused me to, through the entire anime, wait and expect for them to work together. I'll talk more about the two of them under "plot" with a heavy spoilers label, as it should be. Anyhow, here's the link: Link to SAO Introduction Sequence (with Spanish subtitles, for some reason. I get the impression that SAO is really popular in Spanish-speaking countries).
Animation Style: 1 / 1. Ah, I was close to giving this a 0.5... see, I like the animation style for the first plot arc (episodes 1 through 14), but the animation style in the second arc (episodes 15 through 25) has slightly larger eyes. This irks me. The eyes in the first arc were just fine, why'd they go about changing it?! Regardless, they didn't exactly go chibi on the chibi-to-harsh scale, so I'll keep it at a 1.
Examples:
Music: 1 / 1. I noticed once or twice during the anime that the music was gorgeous, and I practically never notice the music. Hearing now the OST unaccompanied, I stand by my opinion: it's beautiful music. It definitely has some effort into it. Link: Link to Sword Art Online OST.
Plot: 4 / 4. The plot has some dents, sure, but they pale next to the overarching plot... and Roxas would disagree with me on some of the following points, but that's why "plot" is both professional and opinionated. After the concept piece, we learn that all players are trapped in the game: if anyone in the real world tries to take off their helmet-piece, they'll die. Oh, and teeny tiny other fact: if they die in-game, they also die in real life. No respawns. Characters are also changed into the height/face/gender/etc. of their real-life person. The only way to escape alive: to beat all 100 levels (and the boss at the end of each level). This leads to no blood, only pixelation and dissolving upon death. This is a nice and dark anime, though, as you might imagine. So, Kirito, having played the Beta, knows what to do right off the bat. He goes off doing quests and getting XP (there being a limited supply of both), and generally gets ahead of the game. He's a loner-type, doing his own solo deal. SORT-OF SPOILER IN THIS NEXT SENTENCE: Eventually, by repeatedly working with or hitting heads with Asuna, they get together, hence the "romance" genre listing; this was completely expected by me, thanks to that spoiler-laden introduction sequence (surprise is nice, okay?!).
All in all, it was a great plot. Roxas' issue (and what I enjoyed) was the speed of progression of the timeline. After every episode or two, the next one would start with "8 months later" or something of the sort, leaving linear folk like Roxas crying, wanting to know what happened in the gaps. Myself, I prefer and understand the fast-moving mentality. Since I'm not quite as heartless as Roxas, I can attach to characters quickly enough that if... ill events befall them, I'm actually saddened. That being sad, this was a dark anime, and definitely had its tear-inducing moments and scenes. I loved it.
Characters: 4 / 4. Roxas will also disagree with me here. I loved these characters!! I attach easily to most characters in anime regardless, so when they're well-developed, it's all the better! Each character had their back-story and their chapter in the story itself, in a nice, neat, organized fashion. It was predictable to a tiny degree, but pleasant all the same. The character I didn't really like I can't really talk about, because she's in the second arc (Kirigaya Suguha). In each character's "chapter", we learn about the character through their interactions with Kirito. Not much more I can say without spoiling anything, really: character development was clean-cut and straightforward. Pictures: Kirito, Asuna, Suguha, Yui, Klein, Agil, Heathcliff, Silica, Lisbeth, and Sachi.
Power Balance: 0 / 1. I'm not giving any power balance points here. Sure, there's an excuse for Kirito to be as OP as he is, but excuses don't suddenly make the power balanced again. There are three OP characters I can think of, Kirito being the only one I can name, and everyone else is, well... someone to be killed for a progression of the plot, basically. I don't see much power anywhere close to these three characters, these outrageous outliers. Warning: main character is definitely OP. You don't believe me? He's listed as the #4 top Overpowered Anime Character of 2012. Here's that video. {By the way, he gets even more OP in arc two!}
Addictability: 1 / 1. I found this anime to be wholesomely addicting in the first arc. The second arc was addicting solely because it ran off of fumes from the first arc. Again: first arc > second arc.
If you like video games (especially role-playing) and you like anime... well, this is the best of both worlds. I'll call the genre Action/Adventure, personally. It's popular, though, but you should watch it anyways.
Wallpapers:
Guys, there are an unbelievable amount of good wallpapers for SAO. These are just a few:
AMV's:
In order of what I consider to be skillful editing (best on top):
On My Own (Ashes Remain)
Slow Burn (Atreyu)
A Place Where You Belong (Bullet For My Valentine)
There are loads of SAO AMV's. I liked those three.
Next Time: Date A Live, maybe. In all actuality, I think I'll do Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom.
Wolfe out.
Sword Art Online, SAO, ソードアート・オンライン, call it what you will. I discovered SAO in my social media wanderings, ever watchful in my hunt for good anime. Since then, I have determined that SAO is, to some varying degree, "popular". Having seen it myself, I am not too surprised that it's popular, but rather than discuss the social elements that likely made it so, I will instead review the anime itself.
Firstly, ソードアート・オンライン is actually a really close translation (similar to Chaos;Head), and definitely has English influences on this one. There's ソード (sword), アート (art), and オンライン (online). For giggles, listen to オンライン in a translator. Transliterated, the entire thing is pronounced "Sōdo Āto Onrain".
Remember, for my rating system, I intend to slowly transition into a mark-down and mark-up system (starting with perfect), with a combination of professional and opinionated responses across the field. It's not perfect and never will be, but it's getting closer. So if I speak down on something in a category but give the category a high/perfect score, it's because I thought other elements outweighed the negative one[s]. It's still a work in progress.
SAO was a pretty good anime, in my personal opinion. It's 25 episodes long, but in retrospection, the anime felt incredibly brief. This is likely due to the intensity of the timeline, but I'll discuss more on this under "plot". Genre-wise, it's labeled as thus: Action/Adventure, Science fantasy, Romance. Personally, I think the label of "Romance" is ill-fitting here-- while the main character's actions change depending on his attachments, this isn't a kiss-kiss cutesy anime. It was appropriately dark without being bloody or disturbing. This anime feels "new" and sharp, clean and well-cut.
I give it a 11 / 13! (=84.6%)
Concept: The concept behind Sword Art Online is simple and brilliant. There's a game released called Sword Art Online, and it's one of the first "full-dive" games, where one dons a helmet, the body goes to sleep and the mind gets to go to the video game realm. The main character, Kirito, played the beta, and is now playing the full release, along with many others... when he realized that he cannot log out. For more, refer to "plot".
 |
| Sword Art Online. Pretty freaking beautiful! Source. |
Introduction Sequence: 0 / 1. Yeah, that's right, I'm marking down the introduction big-time. I was close to giving it a 0.5, but the faults weigh it down too much. What faults, you ask? Spoilers!! Coming into an anime, I think it's unreasonable for massive spoilers to be in the introduction sequence. Especially in this anime, it took a lot out of it for me. There was eye candy, and that was nice. I guess this sounds harsh coming from the guy who rates so highly, but this is, to me, an example of what shouldn't be done in an introduction sequence. It all boils down to Asuna and her appearances with Kirito. This caused me to, through the entire anime, wait and expect for them to work together. I'll talk more about the two of them under "plot" with a heavy spoilers label, as it should be. Anyhow, here's the link: Link to SAO Introduction Sequence (with Spanish subtitles, for some reason. I get the impression that SAO is really popular in Spanish-speaking countries).
Animation Style: 1 / 1. Ah, I was close to giving this a 0.5... see, I like the animation style for the first plot arc (episodes 1 through 14), but the animation style in the second arc (episodes 15 through 25) has slightly larger eyes. This irks me. The eyes in the first arc were just fine, why'd they go about changing it?! Regardless, they didn't exactly go chibi on the chibi-to-harsh scale, so I'll keep it at a 1.
Examples:
 |
| Animation style for Arc One. B-E-A-utiful. Source. |
 |
| Animation style for Arc Two. Again: irks me, but beautiful. Source. |
Music: 1 / 1. I noticed once or twice during the anime that the music was gorgeous, and I practically never notice the music. Hearing now the OST unaccompanied, I stand by my opinion: it's beautiful music. It definitely has some effort into it. Link: Link to Sword Art Online OST.
Plot: 4 / 4. The plot has some dents, sure, but they pale next to the overarching plot... and Roxas would disagree with me on some of the following points, but that's why "plot" is both professional and opinionated. After the concept piece, we learn that all players are trapped in the game: if anyone in the real world tries to take off their helmet-piece, they'll die. Oh, and teeny tiny other fact: if they die in-game, they also die in real life. No respawns. Characters are also changed into the height/face/gender/etc. of their real-life person. The only way to escape alive: to beat all 100 levels (and the boss at the end of each level). This leads to no blood, only pixelation and dissolving upon death. This is a nice and dark anime, though, as you might imagine. So, Kirito, having played the Beta, knows what to do right off the bat. He goes off doing quests and getting XP (there being a limited supply of both), and generally gets ahead of the game. He's a loner-type, doing his own solo deal. SORT-OF SPOILER IN THIS NEXT SENTENCE: Eventually, by repeatedly working with or hitting heads with Asuna, they get together, hence the "romance" genre listing; this was completely expected by me, thanks to that spoiler-laden introduction sequence (surprise is nice, okay?!).
All in all, it was a great plot. Roxas' issue (and what I enjoyed) was the speed of progression of the timeline. After every episode or two, the next one would start with "8 months later" or something of the sort, leaving linear folk like Roxas crying, wanting to know what happened in the gaps. Myself, I prefer and understand the fast-moving mentality. Since I'm not quite as heartless as Roxas, I can attach to characters quickly enough that if... ill events befall them, I'm actually saddened. That being sad, this was a dark anime, and definitely had its tear-inducing moments and scenes. I loved it.
Characters: 4 / 4. Roxas will also disagree with me here. I loved these characters!! I attach easily to most characters in anime regardless, so when they're well-developed, it's all the better! Each character had their back-story and their chapter in the story itself, in a nice, neat, organized fashion. It was predictable to a tiny degree, but pleasant all the same. The character I didn't really like I can't really talk about, because she's in the second arc (Kirigaya Suguha). In each character's "chapter", we learn about the character through their interactions with Kirito. Not much more I can say without spoiling anything, really: character development was clean-cut and straightforward. Pictures: Kirito, Asuna, Suguha, Yui, Klein, Agil, Heathcliff, Silica, Lisbeth, and Sachi.
Power Balance: 0 / 1. I'm not giving any power balance points here. Sure, there's an excuse for Kirito to be as OP as he is, but excuses don't suddenly make the power balanced again. There are three OP characters I can think of, Kirito being the only one I can name, and everyone else is, well... someone to be killed for a progression of the plot, basically. I don't see much power anywhere close to these three characters, these outrageous outliers. Warning: main character is definitely OP. You don't believe me? He's listed as the #4 top Overpowered Anime Character of 2012. Here's that video. {By the way, he gets even more OP in arc two!}
Addictability: 1 / 1. I found this anime to be wholesomely addicting in the first arc. The second arc was addicting solely because it ran off of fumes from the first arc. Again: first arc > second arc.
If you like video games (especially role-playing) and you like anime... well, this is the best of both worlds. I'll call the genre Action/Adventure, personally. It's popular, though, but you should watch it anyways.
Wallpapers:
Guys, there are an unbelievable amount of good wallpapers for SAO. These are just a few:
 |
| Red and blue. Eye candy. Source. |
 |
| Lots of characters. Source. |
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| Not sure what's going on here, but I like it. Source. |
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| I'm missing the roman "II" reference, but it's nice. Source. |
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| This. I like this. Source. |
AMV's:
In order of what I consider to be skillful editing (best on top):
On My Own (Ashes Remain)
Slow Burn (Atreyu)
A Place Where You Belong (Bullet For My Valentine)
There are loads of SAO AMV's. I liked those three.
Next Time: Date A Live, maybe. In all actuality, I think I'll do Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom.
Wolfe out.
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