Sword Art Online... WTF Happened?

[Zetatrain]

Well for what its worth SAOII never gets as bad as the Fairy arc from season 1.

The first arc (Gun Gale Online) is pretty much like the first half of SAO in terms of quality, its okay. It has a nice setting and some good fights, while the writing is hit or miss. The arc for the new character is pretty good, while the writing for Kirito is a mixed bag (apparently he has PTSD). At the very least the arc has a decent ending.

The second arc (Excalibur) is only 3 episodes and is pretty much filler, but its at least entertaining.

The third arc (Mother's Rosario) is easily the best arc of SAOII and SAO as a whole. Asuna is the main focus while Kirito is barely present so consider it the exact opposite of the Fairy arc from season 1.


So does SAO get better? Yes, but only a little bit.

Is it worth continuing? If you were satisfied with the level of quality in the first half of SAO then yes, it is. Though don't expect a significant rise in quality until the Mother's Rosario arc.

I'd also like say that if anime with MMO settings are your thing then you should definitely check out Log Horizon. While it lacks the action and animation quality of SAO it more than makes up for that it terms of characters and world building. The first Season is fantastic and the 2nd season, while not as good season 1, is a solid continuation (though the animation takes a significant hit due to the anime switching studios).

 

[Lightspeaker]

(and I guess I'll need to call those divisions 'arcs'; Do anime shows usually change their titles or add a '2' for the second season?)

Usually add a 2 as far as I'm aware. Rarely see much different. Closest to something different I can think of off the top of my head is Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA which added "2wei" for the second season but the upcoming third is "2wei Herz".

Alternatively they just make the sequel a movie. Examples: Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Girls und Panzer.

 

[Danny Dowling]

season 1 was sick, the second bit in the other game was a bit crap in comparison. I feel as if it should have ended with that SAO (I mean for god sake, it's the NAME OF THE ANIME?). Him walking off in the credits at the hospital should have been the end of SOA; we can all just assume that he found his love and everything went happily ever after.

Whomever that was (first reply) that said season 2 was an advancement on season 1... I just don't see how that conclusion could ever be drawn. Pretty much all the stakes were lots in season 2, all that was left was his girl, season 1 was him saving like 5,000 people it was epic.

Still love the series anyway.

 

[And Man]

The first arc was poor and fairly generic, but still rather compelling to watch. The second arc is absolutely captivating in how hilariously bad it is. I honestly cannot understand how anyone over the age of 12 can genuinely like the second arc in any way other than so-bad-it's-good (and even then it's not "good", just entertaining). Haven't watched anything after the second arc, but I would imagine that it can't get any worse than that.

 

[Odbarc]

SAO was recommended to me so I decided to watch it. Japanese tropes and fan services aside, they seem to appear abundantly in any anime. It's likely a cultural thing like seeing excessive American flags in American products.
I only watched the first season and got bored of it. It's pretty but they could have done so much with the first game they were in and instead rushed through it to get to the next game.
I was able to lose interest in the characters easily. All the best possible character development seemed to happen off screen between long distances of time to explain the sudden changes to suit the episode.

I never really liked the idea of 'random schlub is just better than everyone' stories.

 

[Worgen]

If you want to see a well done tear down of the series, check this out.


If you want a really 'good stuck in a game' anime, then check out LogHorizon. It actually has mmo mechanics and stays consistant, plus it doesn't do something retarded like having the characters in an mmo and making death stick.

 

[CrystalShadow]

It's a pity there's so much terrible stuff before it that people often don't even get around to seeing Mother's Rosario...
I mean, I'm not going to sit here and claim it's brilliant. But by the standards of the series itself it's almost as if someone stopped for a moment and thought... "you know, we should maybe write something proper this time, and uh, not obsess so much over sex perhaps?"

Yeah... I would say to anyone inclined to watch it (yes, I know I'm repeating myself here), watch the first arc and the GGO arc if you can stomach something which is... Kinda bleh. Avoid the second arc unless you have a super-high tolerance for stupidity and stuff with creepy implications...
But above all, watch the mother's Rosario arc (the last arc in the second series.)

I mean, keep in mind that Mother's Rosario is basically as good as the series ever gets, so... Expect any other part of the series to be worse than that. But it's decent at least.

(and I guess I'll need to call those divisions 'arcs'; Do anime shows usually change their titles or add a '2' for the second season?)

Usually add a 2 as far as I'm aware. Rarely see much different. Closest to something different I can think of off the top of my head is Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA which added "2wei" for the second season but the upcoming third is "2wei Herz".

Alternatively they just make the sequel a movie. Examples: Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Girls und Panzer.

In my experience it depends on the kind of series.

Something which is a short one-off series will typically be either 13 or 26 episodes (sometimes it's 12 and 24, or the extra 2 are blatant filler 'flashback' episodes).

A series like that may have a second season later on, which either has a number (eg. SAO 2, Black butler II), or a subtitle (Eg. Gunslinger girl: el theatrino)

Some series don't bother with that though. (Spice & Wolf's second season is still just called 'spice and wolf', the same as the first. - You need the DVD's or some other method to tell them apart).

Longer-running ongoing series have distinct seasons too (still either 13 or 26 typically), but lose the distinction completely.
Naruto Season 2 is still just Naruto unleashed!, just like the first, (and 3rd, and 4th, and so on).
Identifying the seasons for a series like these is pretty tricky unless you have a point of reference.

The same goes for longer series that are more coherent and shorter. Fullmetal Alchemist:brotherhood is 64 episodes, and the title never changes throughout, but even so it is logically divided into the same arrangement as every other series. Although in a case like this it gets a little finicky because the numbers don't add up to a whole number of seasons.)

Still, that's just like a US series (Star Trek, or um, CSI or Whatever else you can think of also follows the same 26 episodes a season logic. Series made by the BBC in the UK on the other hand don't. 6-8 episodes is common, though some things like Doctor who get up to 11 or 12)

Anyway, that's a bit of a pointlessly long explanation, but long story short, you can be fairly certain regardless of how they name things that a 'season' in an Anime is either going to be 12/13 episodes, or 24/26 episodes.
Which it is depends on the series and may not be immediately obvious, since it has more to do with TV release schedules than the logic of the story itself.
But that's basically how it goes.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I honestly cannot understand how anyone over the age of 12 can genuinely like the second arc in any way other than so-bad-it's-good

Hey, I take issue with that. I'm 27 and as mentioned above I kinda like it...although that's largely just because Suguha is my favourite character. The story itself was really rather poor. >_>

SAO crops up every time someone asks, "I want to get into anime, where do I start?"

Why?! Whyyyyy would anyone dooooo that?! I can somewhat understand people who enjoy it, but getting into anime through SAO?
I mean, it is in NO WAY a classic, from the start it bashes the viewer over the head with anime tropes that one needs to be used to not to be weirded out (fanservice most of all) and it is rather non-typical in it's structure. So it's not that memorable even if one likes it, it's not entry-level and gives a rather wrong impression of what the most of anime looks like. Who could ever suggest it as a starter when there are much better suited titles by Studio Ghibli or Kyoto Animation?

To be fair I'd kinda agree with this to an extent. I don't think SAO is the worst possible introduction to anime but it really isn't the best and it could definitely turn people off. Though I fundamentally disagree on the notion that people should look at "classics" to get into it because those classics include stuff like Neon Genesis Evangelion which most definitely is NOT the best place to start either.

Ghibli isn't a bad call. Personally lately I've become rather partial to Girls und Panzer. That could potentially be a good starting point for people. Or Fate/stay night. Both are a far more reasonable mix of traditional anime tropes and really nice action. Personally I got into it from a weirder place, the anime that really got me into it was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

So much hate, but, I didn't expect anything less from looking at the thread title. I thought the hate train had left the station ages ago. But yay, SAO destruction time for all once more!

Makes me feel weird being one of the (apparently) few to actually like the show regardless of how stupid it is. I hate Kirito for how OP he is and how every girl loves him and all that, but I still think he handles some things fine. The first arc could have been an entire season and would have benefited from it. The second season wasn't nearly as good as the first for obvious reasons. Third arc I really liked, but eh, different strokes... I actually liked the 4th one the least. Or maybe not, it's a close tie with the second arc.

It's got its flaws, obviously. We've got people making hour long videos destroying it cause, like others have said, you either love it or hate it, or hate it with such a burning passion you'd swear they saw nothing but Satan raping children in each episode. It's NOT that bad. It's not that great by any means either objectively, but... I dunno, there's something about it I find really exciting. You can't tell me some of the fight scenes don't look fantastic, at least. How about the soundtrack? I don't often hear people praising that in their shit storm de-constructions. Then again, I tend to tune those out.

I hear and see all the flaws, but I can never really hate the anime much. I even really liked the game on Vita. Wanna see fan service? Play Hollow Fragment. THEN you can come talk to me about fan service. That story was that and little else. Still neat with what they did, but... Wow. By the end I was saying to myself "Oh wow, we're at floor 98 and there's STILL towel scenes. Are we over this shit yet?"

Anyways, I'm readying my flame shield for people to yell at me for every little reason why the show is shit and I'm not allowed to like it despite the flaws. Yes, the anime is objectively garbage in many ways. But, it's hard not to like it. At least, I have a hard time hating it.

Edit: Also, Incest relationship. Fuck that noise... that's never gonna work for Sugu and it wasn't at all fair for the show/manga to even have that. That wasn't a good thing to have, liking the show or not

 

[kyp275]

SAO is garbage...There isn't a single redeeming point in SAO. It took a great idea and turned it into shit. But what can you expect from something that's writen by a horny teenage guy who never played a single MMO in his life.

Cool, though Kawahara Reki is actually 40 yrs old (and started writing SAO in his late 20s), so you missed the mark by a decade or so. Whether he played any MMO or not, you'd have to ask him. More importantly...

The only people praising it are people who have extremely low standards and those who love to selfinsert into Kirito and the "us gamers, huh?" mentality. Hurr durr, kurito such badas!

...you just can't help but bring out the insults and mocking eh? Did a SAO fan run over your dog or spit in your cereal or something?


Like another poster mentioned above, SAO for some reason ended up being an extremely divisive show - in western fandom that is. The primary reason IMO isn't actually the content of the show - but rather its popularity. Frankly, SAO is utterly unremarkable and rather... average, in its use of clichés/tropes/plot etc. compared to its fellow LN contemporaries, which is to say that it's for the most part a generic story written for teens/YA in Japan.

Now enters some western fans that apparently for some reason were expecting popular teen/YA fictions written for a foreign culture on the other side of the planet to appeal/align with their western sensibility and values, and were outraged when reality disagreed and smacked them in the face.

 

[Marik2]

You should have watched this review

 

[Elvis Starburst]

SAO is garbage. The only people praising it are people who have extremely low standards and those who love to selfinsert into Kirito and the "us gamers, huh?" mentality. Hurr durr, kurito such badas!
There isn't a single redeeming point in SAO. It took a great idea and turned it into shit. But what can you expect from something that's writen by a horny teenage guy who never played a single MMO in his life.

Can't find a *single* good thing in it? Not even the music? How about some of the fight scenes? Those don't look good by animation standards? Those are the two best points I can find examples with. The anime certainly has a hard time being good in plenty of areas, but I find it hard to believe there isn't a single, lone point in its favour (I'm merely asking out of curiosity, not trying to defend the show and its rather rough execution. I just feel this deserves a little more depth in explanation)

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Hilarious anecdote time:

I was watching through the second half of the first season. Never saw the first half, roommates had already watched it and were explaining the premise.[footnote]which I'd been snarking about, because c'mon[/footnote] Came in on the "You, female. You can't leave our guild until beats me in a duel."

Not the greatest of first impressions. Got the whole "women owned by other people" trope thing going. Brain thought "Well, if she says "fuck you too, /gquit" This could be the greatest thing ever." Which of course, didn't happen, so yeah.

But okay, their ultra-tech Japanese MMO works differently than other MMO's fine. Then I watched though the end of the first arc of "Kirito is better than you: The OVA." Bad guy breaks his own rules, etc.[footnote]why they didn't hunker down and wait for the outside to rescue them, I dunno. We got smart people out there, cracking an MMO made by literally one guy couldn't be that hard.[/footnote]

Get to the start of the second arc and the "I love my brother but we aren't really related, so it's okay" thing. *sigh*

Then, the make or break scene for me: Kirito and the "sister" set up for that Kendo match or whatever:

Brain: He's going to set up in a stupid MMO stance, isn't he?
Show: Oh yeah.
Brain: You could redeem yourself if he gets clowned. MMO fighting isn't real-life fighting. It'd be an awesome scene.
Show: ...maybe I'm just not for you.

Ended up watching the rest of the arc anyway and yeah, that show isn't for me. Too much plotholeium. Magic based MMO won by a guy who can't cast a spell? Asshole McRapeypants and his tenticle scientists? Just... c'mon.

That's all Netflix[footnote]or Hulu or whatever[/footnote] had at the time. Never really felt the need to track any more down.

 

[Lightspeaker]

How about the soundtrack? I don't often hear people praising that in their shit storm de-constructions. Then again, I tend to tune those out.

The soundtrack was glorious honestly. Courage is one of my favourite songs ever and Overfly is absolutely amazing.

 

[VanQ]

Don't worry, it becomes not shit at season 5, or late into SAO II. Though I wouldn't bother if I were you, unless you don't find having a major villain called Death Gun cringeworthy as fuck who is pretty much a Death Note ripoff. Also some pretty moronic things happen in SAO II from the get go. (An MMO with randomized character appearance? Like what?)

Also what you're calling seasons is actually called arcs.

I vaguely remember the character appearance thing was explained briefly in the novels. Apparently some players were suffering from gender dysphoria after playing huge amounts of time in MMOs after The SEED was released to the public, so it was made that players could not play an avatar with another gender in MMOs, GGO just took it one step further and made it so players just had randomized characters on login.

SAO is garbage...There isn't a single redeeming point in SAO. It took a great idea and turned it into shit. But what can you expect from something that's writen by a horny teenage guy who never played a single MMO in his life.

Cool, though Kawahara Reki is actually 40 yrs old (and started writing SAO in his late 20s), so you missed the mark by a decade or so. Whether he played any MMO or not, you'd have to ask him. More importantly...

I read some stuff about him in an interview he did once a few years back. He apparently played a lot of old school MMOs similar to Ultima and Tibia. Stuff with no level caps and few quests where hunting was the main way to level. The influence definitely shows in the Aincrad arc.

 

[Aerosteam]

(An MMO with randomized character appearance? Like what?)

I vaguely remember the character appearance thing was explained briefly in the novels. Apparently some players were suffering from gender dysphoria after playing huge amounts of time in MMOs after The SEED was released to the public, so it was made that players could not play an avatar with another gender in MMOs, GGO just took it one step further and made it so players just had randomized characters on login.

Considering people play MMOs for hundreds/thousands of hours and character customization appeals to a lot of players, it doesn't matter what explanation they give, an MMO with one random permanent character is dumb. I'm pretty sure if that was the case in a real MMO no one would play it. :T

 

[Lilani]

I enjoyed the first arc of SAO, I thought it raised some interesting ideas about he possibility of giving up on real life for a virtual one. When Kirito and Asuna adopted the little fairy thing, it was a bit hammy and creepy, but at the same time I liked the fact that it explored people just retiring and accepting the game as opposed to endlessly fighting it.

And then...the second arc happened. Incest, Asuna being turned into a damsel in distress, the non-consensual marriage to an unconscious person, the rape and groping...just waaaaay too off base from what SAO did. It seems more like a fanfiction continuation than a canonical continuation of the story. I only made it to the end because I was curious to see if they'd redeem Asuna and bring back her badassery. They did not, and the ending was totally stupid, and I have not heard enough good about SAO II to continue. To me, SAO is an anime that had potential and a good start, but just succombed to way too many tropes and shitty plot devices in the second arc.

I guess I should have gotten suspicious when they did that whole contest to see if Asuna could leave the guild and I was just like, "Why doesn't Asuna have a say in this?" But I was won over by so many other things at the time I was willing to let that slide.

 

[VanQ]

(An MMO with randomized character appearance? Like what?)

I vaguely remember the character appearance thing was explained briefly in the novels. Apparently some players were suffering from gender dysphoria after playing huge amounts of time in MMOs after The SEED was released to the public, so it was made that players could not play an avatar with another gender in MMOs, GGO just took it one step further and made it so players just had randomized characters on login.

Considering people play MMOs for hundreds/thousands of hours and character customization appeals to a lot of players, it doesn't matter what explanation they give, an MMO with one random permanent character is dumb. I'm pretty sure if that was the case in a real MMO no one would play it. :T

While it might be a deal breaker for some, I don't know if it would for everyone. I for one would be curious what "my character" would look like and if I play it long enough I may even become attached.

A good example is Warlock demon names in WoW. When you first summon them the system automatically chooses a random name for them which can't be changed. There was a patch in late WotLK where pet names were accidentally rerolled for every Warlock in the game. The outrage on the official forums was both amusing and educational. People were writing poems and OC about their lost demons. Fanart of demons and warlocks being forcefully seperated spread like wildfire. A certain charismatic Warlock (totally not me I swear >.>) even received a month long ban for writing and posting erotic fanfiction with their imp and succubus on the official forums.

Within the week Blizz reverted all demon names back to what they originally were. We can't always choose what we end up with, but don't ever underestimate a human's ability to become attached to the most ridiculous things.

How about the soundtrack? I don't often hear people praising that in their shit storm de-constructions. Then again, I tend to tune those out.

The soundtrack was glorious honestly. Courage is one of my favourite songs ever and Overfly is absolutely amazing.

Agreed! I've listened to Overfly so many times in the past few years, it's definitely a favourite of mine.

 

[VanQ]

I enjoyed the first arc of SAO, I thought it raised some interesting ideas about he possibility of giving up on real life for a virtual one. When Kirito and Asuna adopted the little fairy thing, it was a bit hammy and creepy, but at the same time I liked the fact that it explored people just retiring and accepting the game as opposed to endlessly fighting it.

And then...the second arc happened. Incest, Asuna being turned into a damsel in distress, the non-consensual marriage to an unconscious person, the rape and groping...just waaaaay too off base from what SAO did. It seems more like a fanfiction continuation than a canonical continuation of the story. I only made it to the end because I was curious to see if they'd redeem Asuna and bring back her badassery. They did not, and the ending was totally stupid, and I have not heard enough good about SAO II to continue. To me, SAO is an anime that had potential and a good start, but just succombed to way too many tropes and shitty plot devices in the second arc.

Sorry for the double post but I want to do you a favor. Go watch season two episodes 18-24. Not cour 2 but actually season two. Skip everything else. You'll not only get Asuna being a badass and a fucking fantastic protagonist, you'll also get a whole lot less Kirito and an arc that made even a cynical prick like me cry ***** tears.

Even the cover art has Kirito pushed off to the back as an afterthought.

Spoiler

Oh and if there's ever an adaptation of Alicization arc at least you've already managed to skip all the crap because Alicization is genuinely interesting and has Asuna being a different kind of badass in that!