Geekatana Review: Sword Art Online (Season 1) - Beta Player turn OP Hero

Sword Art online is an anime based on the light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. It was originally wrote the series as a web novel on his website from 2002 to 2008.  The anime series produced by A-1 Pictures, known simply as Sword Art Online, aired in Japan between July and December 2012.

There's roughly 3 Seasons of this anime. Not counting the spin off series, games and movies that came after. But for this review one we will be focusing on Season 1 as its basically the one that started it all. I'm sure a lot of folks have seen this show already by the time of the writing of this review but still minor spoilers for those that didn't.

Sword Art Online takes place in the near future where online games are done through headgear that lets them control their avatars. But players soon discover they cannot log out, as the game creator is holding them captive unless they defeat the final boss. However, if they die in the game, they die in real life. The series focuses on protagonist Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki as they play through the game in the hopes to get out.

Story wise the game is your typical isekai anime but instead of being trapped in a magical world they are trapped in a game. The plot has issues surely but I'm not going to address them here as I'm sure this has been discussed countless times by anime fan and reviewers already. That being the technical and realistic aspect of such a plot happening in real life is highly unlikely. Outside of its obvious story blunders however Sword Art Online is pretty decent and entertaining. Also the ending felt rushed and more of a gamble that came out of nowhere. It felt like the writers needed to end the story so decided to make something up right there and then.

Character development is there but rarely touched upon outside of the relationship Kirito and Asuna sort of developed throughout the course of the first series. There is a bit about Kirito being a loner player but its rarely touched upon and we barely have it mentioned or brought up again outside of that particular episode. A lot of the characters feel generic and more of like fillers and plot devices than something you would actually care for. Kirito and Asuna may have some bad ash looking moves but they still feel like your generic isekai characters with plot armor.

Graphics and animation wise is where Sword Art Online shines. The moves are fluid and well animated that it's probably the best parts of the show over all. The character design are unique too so it's easy to see who is who quite easily. It also uses some 3d elements as well. This was a series made by A1 Pictures after all, they are the same team responsible for Fairy tail, Blue Exorcist and Black Butler just to name a few.

It's easy to see how much passion they put in this series and it pays off in folds. Even the music and soundtracks that is used during key scenes in the story gives it justice as it punctuate the feel and theme of the story rather well. Also the bgm used during critical scenes and during intense fights are rather well executed.

As a whole Sword Art Online is a good and entertaining anime if you like good fight scenes and strong characters. The plot isn't as solid as folks would have liked but it's not all that bad to skip this one. This show definitely deserves at least one viewing despite all the loose ends and the somewhat weak ending. If you like to get into the Sword Art hype train this is the best place to start as any.