Saturday, December 29, 2012

Anime Review: Sword Art Online

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Well, No wonder this anime gets a lot of votes for the title "Anime Of The Year" but you know I'm here to NOT agree with that statement.


Information on this Anime

Information:
Alternative Titles: S.A.O, SAO
Type: TV, 25 episodes
Year: Jul 8, 2012 to Dec 23, 2012
Age rating: N/A
Summary:
The only way to escape is to ‘clear’ the game. Death in game means actual ‘death’ —-
The ten thousand who have logged onto the as of yet mysterious game ‘Sword Art Online’ using their Nerve Gear have been forced into this perilous death game and are trapped inside.
Protagonist Kirito, one of the many gamers, has greeted this ‘truth’.
He plays as a solo player in the giant castle that is the stage for this game —- ‘Aincrad’.
To meet the conditions of clearing the game and leaving this twisted virtual world, he must get through all 100 floors. Will Kirito have what it takes to clear the game, or will he die trying?
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Game, Romance

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Comments and Thoughts About It

I have to say I'm quite impressed, much like what happened with me and Hyouka, anyway as a romance anime this anime very neatly justified the reason as to why Kirito sacrifices his ass to save Asuna, seriously, I was expecting a love story with the same generic characters the boy being a pushover and the girl being a tsundere retard genetic character who can't tell anyone how she really feels but to my surprise I get an anime where the romance part is done PROPERLY this time and not just some half assed shit that writers usually do.

As an action anime this is pretty much the GOLD STAR of this series actually, I mean come on, fight scenes having smooth and actual movement, not like other fighting scenes where you just put on effects of sparks whenever the two fighters hit each other. But then again, I can't really describe more in terms of action there's always the part where your hair stands up also there's the part where you feel so awesome because of the characters anyway that's about it.

I also love how much MMO-babble was there, them actually talking about points and HP's and technical stuff inside the game was a plus because they actually do their research and not just have characters spouting out shit that will make most gamers cringe and punch the writers face in. Also in adventure terms? Well the world of the online game they're in is pretty much all the adventure you want but here's the catch as to why I don't think this anime deserves really the title "Anime of the year"

Because if you watched Tower of druaga... YOU CAN JUST PRETTY MUCH GET THE SAME THING ONLY DONE BETTER. Actually I could say Tower Of Druaga and SAO is on par with each other, seriously when all the fanboys came out running saying things like that, nobody ever remembered about Tower of druaga. I feel sad for that underrated anime. Anyway don't take this as a bad thing its just SAO is just too overrated because the fans again can't stop talking about it for 5 seconds.

Also another thing I didn't like from the anime is that at the end of the first half of the anime, *spoiler* I think that part where Kirito gets off his nervegear I actually thought that everything was going to be fine and dandy after that and then ASUNA GETS INTO ANOTHER SITUATION WHERE KIRITO IS GOING TO BUST ASS AGAIN. WHAT THE HELL!? If you're gonna make an end to the problems of the characters make sure that there's a hint of another problem coming not just put that out there and ruin expectations from the viewer.

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The Legendary Nitpicking Division

1.Her sister...
- I'm not really sure if this kid likes kirito or not. But to be safe I'll say yes.

2.Incest
- Yeah.. Uhm, well I've read hentai doujins containing incest but this is probably the closest incest I can get with legit big name anime's.

3.The bad guys
- A little bit more of your childish reasons... Seriously, quit doing that with bad guys, where you make their reasons for being bad really lame, like some sort of reason where they want to be god or something, that only makes up for the fact that you're making a cartoonishly evil bad guy.

4. Alfheim Online
- Amazingly they have the same exact pallete color and layer colors for Kirito's suit. The black and grey colors are the same for the different games. Oh wait, I guess this is a bit too nit picky.

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Another Round Of Thoughts

Story - Well lets get this story straight, lets simplify this, like what I usually do, The players of SAO get trapped in this virtual reality world, they can't log out now because of this they have been given the mission to finish all 100 floors of SAO so that they can log out again, 2nd half of the story will be SPOILER-ISH so becareful not to read it.

The whole second part of this bravado is Kirito learns that Asuna is being claimed by this asshole whom I want to stab in the neck because he's annoying as hell. Anyway Asuna is still trapped in her nervegear and to save her Kirito needs to play alfheim online because there was information that Asuna is in it. Now let me think why can't the bad guy just delay Asuna on her nervegear for a bit and let this Kirito boy play the game and make him think that Asuna is actually inside the game, since the bad guy is the GM of Alfheim online that would be too easy for him and then after delaying Kirito he can take Asuna and get his marriage done since her father is already approving of it, then after that Kirito can now cry because everything that he's done is already futile and he gets nothing in the end, only despair.. Wow that would be a dark ending but anyway a story that is given to me by SAO has way too many loopholes or should I say, too many decisions that the bad guy should have not taken. But again the story is not BAD its fine actually I just found the bad guy not wise enough to think.

Artwork - Well there was the occasional 3D moments but I'm going to talk about the animations which is finely done in this anime, especially in the fight scenes. Well other than that there's the usual anime faces. Also really nice look in terms of the in-game HUD the HP BARS the inventory, I'm really impressed that it was actually looking legit like it was a real game or something. But obviously they can just copy it from other games.

OP and ED - Fine I guess?... Sorry, I was so dug in to the part where the episodes contain stuff that had MMO things in them, I was too invested to the point that I was skipping the OP and ED, that only means that the OP is either too boring to hear and too boring to watch and the ED also is either too boring to hear and too boring to watch. Either way you can just give yourself an opinion as to whatever the hell the ED and OP is.

Fanservice - NONE, go away.

Romance in it - A very good romance genre anime, seriously characters who bust their ass for their loved ones should have actual and legit reasons to actually busting their ass to save their loved ones, like this one Kirito and Asuna started out slow then developed then more and more development happens to their relationship to the point that there is actual and legit LOVE. So basically this gives him reason to save Princess Peac..Err.. I mean Princess Asuna from the grips of Bows... I mean from the grips of that bad guy whom I can't remember. Seriously, if Asuna and Kirito were totally lame partners and they didn't have stuff that happened to their relationship then the whole saving Asuna part of this anime is just going to be a round of questions saying "Why the hell is Kirito sacrificing himself for this girl?!!?" that's why this part of the romance is important, to actually give Kirito a reason to do what he has to do.

Action in it - Definitely another good part of SAO is the action, like what I've said earlier they made it good with the fact that movements from the characters while fighting are there. Every move, okay maybe not every move but most of it. If you're looking for a good action anime with romance bits, this is definitely the anime for you.

Adventure in it - There's not really an adventure here... Well they go to places but in adventure genre anime's the journey towards the destination is what actually matters, here they just show them in the place already. That's why adventure should be seriously removed in the genre part, they'll just give the viewer a whole bunch of ideas as to what the anime is and then get their expectations trashed.

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OP and ED

OP 1

OP 2


ED 1


ED 2
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So this anime?
Pass, Average, Fail

Well, I did point out many flaws from the anime but it can still stand up on its own and also its a definite AVERAGE, not only is it a good romance, its a good blend of action and also the techy stuff. Oh and also you should be ready for twists in this anime, there has got to be 3 twists or 4? I'm not really sure. Anyway don't be discouraged by those flaws those are only minor but seriously don't treat it as Anime Of The Year, this anime still has lots of exp to get from other anime's.

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Some Pictures







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Advised To
1.MMO players.
2.Fans of games!
3.Loves a bit of Romance in an Action anime.
4.Simple save the princess kind of story.
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Well, again this is just it. You guys go get a Happy New Year, I'm out.




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