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  • Today on the Anime Zone, a review of Sword Art Online,

  • an anime about a group of players trapped in a virtual reality MMORPG trying to escape.

  • It has romance, it has adventure, it has mystery,

  • but best of all, it has the epic boss battles!

  • Don't let up your attacks, everyone!

  • If we just push him a little further, the battle is won!

  • We can do this! We can win this!

  • This is it, guys! Who's taking the final shot?

  • LEEEEEEROY JEEEENKINS!!!!!!

  • Fuck.

  • My.

  • Life!

  • The world of MMORPGs confuse me;

  • I've never properly got into them personally, but as an outsider looking in,

  • it just seems like a massive time-sponge in which you'll probably play

  • as some ugly mother-fucking mutant man-dwarf if you're a male

  • or some sex god elf complete with big tits if you want to pretend you're a female

  • running around in a virtual world full of other big tits,

  • spending days on end raising an arbitrary number that represents your strength,

  • which probably rises in negative correlation to your sex life.

  • But what the hell do I know?

  • Nevertheless, the genre has gained massive popularity

  • in both the East and West that can only be topped worldwide

  • the day someone decides to make Gears of Halo: Modern Black Ops 7

  • featuring Nazi Zombies that dance Gangnam Style.

  • So, it should come as no surprise to anyone

  • that the anime that has gained most popularity and, of course, controversy in 2012

  • is the RPG-based anime Sword Art Online.

  • The story starts off introducing the newest MMORPG to hit the market, Sword Art Online,

  • a game so great that geeks worldwide have apparently been tossing themselves silly

  • in glee and anticipation while the rest of the world is probably out there having sex.

  • On its launch day, everything seems to be going swimmingly for everyone;

  • the world looks gorgeous and game plays every bit as great as it's hyped up to be.

  • That is, until the game's creator, Kayaba Akihiko, gathers all players

  • in one place to reveal a catch:

  • Firstly, all players' avatars are changed to look like their real-world bodies.

  • Good-looking men become fat geeks,

  • good-looking ladies become fat geeks,

  • fat geeks become fat geeks,

  • and underage girls become FBI agents.

  • Secondly, all players are now trapped in the game with no way out until they complete it.

  • Everyone must live, breathe, and play the world of Sword Art Online

  • until someone beats all 100 floors of it.

  • And here's the stinger: If you die in the game,

  • it will be the end of your life!

  • ...online.

  • Or, to put it in words that everyone will understand,

  • people die if they are killed!

  • The story is told through the eyes of our main protagonist, Kirito,

  • one of the original beta testers in the game who,

  • in real life, is a super hacker that's been obsessed with spending every waking hour

  • trapped inside, playing video games ever since a young age,

  • a.k.a. he's a fucking loser!

  • At least he should be, if he didn't attract every female within a 10-mile in-game radius.

  • Yes, it's pretty much established that the female players are somewhat rare in the game,

  • and yet the main character seems like a bona fide chick magnet

  • with a variety of different girls, all in different shapes and boob sizes,

  • lining up so he can have a pick of which stereotype he wants.

  • Other important character include Asuna, the main female lead

  • introduced as a mysterious badass player that turns out to be a generic tsundere

  • who is completely useless without her boyfriend;

  • Suguha, who is introduced later on and gets plenty of development,

  • by which I mean she has massive breasts,

  • who is completely useless without her boyfriend;

  • and the rest of the harem bait, who only get about one episode of screentime anyway,

  • but is enough to establish that they're completely useless without their fucking boyfriend,

  • but I'll touch on that subject later.

  • Now, with my previous reaction videos,

  • there might be some confusion as to what I actually thought about the show,

  • so I'll just lay that to rest right now. Did I think Sword Art Online was good?

  • Ehh... kind of.

  • There are some things that the show does really well,

  • and one of them is most certainly the action.

  • If A-1 Pictures has proven something to me after watching this and Birdy the Mighty: Decode,

  • it's that they know how to do their action and they know how to do it absolutely gorgeously.

  • The highlight in SAO is undoubtedly the action scenes

  • and this especially shines during every single boss battle we see.

  • The boss battles were a glorious spectacle that never failed to drop my jaw right down to the floor

  • and gave me a nostalgic thrill of the hours spent fighting my own boss battles

  • as a kid playing some grand video game.

  • Combine this with a soundtrack made by Yuki Kajiura, who,

  • if you can't remember, did the soundtrack to Fate/Zero,

  • and you'll find yourself having eyes and eargasms

  • during the fantastically-done high points of the show,

  • even if the choir sounds like they're singing about gaming snacks.

  • Yes, the action and music are definitely the highlights of this show,

  • in addition to the beautiful art that really made the stunning in-game setting stand out

  • and made you feel like you wanted to be a part of this game.

  • Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the story and characters,

  • which have enough individual problems to fill up a Britannica Encyclopedia set.

  • Though, to be honest, just about every problem I have can be summed up in basically 1 line:

  • IT'S SHIT!

  • Joking... Joking...

  • In all seriousness, the show takes itself way too seriously--

  • so much so that I'm pretty sure it ripped off some iconic scenes

  • from End of Evangelion and Berserk

  • because apparently it's just as serious as those other two shows...

  • Yes, the biggest feeling I got from this series was that it was trying to set itself up

  • as an epic action-adventure tale set in a vast, unexplored online virtual world,

  • when it just really felt like a group of twats pissing about in a video game.

  • The characters themselves aren't nearly as developed as they pretend to be

  • since the amount of characterization I got after 25 episodes of following Kirito

  • is that he's some awesome badass because he wears black clothes and is really good at video games,

  • spends most of his time trying to be the lone antihero

  • and picks up chicks along the way like they're fucking Pokémon.

  • He's the ultimate wish-fulfillment character since he's stupidly overpowered for unexplained reasons

  • and anything remotely vagina-shaped becomes completely reliant on him--

  • perfectly encapsulated in this scene here when he takes on 7 full-grown motherfuckers

  • to protect what looks like a 5-year-old

  • and becomes the first person ever to win a fight by apparently standing people into submission.

  • Asuna's character, for all the potential she showed in her badass introduction,

  • just turns out to be a generic tsundere that doesn't develop any deeper than that.

  • Her romance with Kirito feels so forced and generic,

  • it feels like it was written by a teenager who was just guessing at how romances work.

  • Guy meets girl, they kinda know each other, spend some time together,

  • she acts like she doesn't like him (BULLSHIT!),

  • she cooks for him, suddenly she likes him, they spend a few more days together,

  • and then they just decide to get married

  • ...What?

  • The whole thing was just handled so lazily and developed a ridiculously unnatural pace,

  • leaving Asuna as nothing more than a plot device by the end.

  • As for the story, well, the biggest draw for this show is, of course,

  • the great way the series set up its premise.

  • The first three episode of the show were great,

  • setting up the intriguing premise perfectly that hinted at an epic quest to clear the game

  • that would take a hell of a lot of work, sacrifice, and hardship

  • that could possibly lead to some higher purpose.

  • It instantly drew you in and made you want to see more of this world and how things would develop.

  • Unfortunately from there, it never really built on the tone and potential set in early episodes

  • by instead deciding to focus on a soirée of side stories that hardly ever focused on the main goal

  • while constantly having time skips as if half the show is set in the hyperbolic time chamber.

  • One moment, it was an action-adventure, and the next minute it was CSI: fucking Warcraft.

  • It didn't have any focus, which is a shame

  • because if the plot did decide to go in the direction of the early episode,

  • it could have been a great anime.

  • Even with these problems, though, the first half was still an enjoyable look into a real-life gaming environment

  • and it was very interesting to see the psychological implications

  • of actually creating a society in a virtual world.

  • Each episode managed to build on a new aspect of the game,

  • and just seeing how core game mechanics were integrated into our daily lives

  • led to a very intriguing setting that never failed to grab my interest.

  • However, the shoddy writing becomes completely evident in the second half of the show

  • when it takes a nosedive so spectacular, it was Olympic Medal-worthy.

  • Without spoiling too much, the great action is still there,

  • but the story takes a turn which makes it lose all sense of purpose

  • while ironically managing to make you feel like you're watching a video game

  • played by some pretentious idiots taking it 10,000 times too seriously.

  • All feeling of urgency is lost and it's hard to feel for characters when the entire story arc

  • is driven by a romance that was a dribbling mess in the first place.

  • A little sister character is introduced, who's not REALLY a sister.

  • *wink* *wink*

  • along with a new villain who seems about as threatening as a camp butterfly,

  • probably because that's exactly what he looks like,

  • not helped by the fact that he's a middle-age man who just happens to scream like a 15-year-old girl.

  • Kayaba!

  • Kayaba!

  • Kayaba!

  • Kayaba!

  • The writing also takes a backseat as there are multiple moments

  • where the show disregards its own in-game rules in favor of deus ex machina writing

  • to either advance the plot or make Kirito look like a badass,

  • leading to some ass-pulls so big, it probably left the show with an anus the size of the Grand Canyon.

  • The show has the exact opposite problem that High School of the Dead had,

  • by trying to be something it was not.

  • And if it wasn’t taking itself too seriously,

  • I probably would be a lot less harsh on it because there is a lot of fun to be had here.

  • Despite all of this, though, it has still become by far the most popular anime of 2012.

  • It's no surprise how there was such a huge popularity spike

  • since I'm pretty sure becoming the most badass character stuck in the ultimate video game

  • with hordes of females chasing after you is the secret wish of every gamer out there.

  • But bad writing and shoddy characters aside,

  • the show was definitely entertaining, particularly if you're a gamer.

  • There's a certain sense of satisfaction in seeing all these gaming terms being thrown around

  • and raising the stakes up to a game that looks genuinely fun to play

  • because, as many criticisms as I had, I was never once bored while watching this show,

  • even if part of the entertainment was seeing the amount of stupid being radiated in later episodes.

  • The action at its best was able to make me forget about the story and characters for a brief period.

  • The setting makes it the perfect gateway anime for newbies,

  • and they obviously know their target audience well enough to execute this premise--

  • so much so that I would say, if you like video games, especially if you like MMORPGs,

  • you will probably like this in one way or another.

  • Overall, Sword Art Online is a solid show that has an interesting premise

  • with great animation and music,

  • but really fails when it comes to the characters and plot.

  • At the very least, it's an entertaining watch and does well to explore the concept

  • of actually living in a high-stakes game,

  • but it takes itself far too seriously and if you want any kind of enjoyment from this anime,

  • it's probably best to watch it without thinking too much.

  • It's not as good as the fanboys praise it to be,

  • but it's not as bad as the haters claim it to be either.

  • Currently, Sword Art Online has yet to have a DVD or Blu-Ray release

  • but is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.

  • You can also go to Crunchyroll.com/TheAnimeZone for a free fortnight of Premium Membership.

  • And, if there's one thing gamers should take from this series,

  • it's that you shouldn't take your gaming life too seriously.

  • All it ever boils down to is a bunch of numbers

  • and your online life doesn't have to be ruled by some arbitrary numbers that have no real meaning.

  • On a topic, how about subscribing to me so I can reach 60,000 subs?

  • Kirito may bang all the chicks,

  • but Kirito know no who know the leader dabow

  • with the bunda whatta?

  • Slap me upside the head and call me Gary Stu!

Today on the Anime Zone, a review of Sword Art Online,

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