Sword Art Online

I'm going to go right out and say it, SAO is my favourite shounen animé in years. One day I'm going to run out of series of stuff that I'm blinded by my own bias with and perhaps talk critically on a subject, but that'll have to wait for a day I'm not talking about Sword Art Online. Or Metal Gear. Or Dragon Ball Z.

Other than Shingeki no Kyojin (which I do love, but not as much as SAO), I've lost interest in shounen animé, all I can bare nowadays is DBZ out of nostalgia, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, SAO and Shingeki. A younger me was obsessed with hits like Naruto and Bleach, and I mean no disrespect to shows of their ilk, but I just don't have the energy to keep up with convoluted plot lines like who has what sharingan and why anymore.

I feel like Sword Art Online is an entirely different breed of action show to those two. There are similarities, but all in all it's undeniable that the pace is much faster due to it's season-based format and the story arcs being far more condensed and streamlined, even when the Aincrad arc takes place over 2 years.

Given that season 2 of Sword Art Online has only just started airing earlier today, I'll only be able to talk about season 1, since I have avoided the light novels in order to stay fresh for the show. Even after all the praise I just gave the first season, it's by no means perfect. Like many others, I found the latter half of the show considerably worse than the first half, for reasons I'll go into later. But that first half was the most exciting couple of months I've had following animé.

It's an interesting concept, players stuck in a virtual reality MMO. Not 100% original, it's basically .Hack// (specifically .Hack//Sign). Both narratives are very strong, but unlike .Hack//Sign, the main cast are deeply interesting (sorry Tsukasa) and have chemistry with each other.

Part of what makes SAO so interesting to watch is how you follow the main character Kirito. The story often takes time-skips and Kirito is always ahead of the crowd, yet you never feel as though everyone you meet is safe from death. It shares this with shows like Game of Thrones and Shingeki no Kyojin, and keeps you on edge whenever you start to feel attached to somebody.

Having said that, the stand out aspect of SAO for me was the relationship between Kirito and Asuna. In a lot of shows like these, you'll get the protagonist male growing to become a mary sue character (though, I'm not saying Kirito isn't a mary sue), and a helpless love interest serving as a mere damsel in distress, a la Orihime from Bleach. Setting things apart here is the fact that Asuna is an extremely competent fighter and always treated equal to Kirito.

Sadly, that's where the main thing that bugs me about the ALO arc comes in. When Kirito beats Heathcliffe, freeing the surviving SAO players, Asuna goes from a hyper competent character able to stand on her own merits to a literal damsel in distress remaining stuck in her virtual reality coma under Oberon's lock and key, it's a damn shame for the series. Though, bringing her character back to bad ass levels in the OVA restores my faith that this didn't cause irreparable damage to the show.

Whilst on the topic of the second arc, another low point for me was Leafa's story. Don't get me wrong, I like Leafa as a character, but the entire subplot about her being in love with Kazuto/Kirito "each" was extremely uncomfortable to watch.

After all that though, the fight scenes are consistently impressive throughout and every time Kirito fights I was on the edge of my chair. During the fight with Gleam Eyes, the hairs on my arms were stood on end. That's what has me most excited for the upcoming season, I can't wait to see what Gun Gale Online has to offer.

In between the wait for the second season though, we were given a recap OVA. Whilst the new content in the hour and half long special reaches about 20 minutes, it still makes me want to play an MMO to experience situations like Sword Art, until I try and party up with strangers and get far too uncomfortable and stressed to have a good time. Given the lacklustre second half of season 1 though, and the things said about the upcoming arcs, I fear Sword Art Online's best days are behind it.