Deconstructing the Kotaku SAO Review
In fiction, a story like this would normally last about a month their timelong enough for the players to become inseparable friends, but not long enough to change who they are at their core. Twelve episodes in and more than two years have already passed since the starttwo years spent living in a VR world. This allows for an in-depth look at the psychological implications of being in a virtual reality for so long that you start to wonder if the real world even exists. And if it does exist, should everyone still be trying to get back to it instead of giving up and starting to make new lives for themselves inside the game world.
Sure the psychological change and the time gap is great but it comes at a great cost. By sacrificing pacing and a good narrative drive, you only get on reward: a plot point. It's not very smart and while this problem doesn't exist in the LN, it's glaringly annoying in the anime. The anime skips numerous floors and only focuses on a few of the side stories essentially rendering all the psychological change or change in actual character meaningless. You don't see what happens in-between, and while this doesn't necessary matter, the huge time gap absolutely ruins the sense of impact of the development because we don't see what directly comes after. Essentially a good point but pacing of the story counteracts this and pacing is more important than a plot point in an anime.
But beyond discussions of reality, Sword Art Online also delves into the sociological issues of living in this virtual world. Some people trapped in the game are hardcore gamers while otherscasual players or young childrendon't have the experience or skills to be risking their lives in the still unbeaten dungeons. So do you, as a hardcore gamer, draft the whole lot and make them fight? Do you just leave themincluding the childrento fend for themselves? As a non-fighter, can you really spend all your time leveling up a trade skilltrusting the hardcore gamers to get you back to reality? And with a return to the real world always there to motivate you, can you justify slacking off, falling in love, or training in the cooking skill? All these questions and more are addressed over the course of the story.
Interesting premise. This is actually a point of detriment rather than praise. If the anime actually focused more on this it'd be cool and it'd be very awesome world building. Sadly, the anime doesn't address this as nearly as much as this reviewer thought. You only get hear a few lines about what others do and it doesn't really go into the lives of other people besides Kirito. The handful of times you meet people that aren't fighting in the fields or dungeons, is severely limited as it only serves to move the plot along. The reviewer clearly doesn't recognize this and praises something that isn't there.
Because everyone is trapped inside the game, their knowledge of the virtual world is limited to what they learn in the game itself. So while everyone knows the basic rules of the world, no one knows the specifics other than the data collected in the beta test. This makes the world perfect for adventures from a wide range of genres. Sometimes it's a mystery; sometimes it's a love story; sometimes criminal suspense; sometimes supernatural horror; and sometimes it's a straight-up fantasy adventure.
Yes. Nice point about the premise of the show but it's just that. A premise. Everything that follows isn't greatly executed and isn't as nearly as great as it's made out to be. The idea of people being trapped and fighting in the frontlines isn't shown at all except for episode 2 and 8. Instead the story dabbles in the misadventures of our anti-social hero, Kirito. Just like everything else the reviewer praises in his review, he praises the ideas that make up the show but not the show itself.
If there's one overused cliché in anime, it's that once two characters hook up, it's the end of the storylike the relationship after that point is a given. Thankfully, Sword Art does not stick to the norm. Thus the plot explores a love story in Sword Art's unique setting and brings definition to exactly what love is like in a virtual world.
Wait... what? Have you seen other animes that go far beyond the simple hook up and first couple of dates? This isn't the first time this has happened. Not only that but rather than focus on how Asuna and Kirito meet and fall in love, the anime focuses on their relationship after they are committed. What you get is a horribly paced relationship that feels like it came out of the blue. While there are subtle hints here and there, not making it explicitly clear even once throughout the course of the show makes their relationship feel like a sudden event. While well-thought out and depicted better in the LN, the anime doesn't portray their relationship in an interesting manner for their start.
Need Shinsekai Yori ep. 1 desperately.
