So because some may perhaps feel cheated by my scathing review of the final episode of Sword Art Online last night, I thought I'd take the time to explain, without hyperbole, vitriol or coarse language, how I really feel about the show.
The simplest explanation comes foremost, for those looking to skip this post: The first 14 episodes of the show are okay, but stupid. Episodes 15-24 are the worst thing I've ever seen an anime do to itself ever. The 25th episode is also okay.
Moving more in depth from there, though, I guess I'll go at it piece by piece. The show's animation and music were okay, although CG is not my thing at all, and I felt gipped by most action sequences. That said, I'd say that the way characters moved was mostly okay, and in fact Sugou's interactions were the saving grace of the 10 episodes I hated, since they got across the idea of a man trying to rape a teenage girl well enough. The first OP and ED were considerably better than the 2nd, and the duel music was pretty nice, too.
As to the supporting cast, while it is fun to say that Egil and Klein and Lizbeth were better characters than the lead cast, its also unfair, as none of them spend nearly as much time on screen as the lead. That said, Klein, Egil and Lizbeth were memorable, enjoyable faces that made those first 14 episodes what they were.
Regarding Light Novels, while I harumphed at cnet many times, his knowledge of them did fill in the gaps that the anime never touched and did answer some questions which the anime would eventually answer. The thing is that, as a fan of Full Metal Panic! I can't treat LNs as canon to an anime adaptation since there's often quite a bit of disparity.
The plot of the first 14 episodes is relatively harmless as well. As was discussed when I noted that it reminded me of Digimon and others have stated with the dothack comparisons, the premise of kids trapped in a digital world is nothing particularly groundbreaking, but its an appealing and safe choice to make your story work. The arc's conclusion was bafflingly mishandled, though, and this was the beginning of my actual discontent with the show.
I'll readily throw out that the chief problem was that Kayaba suddenly had no pressing motivation. I cannot describe the feeling without any hyperbole, so please forgive me this once, but it was something like if the Count of Monte Cristo had had Mondego pleading at Dantes' feet for an explanation for all this carnage and suffering he had inflicted on him and his associates, only for the Count to shrug and go "Idk lol." It was immensely disappointing, and to see it never explained over the course of the show was upsetting.
That said, the following area of the show suffered greatly due to a waste of potential I'll discuss in a moment. First, though, the romance. I want to say Kirito and Asuna was an an endearing relationship which won me over in spite of myself, but that would be a lie. Asuna was an endearing girlfriend who won me over in spite of myself. Kirito is the Bella Swan of anime protagonists. He's a blank slate that any guy in the target demographic can slip into and pretend he is. He has no personality beyond what the viewer decides he has. He doesn't react to the life he takes, to Suguha's confession, to Asuna's needs in any distinct way. Instead he reacts in a neutral way so that the viewer can decide that "Yes, Kirito comforted Asuna here because he loved her" or "No, Kirito said nothing to Asuna here and only held her because he doesn't love her and doesn't know how to say it." and so on. Asuna was endearing, Kirito was tepid.
So I think at this point I've discussed why the first 14 episodes, barring the failure to climax, were an okay, if stupid show for teens. The last episode was good because aside from one moment I will discuss further down, it was a decent emotional payoff to the arc and as satisfactory a conclusion as the show could hope to have. Now let's talk about why the Alfheim Arc didn't work.
Frankly, it didn't feel like the same show. Beginning with the wasted potential, there was just so much they could have done there which would have made the show better. Showing Kirito cope with a world in which he was neither powerful nor notable would have been a smart choice, or making the tone more serious as he focused on trying to save Asuna. Ultimately, though, it felt as if Aincrad should have lasted a full season and Alfheim been saved for a second season, at which point the cast of Alfheim would have had a chance to develop and a much needed examination of Kirito's psyche after the things he went through in SAO and his return to the real world could have been done.
Next is the character of Suguha/Leafa. I'm all for introducing a romantic false lead for the hero as he tries to save the heroine. Full Metal Panic does this twice to great effect. Making that character the hero's younger sister is the worst decision possible, though. As a girl in the middle of a quest to save a heroine she was already bound for Worst Girl status from the get go, because audiences are bound not to like a woman who stands in the way of an OTP. But there was no reason for Suguha to also be Kirito's sister. Making her his cousin did not alleviate this situation at all and in fact may have aggravated it. You can argue that my dislike of incest relationships is a product of a western culture, but I sincerely doubt the average Japanese guy isn't going to be as repulsed by the thought of dating his sister as I am. Either way, it was unnecessary, and Suguha's tantrums and character consumed entirely too much of the time that should have been spent on developing Kirito. It was so bad that in the last scene of the show, Kirito is dancing around in the starlit, romantic atmosphere with his sister, and not the woman he wed and spent all this time trying to save.
Then there was the tentacle rape. What possible need was there for those guys to be shown as purple tentacle slugs? I cannot see a reason for it, in story nor out. More to the point, though, when we already have Sugou trying to rape and molest Asuna every single episode, why do I need to see two slug men doing it, too? What was the point of seeing Asuna bite down on a phallic purple tendril at all?
There's also the fact that at the end of the show, Kirito brutally savages his nemesis, then accepts encouragement from and delivers praise to a mass murderer. That scene was so far beyond sane that I could not believe my eyes.Nothing about that was okay.
The Alfheim arc also spends too much time building up this situation of tenacious racial politics and an attempt on the World Tree, only for a very small group of players to break through with relative ease and for Kirito to literally skip the heavily advertised dungeon. It feels like an entire plot is just cut in favor of rushing a finale after squandering so much time on a race feud that served literally no importance to the plot.
TL;DR version of this is again that Ep 1-14 and 25 are okay, but Ep 15-24 are truly awful. Reasons being incest, waste of potential, waste of time, tentacle rape and praising a mass murderer, just off the top of my head.
