In the near future, a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online has been released where players control their avatars with their bodies using a piece of technology called Nerve Gear. One day, players discover they cannot log out, as the game creator is holding them captive unless they reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if they die in the game, they die in real life. Their struggle for survival starts now...
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Director: Tomohiko Ito
Music: Yuki Kajiura
Original creator: Reki Kawahara (light novel)
Character Design: Shingo Adachi
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Streaming on:
Crunchyroll, (1:30 p.m. PDT, Saturdays)
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Early impressions:
Sword Art Online 1
I have to say it.
I called it.
Freaking. Awesome.
This is White Knight Chronicles taken to the next level, where women are not only objects to be coveted, but to be protected from people who don't appreciate their value as objects. Seriously, this show makes the dumb-as-nails women that Sorkin wrote for The Newsroom look like great, three-dimensional characters with depth and character.
I mean, most harem shows are just dumb fantasies that are harmful, but benignly so. For example, Hayate is literally about a dude who protects waifus. But when I watch Hayate, I don't feel like this is what the show thinks about the relationship between men and women. Sword Art Online, on the other hand, is like watching one of those Happy Science animes where you feel so much wahjah just watching a representation of an insane ideology that the author believes in and that its fans presumably believe in.
Sword Art Online 01
So, I'm glad we're done with the tutorial part. Really glad. Exposition doesn't sit well with me anymore.
It looks nice, music is good, the character(s) haven't bugged me, so it's all good.
Sword Art Online 1
Yeah, this is really cool. What the entire .hack franchise should have been. It also really makes me want a Real PG anime. The cast (well, the 2 characters we know) seem cool so far and the premise, while not entirely original, is executed in a way that makes it very compelling. Definitely sticking with this until the end unless it gets super bad.
This would also make me extremely paranoid about true VR games if I knew they weren't decades off.
Wow, Sword Art Online is pretty damn interesting. I'm already hooked to this anime.
Sword Art Online ep 1
Exceeded my expectations, decent beginning with a dark twist to it. Looks like I'm gonna enjoy this although it slightly bugs me that this also written by the author of Accel world. Both MC share the same traits where they escape to the virtual world to get away from problems.
I thought SAO was the worst thing on the internet since child porn.
But after episode 3, it just become average anime shit.
Sword Art Online
An anime similar to .hack? Sign me up! Pretty great first episode. Was expecting half of the female characters to actually be guys.
Sword Art Online 01
It was okay I guess. It felt really generic to me. There is this half decent premise of people being trapped inside of an MMORPG world but it doesn't really feel like the story is really doing anything interesting with that concept. The characters are just astoundingly forgettable, and the evil masked man seems like a childish concept when the anime is supposed to be about reality intersecting with the virtual. I'll probably give it a few more chances because this is just the opening episode, but I find it unlikely things will improve unless the unrevealed cast are able to hold my attention.
Edit: Oh yeah, and let me put this microwave right next to my brain for the next several hundred hours.
Sword Art Online 1
Real brilliant idea to allow the use of helmet-shaped microwaves for the purposes of playing a videogame, dudes. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
There are some things you just have to buy into setting-wise, and asides from that, this was really enjoyable. Just a really competent adaptation of a pile of turd generic MMO fantasy with nice animation and art.
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Characters:
“Kirito”/ Kazuto Kirigaya
Kirito is the main protagonist of the series. He is a "solo" player, a player who hasn't joined a guild and usually works alone. He is also one of the very few people to have had the privilege to play in the beta testing period of Sword Art Online. His game alias, Kirito, is created by taking the syllables of the first and last Kanji of his real last and first names respectively: (Kirigaya Kazuto). In the real world, he lives with his mother and younger sister in a family of 3.
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“Lisbeth”/ Rika Shinozaki
A mace wielder that runs a blacksmith shop in Aincrad on the 48th floor. Best girl.
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“Klein”/ Ryoutarou Tsuboi
A friendly player that meets Kirito at the start of the game and quickly befriends and learns from him.
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“Silica”/ Keiko Ayano
She is 13 years old and a middle level dagger user. She is a very cheerful and sweet girl.
She is one of the very rare 'Beast Tamers' in SAO. She has a very rare familiar a 'feathery dragon' that she named Pina after her cat in the real world. She treasured Pina a lot and was the reason she survived in the game. Aside from being a female player, she is also a Beast Tamer and thus perceived as an idol amongst the middle level players. She received endless invitations from parties and guilds who wanted an idol player to join them to get more fame.
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“Egil”/ Andrew Gilbert Mills
A merchant stationed at city Algate, located at the 50th floor of Aincrad. His shop motto is "Buy cheap and sell cheap".
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CG Dragon
A dragon.
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"I hope I lie
And tell everyone you were a good wife
And I hope you die
I hope we both die"
~ Mountain Goats
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As seen on
Kotaku: Sword Art Online Is the Smartest Anime I’ve Seen in Years (And It’s Only Half-Done)
