Yeah, I'm back OT. Anyway. Wanted to share this.

It's an Anime, subbed only. Not the first anime to focus around getting trapped in an MMORPG and not be able to escape the game in any other terms than beating it.

It's a good anime, though. I give it a 10/10. Best thing I've watched since Clannad.

Good to see you back, but...

Really. Sword Art Online? 10/10? I thought you were older than 15. At best it's a 6/10, but I say it's a 5/10- And that's being generous.

The world isn't well thought out at all, the writer didn't bother to lay down the rules of this MMO world, the pacing is INCREDIBLY off, they missed a LOT of opportunities to make fun in-jokes about online gaming, it's one of the most sexist anime in recent history, the main character is HORRIBLE- he's just a Gary Stu, no substance to him at all (or to ANY of the characters, for that matter), and it's a pseudo-harem. The harem element in it is much worse than Clannad. Not to mention they force down your throat "OH LOL IT'S NOT ACTUALLY HIS SISTER IT'S HIS COUSIN" because HEAVEN FORBID a single female character under the age of 20 in this show NOT fall in love with our main character- Just because you need to know how awesome he is.

It's a poorly written, super contrived self-insert fanboy story. One reviewer described it as "Twilight Saga for teenage boys", and I agree whole-heartedly. I mean I don't think Clannad is very good but I will at least say it's a far cry better than SAO.

.hack already did 10 years ago what SAO is doing now, and .hack did it 10000x better. There was far more substance to it, and actually some thought put into it and it was psychological. There is NOTHING psychological about SAO-- There could have been, but they just didn't bother. It honestly feels like it was written by a 15 year old, and from what I've heard he DID write it when he was 15 and it very much shows.

Feel free to tell me what you think is actually good about this show, because I haven't heard anything of substance other than "WELL IT'S REALLY COOL AND STUFF". And for the record, I have watched 18 episodes.

And now we know the best way to call Amberleh into the forums. No matter where she is or what she is doing, the moment an anime thread is posted on LoL OT she will come rushing, ready to put forth one of her pre-written set theses on the issues brought up in the thread.

I was posting a lot last night, and I pass on a lot of anime threads.

I only posted on this one because 1. Sword Art Online is stupid and the most over-rated anime at this point and
2. Shagra. I kind of missed him.

I've played WoW for 7 years.

It combines two things I love deeply, Anime and MMORPGs. There's a lot of Lingo that they toss around that I occasionally giggle at. It's a strong mix of action, romance, and it's just enjoyable. I suppose I can relate to it a lot more than other anime I've seen.

Obviously you don't like anything Harem, so you immediately mark anything that so much as resembles something Haremy off as bad anime. And what version you watch can really determine a lot when it comes to Subbed anime. A slight change in words can make something seem entirely different.

Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece are still out there... And SAO is the most overated?

SAO has twice the action of .Hack and less than half of the heart. Just about everything in the show is either A) poorly written or B) overdone and exaggerated, for example, the weird pseudo harem it's become.

Ignoring the pacing issues or self masturbatory nature of the story as a whole it's still a pointless "hurp durp gunna save the girl" story only inside a video game, there's little incentive to keep watching it unless you're only viewing it for the flashy fight scenes.

It's the most overrated anime of 2012, not of all time but it's pretty bad for how much of a weeaboo trap it is

See, you're not giving it any valid defense. And I can appreciate a harem anime- I can see why people liked Clannad and some of the other series and I can giggle at comedy harems. I quite love Tenchi Muyo and Vandread. In fact, I actually rated Clannad 7/10 and After Story 8/10, which are both good ratings.

The biggest problem with the harem element in SAO is that it doesn't add anything at all to the story. It didn't need to be there. Clannad at least had the excuse that it was based on a visual novel, so I mean let's face it, they couldn't get around throwing that in there. SAO there was NO REASON for it- it added nothing at all. Not a single thing. The very first girl didn't bother me because they kept going back to his guilt with her, so that was fine. Asuna was obviously fine because she's the main interest. But the beast tamer and Asuna's best friend AND HIS FRIGGIN LITTLE SISTER were all INCREDIBLY unnecessary and didn't add ANYTHING. Their only purpose is to make Kirito look better because he's a Gary Stu.

As for the MMO elements- I played WoW for 7-8 years and before that I played a different MMO for a couple of years. This is precisely where the series failed- There were a LOT of jokes to be made, a lot of funny stereotypes they could have thrown in, etc that they just overlooked entirely. There's also the matter that he (the writer of SAO) didn't lay down the rules of his own world. He partially did, but only a little bit and most of those rules were broken later on in the series (example- eating the food of SAO), so you couldn't immerse yourself in their world because they didn't explain how any of it worked. It was like you were just supposed to magically know how it worked- And I mean sure, it's for people who played MMOs before, but each MMO has it's own rules and nuances. None of these were established in the show.

As for subtitles- That matters very little for my problems with the show as my problems are with the core elements of the show.

The characters, as mentioned before, are bland. There is nothing to them. Kirito is a Gary Stu and Asuna is kind of a Mary Sue, although she's better. My favorite character is the pink haired dude because he's the only one with any real personality. There's also the factor that no female character appears for more than a couple minutes without falling in love with the main character. There were 2 that didn't- Only two. Everyone else falls for Kirito. You don't see an issue with this in a show that isn't based on a VN and is not SUPPOSED to be a harem?

The show is just .hack meets Clannad and it isn't even 1/4 as good as either of those shows.

Oh, and as for Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece- They get plenty of hate and quite frankly they are all FAR better shows than SAO. I mean that in all seriousness. Every one of those three has a lot of complexity to the show, fun characters, good story, some amount of thought required, and has a large helping of entertainment.

I may not like Naruto and may have grown tired of Bleach, but I can admit that at their core they are decent shows and I can see why people like them. There IS something to them, some kind of substance. Are they overrated? Sure, but they still get a TON of flack.

The writers for each of those three shows put a LOT into them- One Piece especially is so unique and just fun. Naruto, while overrated and about fake ninjas, still has really good character development and a good, complex story with a lot of twists and turns- Same thing can be said of Bleach. All three of these shows stand out and have personality. There is no soul or personality to SAO. None. It's all srs bus all the time, and it's super hard to like a character with no flaws whatsoever. A good main character isn't perfect, so you can relate to him/her because no one is perfect. A good example of this is, oddly enough, Sailor Moon- She is so far from perfect, but she's relateable, and the tv series/manga explore her growth. She matures throughout the series, through her experiences- Mini Moon too. This is what makes them good characters. There is no character development in SAO. NONE.

LOL 10/10?

Don't troll so obviously next time.