This thread is permanently archived
SAO: Good or bad, explain why.
| Promising concept with a killer first episode let down by inconsistent and nonsense writing, excessive fan service, and a main character who is nothing but an easy self insert flawless perfect god.
Season 2 showed a little promise honestly and the gun gale arc was definitely more interesting, probably because of the greater focus on a story rather than kirito meeting several women that instantly fall for him.
| I haven't watched past season 2, but the 4 arcs covered in those seasons were honestly just nothing. A bunch of interesting concepts that get sidelined to showcase an overpowered main character that's so forceably trying to be cool. There's some good stuff in there, particularly the villains can be genuinely skin crawling, but as a whole the show gets far too distracted with itself.
| Every arc or even minor struggle also ends with kirito pulling some dues ex machina out of his ass and either straight up cheating, or just being overpowered in the least interesting ways. There's no real struggle in the show, and that's disappointing because with a more interesting lead it could've hit a lot harder with just the story it already had.
| I enjoyed the Ordinal Scale movie.
| Good or bad I don't know.
Liked it a lot.
I'd say it's bad because too many female characters. I mean the characters are not bad, and the fact they're female characters isn't a problem in itself, it's just how they're used as pure fanservice sometimes.
I can bear with it.
About the OP MC part, I don't care because it's exactly as it's sold : story of a dude that contributed to neural interface technology, known for being fast as fuck. Also "transcending willpower"
>bullshit.
| It's not a masterpiece by any means, and not even short of one.
It just does deserve some praise SOMETIMES.
That was worth watching the show imo.
The anime doesn't let you have enough time to understand how psychologically destroyed some characters get, and for how long.
It's really bad pacing I guess. But I just had to compensate by basic empathy. Still weird pacing choice.
| It's a power trip for a 14 years old boys. "I'm a wuss in real life, but now my nerdy skills give me every cheat ability avaliable plus a harem of cute girls but I'm 14 so I don't do sexual stuff I just blush". If I'd watched this when I was 14, I'm sure I would've love it. But I'm not a 14yo, and I know better than this.
Also its wasted potential. It sets up a great concept in the first 2 episodes and immediately after that shits the pants with stupid and boring writing.
| Also I don't like the modern look of anime. Almost every anime now looks identical, with the same split in two halves mouths, the same formula of drawing a few presets of faces and reactions and just copypasting them. A1 in general and SAO in particular are the culprits. A1 - because it was shitting dozens of titles every year that looked THE SAME, SAO - because it happened to fire and became popular.
| The industry is on a thin fucking edge now, considering how small and tight it is and the age of more talented and experianced key people. Despera will never be made, remakes will always be trash, the industry will never return to its glory days.
| >>658525
Pretty much this, yes.
>>658555
There is a million shows that develop and show "how psychologically destroyed some characters get" which did it better. Just because SAO was your first anime like this doesn't mean it deserves any praise just because of this.
>>658550
By closing your eyes on its glaring problems you silently approve of studios continuing doing this.
| For me its just a worse more generic log horizon, wich isnt bad, just overhyped and overhated by people, in essence is the pinnacle of an isekai power fantasy, peple either hate or love it, the animation is excelent though
| I really liked it at first, but for every episode there were more and more plot holes, more and more inconsistencies, and Kirito went from an actual character to just a basic vessel for power fantasy. The animation and all that shit is great, the openings are fucking bangers, but the story is just so extremely poorly written that it keeps me from enjoying the good parts of it.
So big bad from me.
| >>658590
ejjj I am aware of those problems tho, I just chose to accept the flaws. By the time the adaptation is out, you can't change it. I want a better adaptation you know, but I guess it won't happen...
I never compared it to the "million shows that did this better"...
I don't even get how you interpreted this as praise...
Can you also maybe not assume the shows I watched, and the order in which I supposedly watched them ?
I feel like I hit a nerve or smth...
| I'm even gonna say that SAO Abridged is better than the show.
And you could argue it's not a prowess but... yea check it out.
| somehow it's not bad nor good, it's kinda okay i guess, for some reason i liked the gun gale online part, like with death gun and stuff, which most people didn't like from what i've heard
| >>dfaccf I also liked that arc. It was more focused, and gave a bit more time to the main characters and world instead of being ten waifus a minute. Although it was pretty weak, I did appreciate them trying to work in my psychological elements with the PTSD. The big mystery of the arc was a good concept as well, blending two worlds instead of just being stuck in the game.
Everything was pretty solid aside from yet another ex machina win in the final fight for kirito.
| I enjoy it for what it is.
The gate around it is somewhat unwarranted, not saying sao is perfect at all, it's just that it got so over hyped, people be saying it's the greatest anime ever and when people see that it it's anything other than the greatest anime ever they put it down excessively.
Anything remotely popular will find hate, sao is an alright show, that is all.
On that note though, sao abridged is one of the greatest things I've ever seen.
| hate*
| >>658583
Really funny reading "I'm 14 so I don't do sexual stuff I just blush" knowing that chapter 16.5 exists. Don't recommend looking it up though. Yes, it's THAT bad.
| >>658794
Also, yeah, SAO Abridged is THE definitive SAO experience. ALO arc is kinda falling flat for me so far, but it's just starting so we'll see where that goes I guess.
| .hack series did this concept way better imo
| I've always wondered with 16.5 if kirito's comatose body also cums and some poor nurse had to clean him up after
| >>663019
I don't think it does. That would imply that neurosignals from the game reach his real body. It's not like he is swingin his hands and jumping in his bed.
It would be fun tho.
| >>e498b3 I'd have thought the cum would be more of an anonymous reaction, but I'm no scientist. My thinking was maybe the excitement and hormones in his actual brain from the in game stimulus would maybe cause him to just unleash his 3 YEARS OF SEMEN.
| I can get why people have issues with the first 2 seasons but the 3rd season is really good, but it's a shame that the newest 4th season seemed to fuck it up again by half not making any sense and shit
| >>663521
Sword Art Online has never been about making sense. It has constant plot holes all the time. I don't see the difference.
| Kept getting better, I was a .hack fan beforehand and it really filled a void.
| S1 is good because it was the first.
.hack did it before but the animation was from an older generation and irrelevant for many who saw it. It popularized isekai, looked stunning, good ost. Plot isn't the only measure bar for anime.
That said I did not like the next seasons I feel like it has become a cashcow. It's music isn't so dope anymore, kurito is stagnant and the plot ist more forced.. New seasons, not a fan
| >>663822
I feel like while the story story shouldn't be the only thing to rate it by, it is really fucking important. I watch anime primarily for a story told through animation, which I believe is the case for most people. So when it only has the cool animation and the music, but the story is trash, I wouldn't consider it good, at all. It also didn't popularise isekai. Isekai has been around for actual decades and been extremely popular, way before SAO.
| >>663868
They never said first Isekai, though. One of the first adaptation of trapped in an MMO stuff...
I don't even know why ppl consider this Isekai. I mean... I CAN see why, but it doesn't give the same vibes to me, at all... I guess it's personal feeling.
| >>663822 Older animation doesn't make something irrelevant, that's just a dumb statement.
People are still watching and enjoying Akira to this day and that looks old as hell. Plot isn't the only quality bar for a series, but it is the most important one. A plot is what drives a series, the art is just the vehicle to deliver that plot.
| Also like.. cmon.. Sao doesn't even look that good. It's pretty clean looking, but it's far from stunning for the most part, exceptions being a few set pieces.
| This looks like a "[statement], change my mind..." thread.
| GGO was the only semi good part of that show, but only half of it, and when I say half I mean half of the parts with anything interesting happening that isn't just shitty fan service/callbacks. Guns were pretty cool, but nooo, we can't have MC learn how to use a gun and not be mr. swordsguy who autowins every fight, he *has* to find a sword in the game and use his epic gamer reflexes to win in a FUCKING GUN FIGHT with a SWORD.
Yeah all of that show was ass
This thread is permanently archived
| In your opinion, was sao ever good or was it just overrated because it started the whole "trapped in another reality" type of thing