So for my 1 year anniversary in the boards I wanted to do something special. After pondering for a while, I finally decided what I'll go for, I call it:
SWORD ART ONLINE TORTURE MONTH
Ah, yes, I remember when this series got out in 2012 and everybody loved it... shame is, I did too (see why I hate my 14-16 years old self?). However, after analyzing it now in my post-weeb phase, I found out how terrible of a series this is. You might be wondering, if I hate this series so much then why don't you ignore it? The answer is pretty simple: I LOVE to HATE it. Unlike with Minions or Five Nights at Freddy's, my hate for this thing is in a more rational level, many times that I'm not focusing on what I like, I focus and nitpick on what I hate (a sad existance, I know) and SAO is brought the most, mainly because I used to like it enough to research about. So it's also a dreadful reminder of my weeb days, which I pick on a lot.
Now here's the rules what I will do on this so called "torture month":
- I'll rewatch each and every episode of the series first season each day, so I'll be daily posting a review on that particular episode.
- I'm not a professional critic, far from one, but even I know that as much as I hate something, I must also look at the positive points, so whenever there's something I think is good I'll recognize it.
- Sword Art Online has a second season, however, I'll only watch the first season, that means that out of the three animated arcs, I'll only review two: The Aincrad Arc, the one that focuses on the titular game itself and the Fairy Dance Arc, focusing on Alfheim Online. Maybe, maybe someday I'll watch the second to see how bad it is, but not now.
- After the episode that finishes it's arc, I'll do my a review explaining my general thoughts on each arc myself. The same for when I finish the show.
- I'm only reviewing the anime, the light novel is a completely different thing. I know nothing about it and I honestly don't care. Besides, when reviewing adaptations you have to see if it's able to hold on it's own without the original material. It's not the same reviewing a Zelda game than reviewing the Zelda cartoon.
Also take in mind one thing, what I'll write here is my sole opinion, if you like the series, fine by me. I'm not hoping to change your way of thinking neither offend you, I'm only expressing myself here.
Okay, now here's the obligatory explanation of the thing for those that don't know about this series:
Sword Art Online is a light novel series written by some otaku named Reiki Kawahara and illustrated by some guy with the pseudonym of abec. Those novels focus on a teenager named Kazuto Kirigaya, better known by his username Kirito, a gamer fan of MMORPGs who buys a game a brand new game called Sword At Online on it's launch day. Here's the exciting thing: it's a virtual reality game played by a console that can send waves to your brain called the NerveGear. Upon entering and spending some hours playing he finds out no one can log off the game. That's where our antagonist, Akihiko Kayaba, the game's programmer, enters. Turns out he has disabled the log off option and traps all 10,000 players in the game, making it a matter of life and death by informing them that if their HP reach 0, the NerveGear in real life will fry their brains and kill them (and the same if it's removed in real life). The only way to go back to reality, is to finish the game by clearing all 100 floors and beating all bosses. And thus Kirito starts his journey to beat the game.
I said I'd recognize good stuff and I'll do it now: The idea SAO brings us, is awesome. It's not the most original, but it has lots of potential to it. Thing is, a good idea is nothing if the execution is bad. But I'll explain as I rewatch this series, starinting tomorrow by the first episode.
Next Review: Episode 1 - The World of Swords.