Digibro Your Anime Sucks Sword Art Online 2 Part 2

Why Is SAO a Bad Anime?

Critics honey to hate Sword Art Online. It's become infamous for being a bad anime. It's besides a common starter anime. That means its existence splits 'newbs' who like information technology every bit their first/only anime experience, from veteran otaku, who hate it for its numerous anime clichés, writing flaws, and the overwhelming amount of hype for it.

That hype is why people mainly hate SAO and so much. It's oversold, in a world where at that place's simply just lots of meliorate anime around. People whose favorite anime is SAO are probably missing all these improve anime that exist. What they too don't know is that SAO has many faults with its writing that may merely become apparent to the experienced anime fan. Or at least to someone who has seriously studied anime and storytelling.

No, y'all're not bad if yous like SAO. It's fun. Harmless, escapist, entertainment, like all the other action-risk hits. Merely it has flaws. If you care to heed to a nerdy, cocky-described 'belittling diatribe' on the bailiwick of said flaws, try this video. Information technology's over an hour long though. Who has time for that? Drawing off what critics take said about Sword Art Online, how could the bear witness be fixed?

(No, not in the cleansing fires of the lord's day. Cease it, evil thoughts! Lalalalalala I can't hear you, evil thoughts!)

Note: This is more often than not a discussion of the outset episodes. I'g a big believer, as is Digibro, that yous can judge an anime past the first episode, or at least the first couple of episodes. If the beginning of an anime sucks, in that location'south no real reason to proceed watching. Most things I've seen only go up or downwards by one betoken at nigh when I've watched the whole thing.

I recognize that something may be missed by me not having seen the ending. But if the characters are introduced so badly I don't care to meet the ending, it doesn't matter if the ending fixes plot holes or answers important questions. Even the coolest of endings tin't brand upwards the incompetent way it handled our introduction to the plot and characters. And then that'south what this listing is setting out to set: the beginning.

Now, this is a weakness from the fact I haven't finished the testify. I've forced myself to watch up to episode eleven. And I realize that the villains of whatsoever anime are not going to unveil their full plans and motivations at the starting time of the story. But at the offset of Sword Fine art Online, there are a number of odd things the villain does, with no explanation given.

The villain here I hateful is the creator of the game chosen Sword Art Online. At the get-go of the series, he traps people in his online globe. Why? We don't see that. How is that possible? Nosotros don't know. Doesn't a plan like that involve a LOT of people beingness in on information technology in terms of programmers working under him? Stop asking questions, I guess?

The villain just shows upward, gives a painfully dull amount of exposition, and yet we're left with what feels like not enough exposition. In that, he drones on and on only never gets to any of the real questions we might have. And nothing reveals who he is every bit a person, his motivations, his emotional state. Part of what makes a villain work well is if we practice see that almost them. For example, one of Disney's greatest villains is Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Now, fifty-fifty before he sings a vocal nigh it, we know his motivation, the reasons he acts the way he does. We get an thought pretty early in the movie what kind of person he is. What makes him interesting is that he's and then morally conflicted inside.

In contrast, the maker of the game Sword Fine art Online has no visible emotions or inner conflict. He has no doubts about the ethical quandaries of his actions. He only does stuff. Out of nowhere, for no reason. Not merely trapping people in the game, merely making it so that people will dice in existent life if they die in the game, and setting up a contest where but the strongest players who beat the game's 100 levels volition live. Or something. He also changes the game then that people go from using avatars they designed to having avatars that resemble their real faces. Nosotros see Kirito become bummed out as he is forced to change from the older character he wanted to exist, to his younger, simply still adorably merchandise-worthy, face.

None of these deportment are things the audience gets a clear understanding of the villain'southward motivation for. Too, the villain then just up and disappears. I got to episode 11, and outside his initial appearance, nosotros never run across the villain, nor anything that happens in the real earth. We're left much like the characters themselves, blindly stuck in a fantasy world.

Then to set Sword Fine art Online, they need more about the villain. He needs some existent-world scenes. We should, every bit the story continues, at to the lowest degree get hints near who he is and why he made the game, perhaps even hints about why he added details like forcing anybody to use their existent faces.

As it stands, even though he's the maker of the story, his initial exposition dump just feels like a Large Lipped Alligator Moment that explains zippo and is later non even relevant. We too need to run across how he gets away with all the crap he does in the real earth. Because that part left me super confused when I watched the starting time few episodes. You lot tin can't exercise human testing without an ethics committee evaluation. And yes, that exists in Nihon too. And so the whole beingness of something that is a video game, that tin can kill yous if you die in the game or stop playing it, is illegal and would very quickly be shut downward at the development phase.

Scroll to Continue

Read More From Reelrundown

Principal indicate: prove a whole lot more almost how this is all set up in the real globe, or everything simply feels like an Ass Pull. Make the villain feel more than like a real person with real motivations and less similar a generic doomsday villain. Since villains are so of import to any story, and in this story, the villain fabricated everything, this would get a long fashion towards fixing SAO.

Don't look at her, she'due south hideous.

You might not take remembered this if you're more than into the recent episodes than the start, but the way Asuna was introduced as a graphic symbol had a glaring flaw. What I hateful is, she is set as a mysterious grapheme, hiding her identity with a hooded robe that covers her face. Just when she ditches the hood the first time she has to fight a bad guy, she ditches it for skilful. Later, we see her interacting with Kirito and there is zero revealed about why she started out wearing a hood to conceal her face. She never had whatever reason to conceal her face.

When you prove a character concealing his or her face, there'due south usually a reason for information technology. A scar they desire to hide. She might have been famous in the existent globe. I would have accepted that she was a serial killer clown. Or a series killer of clowns. Annihilation would have been improve than this - confusing anticipation of a reveal that goes nowhere.

In contrast, Holo in Spice and Wolf. She has a pretty clear goddamn reason for concealing her face; her eyes and furry ears would give her away immediately equally not-homo. She would be called a demon, imprisoned by the church, and it would crusade trouble for Lawrence. So it's a pretty big deal whenever Holo is seen without her hood, and the story builds a lot of tension nigh the possibility of her identity being revealed.

How could this have been fixed?

Elementary. Either:

1. Give Asuna a clear reason she has for sometimes hiding her face. OR,
2. Have her non put a handbag on her head in the beginning place. It's non exactly a cute mode statement. If a character has no reason to hibernate their face, the simplest matter is to not have them hide it.

This is a serious anime about people who are all tragically trapped in a video game that could kill them. Recall that as you're watching this scene.

If I had known from the showtime that Sword Art Online was going to exist a lighthearted romantic comedy well-nigh still another Generic Boy meeting his Awesome Fantasy Harem, I'd have been OK with that. There'due south a huge gap betwixt what was promised past the outset couple of episodes and what the story really concluded up beingness.

And so the fix is simple. Cull either an activeness-hazard, gritty Sci-Fi where death is breathing down everyone's neck, or cull a light-hearted, funny, romantic comedy about wacky how-do-you-do-jinks involving tsundere panties and elf boobies. But don't promise one, and and so evangelize the other. The tone and genre inconsistency here was probably the main reason many people quit the evidence after the first few episodes.

Sure, yous tin accept light-hearted moments in a hardcore scientific discipline fiction. And you can accept serious dramatic moments in a lighter story. But the overall tone in SAO is so difficult to pin down, because it'due south trying too hard to exist two things at once, which causes it to fail at existence either of them very well.

One problem with SAO in terms of storytelling is side-tracking and branching likewise much. It sets up this super of import concept; holy moly, everyone's trapped in World of Warcraft and they're all gonna dice! That's heady. Well now let'south follow Wonderboy and his faithful companion Tits Redhead as they... do teen romantic comedy stuff that isn't at all exciting, or new to anyone who's seen any other anime.

Yeah. A like problem happens in Inuyasha, where the primary plot of the story (collecting the Shikon jewel shards) is too often abandoned for side plots. Many of these side plots are less interesting than, and add nothing to, the chief plot.

How to set this? Well, one thing is that it could take been written so that it all takes place in a fantasy earth. The fact that it takes identify in a video game that anybody presumably is desperately trying to escape from makes information technology problematic whenever anyone spends whatsoever time non freaking out and running towards the goal. It's like setting a burn in a crowded edifice and yet watching everyone go well-nigh their shopping equally if at that place were no fire. You can't create panic and a sense of urgency in the first episode, just for the characters to take completely dropped that sense of urgency just a couple of episodes later. Cipher seems besides trivial for Kirito to pursue. He never says, hey, let's not waste our fourth dimension hither, I want to get out of this game. Information technology almost feels, after a while, that the game plot may too not exist, because it'southward and so footling focused on or mentioned.

And so why not but gear up information technology entirely in a fantasy world to begin with? Have Kirito be a kid in some village who wants to become an adventurer and get stronger, like Ash, Naruto, or Gon from Hunter x Hunter. There's zippo wrong with that. A lot of the problems in the story are caused by the fact that information technology is a video game. Taking out the video game might get in less original, but if that aspect of it is not going to be taken that seriously by the plot, maybe information technology could be dropped altogether.

Did I remember to wave my penis at the enemy? That usually works.

Ane problem people have noted is that Kirito is a Gary Stu, a male Mary Sue. He's likewise perfect and rarely fails at anything. He's ofttimes able to save the day in implausible ways. And even though the game was inverse between beta testing and the final version, and there are other beta testers, they use the fact that he was a beta tester every bit a autograph for, 'he knows everything at all times, is never in doubt, and is just awesome.'

The problem is, a primary character who'southward like that all the time, and never falls flat on his pretty little face, is boring. Any character who ever wins or always loses volition inevitably make the audience lose interest because then the graphic symbol has become predictable. Victory also ways less if at that place is no real struggle for it in the showtime place. It's like having a sports flick (or anime) where none of the rival teams are really very skilful.

Challenging your characters besides gives them an opportunity for grapheme growth. The master problem with the Mary Sue and her male counterpart is that there is no room for growth or learning life lessons, because the character had no personal flaws to overcome to begin with. No, a static character is not a bad thing. Merely to actually care about a grapheme, information technology's good to play it less safe and brand them feel similar they're genuinely vulnerable at times. For example, in Deadpool 2 (no spoilers), Deadpool's nearly limitless power of regeneration is put on agree past collars that cake mutants' powers, making him more than vulnerable. If your characters are awesome and badass all the fourth dimension, in every situation, that'south deadening. There'southward no reason for planning or strategy. Only, let the main characters accuse in and save the twenty-four hour period. That really only works in kid-oriented superhero works, and information technology barely works in that location, because it creates too much predictability. In action, it's not exciting unless there is a chance that the master character might lose or fail. Kirito, every bit far as I know, is invincible and is never forced to rethink his tactics or question himself.

How to fix that? Well, it'southward unproblematic. Have Kirito neglect, and exist forced to rethink his tactics. Or have him do something dumb, like accuse into an ambush, that forces him to remember about the way he handles problems. I don't know if the rest of the bear witness does this. I'thousand hoping for it, but not hoping too hard.

In Ready Player 1, people spend all their time in a massive multiplayer online game because they desire to. The globe outside has gone downwards the toilet, and then the game, called the O.A.South.I.South., is escapism for most people. You could do that with SAO and that would make it better.

For one, information technology gets rid of the aforementioned trouble with creating a desperate sense of urgency to go out of the game (lighting a fire in the mall) and then dropping that urgency immediately. If people were only going into the game voluntarily, perhaps because the real earth had all gone to shit, it would brand a lot more sense. You also don't need such a slow, mustache-twiddling villain backside everything. And if y'all're going to carelessly dispose of the villain in later episodes too anyway, why not just do away with that idea altogether?

Very lilliputian is gained by having the characters be trapped in a video game. And being trapped in a game for and so long is similar beingness in a coma. Information technology'south depressing to remember that all the characters, every bit happy as they are in the game, are wasting away in real life. Who is feeding them and cleaning up their waste? Are they being bathed? Are they getting bedsores? This is a nightmarish horror, an agony. And yet, creepily, all that real-world messiness is just ignored and the afterwards episodes of the game really do act like the game is voluntary, and fun. A game can't be fun if you lot're forced to live in it. Even if yous wanted to be there originally. Not beingness able to leave and non knowing who is doing what to your real torso are horrifying things to deal with. All the same SAO ignores the inherent mood dissonance between the reality of what'south happening and the cute fantasy beingness presented.

A much better way to deal with this would accept been for people to be in the game of their own accord. You could still have the villain exist the game maker, and still accept him utilize the game to fuck with people. Only it doesn't piece of work to accept a beautiful wonderland of a game that people seem content in, and too have them forced into/trapped inside information technology, tragically. It's simply weird and incongruent.

Identifying problems is easier than knowing how exactly to gear up something bad and get in amend. I tried to practice this with Sword Art Online. I feel similar that anime had a lot of potential that went nowhere, frustrating many audience members and critics. So the above suggestions and comments are ideas for how to salvage that potential, and really make information technology pay off with a better story. Some people like the quirks of SAO. And that's fine. Information technology tin can be a affair of personal taste.

It'southward become kind of popular to hate equally a backlash against its overwhelming popularity. The reason this popularity pisses off some people is that there is much more good anime out there, and people worry those good anime are getting buried by mediocre crap similar SAO. It's bad, but there'south no real reason other than that for it getting then much hate fandom. Reasonably, it simply suffers from a few storytelling mistakes that could be ironed out, and sure episodes are actually enjoyable. I'k no fan, but I'yard not really a hater either. Do you like or detest SAO? How practise you think the show should accept been changed?

Questions & Answers

Question: Well-nigh of your comments seem to suggest the best way to amend SAO would exist to standardize or more than closely follow norms, of genre, structure or form. Why do you experience this is necessary and wouldn't that strip away the few defining, or at least characteristic, aspects of Sword Fine art Online?

Answer: I do want shows that are unique. My suggestions are intended to make it a stronger story. Defining characteristics of a bear witness are important, it'southward expert for a show to stand out. But the things I'one thousand calling out hither were defining characteristics I felt didn't work - didn't contribute to the emotional weight of the story. I wouldn't say standardize, but information technology would have been meliorate if in that location was consistency rather than what felt like misdirection.

Naomi Starlight (author) from Illinois on February 16, 2020:

"Y'all can't judge this anime in 11 episodes "

Pitiful but that'due south actually more information technology takes to gauge an anime. It takes five minutes to the showtime episode. A show has to hook yous in the kickoff 5 minutes. I'm not wading through however many episodes of pure boredom waiting for a good catastrophe. It has to exist interesting and exciting off the bat, and for me information technology isn't considering it never feels like Kirito and Asuna are ever in any real trouble.

https://world wide web.youtube.com/picket?v=0kQrT8S2Mrw

The Mad Quinn on February 12, 2020:

if you lot finished the show yous yous'd see your reasons aren't good. you do learn more almost the villain when the characters learn about him. the storyline shows that the creator of the game was playing the game with them and was the final boss, he wanted to play the game he created so that's why he disappeared and why his identity wasn't shown and so he could blend in like a normal character. They show the real world and the news showed how the game trapped people and killed people when they died in game the people playing the games were put in hospitals and were taken care of. Kirito does fail a few times and struggles only is saved past his friends. You can't judge this anime in xi episodes the storyline isnt finished and everything is answered. SAO wasn't my first anime or my final but it's ane of my favorites I've seen every season, Movie, and video game. learn to get the facts straight before judging considering the only problem that wasn't solved was Asuna covering her face which if I guessed or used mutual sense she was probably trying to process what just happened and was trying to muffle her emotions and so she wouldn't come off as weak and exist killed right away.

Samiens on June 01, 2018:

I tin see your logic on that but Looking at SAO every bit a whole, rather than the outset half of season 1 (which covers most 4 novels in the serial) I call up it would hurt much more than it would help - the juxtaposition of real world and game globe becomes increasingly of import, and interesting, as it progresses - specially in the material that will make upwards season 3.

That'southward not to say I couldn't see a fantasy setting better supporting the first arc though as you lot say - simply I'm not sure that it wouldn't be duplicate from the raft of genetic isekai shows that followed it if y'all did that - for better or worse.

It's an interesting discussion though - and one that's helped me answer your poll question. I'd definitely go for another writer - not and then much to ready the direction or major plot points but a more skilled author with more infinite to address the flaws in the setting and better bring out the (low-cal) philosophy that underpins it.

(Not to say I don't love Reki Kawahara for creating something I really like of grade!)

Naomi Starlight (author) from Illinois on June 01, 2018:

That'southward kind of why I think it would have worked better wholly in a fantasy setting. They already have isekai past magical means, that would have been fine, rather than cool technologies and poorly thought-out game mechanics.

Samiens on May 31, 2018:

I definitely agree - the in-universe explanation is that the cardinal system that underpins the game does all of the maintenance, and the vast bulk of the development, tasks you would unremarkably need a whole army of people to carry out. It seems somewhat incongruous with the level of engineering otherwise nowadays.

It's also patently ridiculous that you lot could bring a high contour VR headset to release (even if it is a tiny launch of 10,000 machines just) with so picayune testing that no one would find information technology can actually kill people.

This kind of highlights where I recall SAO both does and really does not work - as a piece of work of science fiction it is simply too inconsistent to stand and not remote enough in setting to ignore. Similarly as game literature the mechanics aren't sufficiently explored to provide enough depth to truly engage (not to mention that some seem fashion off from any modern design philosophy).

As a lite novel genre fusion (by result rather than intention I doubtable) however, information technology covers a lot of bases - information technology has a solid romance, decent action, recognisable game elements and an interesting enough setting to support low-cal philosophising on the real world/virtual world split (though this is more apparent in afterwards arcs and the novels). While fifty-fifty I, as a serious fan, tin't say it is the best, or even great, in any of those areas I remember there is a case for it being entertaining across multiple genres (though that is of course entirely subjective) which I think both helps a larger number of people find something to like about it and gives information technology some graphic symbol (even if each individual chemical element is heavily, if sometimes pleasingly, generic).

Information technology's i of those shows that can be entertaining, exciting and sometimes touching, which are all factors in its popularity, even if it doesn't hold upward under artful or critical examination.

Naomi Starlight (author) from Illinois on May 31, 2018:

Well those are proficient points. But as for the villain'due south motive, it doesn't really explain how he does anything, or how he gets away with it. Real MMORPGs need and then much manpower, rows and rows of people sitting at computers all day. To have a huge company with that kind of capability on a technical level, it would have been, as I said, impossible to get effectually the ethical violations involved in even exploring the possibility of an MMORPG that MIGHT trap humans within. Experimenting with people's brains is a lot of ruby-red tape. For good reason.

Samiens on May 31, 2018:

I will preface my comment by stating that I love SAO - it remains my favourite belongings (fifty-fifty though I'm well enlightened of its many flaws and fully accept there are much meliorate crafted shows around).

I've e'er thought that the biggest result for SAO is 1 of marketing - it's advertised as a high concept work when in actual fact it's a hot mess fusion of action, romance, isekai and other genres (depending on series). This leads to subversion if expectations (both proficient and bad) which I recollect is a major gene in how polarising the show is. I'1000 non sure it needs fixing (though despite how much I like it I tin run into areas for inprovement - though probably not those to a higher place, interesting equally they are) so much as repositioning.

Simply other indicate for at present, because I've never got why people raise this as a critique, is that nosotros absolutely do know why the villain did this - it is explained in the first episode (he wanted to create another world dissimilar to reality). Information technology might not exist a sophisticated, or even good, explanation but it is there and borne out in later episodes.

maynardtoodifer.blogspot.com

Source: https://reelrundown.com/animation/Here-Are-7-Things-Sword-Art-Online-Needed-to-be-Better

Share this post