Everything Bad About Aincrad 1.0

In the year 2012, questions of grandeur emerged due to one anime – “Sword Art Online.” Many critics asked the question: Was “Sword Art Online” good or bad? After taking a detailed look at the Aincrad arc, I decided it was time to put my best foot forward in my quest to answer this question. In Part 1, I discussed everything I enjoyed from the Aincrad arc. In Part 2, I began analyzing the things that were particularly bad about the Aincrad arc. Today, we finish off this list and answer the ultimate question.

Before we continue, please remember:

1. This is still just the Aincrad arc of SAO. Later arcs will be covered in future parts of the ‘series.’

2. I’ve heard a lot of critics, so I didn’t notice everything on my own. In fact, when reviewing anything, one rarely has a detailed opinion about the topic on their first viewing.

3. This is still my opinion. Feel free to discuss and debate in the comment section, but PLEASE do not get offended about anything.

Also Spoilers Ahead

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Character Development in SAO is… practically nonexistent. Kirito is the same guy through the first two arcs. Asuna changes some, and by some, I mean, she becomes more relatable and more lovable. Every other character in the anime remains the exact same with no changes to their character whatsoever. With that being said, who are the other characters?

Of course there’s Kirito and Asuna and then we have the other couple of potential love interests that are really not shown enough to develop at all, but there’s two characters that are so underused, it’s pitiful. Klein and Agil are two SAO players that are brought into the story occasionally, but are never on the screen for longer than five minutes at most. Take a knee for SAO’s two most neglected characters.

YUI

I’ve left one character out of this whole discussion and now it’s time to mention her. Yui is an artificial intelligence girl that was created to help maintain the mental health of SAO players, in the case that SAO left anyone psychologically impaired due to a Virtual Reality game. Yui ends up with a case of amnesia and is introduced in episode 11 of the anime. While Kirito and Asuna are in a forest they find little Yui, take her home because she passed out and when she wakes up she finds an inborn affection for the couple. Throughout the rest of the series, Yui is known as the ‘daughter’ of Kirito and Asuna. And let's be honest, Yui is absolutely adorable. Just look at her.

Yui is also one of the main reasons SAO is considered bad.

Later on, after the Kirito and Asuna have found out that Yui is an AI, the game deletes her. Since she is a part of the game, this makes sense and while it is a sad part of the story, it shows how real this game is, that even a main character can die at any time. But… that doesn’t happen.

Kirito, somehow, knows how to hack into the video game’s system and code a program to store Yui in an in game item, thus saving her. All of this happens seconds after Yui’s death. We know that not even game brokers know everything about the game, that SAO is the first VR game of its kind, and that even though the game has been out for 2 years at this point in the story – there is no way that a 16 year old kid should be able to hack into this game from the inside.

It’s this one point alone that gets rid of all suspension-of-disbelief. Kirito is so overpowered that he has the ability to bring back a main character from the dead.

Back to Yui, I should also point out that I know that the whole reason Yui exists is because she is a cute girl for the audience to fall in love with. It makes sense, but for every time she called Kirito “daddy,” I thought I was going to throw up.

LEVEL 75

We find out early on that the game has 100 levels with the final boss being on the top floor. I mentioned how impossible it is to win an MMO, but for the sake of argument, we’ll ignore that fact. Towards the end of the first arc, we see that everyone has helped kill the boss on level 75. We then see Kirito coming face-to-face with the game creator, Kayaba Akihiko, who has been disguised as Heathcliff, the leader of the Knights of the Blood guild. It is revealed that Kayaba is the final boss and even though he was supposed to be fought on floor 100, Kirito had figured out his identity and the two decide to fight their final fight.

This plot twist is actually very well executed and I didn’t see it coming at all, so I have no problem with it as a plot device; however, what we see is sheer plot convenience that ends the battle.

Kirito is at the point where his HP has ran out and instead of him dying, which of course goes against the end of the story, he somehow has the ability to attack one more time, thus killing Kayaba and winning the game.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

The thing with “Sword Art Online” is that I didn’t hate it. It’s not a terrible anime, it’s not even the worst anime I’ve ever seen, but it is very mediocre and a poor adaption to the original source. If I was to rate the Aincrad arc, I’d probably say a 7/10 would be fair. The animation is consistently good, the music is great, and the Japanese voice actors are good (the English dub voice actors however, are not). It really comes down to a thorough analysis that determines the end of this debate. I should point out that I did enjoy the Aincrad arc. It’s not a great anime, but it’s a good one to sit down if you’re bored and if you’re okay with the English dub, you can even watch it without putting any real thought into the series.

Of course, the debate isn’t completely over yet. There’s still four more arcs to go through, but with this, the Aincrad arc is done.

Almost...

In Part 4, I discuss everything I don’t like about Kirito, because well… he’s just not a good main protagonist in the anime. Also if you missed the first two parts, go check them out here:

Part 1 – Everything Good about Aincrad
Part 2 – Everything Bad about Aincrad 1.0