Sakura Doujin

Hello again, friendly neighborhood reviewer of all trades here to finish the review of Sword Art Online. The final episode was released and I saw it and… let’s just say the ending is left to be desired. So with that said, what was wrong and what was great about it? We’ll talk about it here and now and finish where we left off at.

If you haven’t caught the first review you can head over to here to read it if you wish.

So let’s get the basic quick synopsis out-of-the-way again.

Quick Synopsis: In the future there is a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online where players can control their avatars with their own bodies using a technology called Nerve Gear. After the beta released to real-time all the players joined in and soon realized there is no log out option as the game creator is holding them captive unless they can reach the highest floor and defeat the final boss. One small catch – if the player dies in the game they die in real life.

Whew, now that’s out-of-the-way, let’s get down the business.

Also a quick note that I’ll try my best to try not to spoil it by dropping spoilers but normally on my reviews I tend to start typing and think about it later, if you haven’t noticed, haha.

The Review

Story Line & Plot: 6/10

Yes, it went down a bit (by 2 points) because, hey, I just didn’t like the ending, it was a very bitter ending in my opinion. The first half of the series was great, and kept you on edge and wanting for more but once the second half hit it’s like “eh, we’ll throw this together and that together and it’ll work out!” … Yeah… about that…. it didn’t work out… It left it so open at the ending that it makes me want to slap someone. Needless to say, wasn’t too happy with the last half of the series but because of the first half kept the story line and the plot up. So what is in the last half? Kirito plays ALfheim Online, beats this one guy, saves the girl, gets out of the game to go see the girl, runs into the one guy in real life, beats him again in real life, sees the girl in real life. That’s pretty much sums it up… OH! And his sister is in love with him (OK, OK, to be fair, it’s his STEP sister).

Art & Character Design: 8.5/10

Nothing changed in this section, the art is still one of the best I’ve seen in awhile and the character designs are really nicely done even though I still think the creators are being lazy with the overall character designs and wants to focus mainly on background art but hey, this rating has not changed.

Entertainment & Execution: 7/10

This dropped a little because of the second half (again, with the second half). Don’t get me wrong, it was still entertaining to watch up until the very last two episodes then it goes into “what the f” mode. Which leads to execution. Le sigh, there was SO much potential in terms of what they could have done for the last two episodes and it fell on it’s face in my honest opinion. Don’t get me wrong, the ending was there but could have been executed so much better. Because it was mainly with the last two episodes is the reason it got what it go.

Music: 8/10

The music was really great in this series with a lot of great timing. I just love the first opening theme song, Crossing Fields by LiSA and it just matches the style for the opening. The first ending theme song, Dream Land by Yume Sekai matches the ending for the first half of the series as well, just overall they planned it out pretty well. Then in the second half of the series the opening theme was changed to INNOCENCE by Aoi Eir, which is alright, you get used to it, but then you have your second ending theme Overfly by Luna Haruna, which is a great song but, going back to execution, times where they really should have done something different and bad timing. First half of the series, great timing with the music, second half of the series, eh… it’s a toss-up.

Overall: 7.5/10

Other then some of its ups and downs, I really did enjoy this series, I might just watch it through again, if not for the first half of the series, but watch it from beginning to end, maybe see something I’ve missed among the way through the series. It’s differently worth a watch and, like I said, I’m even willing to watch it again even with some of the negative things I’ve mention.