Sword Art Online - Season 01 Re-Watch

Over the past three or so weeks, I've slowly re-watching the first 25 episodes of Season 1 and man...

I remember watching this in...it had to of been 2013 because it was prior to the Gun Gale Online arc (which I actually watched as it aired...but that's a post for a different time, maybe) and remember really enjoying the first 14 episodes (The Aincrad Arc). Sure it wasn't perfect, but something I feel like a lot of people who decide to watch Sword Art in the current era of anime are missing some context as to why this anime was so praised when it came out. SAO really was one of the first Isekai that took off during the early 2010's and, in my opinion can be pinpointed for the resurgence of anime and conventions in the early 2010's.

Being able to see where many of the tropes that are popular in both Isekai and Power Fantasy anime stem from SAO, from the main character being a brooding, black haired super human to the harem of girls with hair colours that would make the rainbow jealous are seen blooming from Kirito and the girls who follow him to the ends of the earth and its a little funny to see where they came from in hindsight.

So enough rambling about its impact on anime, how is it 15 years later?

The first half is still pretty okay, to be honest. People can talk bad about it all they want but at the end of the day, Isekai has always just been another style of slice-of-life anime to me, you can just turn your brain off and enjoy it. You know nothing terrible will happen, and even if it does, our Main Character is sure to save the day in the end. We get to see Kirito get the girl, beat the game, and save the people!

Then the game ends, and he gets back to the real world. I've always wondered if the author planned to keep the series going after the end of Aincrad. Normally, I like to read the light novels for anime that I've enjoyed, but SAO isn't one of them so I don't have the answer to that question. We start Ep. 15 and the anime weirdness finally fully kicks in.

I've never understood the need to have his sister become a member of his harem when there are so many other girls they could have expanded the story on, not to even touch on how she doesn't know Kirito is her BROTHER to start with. He's the hero of Aincrad! How is his face (which is the same in both game) not plastered everywhere!? Maybe they explained this and I just missed it...to be honest it took me two weeks to re-watch the second half while I cruised through the first 15 episodes, and most of the time I was working on posts for this blog which made the attention I paid to the episodes less than what I should have gave it.

Anyway, at the end of the day, I still feel like the first half of Sword Art is still worth a watch today, even if you've seen a ton of anime and somehow haven't seen it. The second half...maybe you can skip it, unless you are absolutely in love with the Isekai genre.

GGO to come...eventually!

Image Source: Official Artwork