Sword Art Online

In the near future, a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online has been released where players control their avatars with their bodies using a piece of technology called: Nerve Gear. One day, players discover they cannot log out, as the game creator is holding them captive unless they reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if they die in the game, they die in real life. Their struggle for survival starts now...

jdhthegr8 wrote:I've heard quite a bit about this show. Consider it added to my to-watch list

Whether you're into adrenalin giving action, thrilling suspense, climactic drama, genuine romance, or if you're a gamer, sci-fi fan, or fantasy lover, you 'will' enjoy this show throughout the whole series!

Without going into specific detail, "Sword Art Online" has 2 different plots in the story. They are both basically what we have seen or heard in movies and games before, but "Sword Art Online" takes them and adds new specific twists that makes this show feel original and fresh.

Almost every episode has some form of fighting action involved. Don't worry about losing this action in the middle of a battle having flashback after flashback or casual talking with the enemy (and wasting an episode doing all this). If, by rare chance, there is any of that, it is short and does not lose any of the thrilling action that is happening at that moment. Since we are talking about action, let me add here that the animation of the show was A+ from what most other shows do; there is hardly any repetition in the fighting animations on a short-term scale (same battles) as well as long-term scale(comparing different battles).

Coming from a guy that hardly ever gets into the suspense of a show, I will admittedly say this is one of the few shows I ever get drawn up into the suspense within the action and even some of the drama. All of the happy and depressing moments actually kept my interest.

And finally the big bonus points I give this show is the romance. I am an action lover down to the core, but most shows can't join romance and action together without making it turn into moments (at least imo) that feel like filler for time in the episode or more importantly over dramatizing it. Not just is there the perfect amount of romance, but the romance also has a "genuine" feel with it. What I mean by this is it is not physical-driven love but intimacy on an physiological-scale. The last reason I give a lot of credit towards romance is the lack of "fan-service." Now I know to some this is a bad thing, but lets be honest here, if you compare the amount of anime that does to ones that don't, this is pretty uncommon; especially this show because there really is no fan-service; I am not counting the few times there was naked scenes because it was more drama driven, not for viewers pleasure or at least that's how I took it.

Overall, this show will always be a favorite. I personally rate it a 4.7/5. There is only one small plot-hole that I could find but it is not an easy to find plot-hole so I will not say what it is and possibly ruin the experience of this show for some. Like I said at the beginning, this show has something for everyone and I personally can't see a person that enjoys watching shows hate it more than love it!