"Sword Art Online" (Anime) Final Thoughts

The last episode (for now and maybe forever) of Sword Art Online aired a couple weeks ago and after two anime seasons, I am very glad that it is ending/taking a break. The light novel that the anime was biased off of was praised for its witty and well written dialogue that helped make the online world of SAO and ALO come alive through the text. I feel it’s safe to say that the light novel deserves to be called “epic” but as for the anime…”ok” is a better way of describing it. 

So the anime is by no means a failure. Most of the characters in both the anime and light novel were a blast to learn and watch mature over the course of the story. I honestly did not like Asuna in the beginning but by the end of the first season, I was rooting for a happy ending for both her and Kirito. Many anime viewers across the internet praised how the anime immersed the viewer into the story. I do agree with this point but there is a lot more aspects that get glossed over. First off is the plot and the pacing of the show. Unlike in the first volume of the light novel, the anime decides to include the side stories of volume two for episodes 2-7 which was not a huge issue except that it completely disrupt the pacing. They included these filler episodes so that you were introduced to all the characters in the SAO universe even if some of them were uhhh useless and unneeded. So filler episodes aside, the rest of the first season did skip over some minor details but overall I did not feel as if it was rushed. The second season however was plagued with pacing and continuity issues. From the first episode of the second season, important information was left out and entire segments were either skipped or almost left out completely. The pacing was so erratic that I honestly cannot recommend watching the second season at all. The plot seemed so rushed in order to get everything in for twelve episodes that it just comes off as a decent adventure between Kirito and his sister. 

So while the plot and pacing sort of fails hard, the animation and sound is BEAUTIFUL. The world of SAO and ALO will take your breath away with their beautiful scenery. All the backdrops in these virtual worlds retain a certain level of quality throughout the entire +20 episodes. The same applies to the character models; they are all very well done. The sound also deserves some praise for being freaking awesome. The soundtrack fits the anime very well in both heavy dialogue and actions scenes. It has elements of orchestras and synths that blend well together. The voice actors did a spot on job with mending their own take of the characters with what was provided in the light novels as well. 

So while the animation, sound, and characters are spot on, the inability for this anime to outshine its source material will taint the viewing experience. I know that a lot of people would rather watch a movie than read the book but I STRONGLY recommend that you give the light novel a shot before even thinking about watching the anime. The light novel does an excellent job immersing and investing you into both the characters and story while the anime is a glorified cop out that will most likely only cater to action fans. The level of deepness the light novel had is unfortunately completely taken away in the anime. It’s good but far from amazing.

"Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne" (Light Novel) vs Anime Discussion

After recently picking up the light novel version of Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne and reading up to volume three, I am blown away at how much the anime could have been…if it just followed the light novel’s direct pacing. It is amazing how different the anime feels in tone and execution compared to the light novel which in my honest opinion is the choice form of enjoying this brother/sister love fest. So let’s get down to the facts that separate the mediocre anime from the amazing light novel.

So first thing I noticed when reading the light novel was that the conversations really bring out the best in the characters. The first volume sets up how Akito comes to living with his sister AND how he becomes so close to the whole student counsel AND how everyone ends up living under one roof. The anime kind of just throws you into the story where they are already living together and Akito is already a part of the student counsel. I always thought that the first episode of Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne felt strange as if they were not explaining how some things came to be. Also the conversations in the light novel are extremely witty and well written. Each conversation is important to the plot and helps shed some light on why someone acts the way they do in public. There are scenes where a back and forth conversations between two characters can last for an entire chapter. You might find this tedious to read but I found that the light novel blew the anime out of the water in terms of how interested I was with the characters. The anime also takes all the seriousness out of the light novel. I was quite surprised to find out that the light novel was not a romantic comedy but more of a serious slice of life that explores two siblings pasts. 

So continuing on what I touched on at the end of the pervious paragraph, the tone of the anime is the second problem when being compared to the light novel. This might not be a problem if you just want another generic high school comedy harem but after reading the light novel’s first three volumes, there is no turning back to the anime. The light novel goes much deeper into how the student counsel goes about helping Akito cure Akiko’s “problem”. The way the anime introduces the main focus of curing Akiko is “Hey it’s wrong to want your brother’s d!#@ so stop that!! Oh we also all love you Akito!!!” So like I said if you want mindless harem, go with the anime. If you want a more serious drama, go light novel.

The anime tries very hard to be funny but the only show that can rip off other anime and be funny about it is Gintama

Now the biggest beef I have with the anime is the omission of some very important information. The light novel goes MUCH more in-depth to the back stories of the characters as well as what happened to Akito and Akiko’s parents. The novel even brings up why Akito acts the way he does around his sister. The flashback conversation he has with his parents when he was little is EXTREAMLY IMPORTANT TO THE WHOLE PLOT. It completely shows why he acts so caring around Akiko AND brings up some VERY IMPORTANT information that is never brought up in the anime. This information (that Akiko and Akito are actually not blood relatives and that it is Akito who is not really a part of the bloodline) is uhhh PRETTY F#@$ING IMPORTANT. How it didn’t make its way into the anime is beyond my comprehension. 

Ugh I am complaining a lot and I apologize. While I find the light novel the superior version of the story, the anime is not…all that bad. It is definitely more laid back and focuses more on the comedy aspects of the story but it still provides some of the key moments in the light novel. As a standalone anime it is decent but when compared to the light novel it will never quite match up. I have not been so engrossed in a story since my first read of the Sword Art Online light novel. I have a deeper appreciation of all the characters especially Akito after reading some of the Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne light novel. There is much more going on than the anime is telling you.

Dat face when you stay up late reading something awesome

Real Talk: "Sword Art Online" Light Novel Vol. 5-6

After some more late night reading, I have made my way to volume nine of Sword Art Online. While I am still enjoying the light novel, the volumes I am about to talk about seem to be told in a much different way and for the most part it isn't all good -___-.

First off at no point during my reading have I been bored. Each volume is told in a different way and play out much more different than the previous volumes. The first four volumes were written in a way that expressed urgency. This provided non-stop action and suspense for the flow of the plot. Volumes five through six however seem to be more laid back and without the characters we have grown to love can be a little painful to read through.

To clarify something real quick, volumes five and six are part of one story that takes place in Gun Gale Online (GGO). The transition from volume five to six is seamless and instant. So what to talk about; unlike in SAO and ALO, the weapons used in GGO are guns that are biased off of their real life counterparts and some fictional ones as well. The story is once again biased around Kirito who is asked by one of the officers that helped out in the first story (SAO) to go into GGO to find a character who supposedly can kill someone both in-game and in real life. Within the game he meets Sinon who teaches and helps Kirito become accustomed to the game fairly quickly. Now there were a lot of things that I liked about volumes five and six but lets start with the negatives.

First off the pacing seems much, MUCH slower than the previous installments of Sword Art Online. For one thing even though the timeline for this story arc is only a week or so, the story takes way too much time explaining Sinon's back story and also ramping up to the climax. Another negative thing is that other than Kirito, there is no returning characters that play a huge role in the story. You have Kirito and Sinon...that's it. We invest ourselves into saving Asuna and once we achieve this goal...she sits on the sidelines...? It's strange why the author would do this because in this volume(s) he pulls an Ash Ketchum and totally makes Kirito powerless in this new world (well at least in the beginning chapters). His overall personality in this story has changed from a person whiling to risk his life to a very passive and shy person. His overall intensity from SAO and ALO is completely gone. The last overall negative for me was how much that I didn't care for Sinon. They dedicate a whole long chapter to explaining her situation and life and I ended up caring this much (--) for her. I didn't like her personality or her way of doing things.

So positives; I really like the world of GGO (not as much as SAO but a hell of a lot more than ALO). A whole MMO world biased around guns? Freaking awesome if you ask me. The barren desert setting that the author described really made me wish that such an MMO existed in today's world. The tournament they hold in the game is another thing I really liked about this story. Something lacking in the previous volumes was the inclusion of a lot of PVP (player vs player) battles. There were a couple in SAO and almost none in ALO so it was nice to have such a PVP focused game as the setting for this story. Other than that however ends the positives.

Overall I still like the story surrounding the mysterious gunman that could kill someone in real life through the game. The story's pacing was much slower than I would usually like and it had characters that I didn't particularly like but hey it was still enjoyable.

Real Talk: "Sword Art Online" Light Novel Vol. 1-4

WARNING: DO TO THE NATURE OF THIS POST BE WARNED THAT IT CONTAINS SPOILERS TO BOTH THE ANIME ADAPTATION AND LIGHT NOVEL SERIES OF SWORD ART ONLINE. SINCE THERE ARE SO MANY SECTIONS OF THE POST THAT CONTAIN SPOILERS I AM NOT GOING TO MARK EACH ONE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

After watching the first couple of episodes of Sword Art Online, I felt the drive to have more of it. While the show has some flaws, I heard from numerous people that the light novel it is biased off of is an amazing piece of work. New to reading light novels, I decided to give it a shot since all the anime I have been focusing on are all currently airing.

My first impression of the novel is that the pacing is much more radical in the beginning than the anime. The anime (episodes 1-7 at the moment) is actually based off of volume two of the light novel series which is focused on some extra side stories and not the main focus of the story. What the first novel covers is everything from first entering Sword Art Online to the last boss battle. The first thing that stuck out to me was the pacing of the first couple of chapters. After leaving Klien in the first chapter, the story flies through everything you have seen in the anime so far to a point where Kirito and Asuna are quite close in their relationship. With some flashbacks, within the first two chapters you have the understanding that Asuna likes Kirito while Kirito is a little aloof with his feelings. So essentially it is impossible to compare this to the anime adaptation so far. I do like however how things play out between the two characters. The main thing going on this early on is the developing romance between the two and how they deal with carrying it out. There are many parts where Kirito must prove his worth in order to have the right to be around Asuna. Asuna's position in her guild also plays a huge roll in how the story progresses.Towards the end of the first volume we see who the real threat is and how Kirito deals with the enemy. By the end of the volume, we seem to get a sort of rushed finish because (not trying to spoil anything) the final boss reveals himself on the 75th floor instead of the 100th. The encounter does not take very long and it just feels as if I got cheated out of another couple of chapters of story. The twist however I was not expecting and thought was pretty clever. The volume ends with everyone supposedly being released from the game.

Volume two as I explained are just side stories that take place in Sword Art Online.

Volume three and four consist of Kirito fighting his way through a new game, ALfheim Online which unlike Sword Art Online is more about achieving a more simple goal rather than trying to reach a one hundred level area. After the events of Sword Art Online had passed, it is discovered that 300 people including Asuna never woke up from the game and have been trapped inside a new game, ALO. Kirito learns this and enters the game in hopes of rescuing his beloved Asuna.
Unlike in the first volume, the pace of this story is much more contained and steady. There are no real huge leaps in time; you see everything from Kirito logging in for the first time all the way up to him seeing Asuna wake up in her hospital bed. The characters include his sister (errr cousin?), friend from school, and Yui who is a character in one of the side stories of SAO (is actually an AI program). The world of ALO is much different in the sense that there is no level for each character and that each race has the ability to fly. The main purpose of the game is to climb to the top of a tree and meet the king who will do certain things. The overall feel of this game and the two volumes are still exciting and full of tension but in my honest opinion not even close to the level of the first volume (SAO). Where as SAO was a quest to free everyone and reach the top, ALO's purpose is to rescue a damsel in distress. It actually reminded me of A Princess of Mars (Disney's movie John Carter is a crude and poorly done adaptation of A Princess of Mars) because it seems to follow the book to a T. Hero drops into a world he does not understand, is taken in by a group of people that seem bizarre, goes on a quest to save a princess, enlists the help of said bizarre people, saves princess, happy ending. While the story seems a little on the predictable side, it is still an exciting story to behold. Basically after logging in for the first time he runs into Lyfa who is actually his sister (cousin) in real life. One way or another she helps him travel to the tree that Asuna is locked up in. He goes in, saves her, and defeats the mean ol' bad guy both in game and in real life. The story is mostly ehhh at best this time around but how it progresses and folds out is pretty entertaining.

Volume 5 marks the start of a new game that Kirito finds his way into called Gun Gale Online (GGO). I have just started reading this volume so an up to date post will reveal my thoughts of it.

Overall the Light Novel series in my honest opinion blows the anime out of the water. Even though the novels have very limited illustrations, I feel more attached to the characters and more connected with what is going on than with the anime. While the anime is still very enjoyable due to great animation, sound, and fight scenes, I just do not see how it will live up to its great source material. If you have the time to sit down and read an amazing story, I strongly encourage you take this up on your reading list. You can find it here translated into many different languages. By far one of the best forms of literature I have read to date.