What's the high point of this series? I heard that this was supposed to start off strong...

What's the high point of this series? I heard that this was supposed to start off strong, but it hasn't been a great first three episodes so far. That being said, the ending for episode 3 is giving me hope for some amusing suffering. Is my hope misplaced?

Terrible show. The only good part is the OVA from the third season? Second?

Don't waste your time.

The first 12 are alright. The second half with the elves was bad. There's worse shit out there, but there's also way better.

Oh come now, surely it has some value. Every flavor of the month has something going for it. At the very least, it makes solid background noise. Laughing at the stupid game mechanics has also been great.

First arc. Then drop.

SAO is basically the anime equivalent of Twilight except with video games

There are no highs, just a series of "not lows"
Seriously, it was never good.

I hear that a lot. What sets this apart from other self insert power fantasy series?

If wasn't for pic related it would be a good half but for me that little shit ruined the whole show

The first episode where they kill the dungeon boss.

Just look at this thread, digibro must be happy right now.

the kangaroo boss? the ending was hilarious.

>becomes Eincrad's DARK KNIGHT
>presses equip button
>FLOURISH ON EQUIP ANIMATION

so dumb, and they played it so straight like they though they were so cool and clever. shit's hilarious, dog.

No boss was killed in the first episode tho

The author had basically no idea how a mmorpg works, so the "strong premise" turns to shit very fast. Also it's very obvious that he wanted his MC in certain situations like having to hide his powerlevel, being the scapegoat to save other people, and most importantly being the strongest and smartest character in this universe, except he didn't know how to do even one of those things so they just kinda happen without reason.
This destroys the not even mediocre plot even further.
The side characters are mostly useless harem objects, so their is barely anything left to be entertaining.

1 Heathcliff
2 Eugene
3 Eiji
4 Diavel

Prove me wrong

>writer who has no idea how video game works writes about video game

Oh man I definitely have to see this through, now.

This "14 year olds adopt a kid and act like a family" trope is the worst cringe to me.
It didn't help that the way she was introduced was that stupid.

>The author had basically no idea how a mmorpg works, so the "strong premise" turns to shit very fast

explain

>harem

wew

sugary days

its not in the anime

>14

are you baiting?, they were 17 iirc

The first half-dozen episodes were okay, but once they start playing house and every fight comes down to some plot-convenience bullshit the fun stops.

Not that guy, but after watching the first 5 episodes, I can tell you right now that the creator is trying to pass off a Dark Souls type game as a modern day MMO. There's nothing encouraging cooperation, quite the opposite in fact. Everyone is in it together, sure, but at the same time they're racing to get that last hit. The IRL death gimmick only compounds this theme of the game.

Hi digibro, I know you're reading this

Fire your video editor his editing is boring af

> modern day MMO

You mean the ones that are all WoW ripoff?, because that is not what sao is.

>There's nothing encouraging cooperation
Isn't dying enough to want to be in a party?, even more when the game has shit like traps like what happened in the ep 3, or unexpected shit like the boss 74 and 75.

The only even remotely decent episode is the first one, because it basically just introduces interesting concept. Everything else is its awful execution and you shouldn't watch it at all.
People who think that first twelve episodes were good are as much of a disgusting plebs as the rest of the fanbase and should fuck off to >>>/MAL/.

SAO is a bit of an interesting series. Reading the books, you start to really enjoy watching Reki grow as a writer. You also start to really enjoy the world he sets up. That world can't be properly conveyed in the anime series, no matter how much he'd like to try.
If you REALLY want to give SAO a try, forget the anime even exists. Read the Light Novels. Start with Progressive, read those, then read the main series, 1-17, and the Alternative some time after you finish Phantom Bullet.
The anime does the series a massive disservice, and I'm pretty sure the anime for Accel World does likewise (I wouldn't know, because I wisely stayed away from the Accel World anime).
Don't listen to Digibro's numerous proxies saying that it's absolute irredeemable shit, but don't listen to to fanboys calling it the greatest thing since sliced bread. Watch it yourself if you're a masochist, or read it yourself, and form your own opinion.
Now, to properly answer your question:
There are a number of 'high points' in the main series. Volume 1 was quite frankly terrible. It's to be expected. It was the first thing Reki ever wrote, and he sounds so cute in the epilogue that you can almost find it in your heart to forgive him. Unfortunately, it's seriously not good. He effectively has no world set up for Aincrad in its first 2 volumes. That said, the introduction of best girl Lisbeth and the rest of the Spurned Women's Club can be very nice, depending on if you like certain members. Contrarian opinion number one and the fastest way to tell somebody actually invested in SAO from a filthy secondary strikes in volumes 3 and 4, Fairy Dance is better by far in the Light Novels than the anime. It makes sense, Progressive's first volume was effectively the first episode or two (In fact, that introduction sequence was specifically written FOR the anime, and then turned into Progressive), and Progressive is generally hailed as the best part about Aincrad.

Needless to say, there is no progressive in the LN. It's just a long, painful trek all the way through...
Fairy Dance is the first break from that long, painful trek of going back and forth along the Aincrad timeline with weird side stories that are in no semblance of a chronological order. Fairy Dance is the first time you see a real overarching story. However, in the anime (hooray for time constraints) nearly EVERYTHING that made Fairy Dance great in the LN was cut. Tonkii's introduction was completely cut (And so was the entire trip to Niflheim for that matter), a great deal of characterization was cut, and Suguha was relatively a side character for her entire arc. Sad.
So there's your first 'high point'. Fairy Dance.

Then the anime and the LN finally get something in common: making Phantom Bullet shit. GGO as a whole was just wasted potential: the video game. Do you want to know how I know that there was potential, but that it was just wasted? Just look at Alternative. Sigsawa got his hands on GGO after he helped out in SAO 2 and turned GGO into solid gold. Moving on.
After a few more side story whatnots to trudge through, you get to Alicization. Alicization is the arc where you can find SAO's peak, easily. It starts in volume 9 and goes on to volume 17, however, volume 14 is an entire volume dedicated to the final boss fight with the queen of The Underworld. Everything in Alicization up to this point was leading up to this, and along the ride SAO gets better with every volume. But I digress. There are a great number of things that make volume 14 the best volume in the series, but I'll let you find them for yourself.
And that about sums it all up. After volume 14, SAO finds another 'relative minima' or two before rising a bit more from that point. It doesn't get better than volume 14.

If you wanted any more evidence that you should avoid this shit series, then look at how SAOfags bring in some shitty e-celeb into conversation as if anyone knows what the fuck they're even talking about.

>that is not what sao is.
I'm glad we can agree, brother.

>Isn't dying enough to want to be in a party?, even more when the game has shit like traps like what happened in the ep 3, or unexpected shit like the boss 74 and 75.
Nah, death itself isn't much of a deterrence for video games. Unless death in SAO was supposed to be like death in roguelikes such as Crypt of the Necrodancer, that's not much of an encouragement.

I don't know anything about this 74 and 75 you're bringing up.

It has a decent abridged series.

Not sure if pasta, and I didnt read all your post but Accel world anime adaptation was actually pretty good and only covers up to vol.4

Well that works then. I didn't really have a taste for watching another anime adaptation of a Reki work, SAO's was just too terrible.
I would consider looking into it, but it's not wise to get into it too much. Nobody is going to finish that translation after all.
Also, that's not pasta. I started writing it when the thread was at 2 replies.

I'm this guy.
The MC can do raids alone, 30 man groups fail on, he got the most experience and overpowered gear, even though he just seems to fuck around instead of grinding and other small stupid stuff.
Also the game feeling is only apparent in small gimmicks like menus and livebars. the actual game doesn't have spells or anything so it's basically just some dudes fighting with swords instead of complex group mechanics of modern MMOs.
There is only one fighting mechanic called "switch". It doesn't make much sense though, 1 guy out of 30 attacks a boss, then screams the word and some other guy attacks instead of him, even though all 30 guys could just attack together.
They mention skills a few times, like the MC being the only guy in the game that has the skill to wear 2 onehanded weapons, or this other guy being able to block very well but that's basically it.
Guilds and crafting seemed ok, but they barely showed it.
The worst part for me was that they completely skipped the low level experience. The MC goes in with an advantage since he played the beta. we get small timeskips between episodes and suddenly it turns out he's already the highest level player in the game.

Accel world is miles better than SAO, but still suffers from the "MC is super special" thing every now and again.

>part of a plot twist in the early beginning of the game was that the game changed a lot since the beta, people were dying left and right since they thought they were "safe"

whew. While almost everything you said was almost right if you are gonna shit on something make sure you got your shit straight

> the actual game doesn't have spells or anything so it's basically just some dudes fighting with swords instead of complex group mechanics of modern MMOs.

Kinda missed the point for the game being called Sword Art Online.

>Kirito being OP as fuck
Not arguing that, it's painful to watch.

>Even though he just seems to fuck around instead of grinding and other small stupid stuff
Oh you silly secondary.
That said, you definitely need to get into Progressive if you're after the low level stuff. Progressive is literally going through all the floors one by one, and following the main quest of the game. I would probably put Progressive as a whole about on the level of mid-alicization, in terms of how much I enjoyed it.
A lot of people do tend to forget that SAO was the very first thing Reki ever wrote, and he started at floor 75 when he first wrote it. Progressive was written much later and much better than the original series.

>day 1 of an anticipated MMO with only 10,000 copies available is filled with complete casuals

By the way, are there any skills that don't just boil down to lighting up the sword for extra damage or faster successive strikes? I'm not that far in, but I'm hoping for something more creative down the line.

I feel like Accel World gets a lot better when you think of it less as 'the MC is so-and-so' and think more about the internal struggle between good and evil that's housed within the MC.
Even without that though, it's clearly apparent that AW is leagues better than a great deal of SAO.

Just finished episode 6

>catch the KIRA
>"why'd you do it?"
>"to preserve the memory of my wife, duh"
>"you killed her, fag"
>"...SHIT"

got a giggle outta me

>that no name character who becomes leader of the corrupt guild and gets resolved all off screen
What was that all about?

Yes, it is misplaced.

Depends on if you're reading the LN or watching the anime.
Kirito's iconic Vorpal Strike is quite often used to move quickly around his opponents and effectively kite them. It was one of the most important parts of his skillset while he was grinding.

I'm telling you, you gotta look at it like Demon's Souls. Not Dark Souls, Demon's Souls specifically where it was a new, merciless experience.

It doesn't make it better, just slightly more cohesive.

>dude wearing a neat-o black coat walks into blacksmith shop
>pink-hair thinks he's poor

pffft, not much of a salesman this one, also

>testing a sword by striking it against another sword

My favorite shit trope in all of fiction.

Progressive. Everything else is garbage compared to it and even the Progressive LN falls beliw the Progressive manga which brings out the most fun sides of Kirito that the Progressive LN doesn't do as much although still more than the main LN.

Beta players still had an advantage, since they knew basic game mechanics.
Also just because a game has the word "sword" in it's name doesn't mean that spells can't be included but i admit that my point was something different.
The way they present the fighting in the game makes it look like an action RPG, so they missed the opportunity to have the mechanics of actual mmorpgs in. Actually even basic strategy seems pretty rare.
Also i just remembered: wasn't here this summoner girl? Makes me wonder if there are classes or not...

Thanks, bro. I am quite the masochist when it comes to watching garbage (Michael Bay Ninja Turtles hurt so good, dude), so if at end of it all I want more I will read some of these novels.

Honestly, though, I'll probably just want to play a game afterwards.

Oh well you're in luck. The SAO games are pretty fun too.

You messin' with me right now, jack? Be real with me.

I'm serious, they're pretty fun.

Further into the Lisbeth episode now

>girl is clearly out of her depth from the very beginning of the adventure (it's cooold and I didn't bring anything to stay waaarm T.T)
>arrive at area with big bad dragon
>guy who knows what he's doing tells you to stay put
>partway through the encounter, do the opposite of what he tells you to do because you're impatient

hahaha, the fuck's wrong with this woman? this is best girl? was that supposed to be ironic?

You should be far enough in the series to know that the characters are not made great by their personality, characteristics, or knowledge, but by their bodies.

>Lisbeth
>Best girl

Only retards think that user

Shit, jack, you got me there.

I also get the feeling that if they don't wind up with Kirito, then they don't wind up with anyone. I mean that in the sense that we never even see them try, or get a chance to try to connect with anyone else on a romantic level.

Have I hit the nail on the head?

According to Argo the Rat, before the first boss battle strategy meeting that Diavel was organizing, 300 of the 700-800 beta players that made into the main release had already died because of the many changes that had been made since the beta. Their knowledge turned out to be a double edged sword. When they got to the 4th floor, shit had changed so much (desert map to rivers and boat battles map) that even Kirito didn't know what to do and ended up just going along with Asuna's whims the whole way to the boss battle.

It's starting to bug me how the writing insists on framing "solo playing" as a big deal when it's not supposed to be the standard multi-class, multi-role vidya gaem.

Then I remember the coat flourish from episode 2 and everything is a-okay.

True, but this is also true for every Harem series even made, so I don't know how you can level it against this one and not literally every other manga/anime/LN/VN with multiple girls who want the MC's cock and never move on even after losing

What's hilarious is that Jesus “Solo Player” Kirito was in a permanent party with Asuna for months, maybe even until a bit before the 25th floor.

Well, solo playing actually is a rather big deal in SAO. As a general rule of thumb, it's good to have somebody watch your back, because if you're all alone, and you get paralyzed out of nowhere, you're just plain fucking dead. If you have at least one other person with you, that risk gets lessened significantly.

I can buy that, dude.

This is the exact moment this show turns into shit for me.

You have to consider that a lot of the way people act in video games is because the consequences of dying are quite minor. Therefore people are willing to take much bigger risks for any reward. When your HP becomes synonymous with your very human life, you would expect people to play much more conservatively, more like soldiers on a battlefield. That pretty much always means acting in groups. Humans are social animals, and our strength comes from our ability to work together.

The show wasn't good. Everyone knows this. That being said this scene was pretty memorable, for whatever reason

>filename
Explain yourself.

But that was one of the most game-like moments in the anime.

Okay, maybe marginally better than the rest, but see Also I'm pretty sure the writing is designed to make everyone but Kirito and Asuna comparatively shit.

watched 5-6 episodes today...
meh so much talk about something so meh..

>Nah, death itself isn't much of a deterrence for video games.

Imagine if you dropped five levels when you died in a MMO. That would be one hell of a deterrent.

>I'm pretty sure the anime for Accel World does likewise (I wouldn't know, because I wisely stayed away from the Accel World anime).

Nah, Accel World's anime was fucking magnificent. The OST and visual design were top notch. Good god, that OST was delicious.

>I wisely stayed away from the Accel World anime
ur a faget

...

I've got to admit, that does look pretty nice.
It's a shame the rest of the LNs will never be translated, and AW won't get adapt the cool parts of Crow's dealing with Disaster.

From a shitty F2P MMO looks like.

what are you even talking about, sure, you won't be able to read it for free but Accel World is being translated and releasing smoothly by yen press at the moment

It was a good idea to let Sunrise redesign all the mecha characters.

I think SAO is a show where the positives are pretty up high, but the negatives are lower than rock bottom. I'm in the middle of the Gun Gale Arc and I can see past it's many flaws. Also I accidentally fell in love with pic related.

I still don't get why it doesn't look game-ish to you.
Think of it like this.
To deal with extra attacks, there generally needs to be some deal of damage evasion. Be it based simply on level, passive skills, whatever it may be, generally having strong evasion is a solid survival strategy to dealing with multiple hits quickly. Looking at Kirito, his equipment seems to reflect a reliance on auto-dodging, but as that likely wouldn't make sense in SAO, attacks that would normally 'miss' or 'be dodged' or otherwise evaded would likely become 'glancing blows'. If you decide that argument is too full of holes, consider another. To deal with the extra damage mobs deal as the game progresses, the AC of gear generally needs to rise quite a bit. Not necessarily exponentially, but with enough of a curve for there to be a balance between being overpowered and useless. This needs to be present whether you use heavy plate, chain, leather, or cloth. That bit of AC can do monumental effort in the way of damage reduction, be it by total mitigation or by softening blows. Consider now, with the high AC of an experienced, even raid-equipped player going against the sharpened kitchen utensils of a struggling lower level player, it would be surprising if any of the attacks from the bandits went through at all.

>All this sudden talk about SAOs game mechanics
I'm glad Mothers Fagment fans are feeling at home

Watching the original SAO with Sup Forums was totally dank.

You are now aware that Akarin voiced somebody in SAO.
You are now aware that her character only appeared once, and was pitifully forgettable.

I look forward to watching woodcutter Kirito with Sup Forums.

I don't want you to think I am calling you stupid or anything, but all you said is just a assumption, the show never really explain how Kirito can easily survive the attack of 8 guys or something, that we don't know how strong they are. The only explanation the show gives is basicaly "Kirito has high level and HP regeneration noting can hurt him lol" and that's the kind of shitty you only see players that pays for premium itens from bad korean MMO pull off and not a well desing game.

>The only explanation the show gives is basicaly "Kirito has high level and HP regeneration noting can hurt him lol"

That's it. His attackers are low levels that can't even out DPS his healing.

Oh no, it makes perfect sense.
The damage mitigation on high-end gear is great.
Furthermore, he put his neck on the line often to get a battle healing skill because he knew it would be useful later. His assailants even remarked that he was an absolute madman for getting that skill.
But seriously, consider this:
Those guys he was up against were freaking weak.
Weak as hell.
They were throwing their Ton Po's Bo Stick of Understanding at his Maul of Shadows.
Sure Ton Po's is a great weapon, but you have to trade up eventually, it's a weapon for low leveled characters. You take that twig to a raid and nobody's gonna rez your stupid ass.
That's really the point of that scene. That strength of numbers is stronger than strength in numbers. That no matter how many grunts you throw at a task, it still won't add up to one person who knows what they're doing.

Who's your favorite member or the Spurned Women's Club?

Who here's going to see Gary Stu on the big screen on the ninth?

>Spurned Women's Club
>Unironic Digimemes

It's the best term for all of the women together. 'Kirito's harem' implies that he actually does anything with anyone but Asuna. 'Kirito's party' and 'Kirito's friends' could include Klein and Agil, all the women aren't in some guild I can call as a group term, and saying 'all Kirito's girl-friends' sounds weird.

The general consensus is that the first 12 or so epsiodes are not as shitty as the rest, but still god awful

I'll agree that it's fun to be mad at. I genuinely liked the OVA with the twin FEMC, but that's it. My roommate made me sit through it and she ate it up like a rich feast on Christmas - I suggested Konosuba to her, to show her an inversion of the tropes and she hated it — so to each their own.

If you like edgy stuff with an impossible mc and laughable world building the. sure, SOA is good.

Nope, they're 14. They're 17 in the last season I believe.

The first 3 eps, you should drop it already.

The only decent part of SAO is the two CSI episodes.

Already watched it, they censored the bath scene (what will the kids say?) but still was fantastic. Final boss was maximum hype.

Also the audience knew about the scene after the credits because only few of them left early

You're wrong. Kirito is 14 and Asuna 15 when they get trapped, when they come out they're 16 and 17 respectively. By Mother's Rosario, Kirito is 17 and Asuna 18.

Wait actually I'm not completely right. It's by Phantom Bullet they're already 17 and 18 respectively, which is before MR anyways but I forgot a year had already passed since Aincrad was beat when Kirito went into GGO.

I get that they were rushed for time, but there had to have been a better way to end that miniarc in the anime.

>you will never watch a Progressive anime adaptation with a mix of the LN details and the manga's shenanigans

They might do it after Alicization, or between Alicization seasons if they split that arc up. They probably want to wait for more material anyway.

Absurdly broken paralysis + contrived shit with dual wielding.

It gets dumber later on in the second half of season 1 then it's second season is just really straight-forward. Like no memes outside new harem girl's ass and attempted rape for the second time