In a lively debate on the popular internet forum
Reddit, users have delved into the reasons behind the love and hate
towards the anime “ Sword
Art Online ”. Despite its immense popularity, the series has
been the subject of intense criticism and division within the otaku community.
“Sword Art Online,” a light novel series written
by Reki Kawahara, has become a cultural phenomenon since its paper debut in
2009. The plot follows Kazuto Kirigaya, also known as
Kirito, and other players who become trapped in an MMORPG (massively
multiplayer online role-playing game) called Sword Art Online. Unable to exit
the game unless they complete their levels, players must fight to survive in a
virtual world full of dangers.
However, despite its intriguing premise and
stunning animation, “Sword Art Online” has been divisive among anime fans. Some
praise its exciting action, romance, and virtual reality concepts, while others
criticize its narrative pacing, character development, and depiction of
relationships.
Ultimately, the love and hate towards “Sword Art
Online” reflects the diversity of opinions within the otaku community. While
some enjoy its fast-paced action and romance, others lament its lack of depth
and character development. In a world where tastes are as varied as the animes
themselves, “Sword Art Online” continues to be a topic of passionate debate
among fans of the genre.
- « It's
an incredibly mediocre anime that became SUPER popular. That really
irritates some people. No one would complain if they had a mediocre
reception .
- « It's
a perfectly normal series that showed signs of being above average only to
regress earning people's hatred. The fact that the main character is
pretty boring, and that the series keeps creating new girls to add to a
pseudo harem even though he was already taken in the first story arc,
doesn't help at all. However, the third season was okay, but that may be
because Kirito feels like a more interesting character when he moves away
from everyone he knew in the previous two seasons, at least to me .
- « For
me, a combination of characters without much personality, Kirito overly
powerful, which takes the tension out of the fights he participates in,
lots of bullshit, huge plot holes, terrible pacing, meaningless game
mechanics, unnecessary fanservice and annoying even in the serious
moments, numerous rape scenes treated as something that's supposed to turn
us on, and mediocre animation and fight choreography .
- « What
people hate is usually the second half of the first season (Fairy Dance)
and the first 2/3 of the second season (GGO). That's a little over half of
all of SAO until Ordinal Scale came out, so as a result SAO itself doesn't
have a great reputation. I thought SAO was absolutely amazing when I first
started watching it, but even with all my enthusiasm, those two arcs were
definitely disappointing compared to my expectations after the first few
episodes. I don't HATE them, to me they were just average (Aincrad and
Mother's Rosario were great), but I understand why people hate them. After
Aincrad, which at the beginning had an incredible setting, you wouldn't
want to have a normal series .
- « Because
it became “cool people” to hate Sword Art Online ».
- « I
hate this statement with a passion. As someone who doesn't like SAO, it's
irritating to read people completely dissolve your opinions into
"it's popular, so they automatically hate it." It's a very easy
way to completely dismiss anyone's opinion, and it seems to be the worst
case with SAO these days. Just because I don't like the series doesn't
mean I can't stand its popularity or look down on the people who enjoy it .
- " It
is as superficial as it is popular ."
- « My
problem was that the first Aincrad arc dies like 80% of things well and
quite well. It's an anime with a pretty solid first 2-3 episodes that
attracted a lot of people and then shit the bed. What confuses me is that
it has staying power .
- « The
problem with the anime is that only the first 13 episodes of the first
season are good. They rushed to the gold and created some fairy anime
trash for the final part, followed by some kind of weird player unknown
VR. I tried to watch the second season three different times, all without
success, I ended up so bored that I fell asleep, or I started playing
games on my phone, realizing 15 minutes into the episode that I had no
idea what was happening .
- « It
sucks, they had a huge potential to make this amazing anime, the Sword Art
Online part was the best part and they rushed it. They had 100 unique
floors to work with, and no limits because it was VR. They rushed it, they
could have made a really amazing long series. Instead of seeing Kirito
progress, train, grow, we see little snippets of his life there .
- « Poorly
written popcorn entertainment, which is not bad in itself. The problems
arise when it is also very popular and has a very loud fandom (even
rivaling JOJOs) of preteens who think the series is the best thing ever .
- « More
than anything because it's much more popular than it should be... Don't
get me wrong, I love the series too (Kirito x Asuna <3)... but there
are many more out there that are much better but aren't as popular. Many
see this as unfair .
- « Because
it takes the most basic of storytelling and throws it out the window due
to laziness. Seriously, although I enjoyed it, as a series it had major
objective flaws that I couldn't overlook. I agree with harems, fanservice,
and broken protagonists, but the thing is, it has to be done right, and
SAO was the complete opposite of that. In fact, it's useful as a tool to
show people how not to write. I don't know how the third season was, but
the first was bad and the second was even worse .
- « I
think what people really need to do is look up the kind of story that SAO
is trying to tell, like a murder mystery, for example, and really
understand what makes a good murder mystery. SAO doesn't do that, two of
the murderers aren't even characters and there are no real suspects as
there is only one suspected character and the rest are minor characters
that no one would consider to be murderers (and they aren't and it's not
even hinted at that they are. apart from an obvious red herring that is
killed once it appears) ».
- « SAO
also has inconsistent characters like Kirito who changes personality
depending on what the author wants him to do. Yes, there are people like
you who love it, people like me who watch it to learn how to not tell a
story and just laugh at anime in general. However, there are also people
who will hate the popularity of anime because due to these flaws they
believe that its popularity was completely undeserved .
- « It's
because the premise was good, but it quickly turned into a harem
simulator. Even the movie was for the “Rocky Balboa” theme where the
protagonist loses his advantage and then regains it. A bit cliché. The
only redeeming part for me was the 2nd arc with GGO, then with Yukki .
Source: Reddit
