Sword Art Online

Ever since the release of the innovative NerveGear, gamers from all around the globe have been given the opportunity to experience a completely immersive virtual reality. Sword Art Online (SAO), one of the most recent games on the console, offers a gateway into the wondrous world of Aincrad, a vivid, medieval landscape where users can do anything within the limits of imagination. With the release of this worldwide sensation, gaming has never felt more lifelike.

However, the idyllic fantasy rapidly becomes a brutal nightmare when SAO's creator traps thousands of players inside the game. The "log-out" function has been removed, with the only method of escape involving beating all of Aincrad's one hundred increasingly difficult levels. Adding to the struggle, any in-game death becomes permanent, ending the player's life in the real world.

While Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya was fortunate enough to be a beta-tester for the game, he quickly finds that despite his advantages, he cannot overcome SAO's challenges alone. Teaming up with Asuna Yuuki and other talented players, Kirito makes an effort to face the seemingly insurmountable trials head-on. But with difficult bosses and threatening dark cults impeding his progress, Kirito finds that such tasks are much easier said than done.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kirigaya, Kazuto Main

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Yuuki, Asuna Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Kirigaya, Suguha Main

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Yui Supporting

Itou, Kanae Japanese

Tsuboi, Ryoutarou Supporting

Hirata, Hiroaki Japanese

Ayano, Keiko Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Shinozaki, Rika Supporting

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Sachi Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Kayaba, Akihiko Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Mills, Andrew Gilbert Supporting

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Mori, Yasunori Producer

Miki, Kazuma Producer

Kashiwada, Shinichirou Producer

Niwa, Masami Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jul 12, 2025

JoSuke_98

Recommended

Sword Art Online Season 1 was an unforgettable experience for me. The concept of being trapped in a VR MMORPG with life-or-death stakes immediately grabbed my attention, and the execution in the Aincrad arc especially was thrilling, emotional, and immersive.

Kirito is a compelling protagonist, and his journey through the deadly floors, along with his growing bond with Asuna, made for a powerful and emotional ride. The world-building, music, and animation are all strong—creating a sense of scale and urgency that kept me hooked.

While the second half of the season (the Alfheim arc) has a different tone and pacing that not everyone loves, I still found ... it enjoyable and appreciated the continuation of Kirito’s fight for those he cares about.

Overall, SAO Season 1 delivered a memorable mix of action, romance, and fantasy that left a big impact on me. A solid 9/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 3, 2025

oKAIRIo

Mixed Feelings

I just rewatched it after 12 years since the first time I saw it, and I found that it wasn't as fun as when I watched it as a kid. However, I still rate it highly in terms of animation quality and the score by Yuki Kajiura, which really enhances the emotional atmosphere of the anime.

As for the story, both arcs feel a bit slow. The first arc, Aincrad, starts off interesting, but there are many filler episodes that don’t contribute much to character development. I was expecting more action and intensity from this arc, especially since it's the opening arc.

The second arc, Fairy Dance, ... which is noticeably lighter than the first, has a much clearer goal and focus. The story moves straight toward its objective. While the game system isn’t as engaging as Aincrad, the plot doesn’t stray too far off course.

Overall, I still think it’s an anime that can be casually enjoyed in 2025. If I want to relive some nostalgia, I could rewatch it. The music and score are well done, but as for the enjoyment of the storyline, I was a little disappointed.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 15, 2025

RemanTheArchean

Not Recommended

The first half of season one of this show might be the most absolutely disastrous trainwreck of storytelling I've ever seen in TV and film. If you want to speedrun a semester-long course in all the ways that storytelling can fail, I struggle to think of a better alternative than this show. It's so bizarrely disjointed. All creative works that require cooperation between multiple people can resemble a sausage factory to some extent, but this is like the sausage is being assembled by a fentanyl zombie that only manages to get half the pork into the meat-sock and smears the other half around on ... the table. Then he mumbles "here ya go!" before collapsing dead.

I got here from looking for anime similar to Solo Leveling, this was the most commonly cited rec on MAL. Those people are liars. This has only the most basic similarities to Solo Leveling, as in they both use video game tropes. This has vibes akin to Ready Player One, but is otherwise just generic anime in terms of plot.

Characters die in the first few episodes, but these characters have had a total of like 5 minutes of screentime, so the melancholic music and atmosphere just fall completely flat. Then in E4 it randomly shifts and becomes a Blushy Crushy romance show and contrives every situation it can to get a girl to flash her panties at the protagonist. Then it becomes a character drama to some degree, and a mystery. Then it keeps on cycling through genres until it's checked almost every single one of them off its list. Is it an action/adventure? A love polygon? A harem anime? A comedy? A power fantasy? A mystery/thriller? A tentacle hentai? I was half expecting mechs to pop out to really cover ALL the bases.

Meandering through a lot of different genres is not in and of itself a bad thing. But it's usually best to have 1-3 consistent themes, and then make small excursions into other areas. In contrast, this show is wearing a completely different hat from episode to episode, which makes watching them in sequence extremely jarring. Furthermore, the protagonist's personality swings massively. Is he this confident, edgy, Shadow the Hedgehog type? Or is he a generic dorky anime protagonist? Or perhaps somewhere in between? The answer is: whatever the show creators want him to be at any given moment.

There's no real meta-narrative to drive the overarching plot along, other than "get to the top of the castle to free yourself from this digital prison". But that really doesn't seem to be that much of a pressing concern. There's dithering between whether being locked in the game world is terrible, or if it's actually not all that bad since they get to spend it in an interesting place and form friendships and relationships. This tossup is interesting, but the show doesn't know how to handle it, and instead of trying to do a nuanced take between the two, it wildly vacillates between the two extremes based on whatever's going on in the scene at that moment, e.g. if they're about to make progress towards escaping they have a flashback on all the bad things that happened implying they're about to be liberated from the worst prison to ever exist, completely ignoring the previous episode's conclusion that this game isn't all that bad.

The main conflict just gets... randomly resolved halfway through season 1. It just comes out of nowhere, for seemingly no reason. A dude essentially says "surprise, I'm the final boss", he dies, and the overarching narrative is just gone. Then the game's creator is asked why he created the MMO in the first place, and he essentially responds with "IDK LOL". Like.... what!?!

This show is so bafflingly badly paced that I investigated what happened. It seems like this was a big webnovel series that went on for quite a while. Apparently the anime adaptation had no idea what to do with all of this, so the show creators just kind of picked random bits and jammed them together without thinking much. The result is this absolute mess that I don't understand how anyone can take seriously.

The second arc of season one is much less chaotic and actually tries to tell a coherent story. Instead of "abysmal", it's merely "bad". In its best moments it never rises beyond generic anime pablum, and it still has a decent amount of structural flaws. The most glaring flaw is that the stakes don't make sense -- the characters are no longer in a "if you die in the game, you die in real life" situation, yet they still act excessively cautious. Furthermore, the main tension is how the protagonist's girlfriend is due to be married in a week to a total creep, so that presumably sets a deadline. But... it's not like marriage is a death sentence. The girl would still be alive, and they'd probably give leeway to a quick annulment given the circumstances.

The first arc was so bad that it made me want to watch it to see what nonsense would happen next. The second arc was better from a qualitative standpoint, but was just kind of goofy and bland.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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