Sword Art Online (SAO) was one of the first animes I have watched. I can say that I really enjoyed the first season of the anime. In the first season, the anime takes place in a new VR-MMORPG game called "Sword Art Online". To play this game, you use a headset called NerveGear so the player can be immersed in the world of SAO. The main character's name is Kazuto, but his gamer tag is Kirito. Later, (and this is not a spoiler), the players are stuck and cannot leave SAO. They soon realize they are stuck in a virtual world where death is REAL. For example, if you jumped off a building in SAO your NerveGear would be triggered and emit a signal that was powerful enough to fry your brain. Now, what is so wrong with this anime? Let me explain.
First, SAO resembles an action-packed, fighting, futuristic, and adventure anime. If you start to watch the anime in all of the seasons, you realize that the plot is very consistent and fluid. It isn't boring, but then all these girls are gushing over Kirito. In almost every season, a girl is impressed by Kirito's skills as a player and soon has a crush on him. In my opinion, when I was watching SAO, I was expecting all fighting and solving the conflict at hand. Instead, in almost every season there is a scene or episode filler of Kirito expanding his harem. They did not engage in any inappropriate manners, but it was weird knowing Kirito has all these girls who were "simping" for him, while they were stuck in a game where they could possibly die.
(The next part has a slight spoiler)
Second, season two of SAO was interesting but boring. What I mean by that is, it felt like a repeat of season one but with different elements. Season 2 was when Kirito and all his friends had escaped SAO, except the girlfriend, Asuna, whom he met in SAO. She was stuck in another game called, Alheim Online. Alheim Online was very similar where it revolved around fairies and its' different races in the world with a fighting aspect. Later we learn that Kirito is getting help from his cousin, Suguha, to find Asuna. During this time, Suguha remembers her feelings toward Kirito, and that she loves him romantically. This is why I slowly stopped watching SAO, they may be cousins, and may not be considered "incest", but it was definitely uncomfortable watching it from that point on.
SAO is a really good anime that definitely had a good element of fighting, but it also had an element of harems and incest which I was very uncomfortable watching from that point on. If those elements were not included/emphasized in the anime then it would have been very engaging for me, in my opinion.
Stuck in a virtual world where the consequences are real, interesting premise!
ReplyDeleteI never gotten into anime, but I enjoyed reading your synopsis of SAO :-)
Nice! My brother's a big fan of S.A.O, but sounds like a great first season. Definitely gonna have to give it a watch!
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely a lot of controversial tropes and trends within anime. I think it become difficult to judge things without dipping into Jean Piaget's Egocentrism, which is a concept of one's inability to see a situation from another's point-of-view. While I don't condone any of the questionable traits found in anime, I think it is important to remember that there are different cultures where certain things are normal and it might only seem weird because of how we were born and raised in a specific western nation. Its just very interesting to see how particular communities value pop culture trends due to their specific atmospheres.
ReplyDeleteTo kind of echo some of Vincent's sentiment, I also don't condone some of the more extreme elements featured heavily in anime, but it is important to realize that Japanese culture in particular has some norms and traditions that are in stark contrast to Western ideas, and that many of these norms and values have been in place for an extremely long time.
ReplyDeleteWhile Japan has the reputation of being more "westernized" than other nations in the Far East, having been more than once, I can attest to how successfully they've managed to preserve their own culture, and largely insulate its core tenets from outsized external influences (even if older generations don't see it that way due to superficial changes in social norms and queues). This is one reason people who come there to work from Europe or the U.S., or even nations in South Asia like the Philippines and Vietnam, find it oftentimes so difficult to adapt; it's by design. It's not structured to be inclusive. It's structured to last.
This is reflected in media produced in Japan; a lot of those themes that folks in the West might find jarring or disturbing have deep roots into Japan's mythic origins.
Every culture possesses some of those, but they tend to be represented/appear in different ways.
I've never really finished watching an anime, I've started a few but would always forget to pick them back up. SAO sounds interesting, I'll have to check that out (:
ReplyDeleteI really do not know much about anime, but I do see it is very popular. I may have to ask my younger sibling if they have heard about this anime.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, I tried watching anime a few times, I just can't get into it, but reading from what Athina wrote I would wonder the same thing, why? and that definitely would be a turn off.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds interested not really into anime, but this sounds good
ReplyDeleteThe story seems interesting. I appreciate you sharing it with us...otherwise, I probably would not have known about it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not one to watch anime, but I was captivated by your post. This really sounds like something I may like.
ReplyDeleteOh no, it is still incest. First cousins are still incest. I mean any type of family member is still incest.
ReplyDeleteYes this is my problem with anime in general a lot of the tropes such as incest/harem are very common in the industry and are a easy way to make money. Anime is made on a conveyer belt where animators are overworked and underpaid. Because of this anime that has fanservice are a safer bet to make money and are much less risky than telling good stories. While there are great anime these tropes hold the medium back as a whole. I would suggest looking into adult western shows if you want high quality adult animation without the tropes
ReplyDeleteI stopped watch SOA after the first season. It did get weird with the cousin for sure. I could not finish the 2nd season. The theme song was really cool though.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mariah, things did get weird at times and they went over my head when I first started watching the show. Now I do know what all of the zoom ins and weird moments mean, would have rather it be kept for the action and actual romance than the harem that it shows a lot of the time. The weapons that they have are really cool though, and the games that were made are also interesting to say the least.
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting. I'm going to ask a friend what their thoughts are on the anime since I have not watched it
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