When Sword Art Was The Best Anime Ever

Life was good when I first discovered SAO

SAO was the first time I gave anime an actual chance, and after that I was hooked on the medium. Regardless of how bad I think it got, it was also a gateway for a lot of people and I respect that.

I always believed that the biggest shame for SAO was that the first 14 eps, the actual SAO part, should've been 24 episodes and way more fleshed out. But at the time it definitely got me into anime as a whole

I didn’t realize this anime was a “gateway anime” for so many people. It was the first anime I actually sat down and watched. I never finished it, but it brought me into the wider medium.

First 14 episodes of Sword Art was seriously goated

SAO holds a special place in my heart because my mom walked in on me during that one scene where Asuna undresses for Kirito, and ever since then that memory haunts me. Thank you, Reki Kawahara.

To be honest, the fact that he had little experience with writing a novel/story just makes me love this show even more. Idc what everyone says about it, for me, it was a geniunely good show that I related to a lot. It might not be the best, but deffinitely not how people make it seem it is.

SAO is what really got me into anime, and GGO was actually incredibly enjoyable. Alicization gave me that empty feeling I get after I watch or read something incredible. You can hate SAO but everyone enjoyed it at some point.

I have always defended season one of SAO as a fantastic starter show for getting new people (especially pre High School) into anime. There's a reason it had such a monumental impact on the industry. It's just that as you get older and/or watch more anime the cracks start appearing.

Dude this was seriously eye opening. I gained so much respect for Kawahara, it must be so hard to have your first go at a novel be your career defining piece of work. Even though his writing was not good, his imagination and world building were.

I am not exaggerating when I say that watching SAO changed my life. I hate that it had such an immense effect on me developmentally but oh my god once I saw this show my whole world just exploded. This was my first anime, and I think as such, I was completely oblivious to any anime tropes that a lot of people criticize it for. I genuinely never knew what was coming next and it was the most enthralling immersive experience of my life. I was 13 when I watched this show and I watched the entirety of the first 2 seasons (Aincrad and Alfheim) in 3 days (staying up late before I had school in the morning). I will never be able to forget how I spent the entire school day each of these days just thinking about this world, this story, these characters. I thought Kirito was the coolest person ever and I wanted to be like him so bad/ may have developed a... well pretty strong crush on him. But I was 13 ok you can't put that past me. To this day every time I listen to that opening song I get fucking chills. This show opened my eyes to a whole new genre of media to explore and a world and characters to unhealthily obsess over. I hate that so many people especially when it comes to anime youtubers will relentlessly bash this show. I'll watch enough of their commentaries and convince myself that the show isn't actually that good, that it's just nostalgia, but then I'll watch it again, as I do every year on the day I first watched it, as a ritual, and I'll fall back into that world all over again. It has such a grip over me. The scenery is so amazing, the soundtrack is flawless, and the stakes just give it that level of immersion that no other isekai to follow could ever come close to. There's a reason why this show created and popularized a whole genre of anime. You simply can't deny that. There's something so alluring about it. Even in the later seasons, flawed as they are in their writing, you can't help but feel this unrestricted passion behind its creation. Though the science and logic may be flawed, the ideas and concepts are just so fascinating and they commit so hard to them that you can't help but just accept the good and the bad and become one with this fantastical world. Here I am now, an adult, however many years now after first watching this show, and I don't think anything in the world can convince me that this isn't an incredible piece of art. I mean, simply look to how many people this show inspired and try to tell me that it isn't an incredible work of imaginative fiction.

BRO I CHOKED AT 10:09💀 Ngl great video! Keep it up dude :

"He's a gamer, not a writer" makes so much sense. I watched SAO when I was a kid, as one of my first anime's, and therefore didn't really have any standards. And I loved it. After I got a little bit older and saw the internet's opinion I was like "yea it really wasn't that good huh." However, something I always told my friends or brother when the topic of SAO would come up is "it has a good premise but a bad story" and now I see why. Honestly, after hearing this, I've gained a new respect for SAO or at least it's writer. I've always thought this but especially now, I'd really like to see SAO get a rewrite with Kawahara overseeing or just have him rewrite it if he has gained more experience.

I'm not gonna lie, whenever i hear the first 10 seconds of the first opening, i always get super nostalgic.

I liked sao because it wasnt just some seperate world with magic. It was a regular guy, no crazy iq. No magic powers, no crazy strength in the real world. Just liked playing games and he could escape to a different world where there was magic it was just a more medieval version of the real world. Kirito sais he felt more alive in video games than he did in real life and thats slmething alot of people can relate to. I found sao as the best show even as it went to other seasons

The disrespect to madoka magica is wild that shits peak

Scamboli 2019: Isekai is getting worse and worse Scamboli 2021: Sword Art Online is an anime that, despite the clumsy writing, has a compelling story and the author manages to share parts of himself and convey his feelings in a way that resonates with the audience. Character development? In any case, this video was amazing, thanks a lot!

The concept of SAO is so damn cool. Most people that watched SAO knew that it would probably be possible to be immersed into a completely virtual reality during their life time, and that's what exited them.

Scamboli spoke nothing other than FACTS. Sword Art Online is still to this day the closest an anime has felt to being in an actual game. The world, monsters, players, environments, and atmosphere to this day are perfect when representing what an MMO RRG would feel like. It's not perfect however the fact that no gaming anime other than The King's Avatar which is more to do with E-Sport has made me feel that excitement when it games to games since says a lot.

SAO was the first long anime I’ve ever watched and I loved the show. It was my fav until I realised most people thought it was bad 💀 this show was basically a gateway to anime for me so it still has a special place in my heart