Anime : Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online

Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン

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Judul : Sword Art Online, SAO, S.A.O, ソードアート・オンライン

Genres: Action, Adventure, Romance

Episode: 25 Episode

Duration: 23 min. per episode

Status: Currently Airing

Aired: Jun 24, 2012 to ?

Sinopsis : Sword Art Online Bercerita tentang game VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) bernama Sword Art Online yang memasuki masa Open Beta. Namun ditengah permainan Kayaba Akihiko perancang sekaligus pembuat game Sword Art Online mengatakan, player tak bisa log out sebelum menyelesaikan permainan. Untuk menyelesaikan permainan mereka harus menyelesaikan dungeon 100 lantai dan mengalahkan boss di lantai terakhir. Tapi tidak semudah itu, karena mati di dalam game berarti mati di dunia nyata, yang berarti nyawa mereka tidak hanya hilang di Game, tapi juga di dunia nyata.

Plot Summary : In the near future, a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online has been released where players control their avatars with their bodies using a piece of technology called Nerve Gear. One day, players discover they cannot log out, as the game creator is holding them captive unless they reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if they die in the game, they die in real life. Their struggle for survival starts now

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My current Anime which I watched.

Not gonna lie. When I first heard that this is an anime about players being stuck in an MMO game, I immediately thought of the .hack//sign series. Then I thought of how convoluted it was. Thankfully, SAO has shown itself to be more simple and straightforward with it’s approach which in this case may help it to be a really fun series.

What I Liked 

The anime doesn’t necessarily limit it’s audience to those familiar with MMOs (massive multiplayer online), but it also doesn’t serve as a tutorial for it. Rather, the series takes each episode and addresses the many facets of online gaming while incorporating a plot. With the first episode being an intro to MMO-gaming and establishing new players from veterans, then second episode focusing on Beta-testers and the party system, the third focuses on Guild systems as well as revive items, and the fourth focused on a pet system and good/bad mechanic.

As a main character, Kirito is a nice balance of knowledgeable, seasoned, and determined while being a loner and showing signs of self doubt. He’s not entirely perfect, but he is a “Beater” or beta-tester who knows what he’s doing and takes it upon himself to help the front-lines in reaching the 100th floor. With a nice subtle plot device, it’s been inferred (in episode 4) that he gets his fighting skills from his Kenpo training he had done as a child. All-in-all, Kirito shows some room for improvement while still being a strong lead.

I especially liked the fact that the story isn’t too convoluted. Instead of trying to tackle addressing reality and the MMO-world together, the creators had nice elements added to the MMO-world to reflect each character’s reality. The implementation of actual faces for the avatars removes masking a character’s true looks as well as giving a hilarious moment (in episode 1) with people creating characters of the opposite gender. The only thing that actually deals with reality was the concept of their death which couldn’t help but remind me of the line from the Freddy Cougar movies, “if you die in your dreams, you die in real life.”

The MMO-world and society designed in the series is beautiful. It has everything that a great MMO game would actually have in real life, minus the whole Nerve Gear system which seems like a giant health hazard to me. Everything in the world of Aincrad has the MMO feel to me from the monsters, to the environements/towns, to the music, to even the player HUD that appears for each player when they are accessing menus.

What I Didn’t Like

 The are some plot holes that I’m bothered with. Like these gamers are stuck in this MMO-world for months, but in real life how are they living? How are they obtaining life’s necessities and performing natural human functions? Could this mean that the game passes by like so, but in real-life only hours passed by? And what’s stopping the game developer from showing them false news reports of death resulting from disconnecting the Nerve Gear? Hopefully they address all that later on.

Also, I don’t know if I’m not paying attention or something, but I’m not entirely sure of Kirito’s true intentions when he decides to be a “solo” player. He does mention that by attracting large groups slows down his chances for leveling up and stuff, but I don’t really see any deeper intention although the show is pointing to there being a deeper meaning.






Conclusions
I’m liking this series. As a gamer, it speaks to me and makes me wish an MMO like that actually exists, again minus the Nerve Gear. Somehow, the creators managed to make this anime feel like a combination of an MMO-game with a fantasy genre anime (Record of the Lodoss War comes to mind).

Romantice

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Trailer Sword Art Online

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