When Sword Art Was The Best Anime Ever

Remember SAO? Yes, you do.
Second Channel: / @scamboli7184
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Some Interviews with Reki Kawahara:
• Reki Kawahara Exclusiv...
• Reki Kawahara Exclusiv...
• 5 Questions to Reki Ka...
-Biography of Reki Kawahara: www.t-ono.net/biographies/rek...
-Extra info on Sword Art: www.animenewsnetwork.com/feat...
-"Sword Art Online Author Reki Kawahara Says Female Characters Should Not Be Treated as Trophies" www.animenewsnetwork.com/inte...
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SAO was one o dem classics, bro I'm telling you. It was an anime bro here's my analysis bro
-scamboli reviews signing out.

[@cherobu2288]

Life was good when I first discovered SAO

[@calebclarke69]

Where did it all go wrong.

[@legendaryhacker4030]

You And me bruh that is literally my reason go get into Anime in the first place ahhhh the good times when people doesn't give a fck to any anime series

[@yungeternal]

Yo keep spitting

[@unknownguy_guy8095]

Same

[@largocharles8729]

In the words of gigguk. To a new anime fan, every anime is a good anime

[@jordy2d]

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.

[@huwunter]

hope your days going well jordy :]

[@ScamboliReviews]

I feel like most gateway anime are deeply flawed. DragonBall Z for a lot of people, Bleach for myself

[@huwunter]

@@ScamboliReviews and even with them being flawed they’re still fun to watch

[@fenkum]

sameee

[@mactroiy7452]

Facts, I did watch DBZ and Yu-Gi-Oh before but people don't consider those "real weeb stuff". After seeing it super late night on TV completely by chance I loved it, remember the name and then the day after I was introduced to the whole world of anime.

[@MetalRaimon]

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

[@BarryMikokinju]

Amen

[@VikingVillage01]

Apparently there was a lot more source material too, not sure why they rushed it

[@MetalRaimon]

@@VikingVillage01 Back then a lot more anime had more... "trial" phases. They generally didn't invest much unless they knew it'd make a return. Even attack on titan took like 4 years between the first 2 seasons as a different example. In the end SAO was pretty succesful but I feel like the medium as a whole would've done better had it been 1 solid season with 24 episodes of just the SAO arc

[@caca738]

@@VikingVillage01actually I believe the source material was just as short and wasn’t even a manga

[@VikingVillage01]

@@caca738 I know it was an LN, but heard Aincrad was longer

[@amransom26]

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.

[@lordthicknipples-gt2oq]

The first anime I ever watched was Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, and after that I just had to watch the actual show. To this day, I have no regrets about that decision, I have morphed into a full on weeaboo.

[@HarambaeXelonmuskfans]

How do you remember that I didn’t even know what an anime was until 2 years after I started seeing it online

[@knocksjournal5114]

its a gateway anime for me!!! i mean i stopped when it got unbearable but defo plummet into anime after SAO

[@Real_Nutella]

It was my first anime ever LOL

[@pranavjain8774]

Sao is just amazing

[@RickleVR]

First 14 episodes of Sword Art was seriously goated

[@potatocake7037]

Spatula

[@javonyounger5107]

I really like the first 2 episodes but felt it was downhill after that. I dropped it on episode 6 after he was attacked by 6 dudes at once and just stood there because they couldn't actually hurt him due to his extremely high regeneration. It was at that point I felt the story was going in a direction I had no interest in.

[@roberthouse7040]

If you watch them muted then yeah sure

[@blind-harper]

@@roberthouse7040 ye I too loved how cringe and awful it was lmao . Maybe it’s cause I’m older now but it’s just so hard to look back at pretty much any part of this show without dying from my skin crawling.

[@bigfrog117]

idk man. Try rewaching and a lot of it really falls apart after like 2 episodes

[@JoNarDLoLz]

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.

[@supercool_saiyan5670]

hey just be glad it wasn't the scene where she gets molested by tentacles

[@reqoil2138]

Ay man that happened with my dad. I feel you.

[@Nikento]

@@reqoil2138 Same here. I was watching with my friend and when my dad walked in right at that scene, he asked us about it and i had to briefly explain that its just one scene if i remember correctly.

[@aki-4731]

my dad who hasn't showed up for 15 years when 0.02 second of nudity scene appears on screen: Hola

[@snijpes]

pain

[@toyoboi]

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.

[@lukesaylor6742]

I started watching anime like, 2 years ago and I watched it in a vacuum because my then girlfriend made me try it and I've been watching it ever since even after she dumped me. I gotta say as someone who didn't know anything about the show going into it its not near as bad as everyone says. Like it has some retarded moments, but it's not really that much more retarded then most animes I've seen. Every anime has a few moments that make you wonder why the hell the writers would do that, atleast in my experience, and sword art is pretty average to me in how often It makes me feel like that.

[@classicwhitehat9028]

I didn't

[@matthewcaffrey123]

Alicization actually so good

[@fearedjames]

I recently rewatched the whole show. Alicization is so clearly the worst arc. It's writing is not only atrocious, it abandons the speedy pacing of earlier arcs, meaning it's not only awfully written but an absolute chore to sit through. Also, of my 5 person friend group I watched it with, 3 of them quit early on in Alicization due to these problems, the second one quit right before the end because he just couldn't handle how awful it was anymore.

[@gravels5221]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@fearedjamesAlicization was actually one of my favorite arcs, I enjoyed the slower pace it had at the start.

[@pieTone]

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.

[@isodimetrix]

srsly.. i love sao man..the concept was ahead of its time and new really..(it was written in 2002 around...ln was released in 2009).. i guess it was beautiful and just people overhate it as its cool... many havent watched it and didnt get the escence of the anime.. the wrter wasnt matured then also SAO was adapted from theh web novel which was sent for a competition, it wasnt complete...but now progressives make it much better and they r making a series out of it! Its one of my favs!

[@SwitchedPC]

I share your opinion, finally someone...

[@Kyotosomo]

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.

[@milktea6676]

Boobas

[@httohot]

It had a monumental impact because it was the first game based Issekai. No other reason. I finally bit hte bullet and binged all of Shield hero. I avoided all issekai because of SAO but now that I see a good one it all makes sense. Shield hero is barely an Issekai, the issekai elements exists just to allow video game rpg elements to be part of their world. That is what the real draw to all of these Issekai's are, a familar RPG system built into a real fantasy world. Saying that you "leveled up" is just feels more relatable than saying I trained in the woods for a day. It makes fantasy worlds more relatable.

[@satadenai9182]

i liked season One because it was the first anime where I thought the main characters might actually die. After the dying problem was 'solved' it was no longer interesting for me - it became just another shounen anime.

[@Fr00stee]

at this point there's literally no reason to watch SAO when you can watch stuff like jujutsu kaisen, hxh, my hero academia, etc

[@KingOfHeartsTANK]

I think it's the worst way, you get people started in the wrong path. Its twilight for weebs which ruined vampire for a long ass time, just as SAO ruined modern animes. There are better suggestions with more merit like Cowboy Bebop as a example off the top of my head.

[@Iisho]

"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.

[@aidenpopour594]

I'm pretty sure he is doing a rewrite but from Asuna's perspective

[@Mauro-sn2kt]

@@notvkn lol did you even watch the video?

[@DjVilez]

there is a re-write, checkout the sao progressive. Heard its better.

[@le_meme_man8983]

Yeah, about that. Progressive was being written since like 2010.

[@d4s0n282]

@@aidenpopour594 wait wait, can I get a link on this?

[@choliosis2551]

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.

[@WiggleJimmy]

RESIDENT SLEEPER, AM I RITE FELLAS?

[@mariepoppo8573]

cant be any more well said, i have the same feelings as u!

[@jakublulek3261]

I totally get you. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya came when I was really down on luck in my life and helped me turn it all around. That show has such a "never give up, even when against the whole world" vibe, it really inspired me. And when they started to talk about philosophy and essence of being and meaning of God, it just sparked something inside. I changed my life, changed university, changed my career and sinde then, I am eternally grateful to that show, books and Tanigawa Nagaru (I had even wrote a letter to him, couple of years back). Yes, it's flawed, yes, it has it's detractors but I still have all my posters in my office and when somebody asks, I just say: "Yeah, that is why I am here now." No bloody shame.

[@Masanimax]

i feel the same way. as soon as i saw this show, i decided it was too hard to watch two anime at once, so i finished watching the other one and forgot about it. a year later i watched season 1 and 2 and immediately fell in love with it. about a year later i rewatched it, (all 4 seasons and 2 movies) and my spotify basically exploded with new songs. i even had to start changing wallpapers across devices because too many of them were kirito. this show basically got me into anime, and it holds a special place with me. (unrelated: 1. i also get chills even tho its in my playlist. 2. more unrelated, i got lost a couple times reading so some advice, try to break long comments into paragraphs.)

[@tomcox6418]

Choliosis2551, Thank you. The good about it clicks with me, and I guess other 'refined' people only see the bad. This show delved into topics beautifully and its passion actually inspired me to pursue my major in college. (Terrible idea, by the way. job market+desired location, or other obstacles, should be considered first.)

[@realchickennuggy]

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

[@unwritten_zephyr]

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.

[@MaxIronsThird]

The SAO sequels are still bad though, it seems Kawahara is stuck in 2001, actually none of the sequels were on the same level as the first arc(more specifically the first 5 or 6 episodes of S1).

[@disalazarg]

@@MaxIronsThird I'd posit that GGO and, to a lesser extent, Ordinal Scale are. Of course, GGO wasn't written by him, but Ordinal Scale did make me feel as hopeful and enthusiastic about the potential of AR as S1 of SAO did about VR.

[@graceli1903]

@@MaxIronsThird No. In terms of writing quality, his later works are _objectively_ better than the earlier ones. We're talking about the actual light novels, not the adaptations. For example, the Project Alicization volumes have some of the most enjoyable writing I've come across in a light novel, comparable to peak Overlord and some Mushoku Tensei. And his most recent works are fantastic. Even among other talents, Kawahara distinguishes himself from his competitors. The only dip in quality was Moon Cradle; Unital Ring and Progressive are better than they've ever been.

[@scpfilechildrenbarrow2212]

@@MaxIronsThird That's cap. Also, using the flawed adaptation is not reflective of the quality in his work. If you've read the actual novels, you'd notice the the dialogue and character interactions has improved, and Kawahara has gotten better at implementing sci-fi concepts subtly without relying on info dump. You don't want to use the anime. They change and cut out a lot of things making it an unfair comparison.

[@edcaous]

I mean, the author also wrote Accel World and The Isolator. And last time I hear The Isolator was pretty well regarded among light novel readers, even in the West.

[@hypergogeto9039]

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

[@moonmannd7501]

I haven't watched SAO but even I can't pretend to not like that song

[@ScamboliReviews]

I was originally gonna open the video with that sound but didn't want to deal with the strike

[@hypergogeto9039]

@@ScamboliReviews understandable

[@MousyNeesan]

ME

[@Karma-pq9fi]

The OP’s are better then the show.

[@mRiniYT]

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

[@naufalnoorizan1763]

Same, cause it aint isekai

[@edfed3797]

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.

[@marcster6767]

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!

[@ActivelyCursed]

The right side of my head : But SAO w-. The left part : No, uhuhpuhup, NO. this man's comment is good SHADUP, shutup, shu- BE QUIET.

[@wtfimcrying]

if this is the point he makes in the video I'm sure he's coping with the "compelling story" part but if he is reflecting some of himself onto the page

[@user-oq4oi1kr1b]

and he is doing progressive which is the final draft.

[@edcaous]

@@user-oq4oi1kr1b Progressive isn't a final draft, it's closer to a "filling in the gaps" kind of work. See, Progressive skips over the ground that was already covered by the original short story, so many details from the first day are skipped over completely. So you have to read both Progressive & the original short story to get an idea of everything that happens over the course of the Aincrad arc.

[@kiana4237]

@@user-oq4oi1kr1b for people that don't know the purpose of SAO:P it's more a plot add-on to the already covered storyline of aincrad arc, because it was fast paced, lack a lot of depth and had few good scenes like kirito attacking the system then kayaba the GM, it's more of a rewrite than a final draft. His final draft will probably end with kirito with the sentient AI's.

[@enzoys]

watching this show as an 11 year old was one of the best things I've ever experienced

[@armaanb.6566]

I wish i could experience that but i was a bit late on anime at age 12 but i havent even watched the show but i remember being close to watching it after hearing its banger openings..

[@granzedora]

Dude same!

[@luhniso]

Fr this and black lagoon were my shit

[@moinmeister-rp9sl]

op main goes brrrrrrr

[@Astolfo1280]

Same W

[@MrBlockparty57]

The disrespect to madoka magica is wild that shits peak

[@Aquarityy]

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

[@TM-df9hj]

Incoming videos from every other anime youtuber "Sword Art wasn't that bad" "My Apology to SAO"

[@CyberBiscuit90]

Wanna bet who does it first? My money is on Gigguk.

[@Homiesexual69]

I feel like this will be the new trend lol. I can already tell that a lot of people are back paddling.

[@luccienv]

@@CyberBiscuit90 ong

[@notthis9586]

Probably, hindsight can be powerful. Also now that so many years have passed and the discourse has died down it's possible for more nuanced takes. I don't think it's great like I did when I was 13, and I've also stopped thinking of it as the worst thing ever. Now it's just kinda bad and squandered a lot of potential.

[@susear5939]

True that! People love using Scam's templates.

[@RGC_animation]

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.

[@sashaversteeg3406]

yes

[@AstersLove]

Sword art got me into anime, I was fully immersed and obsessed with full dive technology research all throughout middle school and high school because of it. The world was beautiful

[@ThatGuyWhoHatesBots]

SAO was my first ever anime, i was about 13 when i watched it. It really had a big impact on my life, and although now i think it really isn’t good, because i have seen a lot of better ones, I still appreciate the good memories of it and am happy, that you made this video

[@gabe75001]

What I love most about SAO is the music, all it takes is the first 2 seconds and you can tell which arc it's from.

[@taharmeziani6903]

sao op 1 is fire

[@Maliketh_Montdore]

The music and the opening were the reason why i kept watching it, they felt so nostalgic

[@unknown-kp3zz]

Agree the music from sao are all bangers

[@blaiaa]

crossing field is so iconic. i just feel really nostalgic whenever i hear the first few notes and the chorus bangs hard

[@Aesc_the_voyager]

Finally I found a breath of fresh air for people who actually remember the greatness that was sword art

[@pierb2848]

After SAO 1 the only thing that come close to it as a RPG style thing is Solo Leveling

[@Aesc_the_voyager]

@@pierb2848 that’s facts

[@alkanoidio]

Yes

[@alilweeb7684]

@@pierb2848 bro straight facts we barely think about it but its sooo rare to see animes/mangas that actually feel like a game, despite so many with that premisse

[@meee_5155]

@@pierb2848 rip solo leveling it ended recently

[@tonyradford5577]

10:41 “We Must Save My Family”

[@derdarkzockthd2916]

I actually love you for this. Because this reminded me again why i love it so much

[@ToeKnee]

This was one of the first anime I actually ever watched after avoiding the medium entirely for years. It definitely got me hooked and I'm not sure if it's just to keep the nostalgia alive, but I've seen every season. Watching today I can clearly see how bad some of it is, but watching it still makes me smile.

[@thepurplechickenchannel488]

wtf I new you were a weeb for liking my main man kensei, hope you can grow your channel without that dying game, you deserve it

[@loveswords2000]

That's the spirit

[@alexandregrand-pierre1981]

@Hecantonchire s I feel like I've heard this before in a show, where it was a robot or an alien, or some socially awkward super genius and they just took joke making way too seriously 😂😂😂

[@hairy4188]

I can relate to literally everything you just said

[@FahmiZFX]

*Kirito uses plot armor* That's my boy.

[@JohnDoe-pc3uk]

Honestly though, thank you for being the only anituber I've ever seen who acknowledges that SAO did have external issues like the author's inexperience as a writer that held it back

[@scpfilechildrenbarrow2212]

I've always found the idea of judging somebody's worth as a writer by the first thing they ever wrote/published over 20 years ago as incredibly stupid. I myself was a toddler when Kawahara first wrote his short story, and for the life of me, I don't think I could ever hope of matching some of his recent/latest works.

[@SeucheFracht612]

Well his books got better but they still are trash soo

[@aki-4731]

@@SeucheFracht612 lol

[@edcaous]

@@scpfilechildrenbarrow2212 Indeed. Unital Ring is some good stuff.

[@Laura-ns9wx]

I recently started reading the SAO Progressive light novel and while some people rolled their eyes at me as soon as they heard SAO, I instantly fell in love with the series all over again. The field theme from the anime still makes my chest tight in a way that only it and the XBC2 soundtrack can. I think SAO is the perfect example of an anime that is amazing not because of its actual quality, but the way it resonated with me, and telling from the comment section, many others in our formative years

[@amok8938]

I got so immersed in this anime man. I tried finding games where I could have as similar of a fighting style as possible to Kirito. In hindsight, and even when I saw it the first time, it had some really weird concepts and the entire anime wouldve been better if it had just left entire arcs out. But in general the immersion was insane. I would think about what I would choose if i had the option of using a nervegear, despite being stuck in the game with no way out unless I beat it. It was not only the anime itself, but the questions it made you think about. Just the concept of a real nervegear made me so excited.

[@kyouji6571]

This whole anime series put me deep into the anime hole. AND ALL OF THE OPENING SONGS IS AN ABSOLUTE BANGER

[@ishyameru6232]

This and Tokyo ghoul made me an anime fan more so than just DBZ

[@GimOA]

@@ishyameru6232 tbh I feel like DBZ series is just a cartoon instead of anime tbh, its your daily dose of hero vs villain after every redemption arc

[@hexcodeff6624]

All the openings are the same. Compare SAO to other popular franchises like BnHA, where every opening is performed by a different artist with a different direction.

[@Jotsukko]

You're right, SAO introduced me J-Pop.

[@ZaddyZavid]

Don't forget the end songs, Unlasting by LiSA in particular..

[@Zipukas123]

When it came out during my high school days, SAO was (and still is) one of the most immersive shows I've ever seen. Even though now, as an adult, I am less blinded by it and can see more flaws in its story, I still think it's a fantastic show for what it was. It just had something special about its atmosphere and world-building. The fantastic OSTs definitely had something to do with that too.

[@Joseph12O]

Same here, SAO just have something special about it that others anime didn't have back then, but the story was rushed too much

[@lordduckofquack]

@@Joseph12OPersonally I think it’s because of the VAs and the OST. You can have ok story that’s received as amazing as long as those two aspects are incredibly strong, with animation and design behind those two in terms of importance. SAO VAs to me just make the characters feel alive and real, like you could genuinely connect with the characters.

[@BruhMoment-yg6jv]

especially the death factor that made life so much more worth it

[@ilovecarti1629]

The story felt really rushed tbh, I felt like some of the filler could be replaced and we could've gotten to spend more time with the characters and their struggles, especially some of the side characters like Sachi and Lisbeth. Rather than jumping straight into another story in the next episode it would feel so much more satisfying to flesh out the existing characters.

[@isodimetrix]

People forget the fact that SAO at that time was just written by the author for a competition with world limit. It wasnt meant to be adapted as it wasnt ready. He later made progressives to make it better and i love SAO really!

[@gat0]

8:46 "so wtf was that about" absolutely killed me mid workout 😂

[@rtleppert3419]

This video explains exactly how i feel about this show, even the comparisons using the games from that time was a great point of reference imo. Im gonna start to rewatch this tonight thanks a lot

[@resolve-machine5714]

I never really got into SAO, but the nostalgia of wanting to be in an anime world I can relate to. I remember being like 10 watching DBZ Kai and thinking "Damn, I wanna go super saiyan, too." It was a special time and even if I don't like dragon ball as much now, I'll never forget the amazement I felt while watching it for the first time.

[@mauliqt17]

I think its not about inserting yourself into an anime world but inserting you into a game environment which made the show gain popularity. I liked the show at the time alot becuase I was playing RPGs a lot. Shit still today I wish I could trap myself in an imersive RPG like world and run around and do shit.

[@oopsalldrip1376]

based fellow DBZ enjoyer

[@ScamboliReviews]

Why do we lose that in adulthood

[@merlin_the_prick]

​@@ScamboliReviews All the pressure we get from our study, job, household work starts effecting our personality. When you watch an anime do you just enjoy it or sometimes one or two thoughts of making money out of it crosses your mind? Well, kids live to enjoy and maybe adults just live without any reason. (I know the last sentence sounds too dramatic)

[@donutmerchant8393]

@@ScamboliReviews The pressures of life combined with the perception and expectations of adulthood. We're adults now, let's abandon that stupid kid shit and focus on the real world, where of course we slave away in a shitty job.

[@mudkipofdespair1684]

Oh my god thank you so much for this video. As someone who honesty still loves SAO, despite its flaws, it’s so annoying when every single damn person online acts like it’s the worst thing ever created

[@adjcsee4476]

It’s easier to get on the hate bandwagon instead of just making legitimate reasons why it sucked. Honestly the whole putting people into a world where they couldnt take off the headset because it was sending signals within the headset through the players mind makes sense. And if the headset was messed with the battery would just fry their brain.

[@jackirwin6823]

Facts

[@imani7979]

@@adjcsee4476 for me my dislike came from the diversion from the original plot and game, oh and that the dude who created sao seemed to have little to no motive. when the newer arcs and seasons came out (i haven't watch alicization yet though) they were weren't nearly as interesting as the first arc, especially ggo (i wanted to quit so many times). on the bright side though, sao introduced me to the wonderful world of subbed anime!!

[@SwanADolphin]

@@imani7979 alicization is really good I do have to say, though I'm someone who liked all the show to a certain extent (eincrad was cool, alo was neat minus the asuna thing but i guess you need motivation, ggo was good bc haha gun also sinon pog, excaliber was interesting but i dont really remember it, mothers rosario hit like a bus) so take my opinion with a grain of salt lol

[@sevenstarofheaven6673]

@@SwanADolphin i think the core of sao series surprisingly lies on mother rosario ykwim. It's about playing dream game

[@xaviscorner]

SAO was my first ever anime. I remember getting so hyped when Kirito dual wieleded for the first time and being so invested in the story. Season 2 was weird but still enjoyable bc i adore star wars, and then season 3 went stupid crazy Alicization was so much fun. I liked SAO and I still enjoy it. Idc what anyone says it's just fun to watch

[@Monta-Man8626]

Thanks for nostalgia trip, it still makes me giddy when watching, playing, and listening to the music. Definitely my most favorite anime ever.

[@min_ara7216]

SAO was my first anime.. and going into different dimension, living in a different life in a game seemed so cool and interesting to me! The concept was so awesome.. and the soundtrack? Soundtrack is so peaceful.. It will always be special for me 🥹

[@Juliangorsoe]

Mine to i did not like anime but when i Watch sao it was the best thing ever

[@AKS.animemusic]

I Like it too

[@heilamwether8911]

Yeah, I feel this, sao’s soundtrack was really good. And tbh, even after all the hate, I still do like it, also glad that alicization, war of the underworld is. (Also, when I get to season Two, and the weird stuff, I just skip past that.)

[@supremegreaser2399]

My first anime was girls and panzer and it's genetically superior to SAO

[@slemcraft]

Same story for me

[@dpmodouble1582]

I feel like SAO would have been amazing if they stayed in Aincrad and the entire series was actually about climbing to the 100th floor and escaping. Of course improving the writing along the way and making each floor more fleshed out

[@ntm4]

Reki is doing that now with the SAO: Progressive light novels. Last I checked he was going about 1 floor per volume so I don't know if he'll ever finish it lol, but he's trying.

[@tharuth]

@@ntm4 we’ve gotten 7 Floors in 8 Volumes over 8 years, we aren’t even gonna hit Floor 25 at this rate 😭

[@Melqhii]

@@tharuth 😂😂😂

[@gramm2146]

@@ntm4 There's also hollow fragment ( infinity moment) game that covers many later floors

[@thebest-ish]

W vid bro it was the first sword anime that got me such more hooked to anime it’s my top 5 anime

[@malevxlent3934]

thank you for this, also u funny asf bro

[@Uniquenameosaurus]

Yknow what, i've watched quite a few of your videos now. You're my new favourite anime youtuber. You keep having really interesting video topics with really interesting opinions and I genuinely laugh out loud multiple times a video.

[@ScamboliReviews]

Thank you!!

[@fizzyeditz5371]

Honestly I can agree Scamboli kinda gives me the vibe of a chill dude who adherently makes content of what he wants to and honestly man consistantly makes bangers lol

[@featherycoffee1401]

Who was the previous one?

[@jacksonfitzhenry3593]

I have you as a distant second place to Ramires1

[@deadlymedley5096]

I agree soo much with this statement. His anime suggestions are solid too. Check out his dorohedoro vid.

[@__Ryoto__]

Mate, I don't know if you'll see this or not and I never cared about commenting on videos. But to do something like this after how much hate and memed this series has become, you have some serious balls. I and other fans of the series must give our undying respect for that. Yes, all of the series wasn't great and it was pretty bad. Still, there are parts that I still love to this date (Aincrad arc, Mother's Rosario, Aliciziation and of course Progressive)Thanks for making this video, you made my day. Cheers mate!

[@kedarwaychal3854]

I like to explain Progressive as "the SAO people expected but didn't get". Progressive started way after the main series, and it really shows how Reki has grown as a writer. None of any unnecessary scandalous scenes, none of Kirito cheesing his way through situations because he is Kirito. It genuinely feels like what Reki envisioned SAO to be, albeit more like a Slice of Life.

[@SagaEf]

5:00 My favorite part of SAO was the moment when they tried to claim Kirito's dual wielding skill was somehow unique. Like, two throwaway characters are dual wielding two pickaxes and two axes and you're going to pretend like it didn't happen?

[@schwambibambi6492]

Thank zou so much for this! I loved SAO when I first watched it and it actuallz led me to watch so manz more grreat shows. I know it's not the best story ever, but I have such fond memories of the show and my enjoyment...

[@MinuteMovies1]

Fire video bro

[@ScamboliReviews]

I've seen some of your videos wtf

[@sidthemid_yt9123]

@@ScamboliReviews lolololol

[@pathuurnaxohyeah7480]

YO ITS THE MAN HIMSELF YOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@MinuteMovies1]

@@ScamboliReviews Damn, that means I've made it!

[@aceddays]

SAO was the first anime I've ever watched and honestly, I just bingewatched anime ever since. Even though people say they hate SAO of how terrible the anime is, the soundeffects, the fights are all just so good and give you a real game experience.

[@shantedidathing]

code geass. steins gate. death note and others are way better.

[@Ztbyon]

@@shantedidathing seen them all, I still enjoyed SAO.

[@Francois343]

@@shantedidathing everyone has their own opinion tho

[@kakyoindonut3213]

one of the first anime I discovered myself, I've watched season 1 and 2 and oh god from that day onward I've become a cringe chuni that desperately create a nervegear out of cardboard

[@tombrozt]

I started watching anime in 2015 with Elfen Lied, a friend of mine showed me the first episode on his phone and from then on I couldn't stop watching. Today, after watching almost 100 series and movies I can say Elfen Lied is shurely trash compared to many of the classics and not-so-classic anime productions. But for me it was that one series that brought me into the anime universe, and for that reason I'll always put it in a special place on my list. SAO may be terrible sometimes, but I watched it all the way through the last season, and man... Alicization was such a great arc, it's like they're polishing up all the flaws of the previous seasons and listening to all the fanbase, to wich season 4 was the big STFU to all haters, bc they literally included everything that was somehow "missing" in the previous arcs. It felt like the series brutally transformed from a shounen anime to a seinen in a few episodes, but the most important aspect in my opinion is plot evolution. Because yeah, we all have read sci-fi and watched a ton of shows and movies, and we got kind of used to see "cliches" here and there, recycled plots and stuff, to the point we started to think that "there's nothing left to invent" in the genre. But SAO doesn't give up on that, and keeps introducing and developing new tech elements for the plot to continue being not only interesting but exciting and imaginative. And that's what I love that kind of sci-fi series and movies, bc it blows up your mind to the point you can open yourself to a whole new realm of imagination and thinking. I mean, I've watched Psycho-Pass and now I can't stop thinking of quantum computers made with human brains. So as with SAO, you can now dream of VR-raised bottom-up-developed quantum AI, and being capable of reading/storing the human soul on a QC, I think it is as innovative as Verne was in his time. You know, animation, movies and books are only containers, so instead of focusing on the surface, is the deep built-in content we have to look for.

[@schadowsshade7870]

Finally some positivity on KZbin thank you! I definitly agree with you😊

[@aazie8336]

SAO was my childhood anime that i would watch straight after coming home from elementary school everyday, i loved everything about it and 7 years later, even thinking about it makes me nostalgic.

[@AlejandroLopez-xs6lu]

I think most “bad anime” just have a problem of having a great concept but being unable to execute it in the most diverse ways possible. Sword art was just that for the whole “world that feels like a game” genre, it became the foundation for those anime without being the best at it.

[@goddepersonno3782]

if it was the best then it wouldn't have allowed the genre to grow from there. Genre fatigue comes when your expectations have already been raised too high for shows of that genre and nothing coming out of it can exceed those expectations. If the Isekai genre had started too strong, then it would have prematurely died out.

[@bloodnessx]

the isekai genre came so damn slow to populairity,, because game mechanics works the best since its very easy and diverse to tell and understand. rpg is simply the foudaintion of wish fullfillment

[@teethcoat4274]

@@bloodnessx A friend of mine also made the point that a leveling system is a lazy and easy way of showing development and growth, because the character levels up and it's like "Oh, well they can do new things, I remember when they were just level 1."

[@alechall7082]

Its the opposite of having a bad concept, unfortunately.

[@TheRedAzuki]

@@teethcoat4274 Pretty much what you said. Easy to show growth when you got quantifiable numbers. even if all the numbers are actually meaningless, because mooks are still insignificant if they're lvl 1 or lvl 1000, because their sole existence is to show the awesomeness of the protagonist, and any 'bad' guy will always be stronger than the Hero initially but then easily overpowered. Or they will be shown to be powerful but as soon as they fight the main character, lose instantly. Thus making basically any 'powerful' opponent meaningless. Like with Slime Reincarnation, that first demon lord orc guy. Loses basically the instant he fights Rimaru. To me, that makes it feel like it's basically pointless. If it comes to shounen battles, DBZ, Naruto and One Piece manged way better with making the next opposition actually feel like a threat. Although meta-wise, you know the hero will win in the end anyhow, but that's a topic for another day, you just don't know how far it will take for them to win. Relative to these new ones, which are often like "Oh? Big meta demon of 99999 infinite powers? Well guess what! I got Infinite x 2 power! and can negate your infinite power!"

[@dana1828]

Currently rewatching season one, after almost 10 years. Glad I came back to it

[@ihatefridays2715]

Many people recommend the original light novels, they do a better job characterizing and explaining the world.

[@burntoast4269]

Same

[@faithbresciani9425]

SAME!!!

[@devontetheone]

also, if you wanna watch SAO from asuna's perspective. watch the new movie that came out, SAO progressive. progressive 2 is came out last month also but not in america yet

[@charliemoody7168]

~15 years ago, I’d watched a fair amount of anime - from Astro Boy & Captain Harlock thru Robotech, Evangelion, Akira, GitS…I wanted more, but didn’t know where to turn. I asked some of my younger co-workers for recommendations, and after a couple of false starts on other shows, I started watching SAO. I was COMPLETELY captivated by the concept of the story, the realization of the gaming world (haven’t been a ‘gamer’ since the Atari 2600/Coleco Adam), the range of characters, THE ART, THE MUSIC, THE STAKES. The heart-in-your-mouth immediacy of adolescence. I’ve watched the entire thing ~5 times, tho the entire thing was only two(?) seasons the first 2x. Sure it has flaws, but so what? EVERYTHING has flaws, perfection itself is imperfect. (I could go on for days about the screaming flaws that kept me from watching/enjoying Fate:0…until I got over myself.) SAO is *TRUE*: it’s emotionally authentic, it KOs the feels again and again, the characters FEEL REAL, however exaggerated (including The Alfheim Villain). For me, it’s about the story, the characters *in* the story, and mostly about HOW THE STORY GETS TOLD. I’ve been reading since I was 3 - and I’ll overlook a lot for a good story, well-told, with relatable characters…which kind of brings me to my one real criticism: it should be more tightly-edited. I know, almost impossible when each scene is custom-made in advance, then assembled, but it has the effect of making it drag in places where it should be maintaining pace (I have the same criticism of Jackson’s LOTR films). I was in my 50s when I first saw SAO. I will watch the next installments in my 70s, and I’m really looking forward to them - and while now I’ve watched practically all the anime on all the streaming services(!) - and while I’ve truly been delighted, stunned, deeply moved by many of them & look forward to many of those stories continuing (someday), there are none I’m looking forward to as much as I look forward to seeing what happens next w/ SAO. Is it “perfect”? Of course not…but it *is* WONDERFUL. When the next installment arrives, I’ll start at the beginning again, ready to watch the War for the Overworld unfold. It makes me wonder why the show got so hated (kinda like the post-Lucas Star Wars). I know that - at a certain age - boys in particular get self-conscious about having emotions that don’t feel safe (like attachment, loneliness, affection) so they dump on what gave them the feels as a way of feeling safer…and it’s certainly no secret that anime features adolescents struggling against odds, so maybe after a while they skip stories that have (*ick*) ‘romance’ in them & just go w/ the overpowered robot suits, the thrill rides, or something. Eventually life wears thru this resistance, tho, and maybe we learn not to be scared of having the feelings we have vs the feelings we’re told to have, so maybe it’s connected to growing beyond being an embarrassed teenager…but still remembering what it was like. Or I’m just a babbling old guy

[@m10lover]

post lucas star wars has no soul or true guidance, its bad

[@corbeauwrite]

I am happy to see someone with more experience in life appreciate the same things as me. As 32y.o. myself, this series is seen as shameful, not something that is worth watching, even more if your friends are not into manga animation. But who cares? We have one life and I don't regret my choices. And wow what I receive from the light novels is impressive imagination of complex worlds. The animations and the movie are good and bad, and that's normal, some pieces of animations are impressive of technics, and some emotionnal parts are excellent. What impress me really is the underlying philosophies of VR and AI. It's just genuine and full of brillance, and are questionning our ethics about reality or life themselves! Reki Kawahara, with all his respect, is a badass motherfucker writer. People giving him a lazy critic should type on a keyboard just to see. He is the man in the Arena and I can't wait the last arc to unfold in a spectacular way.

[@heheakko]

SAO was prolly one of my 3-5th first animes watched, and I would totally watch it as one of my first animes again and again, because when you're a 11 year old kid, you don't notice the plot holes and simply enjoy it.

[@randomguyinthasuit1009]

You didn't mention how almost every of the opening songs were absolute bangers

[@marclenraymagdaraog691]

yep that's mostly enough to catch us into watching it. 1. the GOD DAMN OPENING SONG is insane. 2. Freaking Art Design Idk if how you would dislike that. 3. You're inside a gawd damn video game. these 3 are the main reasons I liked the anime I didn't even paid that much attention to the story.

[@susear5939]

The OSTs were borderline masterpieces. I love Yuki Kajiura. She is a fantastic composer. The SAO OSTs are perfect BGM.

[@mobileuser7294]

True the openings are bangers like hell it is

[@cheesypoohalo]

The SaO christmas episode where Kirito tries to resurrect that girl is still one of the best episodes of anything I've ever seen. It perfectly raises the stakes and solidifies just how dire the situation is, it makes us hate the guy that made this world where innocent people die, and it makes for great motivation for Kirito. Sadly she pretty much never gets mentioned again and Kirito just forgets about it, but that's the main issue with the show in general, tons of great ideas but many of them executed quite poorly overall. Still, it was fun at the time, no one can deny that.

[@rohgog]

That was the episode I stopped watching the show. It’s like they were trying to create some kind of emotional response to that girl’s death when it wasn’t even clear why Kirito wanted to resurrect her so badly. I don’t understand how the viewers are supposed to feel any genuine emotion towards that girl/her death/her present to Kirito when we barely got much exposure to the character. If anything, it felt like they were trying to draw viewers into the more dramatic side of the show but the execution was pathetic at best. Watched “erased” right after and the difference between how the two series get the viewers’ emotional response is astonishing as it shows you how shallow SAO really is.

[@cheesypoohalo]

@@rohgog I'm surprised you stopped watching at that episode, because after that is when things really start to get messy, like with the lead girl getting molested by tentacles and weird stuff. The Christmas-themed episode hit me quite hard since the show doesn't treat death particularly seriously up until then, with Kirito being so strong that he's rarely in any real danger. It's like how Superman is written, we know Superman won't die, so good writers put other characters in danger, and the plot revolves around whether Superman can save them or not. Kirito can't stomach the thought of failing to save someone else, and this also serves as the first major point where he's had to face the relaity of people dying here, so he naturally wants to bring her back out of grief. Even if you don't feel emotion for the characters that get killed, this episode sets up Kirito as a saviour, since in the first episode he purposefully distanced himself from everyone else and became a loner, but seeing him form a connection to a character, only for him to lose them, was a good way to develop him as a character and actually make him care about the people who aren't able to defend themselves like he is. ...Except, none of this happens, Kirito moves on without the girls death meaning much of anything to him, and his character doesn't so much grow as it flip-flops between whatever archetype the writer was in the mood for when writing. It's a shame, even if you didn't like the episode in question it had a lot of potential to shake up the plot, but SAO never capitalises on it. Anyway, sorry for the essay, SAO may not compare to Erased but that episode in SAO in particular meant a lot to me.

[@bluntboss4206]

@@cheesypoohalo Sachi makes apearences in sao alicization.

[@cheesypoohalo]

@@bluntboss4206 Excuse me what? You mean she's not dead?

[@kiana4237]

That was from the original draft from the webnovel which they kinda changed, and for people who don't know sachi would've been kirito's lover if it wasn't for the story rewrite.

[@ezalyria7682]

I really loved SAO and watched the whole series through, even though the last season wasn’t to my taste. Today I surprisingly encountered the news that a new movie of SAO came out and watched it right after! And I loved it so much! (Reminded me of the good old days) The movie name is SAO Progressive (the first one (Aria), the second (scherzo) isn’t available in my country right now) and it was the absolute best! Loved the way they came up with the way Asuna got into SAO and experienced it with her eyes! 👍

[@MrCrixmadine2]

G Gundam was really my first anime that hooked me, no matter how actually goofy/bad it is, but this is the one that hooked me as a young adult. I remember waiting on a Saturday morning for the second season to start. It definitely didn't maintain me as a viewer but i do get nostalgic looking back at the first two arcs

[@I_Keiji_I]

SAO's OST and SFX are honestly godly. It's one of my favorite series of all time despite it's objective flaws but with all the hate going around it's been hard to show and converse with other people my love for it. I'm glad this video came out, seeing the positive reactions of other people on this video fills me with relief.

[@chimedemon]

To this day I still remember the ost by heart, like the battle theme of du du du.. du duuuu-dU- du du du.. du duuuu-dU du du du.. du duuuu-dU- du du du.. du duuuu-dU(na NA na na na NA nunu na NA na na na NA NA na NA no- etc) The COOOOOFFEEE SOOOOOODAAAA, TOOOOOFIIIII PAAAAASTAAA, COOOOOOFFEEEE SOOOODAAA, GIIIVE MEEE COOOOFFEEEEE All of it, it’s been stuck in my head even as my taste for shows and film has changed to Samurai Champloo (… actually I still liked that around the same time as SAO, it’s a childhood show for me) Perfect Blue/ Tokyo Godfathers, Made in Abyss, Tekkonkinkreet, and just the collection series’s of Animatrix (also technically a childhood favorite) Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond- through ALL THAT… I still hear that music.

[@zer0sucksatguitar311]

YES BRO I ALWAYS LOVED THE INTROS

[@edcaous]

The sound when they trace their fingers an S shape and the screen pops up is absolutely amazing.

[@user-pm2b47ar8d]

Godly openings and endings

[@natanh4h453]

OSTs from yuki kajiura almost never disappoints

[@Maribro4]

I actually read the light novel for the first time not too long ago. The point about Kawahara writing what he’d do in a video game comes out even more in the books. I distinctly remember a scene in the book where Kirito is sorting through his inventory and discarding things until he’s barely under the carry limit. And that’s the most relatable thing an to any RPG player

[@elnacho657]

The novel was such a hilarious mess. One time Kirito mentioned how he lost his old guild and tells the story to Asuna and i was like "Wait, was i reading a different novel before?", because the chapters with his old guild were literally just an afterthought and got shoved in near the end of the second act. All this stuff with the old guild being wiped out and Kirito being the only survivor was straight up missing and was only added chronologically in the anime. There´s a publisher out there who greenlit this and still made millions. We´re a TV show for aliens.

[@Maribro4]

@@elnacho657 the novel is far from a mess. Yes it’s a little jarring that the first and second novels aren’t chronologically in order, but it still works. The first novel briefly talks about kirito’s guild because it was a shorter and self contained story. There wasn’t time nor place to go into greater detail, it was just to serve as an explanation as to why Kirito was a solo player. It worked for what it was. The second novel fills in the rest of what the first season of SAO had. Including everything about kirito’s old guild. So no it wasn’t only added in the anime. Of course the novels aren’t perfect but they’re far from being a mess. They’re good reads and honestly do a lot to elevate the anime

[@elnacho657]

@@Maribro4 Far from a mess? Well if far are a few millimeters to you then i agree. Of course the plot still works. I mean, a car without tires but an angine would also work technically, you just won´t get anywhere with it. I honestly think we have different novels in mind because i assure you after reading it i can tell there was plenty of time and place for these stories because barely any plot happens in this book. I gotta give credit that the author managed to stretch this over several hundred pages but damn if the pacing didn´t get outrun by the speed of continental drift. Case in point: The Anime. Half of all episodes were those side stories for which there was apparently no time. Another case in point for another of my points: There had to be a second book that told the story we should have already known. This just shows that all of this was an afterthought. Imagine LOTR timeskips to the end of Return of the King only for Tolkien to realize "Oh shit i should have told what was up with that Saruman guy...". Like... that guy was kinda important to the plot. Yes, anachronistic storytelling is a thing. But SAO is just an accident. On top of that, it´s one of the worst show don´t tell violations i have ever seen. We´re not talking about a brief event in a side characters past, we are talking about a defining moment for the main character from whose point the story is told. And still we managed to miss it. How? Nothing personal against the author but that´s the definition of a major F-up on his part. Honestly tough? The books didn´t do much. The entire book felt like i was reading a backside blu-ray description of the show.

[@Maribro4]

@@elnacho657 yes SAO was an accident. As talked about in this video, Reki Kawahara had never written anything before and wrote this on a whim for a sci fi short story contest. With a limited word count he was originally trying to stay within, so yeah the original self contained story is going to be short. The additional stuff was because readers loved the world Kawahara had built and wanted more of it and/or because Kawahara himself wanted to write about that world more. There’s nothing wrong with that. Heck that’s why SAO Progressive is a thing because we wanted more Aincrad. SAO was an accidental success so a lot of things are messy, which is unfortunate. But in terms of the original book, it’s really good for what it was. And in terms of the plot being slow, if you pay attention to the genre, the original story is primarily a romance between Kirito and Asuna with being trapped in the game more as a setting. But I can understand if that’s not your thing and clearing the game is more important then yes the book, and especially the second volume, wouldn’t be for you. But that comes down to personal preference. If you personally didn’t like the story then that’s understandable, if unfortunate. I obviously would hope you’d enjoy the story, as it’s always better to enjoy something than not. But I’m not going to say you should have to enjoy it or anything. Again we all have different tastes. If it wasn’t your thing then it wasn’t your thing, you’re free to your opinions and your criticisms. Hell I agree that it would’ve been better if it had all been set up and worked from the beginning, but I understand the situation behind the scenes and take that into account when looking at this story. But if you wanna just look at the story alone, and if it’s just not your thing, that’s alright. Just don’t turn into one of those jackasses that tries to shit on something because others enjoy it, SAO fans have gotten too much of that over the years. Just wanna clarify, Im giving you the benefit of the doubt and don’t necessarily think you were being that kind of jackass, just being kind of harsh with your criticisms there, especially at the end. Again you can have fair criticisms just don’t be overly harsh with them

[@elnacho657]

@@Maribro4 I went a bit overborard, didn´t i? Sorry man, i´m a very direct person in general, and my criticism is nothing personal. But that also means i tend to sound like an ass when analyzing stuff. I didn´t mean to and honestly, i still respect SAO for what it is. Despite its flaws the author did put effort into it and seems to try to improve which i can deeply respect. Also, the reason i hate SAO so much is because of the missed potential the series has. Kawahara tackles all the topics that you´d expect from this setting where people actually start giving up and wanted to live in the game, but it ended up being a generic shounen show which really made me sad seeing how it could have been more. More serious, mature and creative. Also, i got nothing against SAO fans. They´re just anime fans like myself.

[@ShadowAnimal01]

FINALLY! SOMEONE WHO ISN'T SPEAKING DOWN UPON MY FAVORITE ANIME! In all seriousness, I completely agree that there are many issues with it and those issues only become more apparent the more you decide to re-watch it. Seeing this video really helped explain why I actually like this anime so much and honestly, I really do agree with most of the points made in the video. I also enjoyed learning about how the creation of it came to be. I may be only 15 at the time of typing this, but learning about the past of this was fun, even if I didn't get to experience it myself at the time. Even with the issues though, sao is still my number 1 anime, and I'm glad to see someone who isn't talking bad about it (even if I'm several years late).

[@isodimetrix]

i love sao too man... i love the emotions and relationships it showed...not to forget the animation, soundtrack and the concept of it.. it was ahead of its time and new! U shld watch progressive series if u havent.. it covers the first arc (aincrad) and its really good..currently 2 movies have come out!

[@21area21]

I love the accents. You earned my sub off that. X'D

[@ximitify]

Sword Art Online has so much potential for a remake, it still hold a very nice place in my heart as one of my first really good anime. Also the music combat and sound Sfx are the bomb.

[@northfire4079]

you know, that's not a bad Idea. If they remove the Harem and focus on Floor clearing it will be an S Tier anime FOR SURE!

[@CarbonComs]

Just watch the Abridged version. Hilarious and the character development is actually amazing. Much better writing than the actual show.

[@NoNameAtAll2]

@@CarbonComs have you seen abridge oneshots? not just the main abridged

[@stawkey9186]

You guys know that there are movies (SAO Progressive) that are basically a "remake" of the original SAO? There are 2 movies so far

[@user-jt5vi8cm1m]

music combat: COFFEE SODA TOFFEE PASTA

[@HydraTower]

Fuck yes. The sound design and music are fucking godly. The backgrounds, the art, the atmosphere. This anime is built better than most today but people are stuck in their circlejerk.

[@nav5ft150]

Couldn’t agree more man

[@julianluna2331]

Totally, I get mad at it everytime I hear the soundtrack lol. It's such a waste of great music, premise and atmosphere...

[@markandrew287]

@@julianluna2331 cope lmfao

[@octo5042]

FACTS

[@luzifershadres72]

Mostly of this people dont play as much video games anymore. Beccause thats one of the main points i and other people like the anime, beccause its like said in the video relatebel. (But i have to say, i dont like it that kirito later only use the Power of harem instead of friendship.) But its also not a typical isekai, what make it special. (Until the anime Industry started milking the concept.) And there isnt a actual reason for them to put back on the nearve gear, what probely some people didnt liked after season 1. What could be a more realistic reason is the big hard liner community that trys to shit on evey other amime, people doing it for the meme and that there are today way to much animes of that kind.

[@milkymalkum5708]

Holy shit, why are you just now being shown in my recommended list? You're hilarious 😂

[@ketsen1171]

SAO was many of our introductions to anime... It's true for many of my friends and people my age and younger (who are freaking adults now!). I can't say I wasn't unfortunately a part of the hate phase when I was consuming way too much anime, but I also have to admit the feelings of nostalgia I get. This was a fantastic video about everything right with Sao

[@kylemercier7549]

10:14 really just said “hey hit that sub button real quick”

[@okaytyler2774]

SAO will always be a great part of my childhood no matter how flawed it was Edit: When I say childhood I mean teenage years/adolescence but frankly I don't see a problem if it is someone's childhood. Y'all are weird.

[@legendaryhacker4030]

Same

[@greggaygayakutami1402]

Biased

[@Jobe-13]

True

[@freddiem6805]

@@benamv3943 dude that was 10 years ago

[@grimdara4227]

@@benamv3943 It's a younger generation than you perhaps. Zoomers.

[@christlerrr8683]

So many years ive waited for this video

[@KillerBeeKeeper]

That Xbox 360 entrance punched its way back into my soul.

[@AegisAuras]

I forgot how good the scenery was in SAO. I remember the whole experience was really immersive in the first act. I think the main thing that started killing the experience for me is the disbelief I started getting with how characters would react as time went on. He’d make allies and achieve goals that would never show up to help him again. In a desperate situation, you’d use every resource available to you, so it didn’t feel realistic. The harem thing started getting pretentious too. It became too much eventually, which again added to lessening my immersion. When they plugged back in after asuna was saved, that was a huge wtf too. I think the absolute worst was when they all decided to hang out in a recreation of the world they were trapped in and their friends were murdered in just for fun. Like, none of them had PTSD and were totally fine with it. What, you gonna happily loot treasure in the trap room that killed all your friends too? It was just insane. All these things eventually added up and I just couldn’t be invested in the experience anymore. It was definitely impressive at its beginning but the cracks started to show as it went on until the whole floor fell through.

[@thetrickster240]

Yeah I feel like if they had recreated Aincrad for a reason, like helping those who have PTSD and to help immortalize those who died in it, then it would have been worth having a hangout spot in the damned game that almost killed them

[@jermjerm610]

Exaaaaactly.

[@adithyaratnam1833]

This comment is the perfect explanation for why I and I think many others lost interest as the show continued......

[@pohjanvanamo]

I understand what you are saying about the recreation of original game. But tbh, the house and the forest was my favourite part of the show, and I was happy they could go back there, and it was also the place where kirito, asuna and the program child were a family. Yes, they were a family outside of it too, but it was most solid home for them. But yeah, probably if it was a real life situation, they probably wouldn't have done it... who knows. But then again... it's a fantasy story, I'm not sure if I want it to be too restraint of real life.

[@Cupidious]

SAO is definitely one of my favorite animes of all time. I was so into it at the time I wrote a humanities paper in college on it. What I loved was how the story attempted to realistically display the impact of being stuck in a game, to people's psychology and livelihood. It didn't stop people from committing suicide, it didn't stop people from marrying, or "having children", from finding new hobbies and pastimes, and didn't stop people from slowly building a government. It could have focused on just fighting the whole time, with absolutely no depth of character, but instead he pulled out a perspective of sondering for other people in the game, like the fisherman. It showed what the other people were doing because realistically there are people not good at fighting or videogames. You would see them immerse themselves in their virtual environment, as if everything is ok, but also see them breakdown because they snap back to their reality. Also, Kirito never really 'won', just met with good praises from the developer. I really wish they stuck with a more healthy and realistic relationship between Kirito and Asuna, as I haven't watched enough anime to see any truly portrayed in an action/scifi anime.

[@hussain0008]

nerd

[@theawesomeali8834]

W comment

[@LoafyVisuals]

Mf thought he could drop the hardest comment and we wouldn’t notice

[@thepolaris27]

@@hussain0008 illiterate

[@colleagueloyal7269]

read more manga/anime

[@TheBot-kr3ui]

1 Year later and the video still is a banger in every way and form

[@LionCrossAlum]

I wish the first 25 episodes delved fully into the world of Aincrad. Aincrad was so explorable with its floors. The last 10 floors would've been amazing to see.

[@LionCrossAlum]

Honestly, even if we spent 3 seasons on the conflicts within Aincrad, that would've made it truly great.

[@LionCrossAlum]

Imagine if we had spent a full 24 episode arc with his first guild, only with it to end up with them dying in a dungeon because Kirito wasn't strong or smart enough at the time?

[@the_master9608]

THE MOTHERS BASEMENT ONE IS SO TRUE MAN even though the anime isn't perfect and has lots of flaws he wouldn't shut about and still till this day keeps milking it

[@silvermax5520]

of course he milks it, it gets views

[@neverpaint691]

He learned it from Digibro back in the day

[@argo9721]

I'm pretty sure it his most popular video so it makes sense

[@robcarlton2341]

Wtf he even said in a somewhat recent vid he was wrong g for the constant shitting on it and said he wouldn't talk about it stfu

[@goddepersonno3782]

@@robcarlton2341 you can't just apologise for 5 years of direct harassment of an amateur writer and his earliest work

[@rexsthegreat22]

There’s this urge to rewatch the first season of SAO that comes from time to time. I rewatched it so many times that I lost count. Sure it has its flaws, but the sheer excitement overrides the cons of the show, and I just feel like people hate on it because it is the normal take nowadays.

[@dangergaming3515]

I feel you bro

[@BabyblueGenny]

ong

[@northfire4079]

SAO has exciting scenes, the action Scene in it have this distinct feel of Desperation you can sense from the characters like they are REALLY fighting for their lives that a lot of other anime don't bring to the table. and the fact that this is true makes it so much more sad how they lower the quality of the anime for HAREM.

[@felipemurta9160]

Ong bro. Only anime i've watched 3 times

[@NoNameAtAll2]

have you watched the abridged yet?

[@yxles8929]

This is one of the first anime i ever watched and it is my first action anime. I remember enjoying the first half of season 1 but after episode 14 (i think thats where the first half ends) it got pretty boring for me. Still holds a special place in my heart as one of my first anime though and got me into the whole anime / manga community

[@stxnergriff8668]

Thats you for putting the respect soa deserved (at least season 1). Soa was my first anime because i was never really into it but my brother showed me and ive always been a gamer so i was entranced in this world. Sure the other seasons were bad but i can always go back and rewatch the first season and it puts me back to a time where i just wanted to escape reality going to a different world.

[@KorewaEden]

dang, this video is good

[@vertoholic]

fax

[@ScamboliReviews]

Thanks mang

[@jessekraus5018]

@@ScamboliReviews Dude i normally dont comment on videos but i just gotta say i loved this one. you captured my thoughts exactly and then you turned it into a well edited and voiced over video. props for all the hard work. definitely earned a subscriber

[@youhavetoguessit]

And to this day, the low HP sound from SAO triggers the same level of anxiety that the drowning song from Sonic does. Instant and intense.

[@Jotsukko]

Yeah, the sound effects are freaking amazing.

[@waziendiny]

That's called immersion my friend that means SAO nailed it that part. Sadly the anime is still hot garbage. Shame.

[@curiousspacepirate1985]

SAO's first season made me so hype for anime, that stuff was the bomb for me in the boredom of my school days. Me, my friends, and even cousins would talk about how the story would go and what we would do if we were in that world, shit was crazy back then... Ever since the series ended, the next shows that I watched always seemed to have similar aspects to SAO. It even made me think "SAO was the anime that popularized isekai-type-beat anime."

[@Mars_of_Urath]

SAO was the first anime I had watched more than one season of in middle school. Even if the writing is bad every single sound whether it was the music or kirito screaming, it was all cool as fuck to me. I don’t want to rewatch it and look at it worse than I had originally. I have fond memories of watching it.

[@beffry8894]

I never knew that sword art was written by a inexperienced author, just makes me feel bad for the guy on how much hate he gets.

[@goddepersonno3782]

the Mothers Basement videos take it a step too far. He literally says nothing good can come from the guy who made sword art and calls him a talentless hack among many other things. Although that's less because of the author of SAO's own writing talent and just because Mothers Basement is a toxic 'elitist' channel

[@beffry8894]

@@goddepersonno3782 That's just horrible. I admit I've never really watched sao, only up to the beater part which is like 3 episodes, so i have no right to criticize, but i understand attacking the show, but there is just no need to attack the author in this scenario.

[@freddiem6805]

@@goddepersonno3782 yeah. That was too taken too far

[@s3studios597]

@@goddepersonno3782 Calling someone a talentless hack is nothing remotely new or serious. Especially if they put out garbage.

[@Kanelel]

It's kind of obvious if you look at its content. All the flaws that SAO has are things that are almost ubiquitous in the amateur Japanese webnovel community. You can see the same type of problems in many of the other shitty light novel adaptations crapped out in its wake. I'm kind of jealous of the Japanese. The same people who in the west would be writing cringey self-insert fanfic of Naruto or something get to have their works adapted into blockbuster anime productions. I don't think this is any reason to be any less harsh on the work. Using kid gloves on critiquing it because the author was inexperienced at the time is disrespectful. It's not like he wasn't trying. It's not like the entire anime staff wasn't taking their jobs seriously. Someone looked at SAO and said, "Even if it's his first work it's good enough to be adapted over any number of other properties." And I think that's both a decision you can disagree with, and one that could have been right. If you excuse it as "Oh it was his first work" you're basically writing off the idea that he could have created something good in the first place. And holding back for fear of hurting his feelings is stupid. He made hella money off of it, and we aren't even writing in his language.

[@jghifiversveiws8729]

I can't cap, the death of Yuuki (Asuna's friend) during Alfheim actually had me tearing up. SAO is well and truly what got me (back) into anime, so shoutsout to Netflix for that.

[@shawn4116]

Mothers Rosary captures so much that is good about the series.

[@Moon13Dreams]

I was already well into anime when this dropped, but I binged this when it first came out. It was just so immersive with it's premise and characters the despite the glaring holes it was enjoyable. It really was an enrapturing time. I was less enthused with season 2, but it was still interesting to a point with the worldbuilding

[@seph-xe8up]

the ost and bgm by yuki kajiura definitely help setting the atmosphere and the overall vibe

[@ComfyTea]

It's so crazy how SAO was one of Kawahara's first pieces. Honestly- it makes sense why there are goofy plot points. Whose 1st anything is a masterpiece?

[@JoeMama-oo4ij]

Really does tell you how built different isayama is

[@ihatefridays2715]

@@JoeMama-oo4ij Isayama rewrote his plot many many times because it was rejected. The original AOT sucked, you can probably find it online too.

[@Akr-um6wb]

there is a few reasons why no one talked shit about SAO in 2012: - if we consider that most of the target audience was born betwen 1995-2000, MOST (not all of the of course) of the people that watched it would be 12-17 years old - anime critique videos were not as popular, so people cared less about story structure and conplexity in themes, and so on, and cared more about moment-to-moment stuff like fight scenes and cool concepts -most of the retarded logic and moments in SAO are something that you can easily notice in retrospective , when you know whats going to happen and the in universe explanation for it, but if you are watching it for the 1st time its a little more hard to notice it - the animation, soundtrack and voice acting are solid so they can distract you from the story/character writting - and 1 of the SAO's qualities is that it focuses on the fantasy of "VR escapist fantasy" with concepts like eating food in video games , being able to move like a anime hero in the game while still looking like skinny teenager, and so on - the whole "fantasy land", or what i like to call it "being a loser in real life but becoming a badass in a fantasy land based on light novel " type of anime was not as common in 2012 (for better or for worse)

[@kilbert666]

I remember my friends and I dunking on SAO in the lunch room, and Scamboli's strongest point is "what the fuck else were you gonna watch that season?". The two options were watching it because it was the best thing available at the moment, or not watching anime for a couple months.

[@danielsjohnson]

You can pinpoint when the consensus went from people liking it to people hating it. At the time most people were watching it every week instead of binging it all at once. This made some of the flaws less noticeable. Then Digibro (who had already dropped the show without saying anything) was nagged by many his fans to make a review about it. At first he said no. Later he said ok. He watched everything that was out at the time. I think that was somewhere in the middle of the second arc of season 1 or after season 1 had just ended. So he makes an hour-long video describing every plot hole and piece of bad writing called "Sword Art Online: An Analytical Diatribe" everyone basically says "oh yeah you're right" and the MAL rating drops by a full point. It doesn't have many views now because his whole channel was deleted and he had to reupload everything. Also compare Arkada's review of season 1 versus his review of season 2.

[@ScamboliReviews]

Here's an upvote stranger

[@claflin7973]

That’s so real. I was exactly 12 years old when I watched it. It was cool to my 12 year old mind!

[@Karma-pq9fi]

@@kilbert666 idk probably depends on if you were a new anime you could definitely watch a bunch of other shit in 2012.

[@rinku3332]

Dropping sao was one of the defining moments for my character development.

[@velvet33]

This for me was also the first "proper" anime i watched with what seemed was a more fleshed out story and a end goal in mind whilst also being relatable as a gamer myself. Before hand i was used to just seeing dbz and that was it which i only watched for the fighting and to root for goku. Even though SAO is very flawed in many ways and i still treasure it despite all the flaws ir has the characters just want to live life nornally whilst going through so many traumatic things and Kirito being the one to pull them through it was always nice to see and relate too because i thought about how many friends ive made through being online as well as forming connections and helping people through tough times whikst having the same done for me in return which is why i feel i enjoy it so much.

[@dagingerbreadman70]

4:29 this entire sequence killed me 😂

[@darienrouse7917]

I actually talked to a good amount of people in my esports group. Between the long-time anime veterans to the ones starting up, SAO season 1 in Aincrad still liked and not having too many problems, the issue they all had (including myself) is that SAO ended and moved to Alfeihm (then we got that weird sister issue I was not for) P.S goodjob for reading all this. I just wanted to let you know the "Beater" thing was still pretty dumb in 2012 when me and my brother watched it.

[@majorblitz3846]

@Hecantonchire s Jeez, just go back to old school yo mama joke. Much less wall of text generated.

[@heartsickbog5670]

I’ve never seen someone put my feelings about SAO in such a concise way. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who felt this way

[@princevegeta3325]

Agree 120% bro! thank you

[@ahlalkubur]

To be honest Abec (Character Designer and the illustrator of SAO Light Novel) was one of best support to make the SAO so enticing to make new people watch it

[@snacc-1100]

Besides the extremely distasteful sexual assault to every single woman in that show, there's objectively amazing animation. Combine this with a vast array of landscapes to gawk at passing by, a beautiful soundtrack with occasionally immersive worldbuilding and an easy approachable story, it's not so bad. I think it's target audience is desensitized, if not further immersed by the edge, in hindsight it's in extremely poor taste at times but there were genuinely interesting moments. Man I loved that shit when I was even younger than I am now, but God damn the writing sucks soggy ass. Either way, it's undeniably a cultural phenomenon that shaped the current industry today and it has clear merit.

[@fvkeros]

speaking absolute facts. I think the standard for good anime has changed in the last few years, and that’s why when we saw SAO it was the best shit ever but when better anime came we realized that SAO wasn’t THAT good

[@nekosaiyajin8529]

The animation is nothing special

[@ncxo1975]

If it was not harem focused, I would watch it

[@bloodnessx]

fact, sao opened the gates and refined the blueprint of vr/isekai just the way how series nowadays use the cheap power fantasy thropes. but sao just did it so immersive, it was truly special when it came out

[@Homiesexual69]

Tbh thats literally all I could say about sao lol. Good art and action but shite storytelling and characters. I hate kirito with a burning passion because he is basically everything I hate about isekai(There are some bad characters in a lot of anime but I don't like Kirito the most). I don't remember a lot about SAO because I haven't watched it in 3 years but I can remember hating kirito because he was uninteresting and just bland. The stereotypical hero with an anime twist.

[@OPNightWing]

I remember being in 8th grade with my weeb friend which I just ignored him any time he talked about anime. He mentioned SAO on netflix and one night out of sheer boredem while on netflix I decided to give it a shot, that was my first ever all nighter, I could not stop watching, I remember waking up the next morning so sleep deprived but we had to go to church. Definetly my gate way to anime.

[@clearwashere]

2:43 The word "possibilities" does not even fucking begin to describe it. With fandoms becoming ever-more popular, the branches that SAO has to offer are absolutely mind boggling. The roleplay, fanfiction and abridge scenes are having the times of their fucking lives with this franchise because it encapsulates so much. I myself have actually dabbled in the former two for some time now and it's a kinda weird blast of clashing ideas and executions.