Upcoming in Depth Review: Sword Art Online · 5:46am Jul 16th, 2014
Commander on deck!
So, I haven't told you guys, but I've been on vacation in the great Gulf of Mexico the past couple days and will continue to until this Friday. Now, the strange thing you might think is, "Gee, The Commander sure has been active in that time for someone on vacation."
Well, I'll be honest, I actually enjoy being on Fimfic quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, I've also spent a fair amount of time enjoying the beach and the rum, but I also am still checking the site, honestly more regularly than usual since I don't have work and school and can actually write. And, not to get to sappy, but I actually enjoy talking to a lot of you guys.
Now, I just said I've been writing. No, it is not a new chapter in Starcrossed. To be honest, without getting too personal, I am so burnt out on romance right now that I feel like if I wrote anything relating to Starcrossed, it would just devolve into cynical sneering about the fickleness of love from both sexes and I'd really hate to bastardize my story that much.
I also didn't want to continue my now strong headwind on my novel The Broken Compass. While I love the story and am glad to finally get a handful of chapters written, I kind of need a break from something so serious. I mean, that story is my baby, and unlike fan fiction I actually am very excited by the thought that one day, someone might actually like this enough to pay actual hard earned money for a copy of my book (more excited about the intent though than the money). Still, I just need to write something purely that I can have fun with. This has driven me to start writing a fan fiction I've been thinking on for a while for another fandom.
That would be Sword Art Online. Ever since about four months ago when I marathoned it with my little brother, I hailed Sword Art Online as a great anime, and quite possibly one of my favorite I've seen. On first marathon, I thought the characters were compelling, the story pacing was good, the art style was phenomenal, and the overall experience was great. I found it so good that it is part of a whopping total of two series I have ever sincerely considered writing fan fiction for. Guess what the other is.
Anyways, so as many of you know, I thoroughly research and plan a story on months or so before starting writing. In doing so, I recently rewatched it twice, as well as doing some deeper research on the fandom at large and absorbed lore via the wiki. But as I peered deeper into the void, I started to see the cracks in the mask. The honeymoon phase wore off and I started to see some troubling things. Moreover, it seems that the series is either defended to the death by rabbid fanboys or viciously attacked by people who are offended by every second of screentime it has. Now, this caused me a little bit of cognitive dissonance. For those of you who aren't in the habit of using a big vocabulary to try desperately to sound smart, it means when the brain is in a state of disarray due to it holding two contrasting ideas into a comparison.
So, I'm going to do as I always do when I get boggled like this. I'm going to have a seat, drink a bit, and write a kickass review.
Now, this won't be like the average hour long or so review that I write. I'm talking a Plinkett style, multiple part review of the series as a whole (Excluding Sword Art Online II. Sorry, but that hasn't even come out in my country and the dubs are going to be a hella wait.). This will include the good, the bad, and the ugly of everything from the characters to the story to the soundtrack to the art and even further.
Now, all that said, I'm going to go ahead and say I don't hate SAO upon multiple watches. I still like the show and still plan to write a good fanfiction that might even go as far as to correct some of the more gamebreaking (no pun intended) flaws in the series. For this review, I am not telling you whether it should be enjoyed or not. In my opinion, review or not, everyone should at least try it out to know which camp they stand in. All this review is trying to do is dissect it from an objective, nonfan point of view and say what is good and bad in the aspects of the show.
Welp, thats the announcement. I should get some rest seeing how it's 12:50 here and I've got a long day of review writing tomorrow, but you guys can expect at least the first section tomorrow if not the whole damn review, depending on what my family has planned for vacation tomorrow. Have a good night, followers.
Commander out.
My emotions=
Why= It's not my fault that we take it easy down here!
Besides that, I like the idea of a fanfiction on it. Though I never actually completed the whole anime (hey, I got to the part about them turning into little fairies!) this sounds really exciting!
2290307
In that case, you saw the good half. It gets a lot worse during the fairy dance arc. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll delve into every nook and cranny of the series soon.
2290693
I don't think I finished it because that's what everyone said, but I might finish it one day.
Will be checking out the actual review blog later, for now though, you seem to have had the same experience as me. I normally recommend the anime as a watch, but often say to others that for some of it, you need to turn your brain off and just enjoy the ride.
2290953
This review might convince you otherwise... Also, it contains spoilers. Sorry.
2291132
I'm a little conflicted. The stuff that is bad in the series is really terrible and distracting, but at the same time the stuff that I love I really fucking love. I don't know. I hope discussing it in review form will help clear my opinion a bit.
2291241 True, the bad stuff is horrible, but the good stuff is pretty good. I'm mild footed about the whole affair, but I did enjoy myself, and I'm really enjoying the new season. I'm quiet the fps gamer lol.
(Sorry bout reply time, I've been extra busy with watching my groups collab profile, page, and story stuff. On top of working on my regular stuff.)
2301248
Yeah, I pretty much agree. I'm not sure if gun gale will be better or worse than the previous season, but I'll give it a shot when the dubs come out.
And no worries on response time. I'm so busy I haven't even posted the second part of the review yet.
2301629 Aw man, your gonna wait for the English dub? I wouldn't even be able to if I tried lol
Alright, and take your time. Opinions can be hard to put down in great detail.
2302552
Yeah. I know it makes me a filthy casual, but I've noted that I really hate subs and if I watch an otherwise good anime with only subtitles, I end up not liking it nearly as much for the fact. If Gun. Gale Online has a fair chance to impress me, I'll have to wait a while.
My main problem is just the first section alone is going to be huge. I'm thinking of just making a video of it to pick up the pace. Recording me talking about SAO like a Plinkett review would be a lot quicker and easier for the audience than making a huge wall of text.