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REVIEW: Sword Art Online Blu-Ray 1

But seriously, sales numbers/how many people watch is a terrible way to try to defend a show's story (or anything else about it). Yes, the fact that such a lousy show is a huge hit is irritating, but that's more a matter of the lack of sales of other shows than the number this got and there have been bigger sales injustices. On the other hand Girls und Paner and Love Live were sold great (and LWA2 was funded and saved anime), so on balance, things aren't too bad. Unless Prisma Illya doesn't get a second season, then world can just burn for all I care.

I quoted specific numbers in a thread a month or two back based both on sales numbers and fansub downloads, the latter of which can be looked up fairly easily. The latter numbers in particular showed a distinctly lower drop-off than normal for a popular series. (IIRC, SAO's loss from the beginning of the series to the end was only about 15%, which is extraordinarily low for a two cour series - and no, I don't have the time to reconstruct those numbers right now.) These are facts.

Now, how you interpret those fact depends on how cynical an angle you want to take on the series. You could look at that as evidence suggestive that the series does not take a massive quality nosedive over the course of the series, or you could take the interpretation that it had attracting factors that were keeping people watching it despite the quality drop-off. Take the latter interpretation, and this fact is clear: no matter how much you bitch about the supposedly lack of quality of the rest of the series, that hasn't deterred people from continuing to watch it in massive numbers.

And I do get some amusement out of that.

Key, if your "fansub downloads" is referring to the download count on 'that torrent site' then, it is a known fact that it merely counts the number of times the download button has been clicked (or actually the "*.torrent" file has been downloaded); not the number of times the file/files distributed through torrent has/have been completely downloaded.

just that its popularity was a sign that other people held it in higher regard than those complaining here; that I will add also implies how absolutist positions ultimately based on personal taste are totally bunk.

There might be valid criticism of plot holes, but as usual, the most vehement, most negative criticism are extra-comparitive i.e. focusing outside the show's universe, based on ideology or personal taste, such as mai-waifu, Asuna potrayals, etc.

1) there's no way you can prove SAO "such a lousy show"
2) there's no such thing as a "sales injustice"
3) "Girls und Paner and Love Live were sold great" while I may also like those shows, has nothing to do with this. Anime is not a fixed size pie.
4) LWA2 didn't save anime. The first half of LWA2 was already funded and would've been released regardless of kickstarter. LWA2 was funded just like LWA1 was, as animation schooling program. Nothing can save anime. Nothing can kill anime. Anime is not a fixed size pie.
5) "Prisma Illya" again what does one have to do with another? Anime is not fixed size pie.

With strong performances in both languages and good attention to the small details, such as how Kirito's armor changes to show the passage of time, SAO deserves a fair amount of the notoriety it has achieved, both good and bad.

Even after Hitokiri demonstrated that Theron's entire "consistency" line was complete bullshit?

SAO is really popular, its also really terrible. There are lots of things that are terrible that are popular. That does not change the fact that somehow Theron feels he can't just like the show, he has to objectively demonstrate that its not actually bad. But that its actually good and its the subject of some sort of smear campaign on the part of fans of other shows.

But I do truly love that by Theron's own measure, Horizon is clearly an objectively better show than SAO.

I have to agree as Accel World put limits on the "uber powers" and, despite giving the Eric Cartman-esque loser male protagonist a harem and other perks, it didn't completely rid the protagonist of his flaws: in Accel World the protagonist was a punk outside of Brain Burst but in SAO he was "The Messiah" 24/7. Accel World's dub might have even been a bit better than SAO's, despite that having a seasoned main cast of actors (including former Funimation star Cherami Leigh) while Accel World's dub lacks for renowned, seasoned anime dub veterans. I consider both to be several leagues below the work of Funi and Sentai, however.

He demonstrated nothing, as he ignored half of the data set I looked at.

Again, only based on half the data set. Based on the fansub data, the first season of Horizon is hard to call, as it has some unusually dramatic ups and downs. (It loses about half of its initial audience after the first two episodes and picks up steeply for episodes 9-11 before dropping some for ep 12 and a lot for ep 13.) The second season, though, sees a pronounced and consistent drop of about 40% over the course of the season, which is on the high side of normal.

BTW, I'm curious to know where the DVD/Blu-Ray sales figures you quoted come from.

Key wrote:

BTW, I'm curious to know where the DVD/Blu-Ray sales figures you quoted come from.

Oricon disc sales can be found at at the fc2 dvd/bd wiki page (the last column being the total)