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Quote:

Suguha is rather busty, and on a few occasions the animation exploits that.

Going for Understatement of the Century, Theron?

Sugu's sugus were easily the best part of the arc, admittedly.

Edit: second best parts were her thighs.

Things go rapidly downhill from there.

Well no surprise on the review, but at least you didn't give it an A. I'm not going to rehash the extensive debate we've already had, but I will sum up the second half as falling off a cliff in terms of story. I give it a C+ overall, the visuals were not enough to push it higher.

Quote:

Consistent quality writing may be required to make a good series, but it is not necessary to make an entertaining one

You really should reword that "is not necessary" to "may not be necessary".

Because I cannot at all enjoy (or be entertained by) any series with awful and inconsistent writing.

I generally agree with Key's review and its scores, though like dragon695 I'd probably go with a C+ or B- (if I was feeling generous). But I'm not so far apart on Key's estimatations that I consider them to be problematic.

Also, Megiddo, different people weigh the value of good writing/story differently. I happen to agree with you in that for me, good writing is extremely important to an anime series. Still, I don't think Key is *that* far away from how much value I (or you) give it.

Considering how differently Key and I view certain aspects of the series (particularly the issue of Kirito himself), I thought it was pretty interesting how close our actual grades for the series were. I think this is partially -- maybe even mainly -- a result of the intensity of my disappointment (and frustration) with the series from where it started to what it eventually became. I freely admit (and feel no guilt in stating) that this frustration caused me to be much more critical about certain plot and character elements than I would've been for a series I didn't go into with such high hopes. Fortunately, Key is a much more mature person than I am, so his review is more even-handed than mine could be. Razz

At any rate, good review, Key. I'm sure it was a very tricky one to write.

Fencedude5609 wrote:

Quote:

Suguha is rather busty, and on a few occasions the animation exploits that.

Going for Understatement of the Century, Theron?

Going for Hyperbole of the Century, Fencedude?

dragon695 wrote:

I'm not going to rehash the extensive debate we've already had, but I will sum up the second half as falling off a cliff in terms of story.

We fundamentally disagree on the "falls off a cliff" part, but I made all of my arguments on that point in the review so I'm not going to rehash them here. And really, the way that you've lambasted the series in its Anime forum thread, I'm rather surprised that you're conceding even as high a grade as a C+.

But whatever.

Key wrote:

Going for Hyperbole of the Century, Fencedude?

You could attempt to take a joke occasionally.

But seriously, Sugu's sugus were the most prominent characters in the second half. To the point where "Sugu's sugus" is a major running gag in the fandom.

And she really is the only thing that kept me watching, other than the chance to heap scorn on it weekly, of course.

Surprise surprise, I disagree with the grade.

***Insert standard protestation of grade as per Form ANN-OS96/2***

Theron wrote:

Consistent quality writing may be required to make a good series, but it is not necessary to make an entertaining one...

This is what I really don't get. The show was entertaining, I won't deny that. But so what? Grades in the range of B are what I'd personally consider to be fairly good, with C grades being mediocre and A grades being exceptional. If quality writing is required for a series to be good, and the ALO arc did not have quality writing, then why did it get a good grade?

Entertaining does not equal good. You could have given this a C+ and still said it was entertaining.

dear Buddha, it's like Takehito Koyasu KNEW what he was in and just ROLLED with it, never shutting off his Dio mode from JJBA. SAO is such a frustrating series (as are quite a few this season) as it DOES have some cool ideas, plots, and characters, but it's keeps stumbling with basic writing errors like the aforementioned villain being really out of place and a lot of the tension gone. It's an entertaining series, but it's not something I think I'll ever watch again.

While the first half was alright, the second was painful to watch. I even skipped some of the awful parts and finish an episode less than 10 mins. The music improve a bit, but for some part like the spoiler[rape part], it sounds too epic. The animation and action are average at best. So in the end, I actually gave it a Bad rank, mwahahaha Twisted Evil

.

I just can't take the second half seriously when the entire existential threat looming over the series is removed in favor YOU'RE WAIFU GON GIT RAPED. Using sexual brutality against women as a plot construct and end goal for the protagonist to overcome is just horrible.

First half is "sitthroughable", thanks Brad, second half is abysmal F Minus see me after class. I guess that averages out to a poor, production values can't save it. I can't in good conscience recommend this one to any general audience unless they're specifically asking for "stuck in video game" anime, of which there are better options at hand. Shame that it's taken over C83 as far as circles choosing to do it.

I enjoyed it all the way through and was interested in seeing more still. I was actually hoping to see a new ep and the beginning of a new adventure this week. Now I know not to wait for it. Well, now I can read the originals. Onward to Baka Tsuki!

To be honest with SAO I kinda just read the 1st novel and revisited the anime only to realize how bad it was, it was still entertaining enough though. This on the other hand...I couldn't even get through the first chapter... and we didn't even get into the game yet seeing a few eps form the anime hardly made me change my mind and now I'm just done with the series at this point.

As for what counts as entertaining while I do believe good and consitant writing is an important factor (what fairy tail is seriously lacking IMHO) there are always other factors that can keep you in such as how much you like seeing a character or enjoy the environment, I could name a few examples but I seriously don't feel like getting in a "X show ain't good Y show is" squabble tonight. I'll just say this arc didn't have any of that for me.

Fencedude5609 wrote:

You could attempt to take a joke occasionally.

But seriously, Sugu's sugus were the most prominent characters in the second half. To the point where "Sugu's sugus" is a major running gag in the fandom.

And she really is the only thing that kept me watching, other than the chance to heap scorn on it weekly, of course.

"Sugu's sugus", huh. Upon further research, I can see that "sugu's sugus" and "sugu's sugus are sugoi" are officially a "thing".

Anyway, I think Key's assessment of the second half was fair. A little generous, imo, but nothing really damnable. I must admit that even during t he second half, I still found myself looking forward to the next week's episodes and watching them within hours after getting released on Crunchyroll. So I was entertained. Maybe I just wanted to see how the happy ending woould unfold.

Most of my problems with this show, and mostly with the second half, I have thoroughly and repeatedly exposed in its anime thread so I'm not bringing them back up here.

I do, however, feel compelled to point out something that disagree on from the review

Quote:

expanded flight and magic options

Yes: Having magic made it a lot more like a MMORPG, which made it theoritecally exciting and fun.

BUT (and it's a big but) we barely got to see any of that magic, save for Kirito's monster-transformation and Leafa healing him constantly. One or two more spells and that's that. Kirito never seemed to care about learning magic, and if he did, he only chose to show so twice, faring the rest of his battle with pure sword, basically the same as SAO

I'd rate it a plain C/C- overall. The visuals and sceneries were fantastic, and I loved the battles (mostly the SAO battles, the ones in ALO lost a lot of cool), but its poor treatment of Asuna, the ridiculous and unveilable villain and the lame excuse of a dramatic plotpoint aka sister/cousin romance leave me with a sour taste in the mouth. I would've liked it a lot better if it had just ended with SAO

Really enjoyed the SAO arc. Then the 2nd half turned the whole series into a copy of spoiler[Tower of Druaga: Aegis/Sword of Uruk] by splitting the show into 2 halves. The first half of the series was about completing the tower, whereas the 2nd half was (mainly) about spoiler[getting the girl back.] Clearing the game became incredibly rushed because it was turned into just a method to achieve that goal.

I wish it just stayed in SAO and had them finish the tower spoiler[(just move the part with heathcliff to the end like he originally planned anyway]). I was looking forward to how they were going to progress through the final 25 floors after that drastic increase in difficulty.

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REVIEW: Sword Art Online episodes 15-25