Why Sword Art Online is Worth Watching
I feel like it has to be said — Sword Art Online is not a bad anime.
In fact, it is a stunningly, refreshingly good one.
And yet, before getting too deep into this one — indeed even before beginning it — I was taken by surprise by how polarizing it seemed to be.
Sword Art Online gets a lot of hate
Polarizing may actually be too conservative. To put it bluntly, Sword Art Online gets a lot of hate. Even fans of the show (online at least) seem to be somewhat ashamed of their allegiance to the fandom. They cite some of the show’s problems and issues alongside their own personal like for the show. Indeed, I’ve met relatively few individuals who openly proclaim it their favorite anime the way they might FMA.
Of course, the easiest way to know whether or not an anime is good or if at the very least you like it is to just give it a watch.
Going into SAO, I committed to watching the first season or at least the first fifteen or so episodes as it seemed like most people could agree the first season was good.
From the very first episode, I was hooked.
However, even after being fully drawn into the compelling world and situational drama that SAO afforded, I felt in my core that the thrill would be short lived. It’s all down hill from here, SAO haters say.
I may be totally hooked on the drama of the death game, but certainly at some point the show would abruptly turn into a dumpster-fire.
However, despite something of a narrative slowdown towards the middle-end of season one, I remained hooked through Sword Art Online’s three seasons. While it’s not necessarily my absolute favorite anime of all time, it is one of the most thought provoking, and unusually so for a Shonen.
Furthermore, it avoids one of the pitfalls that’s something of a trend in the most popular of current anime — that being becoming increasingly dark, bloody and nihilistic. Instead, SAO remains cautiously optimistic about the world and the people in it. And it does so while juggling some very intense issues — all the more so because of how personal they are.
SAO deals with highly relevant themes in the era of AI
At the same time, SAO remains current. Season three — with its hyper focus on AI — feels almost prophetic given what we are faced with today.
Characters dancing in and out of virtual worlds as easily as going from one room to the next mirror our own world’s increasing ease with digitalization. It’s just commonplace.
And yet, despite the focus being on technology and artificial reality, the true heart of SAO are the people and their relationships with one another.
Relationships made in-game always translate to friendships IRL, and even friends made from the early days of Aincrad stick around through thick and thin. It’s a compelling tribute to the positives of technology. While it’s easy to fear dystopian futures, SAO points to the ability of technology to bring us closer together, not simply to isolate us.
In a somewhat stunning and perhaps controversial moment, Asuna herself echoes this point when she tells the doctor who helped engineer the original death game that despite it costing thousands of lives, she herself was grateful for it because of every moment she spent with Kurito.
Speaking of Asuna — what a total babe! And I don’t mean just looks-wise although SAO does benefit from having one of the most beautiful characters in anime in it — her character is beautifully developed beyond a simple female love interest/sidekick to Kurito, starting out and growing further into her own woman.
And yet, in the process of her maturing as a woman and a warrior, she subverts expectations by only becoming more kind, more steadfast in her love for Kurito, and more powerful.
I’ve heard it mentioned many times how Kurito has a harem but whatever goes on there with the many girls that make up the party, it’s always clear that Asuna and Kurito are the main deal.
Indeed, Kurito does not have a harem in the anime sense of that word. Rather, he has many admirers, as well as friends who happen to be female.
And he’s hardly the first fantasy character to achieve this. Many of our most beloved fantasy characters have a similar ring of admirers. However in those cases they go well beyond the realm of platonic admiration. In Kurito’s case, that never happens.
Sword Art Online offers some of the most heartbreaking moments in anime
In regards to heartfelt moments, I’m thinking here specifically about the Mother Rosario arc — an arc in which we get to see Asuna grapple with her life outside of the VR, dealing with issues with her mother and the punishingly demanding expectations she has for her.
The powerlessness she feels in this relationship is in direct contrast with the power she felt in Aincrad where she was renowned for her prowess and speed.
And yet what we witness is not a Hollywoodesque rebellion against authority — instead we witness the beautiful reconciliation between mother and daughter spurred on by the parting gift of someone who never had the chance for even a bad relationship with her family.
Mother’s Rosario — a secret and powerful technique in the anime —roughly translates to Mother’s Rosary — a direct allusion to Mary the Mother of God and the Catholic Rosary — a tool used by the Faithful to ask for the mother to intercede for us with the ultimate goal of salvation.
Salvation from pain in the case of Yuuki. Salvation from the punishing demands of society in the case of Asuna.
How deep and moving themes like these — or a Christian funeral and allusions to ancient religious practices — made their way into an anime about people who fight in video games is almost beyond me.
And yet, it’s strangely fitting because SAO was never intended to be an entertainment franchise simply about battles in a virtual world.
It’s an anime about people — people struggling to live a meaningful life in a world they really weren’t built for — a world dominated by machines and technology.
It’s eerily similar to the world we find ourselves in today. And yet, through our own humanity, we can transcend even the digital world for something better. It’s our Mother’s Rosario.
