So you haven’t finished it, yet are openly asking why it’s viewed poorly?
Do you want it to be spoiled for you?
KingMare on
The potential of what it could’ve been and then it ended up being subpar. Definitely didn’t help that it was airing when isekai popped off so a lot of people were REALLY into it myself included but then watching in retrospect it just skips out on so much interesting concepts.
GenKi73 on
The show is called SAO because there is a game called SAO but it doesn’t matter because it only last 15 episodes. The rest of the series it’s a variety of games none asked for.
If you want a game based anime, Log Horizon and Shangri-la frontier do it better
notveryAI on
It just falls off pretty hard pretty fast. The only parts I liked were the very first one about, well, SAO the game, and then that one arc about the gun game where a dude was killing people irl by shooting them with a pistol in game. Those two parts were pretty cool. Everything else is so assđ
bryru13 on
Because it’s the collective consciousness of weebs to hate SAO, they don’t know why they hate it, but they know it’s popular to do so, so they in turn hate it making them part of the group.
Pillermon on
The only reason SAO is hated is because it was super popular despite just being a mid power fantasy isekai with a generic gary stu MC.
zawalimbooo on
I guess people really hated the second half of season 1 and stopped watching? The second arc in season 1 was in fact terrible, but the rest of the show is nice. Season 2 wasnt quite as good as the first arc, but still quite enjoyable.
Meanwhile season 3 is spectacular and really, really, good in general. Also helps that season 3 is 48 episodes long (just as long as the other 2 seasons combined)
I think people definitely have an overblown hate of SAO. Sort of the opposite of rose tinted glasses.
Curious_Diver1005 on
Take the potion, no you’ll never use this potion in the future but I want you to keep it while I die
red_enjoyer on
I’m gonna say it
I enjoyed all of SAO’s seasons. And I LOVE Gun Gale Online, Shion is the best SAO girl.
hamtaro1234 on
SAO first season will always be amazing but they never climbed all floors and then the story transitioned into a completely different game / anime. I didn’t mind the Alicificaton arc but the anime just turned into something I didn’t like anymore.
Long story short just watch / read shangri-la frontier. It’s basically what I wanted SAO to be initially.
However, if you personally still like SAO, then props to you. Don’t let what other people say stop you from liking something.
Dip2pot4t0Ch1P on
It gets bad rep thx to some anitubers rating it as bad and so it just snowballs from there.
Taenarius on
You’re probably a newer anime fan, so trust me when I say SAO was the most popular series by a very large margin when it was new. On top of being a series that had nothing particularly amazing going on besides a relatively good premise (and back then the video game isekai was even fresh). No good visuals, no good story, uninteresting characters, and severe pacing issues. Yet, people kept saying it was good and using good in that way invites arguments about quality, which usually led to defensive arguments, leading to more trashing on SAO. It was just too popular and fans pushed it so hard that many began to hate a series that otherwise wouldn’t even be on their radar. It just keeps being brought back up each new season too.
nvclaas on
Alicization was peak
seitaer13 on
It got popular, and like any popular series it got hate. It was at the right time and place for anitubers to latch onto. Misconceptions and falsehoods like Kayaba not having a reason took hold and we’re where we are now.
The only weird thing about SAO hate is how virulent it has persisted for over a decade by people that don’t even seem to have watched it.
Aurigamii on
Idk but I loved it
Probably the second arc of season 1 that’s has a “I saw it coming and it’s not even good” plot
Other than that, haters, idk. A lot of people actually enjoy the show.
GomarMeLek on
First 2 seasons were great iirc.
Zenai10 on
I liked Season 1. It was an intersting enough of people trying to figure out how to survive in a game world. Some moral issues, they have to raid to progress even though it could mean death. Thi sis interesting and a big deal. The MC might be op but I think it’s handled pretty well. Then I like the characters and there is the interesting romance plot in the middle. Then it ends with the MC escaping and him going out into the world to find the love interest with a “What happens next” cliff hanger. Pretty great.
Then season 2 starts, stomps on all of that, ignores almost all progression, starts a new game, becomes a harem anime and is far more generic isekai. Really feels like they had a good season 1 and story and then said. “Oh hey, Money!” and made more
Thiasi on
After you are done watching SAO please check out SAO abridged on youtube. Comedy gold and much better writing.
Kizo59 on
Ppl are bitching because Kirito got Asuna, and unconsciously got a lot of girls simping for him. They are just jelly. It was a damn good anime, with a few minor hiccups (fairy dance arc). All the YouTubers shit on it because it’s free money, nothing else. Like it or not, calling it shit is too far.
swegga_sa on
s2 killed the hype and it never recovered people will continue to hate on things theyve never watched
the alicization arc is top tier
Sure-Handle-2264 on
I copied and pasted this from the great u/samiawesome
In 2001, Reki Kawahara wrote SAO for a short story competition on the simple premise of âif players were to get trapped inside something like an MMORPG and couldnât get out, what would all those players do?â (perhaps even earlier if the prototype manga rumors are true). However, due to the word limit of the contest, he could only write a few stories rather than fully fleshing out everything and it had to be self-contained. So, SAO mainly focused on certain aspects such as Kirito and Asunaâs relationship.
All the original SAO contained was basically in volume 1 of the light novels (with presumably some changes from the web novel). The novel starts with Kirito grinding on floor 74 and flashbacks to specific stories within the arc (Kayabaâs hologram, the Ragout Rabbit dinner, the Kuradeel story, etc.) and then the novel finishes with the gleam eyes fight, the marriage, and the final duel.
Because the author went over the word limit, he just decided to publish SAO as a web novel instead. He then proceeded to write several side stories in the Aincrad arc (Liz and Silicaâs introductions, Yuiâs story, the moonlit black cats travesty, etc.) and moved onwards to the other arcs. By 2008, Alicization was wrapped up in the WNs.
When SAO was adapted into a light novel and then into an anime, they essentially took all that he wrote and put it into chronological order for the anime. They even asked him to write what was essentially the first arc of the progressive novels to help his original story flow better and to add more content to the anime (which they butchered lol).
One of the major gripes people have with the series is that they expected SAO to cover the 100 floors of Aincrad, but it didnât. So, it was disappointing to them due to all the time skips and how they move on from Aincrad after 14 episodes.
However, Iâd argue that the SAO story as a whole never intended to stick with the death game (hence why progressive was made later on to focus on it). The Aincrad arc of the anime was just a stepping stone for the later arcs to build off of. SAO was just a simple story that later delved into how the lines between technology/virtual reality and real life were starting to get blurred. Yet, the anime was heavily marketed as one.
YixoPhoenix on
I could never get past the idiotism of people willingly putting toasters on their head.
buny0058 on
It didnât reach the potential it had. It might be bland and boring in some areaâs but it was atlesst exciting that they were trapped in a cool world like sao. Too bad that only lasted half a goddamn season. Imagine if this was across 3 seasons or something. Couldâve made a more compelling story
Kinuwa_K on
I liked it up til ggo except for the second half of s1, the rest just doesnt hit as much
zildux on
My issue with Sao and a lot of anime that use a leveling system is when the system has no rules. It’s more enjoyable to me when the rules of the system and hard locked clear
UpbeatAppearance6719 on
This is so me..
Myth9779 on
Just ignore the hate. Regardless of people’s opinions SAO is enjoyable to watch.
The fact it has a lot of hate is proof enough that the series is one of the most known series
It just people feel mad when they expect to watch an action packed trapped in game series but they got slice of life with the game merely as background
GodOfUrging on
It started out strong, and then fell of significantly in its later arcs, which really disappointed a lot of the early fans. That disappointment made the flaws of its first arc much more visible in hindsight. Combine that with its early popularity, and how it was followed by the isekai boom, and you get a shared disappointment that a lot of anime fans can bond over.
I hear it got a lot better later on, but most of us had already lost interest by then.
Improvised_Excuse234 on
S1-2 was good, Alfheim was weird, then it just started jumping the shark like everything else in that genre did. The same 3 episode cycle with little to no consequences of your actions.
I think fairy tail burned me out first before SAO did, I still appreciate SAO for being some of the first animeâs Iâve watched.
Revolutionary-Ear354 on
Its honestly just people on a bandwagon.
Although to be honest, the anime does the MC and his sister dirty with their characterization. (Leaves alot of their internal monologue and thoughts that help to give more about their personalities and thoughts.
TrueExigo on
I don’t know how far along you are, but the anime is just bad? It’s nothing more than collecting waifu with extremely bad worldbuilding.
luketwo1 on
I’m guessing you havent hit s2 or later yet lol, s1 was very very good.
HarrySRL on
The first and second season was great, the third was okay, and the other seasons just seem forced afterwards.
T_R_2 on
SAO was soo much popular, from 2010s it became hit not just in Asia but West Side too. it literally made Videogame RPG isekai genre popular and ..
then 2020 time period happened, new fanbase came I saw I watched people making mockery of special targeted animes. some grew popularity and some went downhill. but SAO is still popular in Japan.
Alert-Airline6076 on
The first SAO is actually good, but the next few parts is just like some random sequel that doesn’t align to the actual story.
35 Comments
So you haven’t finished it, yet are openly asking why it’s viewed poorly?
Do you want it to be spoiled for you?
The potential of what it could’ve been and then it ended up being subpar. Definitely didn’t help that it was airing when isekai popped off so a lot of people were REALLY into it myself included but then watching in retrospect it just skips out on so much interesting concepts.
The show is called SAO because there is a game called SAO but it doesn’t matter because it only last 15 episodes. The rest of the series it’s a variety of games none asked for.
If you want a game based anime, Log Horizon and Shangri-la frontier do it better
It just falls off pretty hard pretty fast. The only parts I liked were the very first one about, well, SAO the game, and then that one arc about the gun game where a dude was killing people irl by shooting them with a pistol in game. Those two parts were pretty cool. Everything else is so assđ
Because it’s the collective consciousness of weebs to hate SAO, they don’t know why they hate it, but they know it’s popular to do so, so they in turn hate it making them part of the group.
The only reason SAO is hated is because it was super popular despite just being a mid power fantasy isekai with a generic gary stu MC.
I guess people really hated the second half of season 1 and stopped watching? The second arc in season 1 was in fact terrible, but the rest of the show is nice. Season 2 wasnt quite as good as the first arc, but still quite enjoyable.
Meanwhile season 3 is spectacular and really, really, good in general. Also helps that season 3 is 48 episodes long (just as long as the other 2 seasons combined)
I think people definitely have an overblown hate of SAO. Sort of the opposite of rose tinted glasses.
Take the potion, no you’ll never use this potion in the future but I want you to keep it while I die
I’m gonna say it
I enjoyed all of SAO’s seasons. And I LOVE Gun Gale Online, Shion is the best SAO girl.
SAO first season will always be amazing but they never climbed all floors and then the story transitioned into a completely different game / anime. I didn’t mind the Alicificaton arc but the anime just turned into something I didn’t like anymore.
Long story short just watch / read shangri-la frontier. It’s basically what I wanted SAO to be initially.
However, if you personally still like SAO, then props to you. Don’t let what other people say stop you from liking something.
It gets bad rep thx to some anitubers rating it as bad and so it just snowballs from there.
You’re probably a newer anime fan, so trust me when I say SAO was the most popular series by a very large margin when it was new. On top of being a series that had nothing particularly amazing going on besides a relatively good premise (and back then the video game isekai was even fresh). No good visuals, no good story, uninteresting characters, and severe pacing issues. Yet, people kept saying it was good and using good in that way invites arguments about quality, which usually led to defensive arguments, leading to more trashing on SAO. It was just too popular and fans pushed it so hard that many began to hate a series that otherwise wouldn’t even be on their radar. It just keeps being brought back up each new season too.
Alicization was peak
It got popular, and like any popular series it got hate. It was at the right time and place for anitubers to latch onto. Misconceptions and falsehoods like Kayaba not having a reason took hold and we’re where we are now.
The only weird thing about SAO hate is how virulent it has persisted for over a decade by people that don’t even seem to have watched it.
Idk but I loved it
Probably the second arc of season 1 that’s has a “I saw it coming and it’s not even good” plot
Other than that, haters, idk. A lot of people actually enjoy the show.
First 2 seasons were great iirc.
I liked Season 1. It was an intersting enough of people trying to figure out how to survive in a game world. Some moral issues, they have to raid to progress even though it could mean death. Thi sis interesting and a big deal. The MC might be op but I think it’s handled pretty well. Then I like the characters and there is the interesting romance plot in the middle. Then it ends with the MC escaping and him going out into the world to find the love interest with a “What happens next” cliff hanger. Pretty great.
Then season 2 starts, stomps on all of that, ignores almost all progression, starts a new game, becomes a harem anime and is far more generic isekai. Really feels like they had a good season 1 and story and then said. “Oh hey, Money!” and made more
After you are done watching SAO please check out SAO abridged on youtube. Comedy gold and much better writing.
Ppl are bitching because Kirito got Asuna, and unconsciously got a lot of girls simping for him. They are just jelly. It was a damn good anime, with a few minor hiccups (fairy dance arc). All the YouTubers shit on it because it’s free money, nothing else. Like it or not, calling it shit is too far.
s2 killed the hype and it never recovered people will continue to hate on things theyve never watched
the alicization arc is top tier
I copied and pasted this from the great u/samiawesome
In 2001, Reki Kawahara wrote SAO for a short story competition on the simple premise of âif players were to get trapped inside something like an MMORPG and couldnât get out, what would all those players do?â (perhaps even earlier if the prototype manga rumors are true). However, due to the word limit of the contest, he could only write a few stories rather than fully fleshing out everything and it had to be self-contained. So, SAO mainly focused on certain aspects such as Kirito and Asunaâs relationship.
All the original SAO contained was basically in volume 1 of the light novels (with presumably some changes from the web novel). The novel starts with Kirito grinding on floor 74 and flashbacks to specific stories within the arc (Kayabaâs hologram, the Ragout Rabbit dinner, the Kuradeel story, etc.) and then the novel finishes with the gleam eyes fight, the marriage, and the final duel.
Because the author went over the word limit, he just decided to publish SAO as a web novel instead. He then proceeded to write several side stories in the Aincrad arc (Liz and Silicaâs introductions, Yuiâs story, the moonlit black cats travesty, etc.) and moved onwards to the other arcs. By 2008, Alicization was wrapped up in the WNs.
When SAO was adapted into a light novel and then into an anime, they essentially took all that he wrote and put it into chronological order for the anime. They even asked him to write what was essentially the first arc of the progressive novels to help his original story flow better and to add more content to the anime (which they butchered lol).
One of the major gripes people have with the series is that they expected SAO to cover the 100 floors of Aincrad, but it didnât. So, it was disappointing to them due to all the time skips and how they move on from Aincrad after 14 episodes.
However, Iâd argue that the SAO story as a whole never intended to stick with the death game (hence why progressive was made later on to focus on it). The Aincrad arc of the anime was just a stepping stone for the later arcs to build off of. SAO was just a simple story that later delved into how the lines between technology/virtual reality and real life were starting to get blurred. Yet, the anime was heavily marketed as one.
I could never get past the idiotism of people willingly putting toasters on their head.
It didnât reach the potential it had. It might be bland and boring in some areaâs but it was atlesst exciting that they were trapped in a cool world like sao. Too bad that only lasted half a goddamn season. Imagine if this was across 3 seasons or something. Couldâve made a more compelling story
I liked it up til ggo except for the second half of s1, the rest just doesnt hit as much
My issue with Sao and a lot of anime that use a leveling system is when the system has no rules. It’s more enjoyable to me when the rules of the system and hard locked clear
This is so me..
Just ignore the hate. Regardless of people’s opinions SAO is enjoyable to watch.
The fact it has a lot of hate is proof enough that the series is one of the most known series
It just people feel mad when they expect to watch an action packed trapped in game series but they got slice of life with the game merely as background
It started out strong, and then fell of significantly in its later arcs, which really disappointed a lot of the early fans. That disappointment made the flaws of its first arc much more visible in hindsight. Combine that with its early popularity, and how it was followed by the isekai boom, and you get a shared disappointment that a lot of anime fans can bond over.
I hear it got a lot better later on, but most of us had already lost interest by then.
S1-2 was good, Alfheim was weird, then it just started jumping the shark like everything else in that genre did. The same 3 episode cycle with little to no consequences of your actions.
I think fairy tail burned me out first before SAO did, I still appreciate SAO for being some of the first animeâs Iâve watched.
Its honestly just people on a bandwagon.
Although to be honest, the anime does the MC and his sister dirty with their characterization. (Leaves alot of their internal monologue and thoughts that help to give more about their personalities and thoughts.
I don’t know how far along you are, but the anime is just bad? It’s nothing more than collecting waifu with extremely bad worldbuilding.
I’m guessing you havent hit s2 or later yet lol, s1 was very very good.
The first and second season was great, the third was okay, and the other seasons just seem forced afterwards.
SAO was soo much popular, from 2010s it became hit not just in Asia but West Side too. it literally made Videogame RPG isekai genre popular and ..
then 2020 time period happened, new fanbase came I saw I watched people making mockery of special targeted animes. some grew popularity and some went downhill. but SAO is still popular in Japan.
The first SAO is actually good, but the next few parts is just like some random sequel that doesn’t align to the actual story.