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[Andres]

SAO was an awful series. The worst. I stopped watching after they got married or something. Seriously the worst. Also, apparently the author or whatever didn't know how to write female characters so he made them all love interests.

[Reelya]

author or whatever

whatever

Seems legit.

SAO was an awful series. The worst.

Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei has usurped SAO's crown though. By a huge margin. It makes SAO's author (or whatever) look like a genius of well-crafted character development in comparison. And I'm completely not kidding. Not in the slightest. That's how amazing Mahouka is.

Recommend people watch Mahouka up to about episode 8 (the flying scene). After that the sheer lulzy badness is drowned out by the draggy boring parts.

[Andres]

author or whatever

whatever

Seems legit.

Because I don't know if it was originally a manga, an anime, or a VN. If it was a manga, then the guy's an author. If one of the other two, the guy's a writer.

[Karlito]

It was a series of light novels.

[Neonivek]

So I missed the alert by a week or two, but the sixth episode of SAO Abridged is out, and it continues to not only be quite funny, but also to have better plot and character development than the actual series.

"But how did you see through my lies?"

"Well you see, I'm not an idiot"

"Yep that would do it"

[Frumple]

... that thing actually seems to be getting better over time. That... that's nice. Loved the bits near the end, heh.

[Flying Dice]

Mm, and the current VA for Asuna is better, I think.

[4maskwolf]

I liked the first few episodes of Sword Art Online before it started focusing on the romance plots, but that's a small number.  Gun Gale Online would have been fairly good had it not been for all of the blatant fanservice with Shinon that I felt detracted from the character.

Speaking of poorly written female characters, though, that's fairly standard across a lot of anime.  It just stands out more when the male characters aren't equally ridiculous, at least not in the same way (Kirito is a bit of a Mary Sue, in my opinion, but that's an entire other can of worms).

[DreamCarver]

Okay, so Punchline just decided that episode 4 is a good time to slip into the alley of shit getting real.

This is entirely acceptable and I am excited for what happens next. Giant flowchart of character relations and plot theories, here we goooo

[Neonivek]

Speaking of poorly written female characters, though, that's fairly standard across a lot of anime.  It just stands out more when the male characters aren't equally ridiculous, at least not in the same way (Kirito is a bit of a Mary Sue, in my opinion, but that's an entire other can of worms).

The issue comes from the flavor really. Men tend to be written poorly too but in a way that is permissible to the plot.

Women tend to be written in a way that dismisses them from the plot.

[4maskwolf]

Speaking of poorly written female characters, though, that's fairly standard across a lot of anime.  It just stands out more when the male characters aren't equally ridiculous, at least not in the same way (Kirito is a bit of a Mary Sue, in my opinion, but that's an entire other can of worms).

The issue comes from the flavor really. Men tend to be written poorly too but in a way that is permissible to the plot.

Women tend to be written in a way that dismisses them from the plot.

This is true as well.  I was actually talking about why I believe it becomes more noticable in some anime and manga over others.

[i2amroy]

SAO was an awful series. The worst. I stopped watching after they got married or something. Seriously the worst. Also, apparently the author or whatever didn't know how to write female characters so he made them all love interests.

To be honest, I actually enjoyed SAO once I looked at it as a female romance series set in a shonen world rather than a male shonen series derailed by a romance plot, and I feel your ability to enjoy it depends a lot on the way you look at the show. If you want shonen antics then you should probably go watch something else, but if you want a more female-aimed romance plot that just happens to take place in a shonen world then dig in and enjoy. I mean seriously, look at that first intro. If the whole "cut back and forth between scenes of Asuna and Kirito for the majority of the intro, begin to close with relaxing domestic scenes of both of them, and end with a final shot that includes their two crossed swords and a flower" (placed closer than the swords) doesn't just scream "ROMANCE ANIME" at you then you need to go watch a wider variety of shows.

And really a lot of SAO plays out like a female protagonist romance novel that just happens to have the guy as the main character in the beginning rather than the girl. Even the whole harem-hinting plays into the idea; the idea of showing that the main guy is wanted by other women but "he chose me and will always be faithful" is not exactly a new one in the realm of female romance, and is exactly what happens. Regardless of hints, SAO always ends up shutting down other choices pretty definitely in favor of the KiritoxAsuna one (and it explains a lot of the lack of early characterization on female characters other than Asuna; in an average female romance show a lot of their early purpose would just be to enhance the fact that Kirito is supposed to be desirable rather than to stand as true characters in their own right). Even the GGO arc manages to bring in Asuna at the beginning, ending, and a few other times throughout, and she's not even involved in that arc except through Kirito. And heck, in the latest arc Asuna is the main character; Kirito shows up for like 1-2 episodes and his only real purposes are to help kickstart the arc and support Asuna and the new character while they deal with stuff. (And Asuna + new side-character characterization wise? It was good enough that I spent pretty much the whole last episode crying my eyes out. )

Of course it's not free of flaws. The fact that they have an annoying tendency of extremely compressing arcs or adding in tiny filler arcs in their seasons is rather annoying; I think they would have been much better off doing either two shorter seasons or 1 extra-long one for their first season. And while the filler arc in their second season was okay, it was limited by the fact that that's all it really was; filler. Additionally the fact that the shortened arc in the second half of season one basically demotes Asuna to a plot coupon really bugged me as well (though I guess if that was all that they were going to do with her in the whole arc then it's probably a good thing that they shortened it ). That said if you can get past the few shortened/filler arcs, and you are willing to look at it as a world that mainly revolves around Asuna rather than Kirito, I definitely think it's an enjoyable show.

[Neonivek]

It is more noticeable in Manga and anime over all others because Manga and Anime at least pretend they are equals.

Compare it to Sam from Danny Phantom... does she look even REMOTELY relevant? Heck no! She doesn't even have powers and has no connection to the plot other then liking Danny.

Then compare to say Sakura from Naruto. She has a fully fleshed out story, a clear role on the team, abilities and talents that exceed her other team mates, and some of her early scenes show what sort of drive she has to be a success.

You would NEVER become invested in Sam as a character because there is nothing there to invest in. While Sakura from Naruto? A book worm who just wants to be one of the gang and is willing to work extra hard to show people what they can do while everyone just puts her down? She is like if Belle became an anime character... and got infected by the Tsundere virus.

[4maskwolf]

i2amroy:
I never actually got around to watching the last arc of SAO season two, but with that recommendation I'll probably watch it.

Also, the Excalibur filler arc was a good watch for exactly one reason, right near the end.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The scene where Shinon asks Kirito to think of her every time he uses Excalibur in front of the ENTIRE REST OF THE CAST

[Andres]

It is more noticeable in Manga and anime over all others because Manga and Anime at least pretend they are equals.

Compare it to Sam from Danny Phantom... does she look even REMOVELY relevant? Heck no! She doesn't even have powers.

Then compare to say Sakura from Naruto. She has a fully fleshed out story, a clear role on the team, abilities and talents that exceed her other team mates, and some of her early scenes show what sort of drive she has to be a success.

You would NEVER become invested in Sam as a character because there is nothing there to invest in. While Sakura from Naruto? A book worm who just wants to be one of the gang and is willing to work extra hard to show people what they can do while everyone just puts her down? She is like if Belle became an anime character... and got infected by the Tsundere virus.

Sakura's useless for all of Naruto and while she was downright AWESOME when fighting that puppet guy in Shippuden she has since become useless again. Well...she's useless but she has a likeable personality now. The only two things I can remember her doing in Naruto (not Shippuden) was crying, complaining about how Naruto sucks all the time, and beating anyone who annoyed her (mostly Naruto).