Non taken. 
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sao has indeed earned a reputation as a crap anime and i do think that it’s well deserved. but that is not to say that it’s bad all the time. i would like to point somethings out.
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what you said for the most part, true. it started with a bang and lost it’s way. but you have to remember that this is adapted from a light novel. leaving holes is sometimes unavoidable. first few episodes were incredibly well done. as for the reason why i think sao went bad i for one think that introducing useless harem really ruined the show’s potential. it could’ve done without the harem aspect and i think it would have been great. like you said it lost the spark quickly but sao did have some good plot devices in its arsenal. why kirito went solo, yui arc was incredibly well done. even though the end of the first half left something more to be desired ( kayaba akihiko was a mysterious character. i think author wanted us to think in his shoes and contemplate answers as to why he did that, for what reason and come up with our own theories.) overall i think it was good and amazing. second half is where sao started to went downhill fast. added another harem character, over the top useless and pointless sibling drama, stupid ass villain and a… tentacle rape scene?? wtf is this? hentai? dude… damn. i clicked my tonge in distaste and kept watching thinking when will this git gud? when will the awesomness of first half comeback? sadly it never came back and i watched the last anticlimatic knife swinging in disappointment. second season was joke that i couldnt laugh cause it was so bad. it wasnt sword art online it was sinon ass online. enough said. but they did managed to bring back the old glory in ordinal scale. i only watched few scenes here and there but it felt amazing. we should wait for the alcization arc. if they adapt it good then it will be damn amazing i think it will wash off all the black stains in sao.
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i would like to correct you sword art online isnt an mmorpg rather it’s a vrmmorpg. which is by today standards is not really realistic as we are currently lacking the necessary technology to emulate virtual reality in such likeness. ( tho today VR is advancing at very fast rate. the day might be near that games like sao will be made in future. ) as for the reason why it was limited to 10000 copies i think it has to do with the resources necessary to maintain the servers. which emulate the very reality in a digital world. it takes a lot to do that. even the recent VR sao beta they had to limit participants to 200. so 10000 in anime is realistic considering the technology exists in the anime. even then we have to take into account that sao was kayaba’s pet project it was just an experiment to him. involving millions of people would bring nothing but trouble. kayaba wasnt alone when developing sao he had others with him. the villain guy mentioned him using senpai which indicate senior junior relationship. if that is the case then also other parties must have involved themselves like the governments and private agencies. also you have to remember this one most important fact. sao was an experiment. it isnt your usual real world mmorpgs. sao is different from log horizon or .hack for that matter. on the other hand alfheim online was a true vrmmorpg which had the characteristics of a real world mmorpg. sao was an experiment. i do agree with your character developing is shit. there were some moments yes but other than those characters felt hollow and very one sided to me. as for why they lived close… lets say it’s anime logic!
all in all i think sao could have been much better. it was enjoyable and was good while it lasted but due to mentioned flaws it didnt have what the light novel gave me. so to anybody who would like to watch sao i would advice that watch the first half of the first season and then read the light novel and watch ordinal scale and wait for alzication to be released,
this is purely my opinion. if you have anything to say about this i would like to hear it, thank you for taking your time to read this.
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