If you’ve been in the anime community for a long time, one of the biggest and historical downfalls of all time was Sword Art Online. It had one of the best premises for a story ever but combined with the poor decision making from the animation studio, A-1 Pictures, Sword Art Online became a disaster. There’s actually a lot more responsible for why the anime failed, including Reki Kawahara’s own limitations as a writer, but A-1 Pictures holds primary responsibility for the anime’s downfall.
Kirito from Sword Art Online. [Credit: A-1 Pictures]
One of the biggest complaints and jarring changes was Kirito’s personality. From being an insecure teenager, the anime version of him leans much more into the edgy side of him but also creates an unnecessary harem, despite his relationship with Asuna being central in Sword Art Online. Unfortunately, A-1 Pictures is also responsible for great anime like Fairy Tail, Solo Leveling and Blue Exorcist.
Is A-1 Pictures Responsible for the Downfall of Sword Art Online?
Kirito and Asuna from Sword Art Online. [Credit: A-1 Pictures]
The isekai genre is vastly explored, from Re: Zero to KonoSuba, but none have been more controversial than Sword Art Online. In the world of Sword Art Online, players get trapped in an MMORPG and have to fight to get out of it. They can’t log out and death means actual death in the real world. It sounds like a thrilling plot and the lone wolf protagonist, Kirito, actually had some personality. However, all of this was killed by the studio’s decisions and all the potential was thrown out the window.
What made Sword Art Online so messy was the timeline in which the light novel was made. It started out as a short story for a competition that became a light novel. Kawahara was an amateur and his material wasn’t all that original but also included some severely uncomfortable scenes. A-1 Pictures, however, amped up those inappropriate scenes a lot more than necessary. This made viewers question why fan service was even needed in a game of death.
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While the love story was meant to be focused on Asuna and Kirito, they ended up expanding on his typical loner guy personality where his coolness attracts every woman possible in Sword Art Online. The love triangles become so forced into the anime that fans couldn’t help but start hating Kirito. Any actual substance to his personality, like the trauma and insecurities, are brushed over by the animation studio’s need to make an edgy overpowered protagonist who has no flaws. A-1 Pictures badly mischaracterized Kirito to the point he has been dubbed one of the worst main characters ever.
So How Did Sword Art Online Get Popular?
Yuuki Asuna in Sword Art Online. [Credit: A-1 Pictures]
As the saying goes, bad press is better than no press at all and it shockingly applied to Sword Art Online. YouTubers thrived on reacting to how bad the anime was, posting reaction videos and sometimes even to this day. However, many of these people were looking for clout and discussing very surface level problems without thinking critically about why Sword Art Online became so bad.
The initial release of Sword Art Online was a smash hit and some people called it the “greatest anime ever made.” However, the toxic side of the anime community did not like this and there was backlash but now with some fruit to it. It really isn’t a good anime. But now, Sword Art Online will also have a Netflix live-action series.
Sword Art Online is available on Crunchyroll.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
