"Sword Art Online is the worst anime of all time." That's a perhaps surprisingly common sentiment among anime fans, many of whom may enjoy isekai shows but dislike how SAO has get such a representative of the genre, or who eschew extremely pop anime titles in favor of those a flake more off the beaten track.

And there is no doubt that Sword Art Online, for better or worse, is a hugely popular series, both within the isekai genre and in anime as a whole. Debuting in 2012, the initial anime -- about a boy named Kirito who gets stuck in an online game and must fight to survive alongside thousands of other players -- has spawned several additional seasons, as well equally its ain spinoff series, making a massive cultural touch on in the process.

Kirito And His Entire Party In Sword Art Online

Despite its undeniable popularity, Sword Fine art Online has also gained a fair amount of detractors. Few, if any, anime can be said to be perfect, and SAO is certainly no exception. Although, admittedly, it's non difficult to see where the cracks in the show lie, even without excavation too deep, and critiques get far beyond simply pointing out (for example) the odd case of poor animation or off-model groundwork artwork.

I of the biggest criticisms has been leveled at Kirito himself, Sword Art Online'due south chief protagonist. Countless viewers encounter him as a fairly generic graphic symbol -- someone with little to distinguish himself from whatever other teenage male MC aside from his god-like power levels -- still whose unearned gainsay prowess, ridiculously good skillset and penchant for saving the day has led him to be sarcastically dubbed "Our lord and savior Kirito."

Clearly playing into this male-axial ability fantasy attribute, the show has nearly every relevant (or for that thing, irrelevant) female cast member falling for Kirito somewhere along the way, creating a harem situation and frequently reducing at least some of these women to tropey love interests rather than fully-fledged characters in their own right. For instance, Kirito's main honey interest Asuna is depicted as more or less the perfect daughter -- attractive still modest, rich nevertheless apprehensive, smart even so polite, strong notwithstanding feminine, independent withal loyal… and of course, an amazing melt.

Sword Art Online Asuna cooking

Alongside this fantasy-wife condition symbol, Sword Fine art Online features numerous other women, each with their often non-and then-unique collection of fan service-friendly tropes, and most of whom develop romantic feelings for Kirito somewhere along the way, from the cutesy idol-like Silica to Kirito's own cousin Suguha/Leafa. However, practice these types of criticisms really hateful that Sword Fine art Online is the worst anime of all time -- and if not, why are then many viewers eager to label the series as such?

Upon even a moment's reflection, it's apparent that Sword Art Online just cannot exist the worst anime of all time. Assuming it's possible to considerately award any anime with this characterization, surely it would be a serial with a plot that's so disjointed as to exist incoherent, pacing and so uneven that it practically causes whiplash, animation that's and so bad it's laughable or themes that practically go out of their fashion to cause offense? That anime may well exist, but SAO apparently isn't information technology; whatever its faults, the testify at to the lowest degree meets a baseline of competency.

Evidently, Sword Art Online is maybe equally much, if non more, over-hated as it is overrated. Anyone with a burning passion for whatsoever hobby tin exist guilty of hyperbole, including anime fans -- and if someone happens to dislike a certain title, it can be tempting to be overly harsh on it when that same show becomes wildly popular. As such, among many anime viewers, SAO has been made into a symbol of everything that'southward wrong with the medium, and "worst" is sometimes conflated with "overrated."

Information technology therefore regularly appears in 'worst-of' lists by users on sites such equally MyAnimeList, Reddit and Quora -- tellingly, often alongside similarly pop past and nowadays titles similar Shakugan no Shana, Guilty Crown, Toradora!, Fairy Tail, AnoHana and Re:Zero. In other words, Sword Art Online has achieved such a level of commercial success, both in Japan and abroad, that information technology has become a very like shooting fish in a barrel target.

asuna grabbing kirito sword art online

This is especially the case since Sword Art Online's success helped to popularize not just ane trope or graphic symbol classic merely an entire genre, and to such an extent that people can't assistance but draw parallels to after isekai titles. In the same way that the mid to late-90s and early 2000s saw a slew of post-Evangelion shows such as Series Experiments Lain (1998), Boogiepop Phantom (2000), RahXephon (2002) and Texhnolyze (2003), and then have the mid-2010s and afterward seen a mass of mail-SAO anime, including Log Horizon (2013), No Game No Life (2014), Overlord (2015), KonoSuba (2016), Re:Zero (2016) and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (2018), to proper noun only a few.

It may exist several years even so until the current isekai craze dies down, and likewise, quite some time until Sword Fine art Online fades somewhat from the collective anime consciousness -- particularly with a 2nd anime motion-picture show, Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of a Dark Dusk, slated for a 2022 premiere and a live-action Netflix serial still (presumably) in development. Until then, SAO will likely continue to feature on plenty of worst-of lists as the true whipping boy of the anime community.

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Christy Gibbs (41 Manufactures Published)

Christy Gibbs is a CBR Features editor and anime aficionado with a penchant for slice-of-life stories and josei manga-based titles. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, writing and travel.

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