Why Anime Is Not Just For Kids

Good morning anime fans i really didn't intend on making a post this early in the morning but tho i want to finally put in my two sense about one single phrase and it's one that if your an anime fan such as myself you hear at least once a week and that phrase is "Anime Is For Kids" or at least some form of those words.

Now i would like to point out that not all anime is for adults because there are shows that are made just for kids some examples include Pokemon and Digimon i know that there is more but to mainstream people those are the two that matter most. That's because both of those shows especially Pokemon have become worldwide hits and so to mainstream people who perhaps don't know about Death Note or the Hellsing series all anime is just like Pokemon or Digimon I.E. just for kids. 

I will however say that both shows in the past few years have tried to mature a little in Pokemon XYZ ASh got his first kiss it's a small thing yes but it also shows that the series was at that point trying to mature and in the newest Digimon film series we catch up with the original Gang years later thus moving on from the kids show formula now i don't know if the writing for Digimon has mautred or not but i can say for Pokemon it has a little bit.

What the mainstream people have to realise is not all anime if for kids just go into your local DVD shop and look at the anime isle you'll see plenty of stuff for adults as well you don't have to watch any of it just look at the cover and the age rating that alone should tell you not all anime if for kids i've put up a picture of the recent Hellsing anime because that's honestly the most mature anime i've seen recently and was the anime that got me back into anime. 

If the mainstream audience were to see an anime like Hellsing it won't stop them from saying that all anime if for kids in fact most of them will not want to talk about it but i think it will help a little another anime that i think might help with this is the anime Death Note but that's one were i can see people looking at the cover and think it's for kids so with that one they may need to watch an episode or two but what both these shows and the next show i want to talk about have in common is the fact there not afraid to take risks and to tell a more mature story.

The other series i wanted to talk about was Attack On Titan if you think this show is for kids then wait until the end of the first episode in which spoiler alert the main heroes mother gets eaten alive and i'm sure you see some blood come out of her as well. If that episode alone doesn't convince you that anime is kids only then your in denial because this show has done something that the other two couldn't do and that's become popular with some mainstream people even the great Death note didn't do that so i think that Attack On Titan helped convince people that anime is not just for kids and it also got more people into anime which is a good thing overall.

As i mentioned early on not all anime is for adults but tho you cannot right of an entire medium just based on what's popular that like comparing The Fast and The Furious movies to Lawrence Of Arabia you just can't do that you have to treat them all separately in order to judge them all fairly and it's the same thing with music you can't compare Justin Bieber to Mozart they are two different people working in two different genre's so comparing them would be useless and pointless. The same thing can also be said for anime it's pointless to compare a kids anime to something like Ghost In The Shell because they have two different target audiences so what's the point in it.

I know people will kill me for not bringing up Elfen Lied but the fact is i cannot talk that much about the show as i've only seen a few clips here and there but based on what i have seen it's a very adult anime at least in terms of what it shows so that's really all i can say about that show and the same goes for deadman wonderland. 

Not all shows however have to be filled with blood and guts to called an adult anime look at shows like HighSchool Of The Dead or High School DXD they are full to the brim with fanservice and yet to the mainstream audience they are on the same level as Pokemon or Digimon to me that's not a fair comparison to make and again if the mainstream audience would look at the age rating on the DVD or Blu-Ray they would know that.

The bottom line tho is that as long as shows like Pokemon stick in the mind of mainstream audiences other more mature shows will just be classed in their minds as only for kids and we anime lovers will always be stuck with that phrase but there is something we can do however we can try and get them to watch shows like Death Note and like Elfen Lied or Hellsing in the vain hope it will change their minds.

What I Think Of The Boss Baby 2

Hello there animation fans i don't usually cover news items and that's because i don't really like to judge things before i've at least seen a trailer or two but with this one i feel like i have to talk about it because it's so out of know where here is what i think of The Boss Baby 2.

One if the issues that the film will have to overcome is the fact that The Boss Baby is on longer a Boss Baby he's just a baby so with that ending firmly in place how can you do a sequel? the short answer is you can't because the story of the first film resolved every plot point so there's no new story that you can tell and the whole point of a sequel is to try match if not surpass the first film but when you start with nothing you'll end with nothing.

This post won't be all negative (but it mostly will be) they have confirmed that the best part of the first movie Alec Baldwin will be back to play the character but one person doesn't make a team so you can't have Alec back and not bring back all of the other cast members which would be ashame because i really liked the kid who played his brother and anything with Lisa Kudrow is gold for me but reading the article from Deadline they don't mention who else will be back which for me is something Dreamworks should have locked down they key personnel before announcing this movie.

As i've said already the whole point of a sequel is to try surpass what you did in the first film which means in this case you have to put out better animation and i thought the animation in the first film was really done but tho given that the film will be out in four years there's a 50% chance that the quality of the animation could improve but with that said they've only got four years that's not alot of time to improve on animation if they had say five years then i would say the animation would improve but alas it's only four years.

Now this film is due out on March 26th 2021 that's the week before Fast 10 comes out i mention this because when the first film came out there was really no competition when it came out so i think that's a stupid move to release the sequel one week before the next installment of a major franchise doing that only means this film will fail because if given the choice most movie goers will select Fast 10 over what could be considered a kids film.

I'm not saying The Boss Baby 2 can't work as a movie i'm just saying that given what's released it seems unlikely that it will work but if whoever the writer and director turn out to be can make it work then i'll watch it because the first film was entertaining but tho if your a sequel just being entertaining won't always work because movie goers are smart people they know what they want and if you just entertain them but that's it then there's a chance you'll be a flop with that said i hope The Boss Baby 2 is at least a decent film. 

  

Doctor Who "The Pyramid at the End of the World" Spoiler Free Review

Hello there Doctor Who fans it's that time of the week once more were you see me talk about Doctor Who and this time it's The Pyramid At The End Of The World. so lets get it started.

The plot for this weeks episode is a Pyramid appears out of know where and it's up to our trio of heroes to find out what's going on. Now i have to say that i really liked the story for this one it had a lot of great character moments which i really enjoyed and i liked the fact that there was basically two stories happening at once and they came together in a natural way.

In terms of cast we of course have Peter , Matt and Pearl who all do a great job this week especially Peter and Pearl who have some great scenes together in terms of the guest cast we have Togo Igawa , Nigel Hastings and Eben Young for me personally the guest cast really didn't serve that much of a purpose i can't say why but when you see the episode you'll see why i feel that way i think that they would have been better served if this episode was a two part story instead of just one.

I'm not sure where this weeks episode was filmed but the location they used looks really stunning it's one of the things that NewWho has over Classic Who they now have the money to go on location in places other then London and they use them to there full advantage and i hope that they continue to do so.

This weeks episode had some truly great CGI i'm not just talking TV quality i'm talking movie quality i don't know how big an effects budget for Doctor Who is but i'm sure that most of it went to creating the effects in this episode because they were so good my eyes were happy.  

I didn't mention this last week because of the fact i couldn't see them that clearly but i loved the monster make up for the monks it looks so cool and very creepy the team really did out do them selfs this time around plus i think it helps that the monsters them selfs are a bit on the creepy side which reminds me alot of of old school Doctor Who.

Now i'm not sure if this is true or not but i believe that there might have been some edits to this episode in spite of certain events which happend earlier on in the week and if so the edits were really well hidden and they didn't effect the story at all but tho with that being said i don't think they should have made any edits but that's just me personally if you feel different then that's fine.

I will say that the last five or ten minuets of this episode are easily the best moments in the whole episode everything pretty much hits the fan but not in the way that you think it will and for me it was great to see those events play out and that's really all i can say on those final minuets because literally anything else would be considered a spoiler.

Overall this was a good episode with a few great moments sprinkled in and it has a great ending which sets up next weeks third and final episode in this trilogy i give this weeks episode a 7.5 out of 10

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Review

Hello pony fans i thought that i would review something a little bit different since the past few days have been filled with doom and gloom so what else better then to talk about My Little Pony: Equestria Girls let's get it on.

The plot of this movie basically is Twilight get's sent to our earth to retrieve her crown which has been stolen and must do so before a magical doorway closes. In terms of plot that's really all you get and i think that's really all you need altho with that being said the plot does have a few problems like for the fact that for insert BS reason here Twilight's friends aren't aloud to come with her even tho all six of them would work better then just the one.

The film stars all of the stars from the show Tara Strong (my bae) , Ashleigh Ball , Andrea Libman and Tabitha St. Germain in terms of voice acting i'd say that they all do a great job i mean at this point they would have been playing the characters for three years so i can't really say much when it comes to the acting in this film but what i can say however is that Pinkie Pie is best character in this movie everything she says or does is gold.

Now another problem i have with the movie is with Sunset shimmer she orders her lacky's to destroy the gym where there going to be holding this dance and then i few scenes later says that they shouldn't have destroyed it WTF that is some BS reason right there if she didn't want the gym destroyed then she shouldn't have ordered them to destroy it it's that simple.

I know that when this film first came out people didn't like the character designs i personally like them there's enough of the original design so kids will not get confused but enough new things to make them standout and i liked the fact that all of the characters have their cutie marks somewhere on them all the time that was a nice little touch that the filmmakers didn't have to do but i'm glad that they did i can't really talk about the animation since it's the same as the show but for this movie it's fine.

I liked the fact that each of the human counterparts for our main heroes had hobbies like there pony counterparts i thought that was a nice little touch and i'm glad that the filmmakers added that as it also gave the human characters some personality but tho why go through the trouble of turning everyone human and yet have them keep there pony names that to me doesn't make sense at all.

Wow the songs in this film they are just bad there just the typical kiddie pop songs that's in every kids movie and every kids TV show and not one of them is good and i hated the fact that they chose to do a bad dubstep version of the shows opening theme song when will filmmakers learn that most dubstep is bad. The music tho that wasn't that bad it just wasn't good either it was the kind of thing that you expect from My Little Pony.

Overall if your a fan of this franchise then i'd say check it out since there's a few cool cameos but if your not a fan of the franchise then i'd say avoid it but for me this movie is a 6 out of 10 

Doctor Who "Extremis" Review

Hello there Doctor Who fans this weeks review is going to be more edited then usual because there's so much that could be considered a spoiler so let's get on with it here is my review of Docor Who series 10 episode 6 Extremis.

The plot for this weeks episode is basically The Doctor has to translate a book and that's really all i can say without giving away any spoilers but tho with that being said the story was really good and it had me guessing all the way to the very end and i think it helps that this is the first of a three part story as well.

Now of course we have are three main leads Matt , Peter and Pearl and i think that this is Pearl's best episode so far at least in terms of acting because she does a really great job but not better then a certain someone who i cannot mention because of spoilers but apart from the leads we have Jennifer Hennessy , Corrado Invernizzi and Joseph Long who are really just there they don't really add anything that much to the episode which is bad because if some of their characters were removed then we would have no plot.

I have to get this out of the way but i freaking called it i guessed who was in the vault back in either episode 1 or episode 3 and how could you not already work out who it is the signs were already there and even if you didn't see the signs then a bit of common sense would have done the trick so i have to say Steven please can you make a time machine and come up with a better mystery.

I have to admit that this episode does indeed feature some very clever twists and turns which i didn't see coming none of which i can go into detail about because of spoilers but if you've seen the episode then you'll know what i mean and you'll hopefully know how great they are.

Overall this was a really solid episode and i know this review is short but that's because so much of the episode would be considered a spoiler so i give this episode a 9 out of 10

Blame! Review

Hello there anime fans and for the first time Netflix users as someone who watches alot of anime and has a keen interest in the future of the industry the idea of seeing a 3D animated anime come from the hands of Netflix sounded like an interesting idea but was it any good lets find out as i review Blame!

So then what is the plot for this movie i here you ask well in the distant technological future civilization has reached its ultimate Net-based form. An "infection" in the past caused the automated systems to spiral out of order resulting in a multi-leveled city structure that replicates itself infinitely in all directions Now humanity has lost access to the city's controls and is hunted down and purged by the defense system known as the Safeguard. In a tiny corner of the city a little enclave known as the Electro-Fishers is facing eventual extinction trapped between the threat of the Safeguard and dwindling food supplies. A girl named Zuru goes on a journey to find food for her village only to inadvertently cause doom when an observation tower senses her and summons a Safeguard pack to eliminate the threat. With her companions dead and all escape routes blocked, the only thing that can save her now is the sudden arrival of Killy the Wanderer on his quest for the Net Terminal Genes the key to restoring order to the world. Yeah that little plot summery is a bit of a mouth full but it's the only one i could find that proteins to the film and not the manga but that being said the plot actually isn't that bad and is actually quite interesting but with that being said i do have a few issues with it and one of those is the fact that the film troughs so much plot at you that you can't keep up and the other is the fact that the pacing is so slow.

Starring in the film we have Kana Hanazawa , Takahiro Sakurai , Aki Toyosaki , Aya Suzaki , Kazuhiro Yamaji , Mamoru Miyano , Nobunaga Shimazaki , Saori Hayami , Sora Amamiya and Yuuki Kaji. I have to say that voice acting wise this film was really solid there's alot of good voice actors in this movie and they all hit it out of the park for me but the two people who i think did the best were Kana Hanazawa who plays a scientist named Cibo and Takahiro Sakurai who plays all round badass Killy i just loved these two and for me they had the hardest job which i cannot go into because it serves as kinda a spoiler so i wouldn't go further into it.

Now the animation was handled by Polygon and like i said before this is 3D animated and i think that polygon did a pretty solid job the movements all looked good and the backgrounds looked nice and dirty and lived in which was something that i thought was a nice touch polygon really don't have that many anime to look at in terms of 3D anime to see what worked and what didn't work so they were going into this pretty much blind and they did a solid job for the most part.

I know i've just said they did a solid job with the animation but i have to say that there were some scenes that really looked like they were done in 2D and those shots where shots of the characters faces to me those looked liked 2D drawings instead of 3D it didn't distract from the story to much but it's something that i felt i had to mention.

Wow is this movie action packed there's alot of action scenes in this movie and they are all really well done for some reason the action scenes reminded me alot of the first Matrix movie which is not a bad thing and i loved how each action scene did something different then the one that came before it and it wasn't just the standerd punch and kick you see people use there guns alot and for me it was very effective but just due to how awesome it is the standout action scene is the one that takes up pretty much most of the third act it's pretty much a main cast blood bath and it's awesome.

I will admit that there's a pretty solid third act twist which while i did see part of it coming i didn't see all of it (that will make sense when you see the film) which is good because if i predict your twist thirty minuets in then it usually means your a bad movie and should go and sit on the naughty step and think about what you've done and i will say that if you say you saw it coming then either you worked on the movie or your lieing. 

The score for this film was done by Yuugo Kanno and i have to say i really enjoyed it Kanno's score made the movie feel more epic then it already was and his score got me really excited for the action scenes because of how epic and exciting they were.

Overall this isn't as good as A Silent Voice but it's still a great movie in it's own right and is worth watching and for those people who ask when they can watch something on Netflix you can watch this on Netflix right now as Netflix released the film the same day it came out in Japan i give this film an 8 out of 10 

   

   

Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony Review

Hello there pony fans and animation fans and as i said yesterday i'm here to give you a review of the second documentary about the My Little Pony fan base with this one being called Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans Of My Little Pony (phew what a mouthful).

Now like A Brony Tale this film focuses on the fanbase of MLP and it has no real story to it and unlike A Brony Tale which took an outsider looking in approach to it's story telling this one is the people on the inside telling you about the show and about some of the issues that they go through whenever someone finds out they like the show which i think makes this film feel more real.

This film features contributions from Lauren Faust , Tara Strong and John De Lancie as well as other voice actors but unlike the other film where Ashliegh Ball was firmly the star of the movie the stars in this one are the fans themselves which to me is how it should be but don't get me wrong anytime i get to see my bae , my spirit animal Tara Strong is always a good thing but here i'm glad she took a back seat to the fans.

Speaking of the fans they were really good and i really liked seeing their stories in the film and the fact that they all have issues not only when it comes to telling people that they like the show but also personal issues like for example one of the fans has a brain tumor and another has an illness that's just two of the many fans that are in this film and it makes them more relatable and that's something that i think more documentary's should do.

Now then since this film has no basic premise to speak of it means it can do more interviews with the people that matter (the fans) to me that's both a good and bad thing it's good because we get to here more of their stories and see more of there lives but it's bad because it also drags the film out i think this film would have been better if it was an hour and ten minuets instead of 90 minuets but that's just me.

Now inbetween the interviews we have short segments of animation and to be honest i really liked the animation in the film and i like they it kind of tells a story as well it basically all about this professor at pony university and he's telling his class which includes characters from the show about the fans. I thought the animated segments were really cool and where really well handled there was a lot of nice fluid movement and you can tell that alot of time and effort was put into those scenes which were just pure fun.

Another thing that i liked about this film is it included fans from all over the world unlike A Brony Tale which just included fans from America here we get to see fans not only from America but also from Germany , England and The Netherlands.so it made the fanbase feel more bigger then A Brony Tale did and for me that's great because i'm British and i never knew there were people in my home country who loved the show and it also helps that the film actually showed some locations near were i live so yeah UK pride was strong.

This movie did something that i think A Brony Tale should have done and that's show almost every aspect of the fanbase not only do we see people who watch the show but we also get to see people who make music based of the show and people who make laser shows as well as people who make merch to sell on conventions which i liked because it showed almost all aspects of the MLP fanbase as apposed as just the people who watch the show.

Overall i'm would say that both this film and A Brony Tale are equal in my eyes both have faults and both are worth watching and i'm sorry but i had to include a 20% cooler picture but i give this film a solid 5.5 out of 10

A Brony Tale Review

Hello there movie fans and animation fans with a new My Little Pony movie due out in October i thought i would talk about a few little known documentary's all about Bronies and the first one up is the 2014 film A Brony Tale.

The premise of this film is Ashleigh Ball prepares to visit Bronycon, the unusual fandom of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is explored. It's a really interesting premise as we have a star of the show who actually doesn't know that much about the brony fandom which is great to me because of the fact that she is willing to learn about this culture and not just judge them like most of society does.

Now i have to that altho Ashleigh is on the poster and is in the movie her story isn't the only one we also have several stories from the fans themselves and for me that was really interesting to see we got to see that the Bronies aren't 40 year old bald men there real people who have or have had real things happen to them and that was a really great because it would have been easy to have made the fans 40 year old bald men but the film chooses to focus on real people.

I'll admit that this film does start to drag on a bit near the end but i think that's because that outside of the main story there really isn't enough story to fill out the 80 minuet run time which is where the fan segments come in and while a lot of them are interesting there's alot which are just dull which is no fault of the film's but it's in the film so i have to mention it.

This guy right here is the perfect example of someone who isn't the type of brony you would think of when you first here the word brony why is that i here you ask well because he's actually known as the manliest brony and he actually offers some great insight like for example how boys are expected to like explosions and motorbikes and stuff like that and points out that there's nothing wrong with liking a cartoon made for girls which is true there's nothing wrong with liking a girls cartoon.

What i wasn't expecting from this film and it's something i'm glad about the film takes the time to go into the psychology of the brony culture and it turns out that bronies are the most emotionally stable and happy people out there and i think it's because of the lessons that the show teaches as well as the fact that they get to relax for half an hour and before anyone says it the film interviews two doctors who did a survey and found out that only a small percentage of the people they asked were gay.

As someone who respects voice actors it was great to see Ashleigh in the booth recording lines for the show and she does them as both Applejack and Rainbow Dash so for me it was like the characters were there in the room with me watching the movie which was pretty cool or at least i thought it was cool.

Overall i thought this was a very well done film that did offer some insight into the MLP fanbase and the next film on the subject i might be able to watch and review is Bronies The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony as for A Brony Tale i give it a solid 5.5 out of 10

    

Doctor Who "Oxygen" Spoiler Free Review

Hello there Doctor Who fans it's that time of the week once again and this time we are heading into outer space where no one can here you scream and here is my review of "Oxygen".

So then what is the plot of this space age episode i here you ask well The Doctor , Bill and Nardole answer a distress call and discover everything is not as it seems. In terms of plot that's really all i can say without giving away to much but what i really liked it about the episode is that it reminded me alot of the film Alien and that is by no means a bad thing.

We of course have Peter , Matt and Pearl who are all really good in this episode i feel like this is the episode were they really began to gel together and it shows on screen in terms of the guest cast we have Kieran Bew , Justin Salinger , Peter Caulfield , Mimi Ndiweni and Katie Brayben in all honesty the guest cast were good but i feel like there characters weren't given that much time for us to really get to know them but tho out of the guest cast i'd say my personal favorite was Mimi who just has this great look about her.

Now this episode does some really shocking things which i can't go into because there spoilers but i will say that one of things that happens looks like it will effect the next few episodes at least and i believe it's a first for the series to have this kind of thing happen to this certain character so for me it was really great to see it happen because now you have no clue what could come next.

Just like what i said before i cannot really talk much about the villains of this weeks episode since it's spoiler but i'm glad that they chose to do something totally different from the standard monster of the week and i think there's some form of social commentary in there as well but i'm not to sure about that.

Now like last weeks episode i'd say this is a horror themed episode and for me this couldn't come out at a better time since we also have the release of the new Alien movie but back to the show the scares in this episode i thought were really well done and they do what this show does best and they make ordinary things scary but i can't say what they are tho for obvious reasons.

Overall this was a really solid episode that gives you a few interesting ideas so for me this episode is a 8 out of 10

  

Why Is Sword Art Online So Popular?

Hello there anime fans i really wasn't planning on posting anything today but something has been bugging me and it's this simple question "Why Is Sword Art Online So Popular?" and it's something that i'm hopefully going to try and answer right now but i must first stress that since i havn't read the Light Novels and have only read the original manga and seen the seen anime i will mostly be focusing on the anime.

Now if i remember correctly the original author Reki Kawahara stated in an interview that he wrote the original SAO so it would be popular in America since Americans like games like World Of Warcraft and Call Of Duty so it would make sense that those kinds of mechanics would find there way into the anime.

Any SAO fan would tell you that even tho the writing is weak which lets be honest here it is that (the less said about the ALO arc the better) still doesn't stop the show from being fun for me this show is junk food for the brain you don't need to think to hard on things you just have to enjoy what's going on and for me nothing says fun like the over the top battle scenes which for me is an important thing because not all shows have to have this serious tone to them and because the show is fun it then allows for more character moments like the episode where Kirito and Asuna just lie in the grass that is something you couldn't do if you had this serious tone.

Another thing that i think makes the show the popular is the fact that nearly half the cast is made up of not only beautiful women but also strong and for some independent women as well i'll list Asuna as the prime example of someone who is beautiful , strong and independent even if she eventually turned into a weak character who would always relay on Kirito for everything but during that first arc she was pretty much the second in command to the group trying to find a way out of the game even Kirito wasn't doing that for most of that first arc. I'd say another example is Lisbeth who in her first episode was seen running her own shop i didn't see any other females doing that but like Asuna she eventually fell into the same trap as she let kirito do everything.

Now i think we can all agree on the fact that one of the best things about SAO was the artwork from a visual standpoint the show is a masterpiece even if you can't for some reason get past the overall funness of the show or the fact that it is pure junk food for the brain you might comeback just to see the backgrounds because they were always stunning to look at and for the most part they were nearly always different so you never knew what visual treat you was going to be getting next.

Adding to what i just said about the artwork another thing we can all agree on is the fact the animation during the fight scenes was fantastic and i think this is because the makers knew this is were they would get the most attention from he fans and also because i think that would go back to the likes of WOW and COD because the makers knew that if they wanted that American market they would need great looking action scenes and great looking action to go with it.

I'm not to sure if this is true or not but for me it is and that's the fact the music played a big part in the overall popularity of SAO from the fast paced roller coaster ride that was Crossing Field to the more emotionally driven second opening and even the opening themes of the second series music played a big part in this shows identity but tho that being said the music in the show while it was sometimes great to listen to they always replayed tracks almost to the point where it was annoying and upon a second viewing if you ever heard the track that plays at the end of episode 1 then you knew it was going to hit the fan.

I've already mentioned the lovely ladies of SAO but tho what else i think makes the show popular is the characters them selfs during the first arc they are treated like real people there flawed and not perfect and as i've mentioned several times already that does go away over time but for the characters i think it makes sense as there growing more confident but that still doesn't excuse the fact that Asuna went from a Xena like character to every cheerleader in every horror film made eve. In the first arc you buy into them because you either A) want to be them or B) have experienced the kind of issues that they themselves are going threw and that intern makes them more relatable.

Now since SAO is also a romance anime i have to mention how the show treats i romance which for me fells very natural since the people in SAO have been stuck in there for years it seems natural that they would fall in love with people inside the game yes the writing when it comes to romance could have and perhaps should have been better but since this show is also listen as an action show the makers chose more to focus on that aspect but tho for me as a viewer it was great getting to see Kirito and Asuna bond and go from people who just know each other to a couple.

The last thing that i think makes this show popular is the fact that it's not afraid to punch you in the gut sometimes and that for me makes the show feel more real and it adds to the characters in some way or another i can't recall her name but tho when that girl and her friends that Kirito had befriended  when they all died we got to see how that effected Kirito and not just for that episode either for the rest of the series we got to see him try even harder to save the people that he cares about because he doesn't want to feel that kind of pain ever again.

Overall these are just my humble opinions as to why the show was and still is popular but if you think otherwise then that's great and please feel free to tell me why in the comments below