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