Quoted By:
sao isn't a harem anime or a game anime
the entire series, as in all of the main works in the novel series of which the two seasons cover most of the first 8 books, is all about blurring the lines between the real world and the virtual world. Placing characters in an environment like that and seeing how they react is where the real fun comes from. Watching the show with that sitting in the back of your mind changes how you might understand certain points. Like, the worlds they spend time in are more than just a game they boot up after school and waste time in for a few hours, with the hardware they're true alternate realities. I know that sounds like edgy second life-tier bullshit, but just take a moment to think and understand what it actually means. You are your own agent, beholden to nobody's expectations, and the worlds themselves are appealing in that they are distinctly not the physical world. You can feel like a lord of the rings hero with SAO, shoot magic from your fingertips and even fly in ALO, and then GGO as an honest to goodness true fps. They're worlds built so that people would want to experience them, so much more immersive than controllers and tv screens or even oculus-level VR, and thats what makes them real.
>"In this world, a single blade can take you anywhere you want to go. And even though it's a virtual world, I feel more alive in here than I ever did in the real one."
