Sword Art Online is probably one of the most talked about anime over the internet in this year. For the most part, I think it's caused by audiences possess different level of background knowledge about
SAO series prior to the start of watching the anime series. Sparks fly as people who have seen the story for the first time clash with the light novel loyalists who see this as an adaptation of the original work disagree upon whether certain things in the series have been done well. Since I've never read any of the light novel, my opinion is purely based on the anime itself, not how well the anime adapted the light novel like much of the online discussions are about. On top of that, I've been intentionally avoiding any online discussion related to this topic just so that I won't be tainted by unnecessary information.
Overall,
Sword Art Online is a very enjoyable experience. Honestly, you can't talk about
SAO without thinking about or comparing to the anime started this genre, the
.hack//sign. In fact,
SAO is a lot more similar in concept to
.hack//sign than many others in the same genre since. But the
SAO really brought this genre up to a new level. First half of the series, it focuses mainly on the struggle of how people would behave when they found themselves trapped in a virtual world, while the second half introduces a slightly complex picture where family and friends are involved and the virtual reality is no longer life threatening. You can definitely tell
SAO's heritage in light novel as you wouldn't exactly call the story smooth flowing. It feels quite...chuncky. Because of that, there's a lack of "epicness" where it usually require a bit more continuous build up to achieve. Also, I think lack of climax of in the final fights attributed to it as well.
During the final episode, there's an interesting situation, where I think soon we might have to start to coup with in our own world: when the virtual reality you have experienced is so real, even life and death becomes part of it, how would you be able to hold your emotion within the virtual reality without letting it spill over into the true reality.
Final Scoreboard:
Drama: 93 (Highly dramatic)
Comedy: N/A
Action: 94 (Rather epic battles)
Art/Animation: 90 (Pretty good)
Sound/Music: 96 (Great music)
Character: 94 (Character centric)
Plot: 88 (Arcs)
Ending: 86 (Slightly anticlimactic)
Re-watch value: 60 - Could still be interesting
Overall: 89 - Lesser, but still epic enough
Recommendation: Purely from the anime itself, I think this is a rather epic and enjoyable. Maybe your opinion would be different if you have read the light novel and you're looking at it as an "adaptation". But as far as I'm concern, this is a good series that is well worth your time.