Sword Art Online

[Zipzo]

I did not watch the animu, but I did read a little bit of the manga. I was not terribly impressed.

I will agree that Speed Grapher is definitely worth watching, though.

I'm holding off from reading any manga because I just don't want to spoil the show for myself.

[Mysterious-G]

Reading the novels - which after all are the source material - will let you get the most out of SOA. They are amazingly well written and the available translations are absolutely doing the job for us gaijins.

I would say the anime is fanservice to those who have read the novels more than anything else since the animation, art direction and soundtrack all make for a beautiful composition. Since they almost only included sidestories (so far), though, you cannot really speak of the anime as a coherent experience; the story is kind of all over the place.

Reading the manga in this case, put simply, probably is the way to make the worst of SOA.

[LionHeart-]

Wow! Thanks for sharing!

Just started to watch episode one and I'm loving it already. Just feels so true and its like all of us gamers already have a one to one connection with it. Sometimes I feel this is where Sega is trying to lead Phantasy Star Online 2 and this show completely reminds me of PSO/2. In the future though, something of this magnitude could be quite possible.

I lol'd at the beginning when he logs on and the nub confronts him. We have all been here, where we just wanted to go off on our own travels for the day, but a new person asks for help and we can't escape XD! They inevitably becomes your biggest ally and greatest gift as we further adventure deeper into the game.

I wasn't expecting the twist of actually using the real life person as the avatar, that was pretty cool. But at least it stops all the deceiving and actually grounds you in a way, so you don't do something stupid because you're a superficial avatar of yourself and get yourself killed in both worlds. The artwork, animation and music is pretty awesome if I say so myself. I've been anime deprived for so long, so probably why I am so excited lol!

Thanks again for this!

[Genoa]

Loved it, I feel they had a good grip on how people would actually react if it were a modern scenario.

With the exception of the part where... you die in the game you die in real life... I would love to try SAO if it was a real VRMMORPG

[Keilyn]

Reminds me more of dot hack. It doesn't feel original because of how deep I was involved in the dot hack games.

[Pirrip]

I'm only a few episodes into Sword Art Online and loving it so far...

But let me throw this out there while I'm here, Fun Fact:
Phantasy Star Online is cited as inspiration for .hack//sign

[SageMaster]

Spoiler!

I had to.

[Jakosifer]

So...

How about that new SAO?

[Ce'Nedra]

Still love it, the emotions are just as heavy though there is no death penalty now when you die.

I do miss the characters like Silica, Agil, Klein and Liz though...Only 1 episode kinda where they appear (the girls then)..I'm sure they didn't introduce them just for merely one episode and they got more roles in the novel...maybe I should read it... *Sudders at the thought of reading non manga*

Also incest