I'm truly amazed how the first episodes faithfully followed the first 3 chapter of the first volume faithfully. It definitely puts my fears to rest, at the moment, about changing certain aspects of the series that made it really captivating and appealing.
It's the first episode and I'm seriously impressed and if it stays faithful to the novels, and keeps doing what it's doing, than we've got an awesome masterpiece of a series in our hands, animated wise.
I wonder if they'll tie in the Aincrad sides stories in the anime...can't wait to see where this goes.