Long story short...the story is going to be
long.
I've only skimmed through the Index subforum but I hope SAO can one day match up to that level.
Americans don't really have a broad impression of Japanese IMO. Mostly their views are influenced by whatever blockbuster hits were showing: with shows like Expendables, MI series, GI Joe, Oblivion, it's very easy to see why the general public has a worse impression of DPRK, Russians, Chinese, etc. The Japanese rank pretty low on the visibilty scale lol.
The ALO doujinshi initially held my interest for Suguha/Leafa, until half of them started turning out as NTR/cheating/mind-fcuk material. Doujinshi SAO-era focused on Asuna and Kirito IMO, because their romance was the mext biggest half of the plot after Kirito.