anime adaptation for SAO gets a 5.9/10 from me. now keep in mind i read the LNs up to the GGO arc before the anime aired, and i finished speed watching the ALO arc last night. oh, boy. i didn't think they would rush it that bad after what happened in the last two episodes of the SAO arc from what i can remember.
positives
- some great and beautiful soundtracks
- some fights were beautifully animated. short but sweet at the same time. you can tell they spent a pretty penny animating some of those fights.
negatives
- rushed some parts of the subplots
- final climax with heathcliff didn't impress me at all. i remember reading the LN for that scene, and i had a way better visual imagery of how it would go down
- details... i like details in whatever entertainment medium i read or watch. that is the one major pet peeve i have with this anime adaptation. the details the LN covered didn't make it into the dialogue. i.e. kirito's stats in ALO and how it worked. also the lack of a proper explanation about extra skills in SAO.
- some scenes not adapted in SAO and ALO. i.e. kirito not showing lisbeth the dual wield skill in the anime. and i understand why. it didn't fit into their budget to animate that scene.
- felt like improper storyboard planning of how each episode would go. this was especially obvious at how the ALO pacing went
just some negatives and positives i thought off the top of my head. i would have given it a lower score but hey, they gave us some fanservice of suguha! so i had to bump the rating up.