What this series needs. Is a complete reboot to build onto same overall plot but flesh out it as much as possible and instead of the boring as hell completely overused 2-cour broadcasting w/e shit, make as many episodes as needed to fully immerse into the world.
SAO arc - I could write more than page worth of Animesuki page talking about it that I won't or I'd try to cut down on talking about it massively. I will say one thing though, The Kirito and Asuna relationship is so far fetched it's not even funny. I don't see the appeal in it. Episode 2 we first meet her; she's quiet the loner herself. next episode apparently she's good with a stabbing sword but somehow doesn't know much about the game's UI even though it's been a month in game, The next time we see her she apparently took a level in badass and is just as good as our resident hero; From sheltered girl to demanding girl whose apparently on the front lines and is hot tempered. After the next few instances of the anime episodes, we get a romance. ? Ummm where did this happen? Because the damn show doesn't show much interaction between those two developing such bonds. They want to marry all of a sudden? Time flies when your having fun I guess, I didn't even know they were friends! acquaintances at best.
For me the whole damn thing was rushed. I blame the Author's fault, he clearly doesn't know what to write for romance. (I'll try and be more generous and blame the script but it's an adaption from a LN) The biggest fault the story has is rushing the damn arc itself. Personally I wouldn't mind a 100 or so episodes focusing on SAO to flesh out the two years. Characters came and went that its hard to 'bond' with the characters and cherish them; Sachi actually is an exception; no matter how much her
could have been avoided, but apparently story demands the hero go BSOD.
/sigh again i'll re-edit with more, this is time consuming lol
ALO arc - The whole urgency to see if Asuna was there up at the Tree is somewhat understandable, So for the biggest flaw and fail for this Arc is the way it was developed right from the beginning. Kirito going off to save the damsel in distress/captive. Oh she just so happened to have been one of the 300 people who Sugou re-routed, Diablo ex Machina/Contrived Coincidence much?
I think I'm one of the few who liked the arc, flaws not withstanding, Elfs? yes cliché but hey it's still interesting with difference racial bonuses(World of Warcraft anybody?) This arc features Suguha who we don't know much about; but hey this is were character development happens. We learn that she is in Kendo, and so on. Over the course of the arc we find out she has feelings for her brother... errr her cousin! (I'm one of the few if the only one that actually ship these two together, the whole KiritoXAsuna felt to rushed for me to enjoy(maybe with more content it could change)) while this somewhat overused plot point(w/e) is used (excuse me for my bias) over the course of two years of waiting for her 'brother' she had developed what I call the Florence Nightingale Effect, it happens. So while Kirito had feelings for Asuna, Suguha has feelings for Kirito (WTF its a love triangle, cliché but it happens lol(just look at the Snapped show on TV my mom likes it for some reason) not the point). Suguha who previously stated she detested VRMMO's, plays ALO to understand her brother, this most likely happened around a year after SAO came out. If that isn't love then I don't know what love is! lol.
lol I'm getting tired, I'll probably write more later. but there's some things to how I felt about the latter part of this anime.