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Let me first say that I'm an anime-only viewer. This series has potential, but I think it's been a mistake to lead off with these three episodes. First, they didn't do a great job at world-building. If I wasn't familiar with the mechanics of an MMORPG, I think a lot of what was going on would be confusing to me.
Second, their repetitive structure and disconnectedness from one another really didn't a good job of developing Kirito as a character. Really, all you get from these three episodes is that Kirito is a good guy, but a loner. Some might argue that you also see Kirito bear the pain of losing friends, but that applies to every character in SAO who remains alive, so its not really Kirito-specific. In fact, since he is a loner, he's probably lost fewer friends than most other SAO players.
As to the repetitive structure, the first three episodes have basically gone like this for Kirito:
In episode 1, Kirito befriends Klein, declines to join his guild, and walks off into the distance alone. In episode 2, Kirito befriends Asuna, belatedly tries to warn Diabel of the boss' threat, watches Diabel die, separates himself from the group by calling himself a beater, and walks off into the distance alone. In episode 3, Kirito befriends the Black Cats, belatedly warns them of the dungeon trap, watches them all die, fails in his attempt to resurrect Sachi, and he walks off into the distance alone.
In fact, episodes 2 and 3 essentially share the same plot structure!
The second problem is that these episodes have given us a bad sense of the passage of time and thus a poor sense of how Kirito has developed. By the end of episode 3, Kirito has been in-game for almost 14 months. It sure doesn't feel like that. Episode 1 took place over a day. Episode 2 starts almost a month later, and I think takes place over 2 days. Then Episode 3 starts 4 months later, Kirito is with the Black Cats for 2 months(?), then it skips ahead 6 months to his battle with Nicholas. This constant "speeding up" and "slowing down" of the passage of time makes it hard for the viewer to appreciate Kirito's development (and the strength of his bonds with those around him). As presented in the anime, Kirito spent more on-screen time talking to Diabel than he did to any of the Black Cats, save Sachi, so their deaths don't really have the impact on the viewer that they should, and the viewer doesn't really have a feel for how much Kirito's time and experiences in-game have affected him.
I really think this series would have been better off, like the LN, beginning in media res and sprinkling in these side stories throughout the narrative arc to better flesh out the reasons why Kirito is the way he is. At the very least, Episode 3 should have been moved later in the series, since it's basically a repeat of Episode 2. On the upside, if we are actually getting into the "main" story, these episodes might be soon forgotten.
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