As a SAO "enjoyer" the first season is alright, we don't talk about alfheim, ggo is barely better, alternative ggo was surprisingly decent, and although I haven't finished it yet, i've heard that alicization is the best season so far
Alicization is unironically great. Like it does so much to just not even be an SAO show anymore, and the result is a genuinely good fantasy pseudo-isekai
SAO is pretty schlocky all the way through, but still a totally watchable show. The only thing that really stuck out to me about Alicization was how much...unnecessary dismemberment there was.
I watched welcome to the NHK when I was really depressed myself. It made me feel better in a weird way cause when I see a piece of art that is able to portray the kinds of feelings I was struggling with it feels reassuring to know that other people understand those feelings well enough to portray them well in art.
I think my feelings would pretty drastically change if I had an attractive/cute girl trying her darnest to lift me out of depression (even with dubious morals)
Exactly I experienced the same....I was sort of in a hikikomori state when I watched it....I had been preparing for a college entrance for a year then and then suddenly I found myself in a state just after the demise of my beloved grandfather when I was literally not studying even a sec in a day when I should have been atleast studying 10 hrs a day....and that was when I watched this anime...it resonated so well with me ...I love this piece of art so much....and recommend it to every anime watcher
Melancholy, depression and being an outsider are topics from which you can form profound, resounding stories. I highly recommend books related to these themes because they may help you identify yourself even further, and maybe you could solve some problems if you have any. In case someone hasn't read these, The Stranger by Albert Camus and No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai are must reads.
Ludwig:"SAO is pretty good, alfheim is pretty wierd though" Audience:"Nods & shrugs in understanding" Ludwig:"FMA is long also bad" Audience:"Burn the Heretic!" Garnt also :" i havent finished FMA" Audience: " Burn the false idol aswell!"
As a SAO fan, 1st ARC is pretty good (not season), 2nd arc is bad (alfheim), 3rd is also pretty good (ggo), 4th is shitty (Excalibur), 5th is imo one of the best (mother's rosario), and alicization is the best by far. Also check progressive movies, they tell story of each floor one by one.
I don't know this Ludwig guy, but he seems chill. When someone interrupts him, he just lets them finish their thoughts and builds off what they say. Great conversationalist
I was a lot younger when I watched it but also same, in top 5 for me, maybe not now but I won't rewatch it because it was great for me back then. Most comedy anime I won't rewatch, because I prefer the find new anime or just want to let it live in the memory. Generally I think humor is very subjective and can change over time. Japanese humor isn't often the same as western, but that's why it could be very boring or very funny depending on who you ask, even the bois.
yeah I had the same reaction myself lol. How can you like animes like demon is a part timer and say Saiki sucked (I'm saying they have kinda similar comedy style, although saiki is even better imo)
My biggest problem with SAO is the villains, there’s only so many times the bad guy is bad because he is a molesters can be interesting and that number is maybe 1, even then it’s not very compelling. I think every season has had that be the motivation of a prominent villain, if not the main antagonist
Something I really don't like about SAO is that none of the villains are really memorable. The only one I can really remember is Kayaba, and even then he isn't great, but not just that, he legit feels like he could be a nice guy if they didn't give him the role of villain.
You read my mind. Honestly if Sao had a villain that knew Kirito on a personal level and he hated him because he did something that ruined his life it would be an amazing season. A Jason Todd (Red Hood) type of villain would work great with Sao. Season 2 was good because Kirito was questioning his morals because he killed a lot of people in Sao and he felt guilty. Having a villain that challenges him morally would be great for the show.
My first anime introduction wasn't SAO itself. It was SAO Abridged. My friend showed it to me and I got hooked on the comedy and enjoyed it so much when I got to like episode 5 in the series. I was wondering why it took like 5 months for an episode to come out. So I was looking it up to see any other sneak peaks for the Abridged episodes and found the actual anime instead and ended up watching it. My thoughts on it? It was like that one SAO Abridged episode where they ate that delicious rabbit and the rest of the food they ate tasted like shit.
Saiki K is hilarious, that's the one show that is like Gintama. But I do understand humor is a very subjective thing. Props that he loves welcome to the nhk
@@erick5538 Gintama is an anime that starts off very slow, but once the ball gets rolling most people generally love it. This is coming from someone who dropped it after 10 episodes, saw a fight scene on UA-cam, picked it back up, and has remained my favourite show for 10 years.
Gintama humor kinda mid, NHK is just not a comedy, Saiki K and Daily Life of Highschool Boys the only 2 actually funny anime tho Aho Girl is pretty funny and Seitokai Yakuindomo
I love gintama but I agree For newcomers,it’s definitely a slog to watch in order to get good and I can’t blame anyone if they don’t enjoy it or think it’s funny Not to mention,most of the best jokes in the show is like after 100+ episodes
“So slow”, for FMAB. It’s an interesting opinion when you think about it. Constant stimulation is sometimes what people want, and if you are not used to a media you can miss judge the subtlety of a story as bad pacing. I believe that the same thing can be said with Connor and his distaste for story in games.
That's why people dislike the Farm arcs, Monster, or anything that takes it's time to slowly develop the story and characters I think a lot of people take for granted that media isn't always made to be binged. Bingeable does not necessarily mean better
@@Ash_Wen-li I agree, binge culture has damaged good series. Stopping and ruminating to think about the story is important for some series. And I see you admiral Admiral Yang, a truly cultured man.
Yeah, it was really weird to hear Ludwig say that. I think that FMA:B EASILY has some the best pacing of any anime. Memes aside, there's a reason why it's been the no. 1 rated anime on MAL since its release in 2010.
@@Ash_Wen-li I love some deep stuff and long development characters story, but i finished Monster week ago and DAMN it's bad example... it has SO repeatitive scenes and stuff, SO lazy exposition, SO many logic fucked up and in the end it have not conclusion at all, it feels all for nothing, i know it's "cult masterpiece show", but... i feel so disspointed, it has really big troubles but not many people want to talk about because Connor logic with FMA (it's best show, mal say it's number 1). And i love noir, detective, mystery and don't mind about not fast paced stuff. Welp.
I actually got bored watching FMA:B. Idk what it was but the only motivation i had to watch it was that people were saying that is one of the best anime of all time. I didn't think it was bad but there wasn't anything that attached me to want to know what would happen. When you learn about the homunculous it became a little more interesting but it wasn't that much to me. Just sharing this because i never saw someone say the same and ludwig comment remind me of this. :)
When they talked about anime where there are different types of crying, I feel like one of the only anime that I've watched that truly put me in my feels was 86 not just like a sad song got me going but an actual feeling of the characters and there sadness that truly fucked me up the night I watched it.
I used to hate SAO back in the day but recently gave it a full rewatch from start to finish and I gotta say, it is a flawed series that makes some critical missteps but is not NEARLY as bad as people make it out to be. And btw Alicization was actually really freaking good! The world building in the Underworld was very interesting, the side characters were charming as hell, the fight scenes were fantastic, the emotional moments were genuinely heart breaking, the soundtrack was a banger, and Kirito even became a much more engaging protagonist. SAO is not perfect, but it’s certainly not bad.
yea sao isnt bad its just the alfeim arcs they are so fucking bad like 2nd half of season 1, second half of season 2 also that one arc with the cancer girl was the worst and most pointless shit ive ever seen. ggo wasnt that bad i thought it was cool and aliciazation is pretty good especially the first season of that arc
@@sweatyman1234 I almost fully agree. Only thing I’d argue is that Mother’s Rosario is actually a pretty good arc. Some of SAO’s most important themes are the idea that you can make a genuine connection through the medium of MMOs, and the value of escapism. We see this with how Asuna shows her mother what the game means to her and how she’s able to forge a lifelong bond with Yuuki, a girl who is terminally ill that was given an opportunity to live a somewhat fulfilling life through ALO, albeit a short one, despite all her suffering.
Man them taking about crying when they are supposed to compared to when you don’t know why you are crying was, reminded me of the MHA school festival when Ari’s darkness leaves and she’s smiling I was in tears, such a beautiful moment
Ludwig: Fullmetal alchemist having a lot of recap. Me (dude who wasted time by watching EVERY episode of One Piece anime): Those are rookie numbers New guy.
@@jetblue2758 the problem is either you or the voice actors are literally going to die of old age before it's finished because of its God awful pacing. Literally the people that directs it should lose thier jobs.
On the subject of FMA, I think people often look down on the 2003 version. Sure 2003 version has "lots of problems" that people don't like while FMAB has a good adaptation that follows the manga's ending, but the 2003 version has a different feel to it. Honestly, even if I still like FMAB a lot, 2003 version has some impact on me that I will never forget, and this is coming from someone who grew up with FMAB instead of 2003 (watched FMAB first instead of 2003).
I feel that, until they caught up with the manga, 03 was absolutely incredible in its own right. While, maybe aside from Lust, I think FMAB had better written and more interesting versions of every character, 03's mood and atmosphere was a character in its own right. Not to say FMAB doesn't have that, it absolutely does, but 03 brought something so raw that I struggle to put it into words. Never seen anything quite like it. Overall, I find 03 was great until it went off the rails closer to the end and that the manga/FMAB have an almost too-quick start but no single bad episode/volume and treats every one of its characters with the same level of care, even if they're tertiary.
@@mythlessrwf ye same I actually really liked Danganronpa V3’s ending even though a lot of people didn’t. I thought it was unique and I actually was not expecting it at all
Madoka Magica was my Silver Spoon. You absolutely weren't supposed to cry at the end, it's just not that kind of anime. But, at the end of Rebellion, I definitely cried more at that than Angel Beats or any of those tear-jerker shows
Madoka Magica is good but compared to regular magical girl animes it aint the best. Regardless of how it's trying to be opposite of regular magical girl shows.
@@antidave It's not the best at being a magical girl anime, but that's not why I love it. I love it because it's a uniquely tragic anime with an incredibly loveable cast and constantly the best twists I've seen in an anime. It's definitely better than magical girl anime I've seen, but that's because I don't like magical girl anime, I like Madoka Magica.
For both main series and rebellion, i didn't do more than tear up for the endings. I was more just in shock at how insane yet perfect the cosmic conclusions were. But on rewatch, after letting the themes and arcs of the characters sink in, tears went running for SEVERAL scenes (especially the kyosaya scene in Rebellion, I rewatch that constantly ;-;)
I've just got around to SAO (halfway through S2) and it's pretty good. Is it amazing or mind blowing? No, but it's good enough and I enjoy it. Equally I don't disagree that "Oh you just gotta wait until X episodes in for it to get good" is a bad thing but sometimes it takes time for a story to build. You could just read/ watch a synopsis to that point and then dive in. I was told that about TPB (Trailer park boys) because I hated it at first, but then I got it and love the show. But to each their own.
The most memorable anime for me is Monster. Watched it on a whim not expecting to finish it but damn, after a few episodes i craved more until i reached the end in no time.
I’m watching it right now and it’s so captivating. I feel like every moment I’m not watching it I want to be. I don’t think I’ve been this invested in a story for a real long time.
I stopped watching FMAB at the 30s as well, but about 6 months later i gave it another go and i got through it, so while i completely understand Ludwig, it is still good. 8/10.
I don't think shows like Hunter x Hunter, One Piece, FMAB are good for people who have only watched a few anime. They're better at around the 50 shows watched mark as I trried to watch Hunter x Hunter when I first started watching anime and couldn't get past the first arc because things got dragged on for some long. However I attempted to watch it again after about 400 shows and was able to binge it in about a week.
I watched both FMAB and original quite late since I was sure it would be a masterpiece after seeing all of the high rating it has gotten on various anime sites. And I honestly dont understand how it can possibly be above an 8. I had to watch both just to make sure i wasnt going crazy/missing something but it didnt change my opinion on it one bit sadly
The beginning is what turned me off at first, I quit around episode 10 at first because I was getting bored of the story, but once the homunculi were introduced the show became a straight s tier for me
@@tgmaps wrong. I started watching anime two years ago, and FMAB was one of the first shows I watched and I immediately LOVED it. Still to be topped in many aspects.
I feel like I'm in the minority when I say I didn't cry during Your Lie in April. I genuinely enjoyed it and the ending did make me feel emotional but more so happy that I watched it and enjoyed it.
For me, choosing a anime to watch is like choosing a place to eat. It all depends what you are in the mood for. A show could be the best mystery of all time, but if I'm not in the right headspace for a mystery and rather watch a comedy, then I'd won't enjoy the mystery shows as much as I should.
To me the reason sao is in my top ten is due to the idea of full dive VR. It’s a technology that peaks on the edge of science fiction but is still grounded enough that you can see that technological actually becoming something in the future
The basic premise and stuff isnt really that bad, the issue is the pacing and the weird shit - you can get away with the weird shit if the pacing was a lot slower. Garnt trying to avoid saying Alicization is good is the issue with anime industry - its actually a lot better, its good as is WoU. Is it top tier, ehhh - no but its still good and enjoyable.
I find Garnt's take on SAO very agreeable. The internet is full of mindless sheep that hate on SAO bc it's cool, but looking back, it had a great premise and good execution for the first few episodes (before the "haremization" happened). Alicization went on to expand what SAO 1's premise lacked. It was even more action-packed, emotional, entertaining, and it had decent plot progression and a greater focus on world-building. Now, SAO Progressive added and will be adding more depth to the characters and the events of SAO 1. My personal worry right now is how Progressive could potentially add more plotholes to the main storyline. So far, the hate for SAO is justified but excessive.
Personally I don't hate SAO because it's cool. I hate it because I hate the main characters. I only watched the first season because I kept hoping Klein from the first episode would come back but he was rarely seen.
Unironically Alicization is genuinely great. I'm someone who CAN enjoy the whole of SAO but totally agrees most of it was bad. Alicization is different though. It does so much to make itself barely an SAO show anymore and as a result it becomes an actually good story. Kirito, for the first time, is actually kinda likeable and an engaging character. And also for a first time, the side characters are actually really likeable and engaging as well, Eugeo is better than Asuna was, and Alice is great. There's none of this back and forth between the real and fake world, there's like MAYBE 15 minutes of screentime spent in the real world during the first 12 episodes once Kirito is actually in the simulation. The story feels focused and like each episode actually matters instead of being filler. There's way less fanservice, in fact generally the female characters are actually GOOD, and don't all get insta-crushes on Kirito. It's animation is a big step up, the coloring and lighting as actually REALLY good, especially compared to how SAO used to not really do anything special with its visual style. The soundtrack is the best it's ever been with some real good action bangers. The world is genuinely interesting with some unique concepts. It's pacing is fairly good actually. And there are some really good fights and battles. Alicization is a major step up from previous SAO (even tho the movie before it is actually decent). I was really surprised. Especially when it started doing stuff that is genuinely interesting. Like how the world Kirito is in is a simulation, all the characters in it are AI who have basically full free-will and autonomy except for a tiny bit of free-will left to develop. So an interesting thing is the magic system in this simulation is coding. Like when they want to do a Light spell to make a glowing orb to see in the dark they say stuff like "system command, generate luminous element". To them those are just magic words to do incantations, but to us we recognize that these AI are using magic by unwittingly CODING the simulation in real time. That's cool as a shit. There's actual cool concepts in SAO now. It's worth noting Alicization season 2 is a massive departure from Alicization season 1. It's still actually pretty good, but where season 1 was mostly character focused and more small scale, season 2 is a lot more action focused with big battles. And they actually did something really surprising given what SAO is, Kirito isn't really a character in season 2. I won't spoil what that means, but while he's "there", he basically doesn't exist within the story until the end of the season. Alice takes his place as the MC. That's a big thing for a show that used to be such a "self-insert OP MC" kinda story.
My only real complaint about SAO is the whole harem aspect of it and how unnecessary it is to include it in the story. Like, Eugeo legit got CUCKED by his best friend.
@@izutonura810 I'd say basically all of the first season except for the first few episodes is bad, the first half of GGO is okay and then only one of the arcs in the second half of GGO is good. So technically not "most", but it's the same idea. A very significant chunk of SAO is bad. And when you count the stuff that's just okay, then it does become the majority of the show isn't good.
Sound! Euphonium This is a good type of cry anime Little bit of hamfisty, campy drama, but if you’ve EVER been a part of a club or a group, you know exactly what this anime has in store for you. This, at one point, was my top of the list S tier. It has since been shifted down to A, as S tier are reserved for things I can watch repeatedly, and this is kind of a one and done type of show. Short. Heartfelt. Worth your time. Likely to make you happy cry.
7:05 the anime that got me really crying (i'm not the guy who cry ez ) violet evergarden omg that moment when when she cry like a baby for that dying mother who wrote the 50 letter for her daughter so she can receive them on her birthday every year after her death😢 that got my tear running from my eyes i didn't even realize that i'm crying 😅 after the ep end i was like 'oh god that a hell of emotion'
I have to say, Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome To The NHK are such amazing worthwhile trips, and the most striking thing about them is how closely they tie in to real world issues. Lain addressed losing one's identity online and becoming something completely different YEARS before even cable internet was a normal thing, while Welcome To The NHK faced depression, self-worthlessness and disenfranchisement in a very point-blank, completely unabashed manner. Both are masterpieces worth a really deep watch. But if you really want a really good comedy anime, I have 2 for you - Seto No Hanayome, and Hinamatsuri.
Sword Art Online is like the default skin of anime, not the best, but not bad either, has mostly every trope and storytelling devices anime has, and is many people's first anime.
The thing with anime is that when you started everything and anything gets you hooked. SAO is actually pretty good for the first 15 or so episodes after that I don't think it's worth it.
I logged into youtube just so I can agree with Ludwig. SAO was the first anime I watched and that was the gateway for anime to me. AND its is in my top 3 because of that. (only the first part tho)
I know this is (probably more than) a year late, but if you enjoyed it I'd recommend checking out Paranoia Agent (and Satoshi Kon's work in general), or Bokurano, or Serial Experiments Lain. All three of them are seriously great psychological shows
My first watch through of brotherhood I dropped it about half way through. I like it, but I was not in the right headspace for it. I watched it again last year all the way with my mom and we both enjoyed it.
I don't usually write comments, but this is too close to me. SAO was the 1st anime that I watched after a long period, essentially starting from scratch my acquaintance with the genre, and I was so captivated and clicked that I would never trade any other title (even though it is #1 on MALe, by the way 2003 FMA is better , deal with it Connor), and when I found out a few years later that everyone hates him so much, I just didn’t understand why, welp, it doesn’t matter. But here's what's important - Welcome to NHK was already in the 2nd row of the anime when I started to dig deep and it affected me so emotionally, spiritually, on all levels, that I still haven't found anything similar in terms of experience. So yes, I exist, a person who likes SAO (to be fair, season 1 of course, but I heard about the last good one) and I consider Welcome to NHK a great anime with a therapeutic effect, because I'm still in severe depression but it helped me in my time is very strong, rarely about which anime I can say such words, so don’t care about the opinions of others - what matters is what you find for yourself, because what most people like most often doesn’t come to me (mal), you need to have your own search inside and tastes. Unfortunately, it saddens me that the anime community has a very high level of snobbery and hatred, so I never discuss my tastes, but here I heard a way familiar to me, oddly enough. And it's interesting that I only watch anime when I have a complete fucked up in my life, it's not up to comedies, but it saves.
Alicization is really good right until the end where it falls apart because special boy kirito has to save the day with deus ex machina bullshit again. This was the one chance they had where everyone else could have shown that they are competent but we cant have that. I was genuinely angry during the last couple episodes, to a degree i still am.
I liked alicisation up until the end of the first part where they beat the purple haired admin girl. The part later just regressed back to plain old SAO but a girl cares for Potato Kirito...I stopped watching at that point.
I entirely believe Ludwig watched 30 episodes of FMAB and dropped it. If he said 50, he's lying, but I remember being pretty bored and taking a break around when they go to the north area.
whenever i hear about promised neverland, my heart can't take it. I 200 percent agree with joey, garnt and connor, watching the second season was torcher to me.I was crying while watching the season 2 but these tears were quite different from what ive experienced at the end of season 1
The bois: 99% of comedy anime isn't actually funny. Me: *Laughs at 99% (not exactly but you know) of anime even if it's not labelled comedy* Does that just make me an excessively giggly person? 😁
@@trpys I agree, I sometimes struggle when they talk about anime as I tend to disagree with Connor and Joey, my anime taste is a lot closer to Garnt's. Joey anime taste is just bad in the sense that he is an elitist.
It’s more just the reality of Japanese humour really not translating that well into western humour. Some are able to get past that hurdle while still embodying that kinda humour. I like Saiki K but I found the majority of its comedy whatever.
3:43 YEEES. Welcome to the NHK is my favorite anime too. 4:59 "It is the worst first anime, if you've never [watched anime before]." Soo ironic.. It was actually the FIRST EVER anime I EVER watched. Prior to that, I thought anime was creepy and weird, but PewDiePie mentioned WTTNHK in a video. So I watched it out of curiosity. When it ended, I was blown away and I craved more. So to this day I still watch anime. I'm pleasantly surprised that this is Ludwig's favorite, but it truly is one of the greats.
Gintama is literally the best of both worlds. It's down right comedy and also some serious shit. Virtually has no flaws and was even higher than FMA until the fans review bombed it lol
I'm 35 and i've been watching anime and reading mangas since around 13~14, that is to say that basically my taste into it changed A LOT! A good example is that i used to love shit like Love Hina, Tenshi Muyo, but now i hate Harem/Ecchi anime/manga with all my heart!! I also used to love "brainless" Shounen like DBZ, Naruto and others, but nowdays i think it's kinda boring if the character/world building is bad or the story isn't interesting, wich is why i'm more into Seinen nowdays With all that being said, SAO is one of those animes that my opinion didn't really change a lot with time... I think it's a pretty solid anime and i 100% agree with ludwig here 2:10, from time to time i catch myself rewatching a few episodes that i really like (specially the first 2 and the one with the "The Gleam Eyes") ... I actually have no idea why it's "cool" to hate SAO nowdays since back in the day it was THE anime! Sure, there are things to dislike and a lot of cliches (like i said, i hate harem and also incest), but it's not all that bad compared to a lot of mainstream animes (like Re:Zero for example). Nobody asked, but here's my opinion in all SAOs in the order that i've watched: *Aincrad:* Pretty good (despite all the filler episodes) *ALO:* Whatever... (but i liked the Calibur arc) *Phantom Bullet:* Not bad, i guess? It changed things up adding guns in the mix (but no, i'll NEVER watch GGO! I'm sorry, but even if it's good, i can't stomach a Loli in full pink as the mc...) *Mother's Rosario:* Really good!! (possibly my favorite season) *Alicization:* Whatever... (but i loved the animation and audio quality/SFXs) *Ordinal Scale:* Really good!! *Progressive:* Pretty good!
SAO is a straight male power fantasy. That's why ppl hate it. The main reason I liked it as a kid is bc i was trans and didn't know it and being a princess in a castle waiting for a prince appealed to my heavily repressed sense of femininity. For most people, and for me rewatching now, the visuals and designs are pretty sick and the music is sick but the plot is just no.
As an avid brotherhood enjoyer, I am embarrassed to say that I did lose interest after episode 62, without looking at the episode list, not knowing I was 2 episodes away
Alicization actually had a pretty strong start in my opinion. It ditched most of Kirito’s overpoweredness and most importantly the power of friendship. Then they killed that towards the half-way point and reverted everything back to the basic SAO formula. (Spoiler ahead) I stopped watching after the main villain is about to kill Sinon and then her Necklace starts glowing and the spirit of Kirito saves her somehow lmaooo It’s really a shame since I was really into it and the higher stakes involved since every enemy seemed equal to or stronger than Kirito.
My only problem with alicization was that Kirito could come out of the game at any time because of the poison, he only really helped because he had nothing better to do
Yeah I definitely agree Alicization was amazing at the start with amazing new characters. Towards the part where everyone's back to being OP, I just gave up, turned my brain off and enjoyed the fights and animations. I feel like they do that because SAO fans just like to see power fantasy stuff and Kirito beating everyone with absurd plot armor. The only thing that set Alicization apart from the rest was the much better writing after the shit show of a writing from 2004 Reki.
Feel like starting a war now, I found SAO more enjoyable than I did FMAB, which I also dropped part way through, not saying Sao is a better show, just saying I enjoyed it more, felt like there was things to be excited for in sao where in fmab I was like just watching it because it was the number 1
Same case for me too. After 7 years of watching anime, enjoyment is what matters the most. Fck what anyone says is good. What's important is, "Will I enjoy it?".
@@soulblade3291 yeah like you just get bad anime that you enjoy and good ones you find boring, such as I don’t really like fmab but I enjoy other anime that aren’t really that good by general definition an example is Japan sinks, although for the wrong reasons 💀
Honestly, as someone who has watched SAO up until its recent arc Alicization, I can say that, to me, it is a genuinely good show. My issue with the franchise as a whole is probably the last episodes of Alfheim and the sexualization of the female characters. I did not like how that villain went over the top with Asuna. The girl characters being raped was something that annoys me. The whole "incest" thing didn't annoy me nor was the whole Kirito being "OP and two-dimensional" wasn't an issue. I'm probably in that minority who find it hard to absolutely hate on the show. I'd give SAO as a whole a minimum 7 to 8 out of 10. I don't know why but the show worked for me.
People hate it so much not because it's actually that horrendously bad, it's because it's overhyped and it became a trend to hate on it, after seeing some reviews for the show, I can see the glaringly obvious flaws in the show, but I still enjoyed it a lot.
I definitely recommend both of the new alicization arcs. I waited a year before I started the first one because I didn't hear great things about it, but then I finished both in a couple of weeks and they evoked some of the same emotion i felt the first time i watched the first arc.
Weeb community outside japan hate SAO because of that certain scene from alfheim and I felt angry too but I learned that japanese viewer's love SAO so I tried to continue to watch the whole series (except the latest movie bec I didn't watched it yet), and for me SAO is really a great anime.
It’s kinda weird not hearing about AoT, the actual GOAT of modern classics regardless the ending issues. 1. Death Note: After a certain someone dies..don’t need to watch further. Good for critiquing every single action taken by Light tho. 2. SAO to me peaked on Alicization arc. Soon Entering Elon Vs Jeff arc on space. 3. DBS is dragon ball evolving in storytelling n by introducing Zeno, actually creating a world power creep which cannot be surpassed easily regardless the genre of any entertainment medium. Plus, Freiza can say the “N” word now. 4. FMA like Garnt haven’t watched n feel like don’t need to. 5. Naruto the Goat of fillers n emotions 6. One punch the previous troll actually getting serious now. 7. One piece the definition of anime 8. Demon Slayer: Naruto without fillers n swords..also literal babysitter for Japanese kids. NB: Ufotable’s flex ground 9. Gintama..teaches anime n meaning of fillers. 10. Konosuba..the reason I enjoy anime..aka the casual anime 11. Re: Zero …no worries..he’ll get a good ending 12. Tonikaku…Yes yes yes 13. Jojo: Connor 14. Mushoku tensei: definition of isekai 15. High School DxD ..Def of Ecchi with a good plot n def of protag not doing he should be doing like Testament of Sisters 16. Silent Voice & Your name : If you watched these..don’t really need to watch other 99% anime original movies..all the same point.
2:01 While I primarily stayed away from most SAO series, I did watch the Gun Gale Online spin off and really liked it. Can't say that much about the others.........Alicization wasn't BAD but I did drop it like it's hot at about the half way mark.
Garnt gasping in disbelief/distaste when Ludwig revealed he watched SAO to him saying he watched all of the recent shows is such a Garnt thing to do
He does review of all seasonal animes so ... he kinda watches everythig
EY STRAY KIDS
not to mention looking around nervously when they mention fma lol
@@nikolafrancetic5059 well, except fma apparently lol
As a SAO "enjoyer" the first season is alright, we don't talk about alfheim, ggo is barely better, alternative ggo was surprisingly decent, and although I haven't finished it yet, i've heard that alicization is the best season so far
oh easily. the animation is something else and it’s genuinely nice to watch. not insanely good but definitely good for SAO standards
Alicization is unironically great. Like it does so much to just not even be an SAO show anymore, and the result is a genuinely good fantasy pseudo-isekai
It is better, but still has it flaws, however the movie Progressive is the best SAO thus far
SAO is pretty schlocky all the way through, but still a totally watchable show. The only thing that really stuck out to me about Alicization was how much...unnecessary dismemberment there was.
I love alicization but damn do I hate the sound the swords make when the characters get into a sword clash struggle. Like nails on a chalk board
I watched welcome to the NHK when I was really depressed myself. It made me feel better in a weird way cause when I see a piece of art that is able to portray the kinds of feelings I was struggling with it feels reassuring to know that other people understand those feelings well enough to portray them well in art.
I think my feelings would pretty drastically change if I had an attractive/cute girl trying her darnest to lift me out of depression (even with dubious morals)
I screwed up and went to watch it just now and my dumb self started on the last episode. Fuck
Exactly I experienced the same....I was sort of in a hikikomori state when I watched it....I had been preparing for a college entrance for a year then and then suddenly I found myself in a state just after the demise of my beloved grandfather when I was literally not studying even a sec in a day when I should have been atleast studying 10 hrs a day....and that was when I watched this anime...it resonated so well with me ...I love this piece of art so much....and recommend it to every anime watcher
Melancholy, depression and being an outsider are topics from which you can form profound, resounding stories. I highly recommend books related to these themes because they may help you identify yourself even further, and maybe you could solve some problems if you have any. In case someone hasn't read these, The Stranger by Albert Camus and No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai are must reads.
@@mikael9325 I admit I don’t read nearly as much as I should but those sound interesting so I’ll try and check them out.
I will always defend the first three episodes, those were pretty good, they showed what SAO as a survival game could have been
When it came out it was the best thing that year
sao abridged is better than the anime at this point
@@Federico-1 Other anime came out that year, so no.
First 12*
@@jacobnorris8256 ua-cam.com/video/nbhPb8kEbA8/v-deo.html
Ludwig:"SAO is pretty good, alfheim is pretty wierd though"
Audience:"Nods & shrugs in understanding"
Ludwig:"FMA is long also bad"
Audience:"Burn the Heretic!"
Garnt also :" i havent finished FMA"
Audience: " Burn the false idol aswell!"
To be fair. Brotherhood has some massive problems and is only good if you first watched the original FMA.
@@henkfinkers3931 nah, watched it by itself and it’s still very good
@@henkfinkers3931 Don't know why you should watch FMA. No one needs to do it.
@@Layer-v5h brotherhood is great and I really enjoyed it but the pacing is absolute garbage especially at the start.
@@henkfinkers3931 That's why I always recommend watching the 2003 FMA. Brotherhood condenses the firs 30 episodes of characterization into 12.
"Sakamoto is just Mr.Bean but a gigachad" Is probably the most analytically concise phrase about anime that's ever come out of Joey's mouth lmao
As a SAO fan, 1st ARC is pretty good (not season), 2nd arc is bad (alfheim), 3rd is also pretty good (ggo), 4th is shitty (Excalibur), 5th is imo one of the best (mother's rosario), and alicization is the best by far. Also check progressive movies, they tell story of each floor one by one.
You forgot to mention how all the themesongs are fire and Lisa is a freaking godess
Dude, the first arc slaps. Yes Kirito is broken op, but it felt really visceral in the first few episode before Kiritos op powers showed up
Honestly I thought SAO had that one amazing season then all the spinoffs have been subpar. I'll have to watch all of it now then.
Excalibur oddly enough is one of my favorites it reminds me of dicking about with friends in games
Facts, that's why we got sao progressive now
I don't know this Ludwig guy, but he seems chill. When someone interrupts him, he just lets them finish their thoughts and builds off what they say. Great conversationalist
Ludwig brother we know it’s you man you can’t fool us that easily
When he said saiki k sucked I was stunned for a few seconds. Hands down one of the funniest shows I’ve seen
I was a lot younger when I watched it but also same, in top 5 for me, maybe not now but I won't rewatch it because it was great for me back then. Most comedy anime I won't rewatch, because I prefer the find new anime or just want to let it live in the memory. Generally I think humor is very subjective and can change over time. Japanese humor isn't often the same as western, but that's why it could be very boring or very funny depending on who you ask, even the bois.
yeah I had the same reaction myself lol. How can you like animes like demon is a part timer and say Saiki sucked (I'm saying they have kinda similar comedy style, although saiki is even better imo)
Me too
for an anime, it's hilarious
i didn't enjoy it as much because of the dub, and a lot of jokes went over my head i felt in sub
Garnt's eye flicking when FMA is being mentioned is funny at 2:48, like a oh no, don't you dare drag me into this discussion again.
My biggest problem with SAO is the villains, there’s only so many times the bad guy is bad because he is a molesters can be interesting and that number is maybe 1, even then it’s not very compelling. I think every season has had that be the motivation of a prominent villain, if not the main antagonist
That only happened in the back half of the first season, and I guess there was a bit of that in Alicization, and they weren't the main villains then
Something I really don't like about SAO is that none of the villains are really memorable. The only one I can really remember is Kayaba, and even then he isn't great, but not just that, he legit feels like he could be a nice guy if they didn't give him the role of villain.
You read my mind. Honestly if Sao had a villain that knew Kirito on a personal level and he hated him because he did something that ruined his life it would be an amazing season. A Jason Todd (Red Hood) type of villain would work great with Sao. Season 2 was good because Kirito was questioning his morals because he killed a lot of people in Sao and he felt guilty. Having a villain that challenges him morally would be great for the show.
Tohru Adachi is one of the few cases where a molester villain is actually an interesting character.
yea it really lacks in depth when the villians are always chaotic evil
I’ve literally never heard anyone even mention silver spoon. It’s one of my favorites I’m so happy Ludwig not only watched it but liked it.
@RiptideRambo majority of anime watchers are just normies
2:45 this felt like Ludwig gone off the script then everybody reacts and somehow get along with it. lmao
My first anime introduction wasn't SAO itself. It was SAO Abridged. My friend showed it to me and I got hooked on the comedy and enjoyed it so much when I got to like episode 5 in the series. I was wondering why it took like 5 months for an episode to come out. So I was looking it up to see any other sneak peaks for the Abridged episodes and found the actual anime instead and ended up watching it. My thoughts on it? It was like that one SAO Abridged episode where they ate that delicious rabbit and the rest of the food they ate tasted like shit.
I thought I was the only one who firstly watched Abridged! I am glad to be wrong!!
Yeah the writing on SAO abridged is so much better than the original. It has so many interesting characters and filled plot holes.
SAO abridged was better than the original by far, it's kind of hilarious
@@Mo_Egan plot holes don't exist bud
@@RabbiB0Y huh
That fucking hurt. I loved Saiki K
^
It's funny and amazing comdy show,
HunterXhunter is best anime. Facts
Fr it’s so funny
Saiki K is hilarious, that's the one show that is like Gintama. But I do understand humor is a very subjective thing.
Props that he loves welcome to the nhk
Yeah, I couldn't get into gintama or saiki k
Saiki K is brilliant and my top teir anime. Never watch Gintama but heard of it. Need to watch that anime.
@@erick5538 Gintama is an anime that starts off very slow, but once the ball gets rolling most people generally love it. This is coming from someone who dropped it after 10 episodes, saw a fight scene on UA-cam, picked it back up, and has remained my favourite show for 10 years.
Gintama humor kinda mid, NHK is just not a comedy, Saiki K and Daily Life of Highschool Boys the only 2 actually funny anime
tho Aho Girl is pretty funny and Seitokai Yakuindomo
I love gintama but I agree
For newcomers,it’s definitely a slog to watch in order to get good and I can’t blame anyone if they don’t enjoy it or think it’s funny
Not to mention,most of the best jokes in the show is like after 100+ episodes
“So slow”, for FMAB. It’s an interesting opinion when you think about it.
Constant stimulation is sometimes what people want, and if you are not used to a media you can miss judge the subtlety of a story as bad pacing.
I believe that the same thing can be said with Connor and his distaste for story in games.
That's why people dislike the Farm arcs, Monster, or anything that takes it's time to slowly develop the story and characters
I think a lot of people take for granted that media isn't always made to be binged. Bingeable does not necessarily mean better
@@Ash_Wen-li I agree, binge culture has damaged good series. Stopping and ruminating to think about the story is important for some series.
And I see you admiral Admiral Yang, a truly cultured man.
Yeah, it was really weird to hear Ludwig say that. I think that FMA:B EASILY has some the best pacing of any anime. Memes aside, there's a reason why it's been the no. 1 rated anime on MAL since its release in 2010.
@@Ash_Wen-li I love some deep stuff and long development characters story, but i finished Monster week ago and DAMN it's bad example... it has SO repeatitive scenes and stuff, SO lazy exposition, SO many logic fucked up and in the end it have not conclusion at all, it feels all for nothing, i know it's "cult masterpiece show", but... i feel so disspointed, it has really big troubles but not many people want to talk about because Connor logic with FMA (it's best show, mal say it's number 1). And i love noir, detective, mystery and don't mind about not fast paced stuff. Welp.
I actually got bored watching FMA:B. Idk what it was but the only motivation i had to watch it was that people were saying that is one of the best anime of all time. I didn't think it was bad but there wasn't anything that attached me to want to know what would happen. When you learn about the homunculous it became a little more interesting but it wasn't that much to me. Just sharing this because i never saw someone say the same and ludwig comment remind me of this. :)
When they talked about anime where there are different types of crying, I feel like one of the only anime that I've watched that truly put me in my feels was 86 not just like a sad song got me going but an actual feeling of the characters and there sadness that truly fucked me up the night I watched it.
I used to hate SAO back in the day but recently gave it a full rewatch from start to finish and I gotta say, it is a flawed series that makes some critical missteps but is not NEARLY as bad as people make it out to be.
And btw Alicization was actually really freaking good! The world building in the Underworld was very interesting, the side characters were charming as hell, the fight scenes were fantastic, the emotional moments were genuinely heart breaking, the soundtrack was a banger, and Kirito even became a much more engaging protagonist.
SAO is not perfect, but it’s certainly not bad.
Wow,an honest anime fan 🤔 Pretty rare these days
yea sao isnt bad its just the alfeim arcs they are so fucking bad like 2nd half of season 1, second half of season 2 also that one arc with the cancer girl was the worst and most pointless shit ive ever seen. ggo wasnt that bad i thought it was cool and aliciazation is pretty good especially the first season of that arc
@@sweatyman1234 I almost fully agree. Only thing I’d argue is that Mother’s Rosario is actually a pretty good arc.
Some of SAO’s most important themes are the idea that you can make a genuine connection through the medium of MMOs, and the value of escapism. We see this with how Asuna shows her mother what the game means to her and how she’s able to forge a lifelong bond with Yuuki, a girl who is terminally ill that was given an opportunity to live a somewhat fulfilling life through ALO, albeit a short one, despite all her suffering.
Man them taking about crying when they are supposed to compared to when you don’t know why you are crying was, reminded me of the MHA school festival when Ari’s darkness leaves and she’s smiling I was in tears, such a beautiful moment
Ludwig: Fullmetal alchemist having a lot of recap.
Me (dude who wasted time by watching EVERY episode of One Piece anime): Those are rookie numbers New guy.
I mean then there’s Naruto 💀
Isn't there only one recap ep in FMAB, ep 27, anyways? So it's weird of Ludwig to say there is a lot of recap in the show.
@@za-ir5ni don't even remember any recap at all lol
Tbh I still loved the one piece anime even with all its problems, tho imo the most recent arc is actually good in the anime
@@jetblue2758 the problem is either you or the voice actors are literally going to die of old age before it's finished because of its God awful pacing. Literally the people that directs it should lose thier jobs.
I did not expect Ludwig to say Madoka Magica. Fucking love that show.
On the subject of FMA, I think people often look down on the 2003 version. Sure 2003 version has "lots of problems" that people don't like while FMAB has a good adaptation that follows the manga's ending, but the 2003 version has a different feel to it. Honestly, even if I still like FMAB a lot, 2003 version has some impact on me that I will never forget, and this is coming from someone who grew up with FMAB instead of 2003 (watched FMAB first instead of 2003).
Yeah honestly I recall more of the first version than Brotherhood.
I feel that, until they caught up with the manga, 03 was absolutely incredible in its own right. While, maybe aside from Lust, I think FMAB had better written and more interesting versions of every character, 03's mood and atmosphere was a character in its own right. Not to say FMAB doesn't have that, it absolutely does, but 03 brought something so raw that I struggle to put it into words. Never seen anything quite like it.
Overall, I find 03 was great until it went off the rails closer to the end and that the manga/FMAB have an almost too-quick start but no single bad episode/volume and treats every one of its characters with the same level of care, even if they're tertiary.
Connor finally realizes how everyone else feels when he talks about his food taste
7:20 you can see Garnt just realize "Ludwig is gonna spoil the show for me" and he just plugs his ears.
SAO being my second ever anime I watched, it really was a pretty nice rush
If you’re curious my first-ever anime was Danganronpa
You should play the Danganronpa vns. They are amazing
@@Magic-id1bn I didn’t play the first one, but I played Danganronpa2 and v3, i enjoyed both a lot
@@mythlessrwf ye same I actually really liked Danganronpa V3’s ending even though a lot of people didn’t. I thought it was unique and I actually was not expecting it at all
Madoka Magica was my Silver Spoon. You absolutely weren't supposed to cry at the end, it's just not that kind of anime. But, at the end of Rebellion, I definitely cried more at that than Angel Beats or any of those tear-jerker shows
Tbf madoka magica is a really good anime.
Madoka Magica is good but compared to regular magical girl animes it aint the best. Regardless of how it's trying to be opposite of regular magical girl shows.
@@antidave It's not the best at being a magical girl anime, but that's not why I love it. I love it because it's a uniquely tragic anime with an incredibly loveable cast and constantly the best twists I've seen in an anime. It's definitely better than magical girl anime I've seen, but that's because I don't like magical girl anime, I like Madoka Magica.
For both main series and rebellion, i didn't do more than tear up for the endings. I was more just in shock at how insane yet perfect the cosmic conclusions were. But on rewatch, after letting the themes and arcs of the characters sink in, tears went running for SEVERAL scenes (especially the kyosaya scene in Rebellion, I rewatch that constantly ;-;)
@@antidave what are your favorites? rn I just have utena on my watchlist, I heard that one's very good.
Dude SAO has bad writting but the production quality isnt that bad. A-1 is a pretty good animation studio.
if you think this rewatch the first episode, they made like 500 mistakes in the first episode.
A1 pictures badly adapts it tho
@@gameplaymasterproduction549 A-1 makes most of their anime cringe af. I still have to finish 86. The characters are too over the top
@@Scorpiofrfr I mean its not their fault the characters are too over the top since they are adapting from a source material you know lol.
I mean I consider A-1 mid, but they *are* good, they're just competing with studios that I feel are far stronger.
I've just got around to SAO (halfway through S2) and it's pretty good. Is it amazing or mind blowing? No, but it's good enough and I enjoy it. Equally I don't disagree that "Oh you just gotta wait until X episodes in for it to get good" is a bad thing but sometimes it takes time for a story to build. You could just read/ watch a synopsis to that point and then dive in. I was told that about TPB (Trailer park boys) because I hated it at first, but then I got it and love the show. But to each their own.
"Mid" Garnt just before dying
From 2:45 on (the FMAB discussion) reminds me so much of the Family Guy scene where Peter says he doesn't care for The Godfather
The most memorable anime for me is Monster. Watched it on a whim not expecting to finish it but damn, after a few episodes i craved more until i reached the end in no time.
I’m watching it right now and it’s so captivating. I feel like every moment I’m not watching it I want to be. I don’t think I’ve been this invested in a story for a real long time.
Connors quiet “what” to brotherhood was hilarious
I stopped watching FMAB at the 30s as well, but about 6 months later i gave it another go and i got through it, so while i completely understand Ludwig, it is still good. 8/10.
I don't think shows like Hunter x Hunter, One Piece, FMAB are good for people who have only watched a few anime. They're better at around the 50 shows watched mark as I trried to watch Hunter x Hunter when I first started watching anime and couldn't get past the first arc because things got dragged on for some long. However I attempted to watch it again after about 400 shows and was able to binge it in about a week.
FMAB was my first anime and still my favorite, I feel like it just boils down to how much freetime you have and your headspace at the time.
I watched both FMAB and original quite late since I was sure it would be a masterpiece after seeing all of the high rating it has gotten on various anime sites. And I honestly dont understand how it can possibly be above an 8. I had to watch both just to make sure i wasnt going crazy/missing something but it didnt change my opinion on it one bit sadly
The beginning is what turned me off at first, I quit around episode 10 at first because I was getting bored of the story, but once the homunculi were introduced the show became a straight s tier for me
@@tgmaps wrong. I started watching anime two years ago, and FMAB was one of the first shows I watched and I immediately LOVED it. Still to be topped in many aspects.
I feel like I'm in the minority when I say I didn't cry during Your Lie in April. I genuinely enjoyed it and the ending did make me feel emotional but more so happy that I watched it and enjoyed it.
I also didn't either but still greatly enjoyed the show.
For me, choosing a anime to watch is like choosing a place to eat. It all depends what you are in the mood for. A show could be the best mystery of all time, but if I'm not in the right headspace for a mystery and rather watch a comedy, then I'd won't enjoy the mystery shows as much as I should.
To me the reason sao is in my top ten is due to the idea of full dive VR. It’s a technology that peaks on the edge of science fiction but is still grounded enough that you can see that technological actually becoming something in the future
The basic premise and stuff isnt really that bad, the issue is the pacing and the weird shit - you can get away with the weird shit if the pacing was a lot slower.
Garnt trying to avoid saying Alicization is good is the issue with anime industry - its actually a lot better, its good as is WoU. Is it top tier, ehhh - no but its still good and enjoyable.
Surely, everyone will be able to understand what you mean by "WoU". Ugh... -.-
@@blau6832 if you can’t understand it as war of underworld then idk
@@IXxJordan I thought you were talking about some other anime I’ve never heard of
So you're saying you can get away with weird shit, such as bloody tentacle rape, if the pacing was a lot slower?
@@thisissux If pacing is correct and it fits the character and story - sure.
Welcome to the NHK changed my life and I'm so happy Ludwig is giving it more attention.
7:01 MORBIUS!
Lud got surprisingly good takes. Needs to go back and finish brotherhood tho
SAO:A war of underworld is some of the best anime fights I've ever seen, visually it's such a beautiful season
I find Garnt's take on SAO very agreeable. The internet is full of mindless sheep that hate on SAO bc it's cool, but looking back, it had a great premise and good execution for the first few episodes (before the "haremization" happened).
Alicization went on to expand what SAO 1's premise lacked. It was even more action-packed, emotional, entertaining, and it had decent plot progression and a greater focus on world-building.
Now, SAO Progressive added and will be adding more depth to the characters and the events of SAO 1. My personal worry right now is how Progressive could potentially add more plotholes to the main storyline.
So far, the hate for SAO is justified but excessive.
SAO isn’t a harem
Personally I don't hate SAO because it's cool. I hate it because I hate the main characters.
I only watched the first season because I kept hoping Klein from the first episode would
come back but he was rarely seen.
Unironically Alicization is genuinely great. I'm someone who CAN enjoy the whole of SAO but totally agrees most of it was bad. Alicization is different though. It does so much to make itself barely an SAO show anymore and as a result it becomes an actually good story.
Kirito, for the first time, is actually kinda likeable and an engaging character. And also for a first time, the side characters are actually really likeable and engaging as well, Eugeo is better than Asuna was, and Alice is great. There's none of this back and forth between the real and fake world, there's like MAYBE 15 minutes of screentime spent in the real world during the first 12 episodes once Kirito is actually in the simulation. The story feels focused and like each episode actually matters instead of being filler. There's way less fanservice, in fact generally the female characters are actually GOOD, and don't all get insta-crushes on Kirito. It's animation is a big step up, the coloring and lighting as actually REALLY good, especially compared to how SAO used to not really do anything special with its visual style. The soundtrack is the best it's ever been with some real good action bangers. The world is genuinely interesting with some unique concepts. It's pacing is fairly good actually. And there are some really good fights and battles.
Alicization is a major step up from previous SAO (even tho the movie before it is actually decent). I was really surprised. Especially when it started doing stuff that is genuinely interesting. Like how the world Kirito is in is a simulation, all the characters in it are AI who have basically full free-will and autonomy except for a tiny bit of free-will left to develop. So an interesting thing is the magic system in this simulation is coding. Like when they want to do a Light spell to make a glowing orb to see in the dark they say stuff like "system command, generate luminous element". To them those are just magic words to do incantations, but to us we recognize that these AI are using magic by unwittingly CODING the simulation in real time. That's cool as a shit. There's actual cool concepts in SAO now.
It's worth noting Alicization season 2 is a massive departure from Alicization season 1. It's still actually pretty good, but where season 1 was mostly character focused and more small scale, season 2 is a lot more action focused with big battles. And they actually did something really surprising given what SAO is, Kirito isn't really a character in season 2. I won't spoil what that means, but while he's "there", he basically doesn't exist within the story until the end of the season. Alice takes his place as the MC. That's a big thing for a show that used to be such a "self-insert OP MC" kinda story.
Also Asuna is waifu for staying with Kazuto in the underworld.
Eh I don't agree most of it is bad. Alfheim and Excalibur is pretty bad but Aincrad, GGO and Mother's Rosario is pretty good in my opinion.
My only real complaint about SAO is the whole harem aspect of it and how unnecessary it is to include it in the story. Like, Eugeo legit got CUCKED by his best friend.
@@SpideyfanX the Japanese love them some fantasy stuff.
@@izutonura810 I'd say basically all of the first season except for the first few episodes is bad, the first half of GGO is okay and then only one of the arcs in the second half of GGO is good. So technically not "most", but it's the same idea. A very significant chunk of SAO is bad. And when you count the stuff that's just okay, then it does become the majority of the show isn't good.
Sound! Euphonium
This is a good type of cry anime
Little bit of hamfisty, campy drama, but if you’ve EVER been a part of a club or a group, you know exactly what this anime has in store for you.
This, at one point, was my top of the list S tier. It has since been shifted down to A, as S tier are reserved for things I can watch repeatedly, and this is kind of a one and done type of show.
Short.
Heartfelt.
Worth your time.
Likely to make you happy cry.
7:05 the anime that got me really crying (i'm not the guy who cry ez ) violet evergarden omg that moment when when she cry like a baby for that dying mother who wrote the 50 letter for her daughter so she can receive them on her birthday every year after her death😢 that got my tear running from my eyes i didn't even realize that i'm crying 😅 after the ep end i was like 'oh god that a hell of emotion'
I fucking love SAO. Gungale was a bit of a letdown but Alicization and the War Arc are brilliant
Gross
@@za-ir5ni what?
@@za-ir5ni nah bruh as a LN reader Alicization and war arc is good
I have to say, Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome To The NHK are such amazing worthwhile trips, and the most striking thing about them is how closely they tie in to real world issues. Lain addressed losing one's identity online and becoming something completely different YEARS before even cable internet was a normal thing, while Welcome To The NHK faced depression, self-worthlessness and disenfranchisement in a very point-blank, completely unabashed manner.
Both are masterpieces worth a really deep watch. But if you really want a really good comedy anime, I have 2 for you - Seto No Hanayome, and Hinamatsuri.
Who loses themselves online....huh....
I saw welcome to the nhk when I was like 7 as my second anime after squid girl
Sword Art Online is like the default skin of anime, not the best, but not bad either, has mostly every trope and storytelling devices anime has, and is many people's first anime.
for some reason the ED to pokemon sun and moon makes me cry
Ludwig is such a smart guy, he just wants to grow as a person. Admirable
sakamoto being a giga chad mister bean has to be the most on point discription I've ever hear for that show
The thing with anime is that when you started everything and anything gets you hooked.
SAO is actually pretty good for the first 15 or so episodes after that I don't think it's worth it.
I really appreciate all the pictures at the bottom showing what they're talking about
I logged into youtube just so I can agree with Ludwig. SAO was the first anime I watched and that was the gateway for anime to me. AND its is in my top 3 because of that. (only the first part tho)
Welcome to the nhk will always hold a place in my heart.
Watched Welcome to the NHK because of this. What a great show
Me too. I was coming back to this video to comment this
I know this is (probably more than) a year late, but if you enjoyed it I'd recommend checking out Paranoia Agent (and Satoshi Kon's work in general), or Bokurano, or Serial Experiments Lain. All three of them are seriously great psychological shows
@@badwulff I'll check them out, I've been craving something like NHK again
@@tsb4 Cool, hope you enjoy!
1:19 the way he says onii chan HAHAHA hilarious
My first watch through of brotherhood I dropped it about half way through. I like it, but I was not in the right headspace for it. I watched it again last year all the way with my mom and we both enjoyed it.
I don't usually write comments, but this is too close to me. SAO was the 1st anime that I watched after a long period, essentially starting from scratch my acquaintance with the genre, and I was so captivated and clicked that I would never trade any other title (even though it is #1 on MALe, by the way 2003 FMA is better , deal with it Connor), and when I found out a few years later that everyone hates him so much, I just didn’t understand why, welp, it doesn’t matter. But here's what's important - Welcome to NHK was already in the 2nd row of the anime when I started to dig deep and it affected me so emotionally, spiritually, on all levels, that I still haven't found anything similar in terms of experience. So yes, I exist, a person who likes SAO (to be fair, season 1 of course, but I heard about the last good one) and I consider Welcome to NHK a great anime with a therapeutic effect, because I'm still in severe depression but it helped me in my time is very strong, rarely about which anime I can say such words, so don’t care about the opinions of others - what matters is what you find for yourself, because what most people like most often doesn’t come to me (mal), you need to have your own search inside and tastes. Unfortunately, it saddens me that the anime community has a very high level of snobbery and hatred, so I never discuss my tastes, but here I heard a way familiar to me, oddly enough. And it's interesting that I only watch anime when I have a complete fucked up in my life, it's not up to comedies, but it saves.
Yeah me too , SAO resonated to me so much , i enjoy it a lot
Alicization is really good right until the end where it falls apart because special boy kirito has to save the day with deus ex machina bullshit again. This was the one chance they had where everyone else could have shown that they are competent but we cant have that. I was genuinely angry during the last couple episodes, to a degree i still am.
I liked alicisation up until the end of the first part where they beat the purple haired admin girl.
The part later just regressed back to plain old SAO but a girl cares for Potato Kirito...I stopped watching at that point.
@@ebering4.039 good choice, you missed nothing
2:46 Based Ludwig
I entirely believe Ludwig watched 30 episodes of FMAB and dropped it. If he said 50, he's lying, but I remember being pretty bored and taking a break around when they go to the north area.
Ludwig : SAO's such a good show
The Bois ; The council shall decide your fate
2:27 is based
whenever i hear about promised neverland, my heart can't take it. I 200 percent agree with joey, garnt and connor, watching the second season was torcher to me.I was crying while watching the season 2 but these tears were quite different from what ive experienced at the end of season 1
I think Grand Blue was one of the best comedy animes ever made. have they ever mentioned it on trash taste?
They definitely have but it was in earlier episodes of the podcast
I have never been so aggressively upset than I have hearing Ludwig talk about FMA:B
The bois: 99% of comedy anime isn't actually funny.
Me: *Laughs at 99% (not exactly but you know) of anime even if it's not labelled comedy*
Does that just make me an excessively giggly person? 😁
i was wondering the same thing, i just think my personality is completely different to the trash taste boys
@@trpys I agree, I sometimes struggle when they talk about anime as I tend to disagree with Connor and Joey, my anime taste is a lot closer to Garnt's. Joey anime taste is just bad in the sense that he is an elitist.
Bruh Saiki had me dying in most episodes. Cant believe they did it so dirty.
Saiki and Beelzebub to me were hilarious, where as I got bored after like 3 Eps of sakamoto
It’s more just the reality of Japanese humour really not translating that well into western humour. Some are able to get past that hurdle while still embodying that kinda humour. I like Saiki K but I found the majority of its comedy whatever.
Welcome to the NHK was a tripppp. Watched it when I was pretty much a recluse myself and man did it take you places.
I can understand why some people hate on SAO but for what it is I actually really enjoyed every season
3:43 YEEES. Welcome to the NHK is my favorite anime too. 4:59 "It is the worst first anime, if you've never [watched anime before]." Soo ironic.. It was actually the FIRST EVER anime I EVER watched. Prior to that, I thought anime was creepy and weird, but PewDiePie mentioned WTTNHK in a video. So I watched it out of curiosity. When it ended, I was blown away and I craved more. So to this day I still watch anime. I'm pleasantly surprised that this is Ludwig's favorite, but it truly is one of the greats.
Gintama is literally the best of both worlds. It's down right comedy and also some serious shit. Virtually has no flaws and was even higher than FMA until the fans review bombed it lol
No flaws,yeah no lol
Pre-sesaon 2 the first 200 episodes are quite uneven and hit and miss
I'm 35 and i've been watching anime and reading mangas since around 13~14, that is to say that basically my taste into it changed A LOT! A good example is that i used to love shit like Love Hina, Tenshi Muyo, but now i hate Harem/Ecchi anime/manga with all my heart!! I also used to love "brainless" Shounen like DBZ, Naruto and others, but nowdays i think it's kinda boring if the character/world building is bad or the story isn't interesting, wich is why i'm more into Seinen nowdays
With all that being said, SAO is one of those animes that my opinion didn't really change a lot with time... I think it's a pretty solid anime and i 100% agree with ludwig here 2:10, from time to time i catch myself rewatching a few episodes that i really like (specially the first 2 and the one with the "The Gleam Eyes") ... I actually have no idea why it's "cool" to hate SAO nowdays since back in the day it was THE anime! Sure, there are things to dislike and a lot of cliches (like i said, i hate harem and also incest), but it's not all that bad compared to a lot of mainstream animes (like Re:Zero for example).
Nobody asked, but here's my opinion in all SAOs in the order that i've watched:
*Aincrad:* Pretty good (despite all the filler episodes)
*ALO:* Whatever... (but i liked the Calibur arc)
*Phantom Bullet:* Not bad, i guess? It changed things up adding guns in the mix (but no, i'll NEVER watch GGO! I'm sorry, but even if it's good, i can't stomach a Loli in full pink as the mc...)
*Mother's Rosario:* Really good!! (possibly my favorite season)
*Alicization:* Whatever... (but i loved the animation and audio quality/SFXs)
*Ordinal Scale:* Really good!!
*Progressive:* Pretty good!
Reject SAO Anime, embrace SAO Progressive Novels
Embrace both main series and progressive SAO novels
“How are you on this podcast?” 😂
I love all of SAO, flaws and all.
someone else's favorite is "welcome to nhk". I love that anime so much, amazing opener too.
SAO is a straight male power fantasy. That's why ppl hate it. The main reason I liked it as a kid is bc i was trans and didn't know it and being a princess in a castle waiting for a prince appealed to my heavily repressed sense of femininity. For most people, and for me rewatching now, the visuals and designs are pretty sick and the music is sick but the plot is just no.
There's female fantasies made left and right in the west, aka all romcoms. I don't see what's wrong with male fantasies.
"Ludwig Actually has Good Anime Taste" Saiki slapped bruh
As an avid brotherhood enjoyer, I am embarrassed to say that I did lose interest after episode 62, without looking at the episode list, not knowing I was 2 episodes away
The very ending scene in toradora (post creds) makes me cry EVERY TIME
Alicization actually had a pretty strong start in my opinion. It ditched most of Kirito’s overpoweredness and most importantly the power of friendship.
Then they killed that towards the half-way point and reverted everything back to the basic SAO formula. (Spoiler ahead)
I stopped watching after the main villain is about to kill Sinon and then her Necklace starts glowing and the spirit of Kirito saves her somehow lmaooo
It’s really a shame since I was really into it and the higher stakes involved since every enemy seemed equal to or stronger than Kirito.
My only problem with alicization was that Kirito could come out of the game at any time because of the poison, he only really helped because he had nothing better to do
Yeah I definitely agree Alicization was amazing at the start with amazing new characters. Towards the part where everyone's back to being OP, I just gave up, turned my brain off and enjoyed the fights and animations. I feel like they do that because SAO fans just like to see power fantasy stuff and Kirito beating everyone with absurd plot armor. The only thing that set Alicization apart from the rest was the much better writing after the shit show of a writing from 2004 Reki.
garnt's face at 2:48 got me dead
Feel like starting a war now, I found SAO more enjoyable than I did FMAB, which I also dropped part way through, not saying Sao is a better show, just saying I enjoyed it more, felt like there was things to be excited for in sao where in fmab I was like just watching it because it was the number 1
Same case for me too. After 7 years of watching anime, enjoyment is what matters the most. Fck what anyone says is good. What's important is, "Will I enjoy it?".
@@soulblade3291 yeah like you just get bad anime that you enjoy and good ones you find boring, such as I don’t really like fmab but I enjoy other anime that aren’t really that good by general definition an example is Japan sinks, although for the wrong reasons 💀
Who decides what the no. 1 is? Not the review bombing fans
Enjoyability >>>>> Writing. Never forget that. I have more fun watching Fairy Tail and Black Clover than AOT, and nothing can change my mind. :))
Madoka Magica being called out caught me off guard
Honestly, as someone who has watched SAO up until its recent arc Alicization, I can say that, to me, it is a genuinely good show. My issue with the franchise as a whole is probably the last episodes of Alfheim and the sexualization of the female characters. I did not like how that villain went over the top with Asuna. The girl characters being raped was something that annoys me. The whole "incest" thing didn't annoy me nor was the whole Kirito being "OP and two-dimensional" wasn't an issue. I'm probably in that minority who find it hard to absolutely hate on the show. I'd give SAO as a whole a minimum 7 to 8 out of 10. I don't know why but the show worked for me.
People hate it so much not because it's actually that horrendously bad, it's because it's overhyped and it became a trend to hate on it, after seeing some reviews for the show, I can see the glaringly obvious flaws in the show, but I still enjoyed it a lot.
I definitely recommend both of the new alicization arcs. I waited a year before I started the first one because I didn't hear great things about it, but then I finished both in a couple of weeks and they evoked some of the same emotion i felt the first time i watched the first arc.
That's great. Enjoyability trumps writing all day, any day.
Weeb community outside japan hate SAO because of that certain scene from alfheim and I felt angry too but I learned that japanese viewer's love SAO so I tried to continue to watch the whole series (except the latest movie bec I didn't watched it yet), and for me SAO is really a great anime.
SAO Alicization is a masterpiece
Very enjoyable conv 🤣 made me laughs so much
It’s kinda weird not hearing about AoT, the actual GOAT of modern classics regardless the ending issues.
1. Death Note: After a certain someone dies..don’t need to watch further. Good for critiquing every single action taken by Light tho.
2. SAO to me peaked on Alicization arc. Soon Entering Elon Vs Jeff arc on space.
3. DBS is dragon ball evolving in storytelling n by introducing Zeno, actually creating a world power creep which cannot be surpassed easily regardless the genre of any entertainment medium. Plus, Freiza can say the “N” word now.
4. FMA like Garnt haven’t watched n feel like don’t need to.
5. Naruto the Goat of fillers n emotions
6. One punch the previous troll actually getting serious now.
7. One piece the definition of anime
8. Demon Slayer: Naruto without fillers n swords..also literal babysitter for Japanese kids. NB: Ufotable’s flex ground
9. Gintama..teaches anime n meaning of fillers.
10. Konosuba..the reason I enjoy anime..aka the casual anime
11. Re: Zero …no worries..he’ll get a good ending
12. Tonikaku…Yes yes yes
13. Jojo: Connor
14. Mushoku tensei: definition of isekai
15. High School DxD ..Def of Ecchi with a good plot n def of protag not doing he should be doing like Testament of Sisters
16. Silent Voice & Your name : If you watched these..don’t really need to watch other 99% anime original movies..all the same point.
Nah Aot is shit with it ending bruh
@@aeida6140 have to agree on that…Mappa’s gonna suffer the backlash for it if they don’t change it lol
still can't believe Garnt hasn't seen FMA, it's up there with the other goated 'long' shows like HxH (2011) and Code Geass.
I freaking love Sword Art Online.
Is it the best anime ever?
No.
Is the story super well written?
No.
Do I enjoy it and watch every season?
Yes.
Aaah .. Welcome to the NHK, one of my favs too.
People only hated SAO because social media said so
I still like it, still one of my favorites
Nah it's shit, reki kawahara is a bad author I regret even watching it back in the day .
Lmao the thumbnail is pure gold
FMAB and hunter x hunter are masterpieces. Essentially, no filler and incredibly well paced. He's talking out of his ass.
2:01 While I primarily stayed away from most SAO series, I did watch the Gun Gale Online spin off and really liked it. Can't say that much about the others.........Alicization wasn't BAD but I did drop it like it's hot at about the half way mark.
Ludwig came on and stated his slightly controversial opinions, lots of respect
Sao was my first anime back in 7th grade and I had no idea what it was about lol
Alicization (part 1 atleast) is about as good as the first season
100% agree