I was kind of bored throughout season two of SAO. Then I rewatched season one and realized it was actually pretty average. It was great when it was some of the only handful of anime I had ever watched, but having seen legitimately good things that handle both drama and action better since, it doesn't rank all that high. Even among the "trapped in a game" trope, anime like Log Horizon and Overlord handle the basic concepts in a much more interesting way.
For me Mother's Rosario arc saved season 2. When i heard a lot of people saying that this is the best arc, it gave my high expectations. And it didn't dissapoint at all. Even though it was very short, they somehow made you felt connected with her.
And as for GGO...... I really hate the amount of drama was put into Sinon. Just like with asuna, she started so strong then after meeting Kirito she becomes so weak. I did like the game itself (same with sao and alo) but they didn't explore it more. Maybe im bitching on it too much because i see a lot of potential from it
^ I've been meaning to watch Ninja Scroll that for a while.
But all jokes aside, Ninja Slayer is the only anime I could truly watch this summer for some reason. The animation is mostly horrible and some of the character depictions are awful tbh, but the dialouge and short time is somehow making me keep watching it.
Roronaa_chan said: I didn't like Overlord at all..dropped quickly. Still haven't watched Log Horizon
Overlord took me a few episodes to really get into. Basically nothing happens in the first episode, and the second episode is largely more build up. Overlord really hits its stride episode three onward though and becomes a pretty solid look at how the NPCs and world characters think when they're more than just scripted figures. The MC doesn't really care about getting back to the real world, which I also thought was refreshing, as a big focus for both SAO and Log Horizon is on how the game can be escaped. Technically there is still one episode to go, but I'm glad I picked this one back up after leaving it off on the first episode months ago.
Log Horizon is a totally different beast. Although it still has action, it is a lot more focused on the MMO aspects, such as guilds, classes, and skills. The focus on getting back to the real world is still there, but doesn't necessarily permeate every choice and action. Overall, it is far more technical in nature, but is still very interesting to watch as the mysteries of the video game world slowly become unraveled. Similar to Overlord, NPCs play a major role in how they stop fitting their defined, scripted role that they had held previously. I won't lie, I actually still have two episodes to go in the second season. I tried to blaze through both seasons, but considering that is 50 episodes, I burned myself out.
Like I said, I think both are better than SAO in pretty much every aspect that they share, and exceed SAO in their own unique ways with how they create and handle their worlds and characters. I feel like SAO can't figure out if it wants to be action, romance, or drama focused, and instead fails to do any of them in a way that do the genres justice.
ReimTime said: I've watched so much Steins Gate in the past few days its not even funny. This is the best thing I've come across in a long time, and that goes for TV and video games. Nothing has kept me this intrigued for a long time. I sing high praise. That being said I've realized something about my tastes in anime. NHK and Stein's Gate are amazing while I found that KLK dropped off the radar for me, and Haruhi pales in comparison as well. I hope I don't offend anyone when I say this but I think this is a product of the target audience for which the anime was written. I argue that NHK and Steins Gate are written more for adults than kids or teens. The only reason I bring this up is because I would like more suggestions towards anime like SG or NHK. I was thinking Psycho Pass but I haven't done much research into anything really. Any advice is much appreciated! Y'all are a cool bunch. For once, somewhere on VGC where everyone gets along.
Welcome to the NHK is one of the best anime ever produced. It's unfortunate but there are very few series out there on the same level or, honestly, even close. It's hilarous but the issues it rams into are real. Even the romance aspects of it are unlike anything else. Steins;Gate is also excellent and closer to what I'd expect from a science fiction novel than an anime.
One of the few works as brilliant as NHK and as complex as Steins;Gate would be Serial Experiments Lain. In fact, it might be the most intelligent piece of visual media I've ever come across. Unfortunately, the visual style is dated and might put many people off. I don't even know if I can describe it, not really. First episode synopsis from Wikipedia: "A high school girl kills herself from a rooftop late at night. A week later, students are getting emails from the girl named Chisa Yomoda, which claim that she only gave up her body, but is actually still alive inside the virtual world called the Wired, saying that there is a God that exists there. After getting one of these emails, the introverted fourteen-year-old Lain Iwakura becomes much more interested in computers and asks her techie father, Yasuo Iwakura, for a new NAVI computer system. When she returns to school the following day, the blackboard writes a subliminal message, inviting her to come to the Wired as soon as she can, revealed to be written by Chisa herself."
Another anime I put at the top is Kara no Kyokai: Garden of Sinners. It's pretty damn amazing. It's not a TV series but instead a series of films, so the production values are very high. It's a psychological thriller where you're never quite sure if the main female lead is a serial killer or not. It's dark, it's sometimes brutal, and it pulls no punches. Shiki is one of the best characters in the history of anime.
Though it's a single film, I'd also recommend The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It's excellent. Though not nearly as crazy as Steins;Gate, it does center around time travel.
You might also want to try Mnemosyne. It's really twisted up and there is quite a bit of nudity but it's very interesting. Not for the faint of heart at all.
Though it might not be quite as good as most of the above, Ergo Proxy is very good. It jumps into the kind of theme you might see in Blade Runner or Neuromancer, where it questions what it means to be human.
And then there is Monster, if you haven't seen it. It's a long series, and are parts that feel a bit like filler, but it's just bloody brilliant. One of the best psychological thrillers ever, with one of the best villians ever.
I personally think that SAO was the best anime centered around MMO's ever since .hack//Sign ...
Overlord practically dumps it's game setting immediately so it's not anymore of a game than it is a fantasy or the protagonists case his own reality ...
Log Horizon broke down it's 2nd season when it's plot became standstill ...
