The side characters are really undeveloped and the way...
Sword Art Online was a horrible show
So what in my opinion is wrong with the show? First off, the characters are bland and unappealing. Asuna and Kirito are basically boring Mary Sue's. Their relations, dialogues with their friends and enemies come off as... bland and sometimes even awkward. They definitely tried to make Kirito a cool character, somewhat of a MMO gamer badass that is popular around girls. But well, the problem is, as he has no real interesting traits, putting him in cool situations just won't work out. He just comes as overpowered. Asuna is just bland. The side characters are really undeveloped and the way they handled the girl characters, was again, boring. Second, the pacing was absolutely horrible. The action was jumping from place to place like a kangaroo on steroids, and the action got really confusing really fast. I even had to check if I didn't miss any episodes. Third, the focus of the show was not right. Instead of really focusing on truly interesting thing in this setting, living trapped in a MMO and seeing how the game mechanics change the lives of people playing, they focused on action, wasting a really interesting idea. Fourth, the show was cheesy and full of silly dialogue. This wouldn't be bad if show had actually intended to do this, because there are shows that actually included cheesiness on purpose. But SAO takes itself way to seriously, and doesn't benefit from it's silly moments. Fifth, Kirito having a harem was just unnecessary and really threw me off. That guy had really nothing special to him and for some reason, every girl in the show loves him. Sixth, the romance between Kirito and Asuna was horribly forced. As they don't really have much character, they don't really have chemistry between them. There is nothing interesting about their love. Seventh, the second season was horrible. The change of setting completely threw away any sense of danger, the show got even more cheesy, and the villain was boring, uninteresting, annoying and uncomfortable. I await your response.