In my entire time of watching anime,
there have been few phenomenon that have hit the anime world
I find as interesting as Sword Art Online.
Now almost 5 years since it originally started airing,
it goes without saying that SAO has gone down in history
as one of the most popular anime ever created,
and has become a fundamental part of the modern anime world.
Never before has a series divided the community so deeply,
being the simultaneously beloved and hated anime of the modern era.
With only just the mention of the name guaranteed to start some kind of argument...
So, I was watching Sword Art Online the other day, and—
WHAT!? YOU LIKE SWORD ART ONLINE?
Uh, no, I was just—
DID SOMEONE SAY THEY LIKED SWORD ART ONLINE?
YEAH, THIS FAGGOT!
HEY, SWORD ART ONLINE ISN'T THAT BAD, YOU KNOW!
IT'S BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD!
ASUNA IS MAI WAIFU!
[UNINTELLIGIBLE WEEBSHIT]
What..the fuck...is going on?
Multiple YouTube personalities, myself included,
have made a name for themselves by talking about or making fun of it.
and it's such a widely-talked-about topic,
that it's gone really cool to hate on Sword Art Online,
to hating it being treated as an outdated fucking meme in this community.
But now, almost half a decade down the line,
Two seasons, multiple games, a new film just around the corner,
and a live action western adaptation in the works.
Whether you love it, hate it,
or are just tired as hell of people talking about it,
there is one irrefutable fact.
Sword Art Online is here to stay,
and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it.
Which brings us to this video's topic.
for all its apparent narrative flaws, flat characters,
and other critical weaknesses
that have been brought up time, and time, and time again
to the point that both fans and haters are bored of hearing the arguments,
why is Sword Art Online so popular?
and why the hell hasn't it died yet?
Disclaimer.
I am not here to bash on Sword Art Online,
and my general opinion of the series has not actually changed much
since my original review of it 4 years ago.
Back then, I have it a score of 6.5, and my—
- [ UNINTELLIGIBLE WEEBSHIT ] - Oh, for fuck's sake!
I still think it was mildly entertaining,
nowhere near as bad as the haters make it out to be,
nor as good as the fans defend it as.
And the only reason I'd rip on it in the past
is because it has never not been relevant to make a joke or two about it.
But we've gotten the the point now
where every insult that can be said has been said.
So in lieu of that, every time I feel like making a joke,
it will be via this Sword Art Online Insult Generator I've made!
comprised of all the generic SAO insults you've heard before!
[ game show music ] And let's see what our insult of the day is...
"Sword Art Online is edgy dribble with an overpowered Jesus-Kun as the Protagonist."
Now there are some top class insults, but I think we can do even better than this—
Oh! There we go! [ cheers and applause ]
What a classic insult that no one has ever said before!
See, the reason I wanted to make this video is that I think there is a lot going on
with how the series fits in with the bigger picture,
and says some things about our culture, the wider anime community,
and how shows get popular in the first place.
And because making a Sword Art Online video on YouTube guarantees you views.
Yay, YouTube Money. [ muffled whining ]
So with that, we can start off with the individual elements that make the show popular.
Which, I won't spend too much time on, as YouTuber Subsonic Sparkle has done a great job breaking this down in his own video.
But to summarize his points:
anyone who has seen SAO can probably guess at why it's so appealing and marketable.
It has a really strong hook, and contains a very wide range of topics and genres that have mainstream appeal
without delving too deeply into any of them.
It has decent action, and interesting concepts, and world where you don't have to be an expert in any of the explored topics
to understand what's going on,
a more definitive romance than what you actually see in most shows,
a protagonist blank enough that most viewers can project themselves onto, while also relating to him,
and female characters are a varied mix of (corn?) female tropes who's main appeal is that they're just fuckin—
(they're just fucking hot okay?)
The aesthetics are also very appealing, there's a reason why AccelWorld, which actually started airing a season before it got completely overshadowed.
And that's because what's more appealing to an average viewer?
An edgy, badass swordsman who doesn't give a shit?
Or a literal, fucking, blob.
It's wish fulfillment and escapism and is simplest.
And I don't know why so many people take this as an insult.
Shallow perhaps? But entertaining? Hell yeah!
Who wouldn't want to be a badass swordsman in a futuristic virtual reality surrounded by hot chicks and a loving girlfriend.
Why are we so ashamed to admit this?
Hell, if it was less transparent about it, I'm sure it would have been farm more positively received.
It's the perfect gateway anime, and while this doesn't cover why every SAO fan likes the series,
I think it covers the wide mainstream appeal of it —critical flaws and all.
By this logic though, the entirety of SAO's fanbase should just be horny teenage boys,
which is actually not the case.
And the most peculiar thing is, for the amount of times it has been criticized:
Most SAO fans I've met are very aware of it's flaws.
And while a lot of them are the annoying vocal fans that make themselves known and give the fanbase a bad rep,
I don't think that alone can count for the massive success of the franchise.
There's a lot more going on with this than just pretty aesthetics and appealing elements,
so to properly illustrate what's happened, we need to take a look at how a series can get popular in the first place.
And for that let's rewind the timeline back a bit. [VHS rewind sounds]
[TV static sounds]
[TV Announcer]: This is no ordinary animation, this is the exotic, bizarre, and beautiful world of Japanese anime.
And this is your invitation to enter with the modern classic: Akira.
[Gigguk]: When we look back at the history of popular anime here in the west,
there have been certain series that define the generation, and are indicative of the culture at the time.
Akira, for example, was a cult underground hit in the VHS era that promoted the anime scene as the edgy, adult alternative to any other animation that was available at the time.
When the late 90s hit, famous Toonami block singlehandedly kick started a whole generation of anime fans,
introducing kids to the likes of Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Gundam Wind, showing them a new kind of cartoon unlike anything that was available from western animation.
And, of course, this leads us to the most recent shows that took over the community before SAO did.
[TV static]
[ ｢Haruka Kanata｣ by Asian Kung Fu Generation plays]
The sensation that caused the boom in the anime world just over a decade ago,
and what, certainly, was definitive for my generation, was of course, the Big Three.
Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece.
And that got these shows popular was a variety of factors, but a big part of it was the timing in which they came out.
See, in the early 2000s these three shows served as the hottest gateway anime in a time when there was no real gateway anime.
And the hottest shows of the previous era were fading away, leaving room to capture the attention of a generation that grew up watching Dragon Ball Z that will now discover the world of anime through an entirely new platform:
The internet.
This was the new era of torrents and fansubs,
with a whole new generation of anime fans being able to access shows that they could have never seen before.
Either due to cost of DVDs or companies not licensing everything.
This started a huge movement in the fandom, and the three shows that were right in the forefront of this
were (are) the Big Three.
To put it simply: there was a gap in the gateway shows everyone look toward,
and there was a boom in the fandom due to a new platform for people to discover anime from.
And if you look closely, you can see pattern for popular anime in previous eras too.
By the end of this decade, a new gap was emerging.
Two of the Big Three, Naruto and Bleach, were starting to come to and end.
And by this point, all of the shows have been going on for far too long to be as easy and accessible for newcomers of the anime medium.
It was the end of an era, and the gradual start of a new one.
And when SAO started airing in the summer of 2012,
it came at a time when the community was coincidentally searching for the next big thing.
In a time where we were getting a new surge of anime fans,
because something else happened for anime internationally in the late 2000s...
[Victoria]: Hey guys, Victoria here, and I'm at the (big surprise) the Crunchyroll booth
[Gigguk]: Crunchyroll, a site that had previously hosted the streaming service for illegal fansubs of anime and dramas
completely turned around to pioneer the legal streaming of anime currently airing in Japan.
Shows would be simulcasted, premiered almost immediately after they had aired in Japan
which was unheard of at the time.
And for the first time, fansubs could not compete.
This set a new trend for anime streaming services,
catapulting the accessibility of anime to a whole new high.
Never before was it so easy to watch anime,
and never before was there so much choice of anime that we didn't have to wait for.
Simulcasting and streaming completely changed the way that the majority of the community consumed anime
and gave us an immediate abundance of choice that was almost concurrent than what the Japanese people got.
What this meant, is that we had less patience for long running shows.
And became all about explosive seasonal anime, flavour of the week, and we became far less forgiving for things like filler arcs that plagued the big three and many long running shounens.
Which is why even though most of us looked to Shonen Jump for what would be the next big thing,
the landscape was changing so fast, we didn't realize we were looking at entirely the wrong place.
See, if Akira was a product of the VHS era,
Dragon Ball Z a product of the television era,
The Big Three a product of the internet boom and fansubs era,
then shows like Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan are definitely products of the streaming era.
They were the perfect gateway anime in a time when a new generation was getting into anime in an entirely new ways.
But then that begs the question of why Sword Art Online in particular?
The gap in gateway anime only really applies to the western anime community.
And I mean sure, it has mass appeal,
but so do a lot of other shows.
What made this one stand out so much from the plethora of new anime people getting to choose each season?
Well it's pretty simple really.
As for that, we just need to look at what our culture was like at this time.
And in the 2000s the biggest culture change that I think
we can all agree on is our integration of new technology.
We're now on a time where we live our lives though computers and smartphones
Twitter and Facebook have similiar weight to our real life persona,
while YouTube and Netflix are slowly taking over traditional broadcast media.
We now live in an age where digital technology has become an essential part of our lives.
And it's kind of weird to think that free Wi-Fi is more easily accessible for many of us,
than clean water is for a lot of areas in the world.
But that's not deeply entwined to we are with the technology around us
and many technological advancements always manages to fascinate and excite us.
Through this came the rise of a multi-billion dollar industry:
Gaming.
Throughout the 2000s, gaming went from this rising industry that all the nerds were obsessed with,
to one of the juggernauts of the entertainment industry.
We now live in a time when talking about the newest, hottest games has become an ordinary habit
comparable to discussing blockbuster movies or the latest football scores,
and has become a staple of mainstream culture.
So obviously an anime about gaming was very clearly going to have mass appeal.
So, with this in mind, how many of you can name an anime targeted to gamers about games
that came before Sword Art Online?
You'd probably thing the .hack// franchise
a.k.a. Camping Simulator 2002
and Accel World which as I already explained has gotten largely overshadowed by SAO itself.
Apart from that, there isn't much else, is there?
Because there are so many gaming anime out now
a lot of us seem to have forgotten what it was like when SAO was first announced
and the PVs were released.
The series seemed like a genuinely fucking cool and fresh concept.
An anime exploring the video game world that looked awesome and had a really interesting hook
as there had never really been a big, high profile anime specifically about gaming before this.
You may have had single episodes exploring gaming
or gaming tie-ins.
But a dedicated anime about gaming for modern gamers
that was new for us, and SAO felt like a breath of fresh air
aside from the highly outdated .hack// franchise.
This is why I'm sure many of you are one point
thought that the premise was cool and unique
even if it wan't entirely original.
Yes, we had Tron, The Matrix, or Ghost in the Shell that explored virtual worlds before this.
Yes we had .hack// that had the same concept, except a decade old and really fucking boring
but the one big difference between this, is the timing in which SAO came out is.
Because remember what else was announced in 2012...
[Palmer]: Even more than playing games, I'm passionate about bringing games to the next level.
My name is Palmer Luckey, and I'm a virtual reality enthusiast, and the designer of The Rift.
[Gigguk]: Yes, we're on the cusp of VR gaming itself
so what made the concept of SAO so enticing is that it felt like a world that could be within our grasp,
yet far enough technologically that it seemed wondrous and alluring.
It may have not been the first group of people trapped in an MMORPG,
but it was the first one that mattered.
Framed in the way that made it seem possible yet fantastical.
Which is why no matter how many anime that came afterwards that explored the concept better, or deeper,
they would never be as relevant.
And anything that came before it just seemed too far out and wacky to be relatable.
And see! That's all it needed to do.
Once it cemented itself as THE new generation gateway anime,
the ball was set rolling.
Starting a perpetual loop which skyrocketed it's popularity.
You have a new generation of fans that are discovering anime through the hot like SAO,
thinking it's the greatest thing ever.
Meaning more veterans end up watching SAO to see what all the fuss is about
causing more discussions and arguments
Causing more awareness, meaning more people will watch it,
Which is how we get to where we are today.
In other words,
Sword Art Online came at the right place, at exactly the right time.
But it doesn't stop there either.
Part of the reason that it hasn't died yet in this current flavour of the week, seasonal anime climate,
is that it managed to stay relevant without ever repeating itself.
Gun Gale Online appealed to those of us experienced, or ever used, the First Person Shooter trend,
that dominated AAA titles for the last decade.
And it's new movie Ordinal Scale which is exploring a new plotline using some fancy augmented reality
is coming just a year after Pokemon Go swept through the globe,
and augmented reality became a very possible and significant technology in the world.
The franchise continues to explore topics that are ever so appealing to this current generation,
that even if it's actual understanding of the games and systems have proven to be not the best.
This is why after the GGO arc in season two ended,
no one really talked about the rest of it,
despite having arguably the best arc the franchise has ever done
it didn't really explore anything new or relevant to many viewers.
In the end, Sword Art Online is a product of wide marketability
massive relevance, and great timing.
It appeared when the big cultural hits of a generation were fading away,
and the new technologically integrated generation were searching for something fresh and relevant
and it exploded, fueled by new services that blew the accessibility of anime sky high.
Don't forget that one of the reasons Sword Art Online feels so popular,
is because anime in general is as popular as ever.
And for better or worse, SAO is one of the shows that has defined this generation of anime fans.
Now, if that makes you mad,
if it makes you want to start more flame wars,
or troll more SAO fans,
then my word is probably not going to stop you.
But you have to realize that there will always be a Sword Art Online.
There will always be a Naruto.
There will always be a Dragon Ball Z.
A Death Note.
An Akira.
A One Piece.
And these shows still mean a lot to many people
even to this day.
Back in their primes, the topic of all these shows were as toxic as the topic of SAO is today.
Without the end of the day, Sword Art Online was, and continues to be,
ever so relevant in the culture we have now.
As much as we groan at it,
it's a show that has gotten many people into anime,
spoke to a generation,
showed them something new,
something that they could relate with that nothing had ever shown them before.
And we shouldn't forget those first shows that spoke to us in our generation,
and how close we hold those shows, no matter how flawed they were.
So yeah, hate on SAO all you want
laugh at it, or hell, defend it if you must.
It won't stop me from making the odd joke here and there,
and it won't affect the impact it already has.
But get your word in while you can,
because once this new generation moves on,
something else will come along,
something just as big,
if not bigger, or even more controversial,
for us to all get heated about.
Again.
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this video.
Thank you very much this month to Andy Sugiyama,
Thronesmelt,
4Chan Nolife,
Pekka Saari,
and everyone else on Patreon for helping support my channel and making these videos possible.
If you want to check out some of the other Sword Art Online videos I've made then just click on the links on the side,
and if you want to keep up to date with my latest doings then be sure to follow me on Twitter
Anyway, that's it for me this time though,
I've been Gigguk, and I'll see you all next time.