I just recently watched the latest episode of this series, so it only seems fitting that I talk about it. Plus, my last chapter might have been a little too salty. Sorry if you guys wanted more angry, aggravated Maggie, but sadly, you'll just have to wait and see for the next time she comes back. For now, I'm gonna be positive.
So, if you don't know what an abridge is, it's basically a short parody of something that already exists. Now as far as the original SAO goes, it was........eh? I mean, the Sword Art Online Arc at the beginning of the first season was decent, the Alfheim Online Arc was a little weird, and I ended up dropping SAO 2 after the first two episodes because it was that boring. The first arc of the first season is the best part of the anime, the animation looks decent, and it has an interesting premise, but then the second arc of season one comes around and of what I saw of season 2, it wasn't bad, but I was hoping it would be better than the first season. Overall, I'd probably only bother with the first arc of the show. It's not the best, but if you're new to anime, it's not a bad place to start.
So some time passes and the lovely people at Somthing Witty Entertainment decide to make an abridged series of SAO. Needless to say, it's one of the best abridged series ever. So, without further ado, here's 7 reasons why I fucking love SAO abridged. ( Also, I suggest you watch the series before you read the rest of this and get spoiled. The first episode is in the media so you can get started. Show Something Witty Entertainment some love and support cause they work very hard on this series. )
1. They made Kirito the biggest asshole. He is just a straight up jerk to other's in the series, and, it works really well! He kinda reminds me of Alucard from Hellsing Ultimate Abridged. Plus, they don't just make him a dick for the hell of it. They actually give you a reason for why he acts this way to other players. Just like in the original series, in the real world, Kirito's a loner and a gamer, which, in the abridged series, leads to most people just treating him like shit. But since he's an experienced gamer and was a beta tester for SAO, he becomes the most overpowered player in the game, letting him treat others the way people in the real world treated him and not have to suffer the consequences.
2. Asuna's a lot more interesting than she was in the original series. She used to be the standard tsundere love interest that Kirito obviously ends up with. But in the abridged series, she ends up being a mixture of Kirito's assholeness and the tsundereness, which makes her a lot more fun to watch.
3. The writing is amazing! It's funny as hell and you can tell these people put a lot of time and love into each episode's script.
4. The voice actors fit their roles wonderfully! Kirito's voice is the funniest thing to listen to and by far one of the best casting choices was takahata101 as Kayaba!
5. They only focused on parts of the show that would actually end up being important in the abridged series, which means no focus on the goddamn fishing episode!
6. They handled Yui's episode extremely well! In the original, she was an A.I. that was supposed to be deleted but her files ended up being transported into the game and she can't access her memory.( or something like that ) Kirito and Asuna find her in the woods and end up taking her in and caring for her, thinking she's a lost player. It turns out she was actually an A.I. in the game that was locked away by the game's creator. Now while this is somewhat still the same in the abridged series, the biggest difference between the two is they actually give Yui a personality and the characters in the abridged makes the situation not only more funny, but believable. I'm not gonna spoil exactly what was different mostly because it's my favorite episode of the series so far. It was also the only one to make me cry, at least until the season finale of the series came.
7. So this reason in particular is kinda a spoiler if you've never watched the show or the abridged series and will discuss the end of the first arc of the show, so spoiler warning in advance! ( although if you're reading this I've already spoiled a lot for you so might as well. ) So, you learn early on in the series that Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Sword Art Online, traps all of the players in the game, saying that if they die in the game, they die in real life. Later on in the series, Kirito defeats the game and him and Asuna are greeted by the real version of Kayaba. It is then they ask him why he even did all of this. Now, the biggest difference between the original and the abridged is that, in the latter, he actually gives a reason why! I'm not joking! In the original the actual line he says when they ask this is " I don't even remember anymore. " or something close to that. I'm not gonna spoil the reason here but I think it's a pretty good one compared to the nothing they give in the original and it's got a good wink to SAO's creator if you can catch it.
So, those are my reasons why. Thankfully, Something Witty Entertainment has announced they are going to continue the series and go on to the Alfheim Arc, but obviously this takes time and money. I can honestly say that from day one, everyone working on it has put in so much love and care into the series and it's a blast to watch. If I somehow got you interested and you wanna catch up before they release season two, all the videos are available on YouTube and if you are able to and feel they deserve it, please support them on Patreon! Well that's it from me. I'll see you guys in the next chapter. Keep reading!
