A Long-Winded Treatise on SAO, High Fantasy Anime, and Trapped in a Virtual World Sci-Fi
As for SAO, I thought it was OK, but very variable, with a lot of problems. The first season had an interesting premise, but kept getting distracted with stuff like the "CSI: Aincrad", and the pacing of arc was iffy, especially in terms of Kirito and Asuna's romance, as well as the development of any character other than Kirito. I also didn't think much of Asuna's descent into co-dependency, which really got obscene in the second cour.
As for the second season, I never finished it, but read the light novels, and quite frankly I liked Sinon's character. A character with a traumatic past involving guns who "self-medicates" using a VR FPS was an interesting premise. But it would have been better if Sinon got over her problems herself- if Kirito wasn't involved and didn't turn Sinon into another harem member. I think I liked the Yuuki's arc so much because it focused on Yuuki as the main character, as well as her hardships, with Kirito and Asuna more on the side.
As for Kirito himself, I personally thought his Gary Stu side got obnoxious, most obviously in how every female character he meets falls in love with him after 10 minutes of knowing him. Also, I also thought that they made him a bit too overpowered. You could have made him a good player without him being the ONLY one able to duel wield in SAO, and the only one any good at it ALO, and without making his HP so stupidly high that he can survive combined attacks of SEVEN lower level players with no net loss of health. However, I can give Kirito credit where credit is due for being more decisive than most other anime protagonists- actually picking Asuna and entering a relationship with her, rather than being in a constant state of being unable to decide on the six different girls like the harem cliche.
If this was any other forum, I'd expect thousands of hate comments for posting this, but I hope the RRRound Table is more civilized than your average YouTube comment page!
But, moving on to part two:
Trends in Anime Fantasy.
In this, I can see three main trends, which often overlap. Most high fantasy anime are based on RPG video games, which can in turn trace their lineage back to
Dungeons and Dragons-type pen and paper RPGs, which were in turn influenced by early high fantasy works, most notably J.R.R Tolkien. In general, the worlds of high fantasy anime worlds are "High Magic" worlds, that is to say that magic is common and may be usable by everyone, and are inhabited by a variety of fantasy races- the usual suspects including elves, dwarves, orcs etc.
The second trend is where SAO falls in, as well as
.hack before it and
Log Horizon afterwards with a fantasy-like world set in a virtual reality video game, meaning they are technically a science fiction series. In these series, the plot revolves around completing the game in order to escape from being "trapped in the game".
The third trend is the parallel world or
isekai anime, in which a protagonist is ends up in a parallel world similar to high fantasy story, often equipped with either modern technology (i.e.
Zero no Tsukaima,
GATE) or some sort of special power (i.e.
Re:Zero). Really, Zero no Tsukaima falls into both categories, as Saito gains both the power to use any weapon with the skill of an expert and access to modern military hardware, and also, I think the success of Zero no Tsukaima had a lot to do with the prevalence of the
isekai plot in anime, manga, and light novels in the last few years.
The VR MMO and
isekai are sometimes hard to distinguish, as seen with chatter on the threads speculating about whether
Grimgar and
Re:Zero are actual
isekai or actually take place inside VR MMORPG.
Also present in the modern high fantasy anime is some increase in the influence of "Dark Fantasy", which has existed in anime and manga for a while now- at least since
Berserk, but presumably having gained popularity with the success of anime like
Attack on Titan, and, going beyond anime, the global popularity of
Game of Thrones.
Indeed, some of my favorite fantasy anime and manga have been things that follow the dark fantasy path. I know a lot of people here didn't like
GATE: Thus the JSDF Fought There, but, as much as I would no doubt disagree with the author on political issues, I personally found the premise described as "
Call of Duty meets
Game of Thrones" entertaining, as well as interesting premise and unusual choice of an adult protagonist instead of a teenager, and, at that, one that, while following the typical otaku trope, does still prove to be quite the skilled combatant, expert tactician, and at times even something of a shrewd politician when shit hits the fan. That said, I never read the light novels, only the manga, which is definitely the superior version in my opinion. I have heard that both the manga and anime, and even the LN have considerably toned down the Japanese nationalism and right wing politics compared to the web novel which GATE started life as.
Another fantasy anime I liked recently was
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar. While it at first follow the high fantasy tropes of typical of fantasy RPG video games, it distinguished itself from the pack by managing to combine dark fantasy with an MMO-esque world in a manner I previously didn't think was possible, and how it focused on survival in such a world, rather than some grand quest.
As for
Re:Zero, thus far, I am liking it a bit more than SAO, particularly the plot, which is very well paced and progresses in steps, rather than immediately revealing some grand quest, the mystery aspect, and the protagonist, who reminds me a lot of Okabe Rintarou of
Steins;Gate, even if he never lives up to the epic insanity that is
HOUOUIN KYOMA! That said, I while I would thus far rate
Re:Zero above
Sword Art Online, I would not place it anywhere close to
Steins;Gate or
Madoka Magica.