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Pathetic. Absolutely appalling and a spit in the face to the fans and the story itself.

TBATE is, in my opinion, the best Manhwa written. It has an incredible story with deep emotional connections and underlying messages, it is engaging and wonderfully executed. The main character, Arthur, is tragic and compelling, the tension of the plot is underscored by Arthur’s deep care for his family and the danger they all face.

The anime, however, is an absolute disgrace, in every conceivable sense.

The characters lose vital expressions and lines that characterize them and give the audience reason to care about the characters, the plot is filled and lifeless, ... leaving the viewer bored and unengaged. They edit scenes in order to create cheap tension that undermines the plot and the depth of characters.

Don’t even get me started on the “fight scenes.” The fact that they were approved is an insult not just to the fans who adore this series, but to the series itself, which deserves a fantastic anime. The “fight scenes” are series of still images with cheap, colorful effects photoshopped onto the characters to pretend they are moving. To call this animation would be insulting to animators around the world. Even the most novice of animator could create a better product than this.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand TurtleMe’s decision to choose ACAT for what could have been a show better than Solo Leveling, the bets current anime, an adaptation of an, in my opinion, inferior manhwa to TBATE.

It is insulting and disrespectful that this show exists, and will not only serve to hinder the growth of this story, but also stain the image of TBATE, to a point where it could perhaps never receive a true anime adaptation, as studios will be scared off by the garbage that is season one of this anime.

In conclusion, read the manhwa.

I think this anime at times will get a bad rep because of confusing writing - especially within the first 6 or so episodes. During those first couple episodes, the writing was quite frankly poor, and squandered what could’ve made this anime go from very good to incredible. There were confusing time jumps, bad world building, squandered opportunities for plot, and there wasn’t enough meaningful time spent with characters. They may have bitten off more than they could chew with SAO, and were clearly very ambitious with that they wanted to do. If this anime had, say, ten to 12 more episodes? Much of the ... criticism from watchers would disappear. It just didn’t have enough time to develop meaningful relationships between characters.

HOWEVER, that being said, this anime is ABSOLUTELY worth a watch. There is so much done well in this anime that I do not see being mentioned as much as they should, such as the animation/fight choreography, or how the few interactions we DO get between characters are handled spectacularly, interesting plot, but most of all, Kirito and Asuna’s relationship.

I will preface this by saying that Kirito and Asuna’s relationship progressed rather quickly, but that is, again, mostly due to the anime needing more time to do explore their relationship, which at first suffered the same large time jumps as the rest of the characters did. However, the way those two interact with each other, their chemistry, the way they communicate, the way they fight, is in my opinion, one of the most well-executed relationships in anime as a whole. We as the viewers continuously are able to see how much they truly care for each other, and unlike other anime, nothing in their relationship feels forced or fake. They truly have chemistry together and it gives a sense to the viewer that even if those two were unimportant, unseen side characters, they would always be destined to end up together.

The scene in the Knights HQ before the large raid I think is a great example of this. I won’t diverge much on this scene to avoid spoilers, but in it you can truly see how much they care about the other and are terrified of even the idea that the other were to die. Their care for each other drives the plot home to the reader - this isn’t a childish, fake, forced love, they truly love each other and would do anything for the other.

This is not all I could say about SAO, but for the sake of this review not being a million words, it’s best to leave it at that. I think SAO draws lots of unwarranted criticism that could be completely avoided by going into it with an open, forgiving mind. If you are able to look past its surface flaws, you will find underneath a brilliant, fun and interesting anime that is both exciting in its action, and beautiful in its characters.

The best way I can describe this show is that it was SO CLOSE to being SO GOOD. Ragna Crimson does all the hard parts of making an anime well, typically anime tend to struggle with making interesting powers, interesting conflicts, dynamic and deep characters and themes, and the like, but Ragna Crimson executes all these brilliantly. The characters feel so full of life and determination, the Argentum Corps is a beautiful example of the determination and life of the characters in the anime.

However, the show is just so close. It just fails to fully execute the small things that are usually taken for granted ... well. Notably, the animation, especially during the latter half of the show, is at times lackluster. That’s not to say there’s not great moments where the animation looks cool, but the brilliantly written characters, suspense, and power-ups can at times be let down by the animation.

Another small issue I have with the show is the random cuts between action during fight scenes, which falls to direction. Sometimes a fight will be building up and building up and the fight is getting more intense and drawing the viewers in, only for it to cut away during an inopportune time to a less important fight at the time that can leave the viewer overall less interested in the fight they were just excited about a moment ago.

Overall, I think the anime is definitely worth a watch if you come into it knowing these things and with low expectations. Personally, part of the reason why I enjoyed Ragna Crimson so much is because I truthfully had very low expectations coming into it, and was blown away by the characters and interesting plot with well written fight scenes to boot.