Cough Blair Walsh cough . Was a great feeling lol <| sep |> sidebar has a seedbank listing and beginner ' s guide . there ' s also a search bar on the top right . <| sep |> There are many objective standpoints . But lets not get into the objective argument here . I do think SAO is good but I also think it depends what you ' re looking for . If you ' re looking for an interesting immersive story with cool art and fun ideas then SAO is great . If you ' re looking for a fluid story with good character development than SAO is not so good . SAO has it ' s clear strengths and weaknesses . People are just miffed it ' s so popular when their artsy show isn ' t . Like look at ranime ' s favorite shows . Gintama , SteinGate , and FMAB . Gintama is a gag show , it rubs many people the wrong way , it will never be popular in the west . Steinsgate is great but it also has a slow haremish start which will keep it from the mainstream as well . FMAB is kind of mainstream but it has a functional story . So FMAB is the best comparison on what ranime would want to be popular in it ' s genre . complete story , cool world , Alchemy , good characters . Now is SAO bad because it isn ' t as good as FMAB ? no . People are just salty that SAO is almost as popular as FMAB even though they don ' t think it deserves to be .