I was not expecting to like Masters of the Universe when I heard it was in production...
but THEN I saw pictures of Teela and Evil-Lynn working together.
THEN I actually watched it.
And y'all... it held up. It's only 5 episodes, but it felt very much like a comic book which I enjoyed. It was like a long movie. Plus the set up for the next part? Fantastic. Also... did not expect to tear up as much as I did but the story and the DIALOGUE really hits (Orko and Roboto I'm looking at you). And the new character was written in well I can't wait to learn more about her backstory.
Overall tho it was the THEMES with which I really did enjoy!
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Considering that SAO has been finished for several weeks now, it's actually rather strange that I was thinking about it yesterday, especially since I'm not actually that pleased that the anime stopped with ALO. I mean, okay, Gun Gale Online probably isn't the best thing to air because guns are always a touchy thing to have in television, but it has such a nice plot and possibly the strongest female lead of the bunch.
But okay, that's a tangent.
My main point is this: SAO has received a whole ton of grief in terms of storyline, characterization, and everything. I don't know about you, but I know that a lot of my friends had major issues with Kirito and his complete lack of personality. Personally, I wouldn't say he was without defining traits, but I do think he's rather bland for a main character.
However, I've discovered a new way of thinking of SAO as a whole.
I've read a few of the novels, mainly the ones about ALO. It's not enough to really talk about it in depth, but it's enough to say with certainty that SAO functions as a modern epic. I'm not saying epic as in the colloquial "awesome" or "cool." I'm referring to things like the Odyssey or Gilgamesh.
To start off, here are the ways that this isn't an epic. For one thing, the writing is in no way a poem. In addition, most epics were passed around orally, and that's not the case here. There are also a few disparities between the anime and the light novels that actually take away a few of my points.
Anyway, on to supporting my assertion. (This is becoming longer than I envisioned. Please bear with me a while longer.)
First off, this story begins en medias res. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it essentially means that we start in the middle of the narrative; things have already happened that will be referenced to either through dialogue or flashback, but more events are yet to come. This is only the case with the light novel; everything happens chronologically in the anime, which is to be expected with an adaptation. At a certain point fairly early on, however, we have something of a time skip in which we can establish that Kirito has done grand deeds that we can't even fathom because we never saw them, and it is that established fame that allows me to continue along these lines.
Secondly, Kirito is meant to be a hero, but he isn't meant to be a character exactly. I think that's a strange way of putting it, but because it's late I don't have a better idea at this time. The purpose of an epic is to tell the tales of some wonderful hero, to create a person whose only purpose is to be idolized, so to speak. Kirito was never meant to have much character growth; he was simply meant to be that ideal person that saved the world.
Third is how most of SAO is told from Kirito's point of view, albeit in first person. Fpr all intents and purposes, POVs generally don't change in epics because we want to learn about our hero and how he overcomes adversity. If the POV changes, it's because of dialogue.
That last one was a bit of a stretch, I'll admit. But that doesn't take away from the fact that SAO is a story of a hero overcoming many obstacles to reach a goal. For Kirito, that goal is to go back home, alive. While an epic might not produce a fluid character that most viewers seem to crave nowadays, there is definitely something to be said about the fantastic nature of a hero's journey.
