Accel World: Why So Much Hate?

Hello Mina-san!

If you guys didn't know, Accel World is a manga and anime made by the same author of Sword Art Online, actually Accel World was released before SAO. Both of these fantastic manga have gorgeous graphic and a very catchy plot, then why is it that Accel World has always been in the shadow of SAO? 

Kirito and Asuna from Sword Art Online

As I mentioned before Accel World was released before SAO and they both have the same stupendous graphics and a few similarities regarding the plot and especially the Nerve Gear but the reason why SAO had more success is probably because although I don't want to admit it, Accel World's plot is quite shallow and lacks in depth. The first two arcs totally drew me inside Accel World and I really liked their original way to make time seem slower by accelerating the body functions and making you move faster instead than slowing down time, but the third arc was were everything went downhill. The Dusk Robber Arc or Third Arc, introduces a new antagonist, Dusk Taker who is able to steal other Duel Avatar's abilities and guess what? Yes, you're right! Silver Crow was robbed of his wings by Dusk Taker!

Silver Crow and Kuroyukihime from Accel World

Yes, it was unexpected to see Silver Crow lose it's wings but it doesn't make up for the uselessness of this arc, it has no links whatsoever to the main story plot and almost felt like a filler, the author tried in vain to make this arc more interesting by adding the blackmail scene where Seiji Noumi threatens Arita (Protagonist) to expose to everyone the fact that he accidentally sneaked into the girl's baths in school. 

Dusk Taker from Accel World

Now, we are not here to bad mouth Accel World but to expose it's good points and why it shouldn't be so underrated because although Sword Art Online is almost a "legendary" anime, it has quite a lot of plot holes which I will not mention because I don't want to hurt the feelings of those who watched it and enjoyed it (more like my feelings :P). 

The combat animations are amazing in both and so is the action but the main difference between these two Anime is that in Accel World, the protagonist has to work his way up from the bottom and gets stronger after every fight. The Incarnate System was also pretty cool in Accel World and I really liked the few episodes in which Arita tried to fly just with the help of imagination and sheer willpower. 

Silver Crow using the Incarnate System

The two main factors that differentiate the scale of success of these two Anime are the romance and the main characters, come on if I asked you to choose between Arita and Kuroyukihime or Kirito and Asuna, I bet that the latter would be the most chosen. Although Black Lotus was pretty cool, it wasn't enough to make the anime fans overlook the great heroine difference and that was really a let down. I don't even want to start talking about the romance because SAO has no competition in this area, I mean how many Anime have been able to achieve such a great balance between original story plot, breathtaking action and a traditional, almost archaic guy-saves-chick romance in one anime? The answer is almost zero, so I'm sorry to say but SAO beats Accel World in almost every area except of the character's skills development but this doesn't mean that Accel World is an anime that you shouldn't watch, actually this shows how even an anime thought to be mediocre such as Accel World could actually be the one anime that you are looking and if you want my opinion, I had a blast going through the episodes of Accel World and I would almost dare to say that I enjoyed just as much as SAO but ... let's keep it real because that would be a bit too far-stretched.

Oyasuminasai!