Sword Art Online (SAO), written by Reki Kawahara, is a name that sparks many arguments among anime fans. Some claim it to be one of the greatest shows ever made while others claim that calling it hot garbage is an insult to garbage. Meanwhile, SAO’s YouTube parody counterpart Sword Art Online Abridged tends to be much more beloved by general anime fans with much fewer people complaining about the negative aspects of the show. The review/dissection seeks to examine the two shows to discover why SAO Abridged is considered to be a better show than its original.

Likely the first thing to talk about when discussing why people like SAO Abridged over SAO proper is the characters. In the original Sword Art Online, most of the characters had very, very bland one-dimensional personalities. The general lack of personality in these characters usually meant that the storylines arising from them tended to be rather flat. Additionally, the main protagonist of the series, Kirito, shares this lack of defined personality traits or is at least perceived to. Meanwhile, SAO Abridged infuses even minor one-off characters with personalities. From the NPC Gary and his goal to save his family to the now psychopathic protagonist Kirito every named character in Abridged has personality in spades something which makes it vastly superior to the original.

The next thing to be talked about in SAO Abridged is how it improves upon the character arcs. In SAO Kirito does not have so much a character arc as he effortlessly transforms from a (supposedly) cool loner to a (supposedly) cool loner with a wife, a kid, and a close group of friends. Meanwhile SAO Abridged follows its version of Kirito on his journey to becoming a better person because he frankly is not a good person at the series start. In fact in episode four of Abridged Kirito is described by one of the characters as “like, the worst person I’ve ever met.” However, Abridged improves upon the original SAO by having Kirito struggle through a variety of setbacks to eventually become a better person.

The last thing to talk about with SAO Abridged is the improvements to the story. Now, I’m not going to bring out the dead horse of the community of the “lol I forgot” comment because I disagree with that necessarily being a plot improvement. However, Abridged has many more improvements to the plot beyond the aforementioned scene. For example, episodes five and six are improved by addressing the fact the original show’s version of the plot only works as an idiot plot and in Abridged the plot instead works because Kirito does a wee bit of trolling. Other plot improvements include the removal of the incest subplot (don’t ask if you don’t know) and the fact that Asuna retains her personality in the second arc.

In conclusion there are many a reason SAO Abridged is considered to be superior to its original incarnation, not all of them mentioned here because there are way to many. So to anyone who wants a surprisingly thought provoking series with admittedly raunchy humor I would highly recommend SAO Abridged. And to those who want a power fantasy with a protagonist who is very easy to project onto, I present you with SAO proper.