9.5/10
As a child, I've always found the concept of living in a game that revolves around sword and sorcery fascinating, so the main idea of this show has been appealing to me since the beginning. However, after watching the first few episodes, I was kind of disappointed: All I got to see was a person with an enigmatic character, who was completely over-leveled and wanted to rush through the game all by himself. Instead of showing captivating and engaging boss fights, all I got to see was the main character virtually one-hitting all the enemies because of his high level. Instead of gaining an insight into the main character's personality and background, I was merely left with a very vague impression of him. At that point, I was doubtful about whether it really is worth it continuing watching the show.

Fortunately, I did continue watching the show, and I was glad to see that most of the aforementioned negative aspects didn't prevail throughout the show. Finally, we were introduced with a second main character and therefore also learned more about the sentimental side of Kirito. In the second part of the first season, we also got to understand his family life and relation to his sister better. And furthermore, boss fights no longer were finished in a matter of seconds; instead, we saw how many players work together to defeat the final enemy in bitter and long-running battles. This is when I started to really fall in love with this show.

In conclusion, while the beginning of this show is rather poor, it gets better and better with each episode.