Sword Art Online - on the anime vs. the light novels
So I meant to post about SAO a lot earlier, but I've been saving the later light novel volumes for certain kinds of downtime (re: at work cough) plus I've been getting into a lot of other stuff, so this got kind of...postponed.
//
The anime always felt imbalanced to me, flow-wise, especially during the first 14 eps. Turns out that the first novel, after going over the first day and some other basics of the SAO world, actually jumps forward time-wise by two years - so, to about episode 9 or 10 in the anime, when they're on the 74th floor, and right when Kirito finds the Ragout Rabbit. (The death in an inner area case is a sidestory that appears in novel 8.)
This is important because 1) the story feels tighter, with more impact. Obviously there'd be a lot of meandering in SAO over two years, but I thought the anime was just making up filler to pad the story or something, since it all felt like...filler. 2) The other thing is, all that stuff about Kirito's first guild or how he ended up getting close to Asuna is all shown in flashbacks or in stories that either Kirito or Asuna tells. Which might not seem like it means anything, but since the story feels more streamlined, I felt that the impact of these scenes was a lot stronger as well. That, or two people obviously in love who then recall just how their relationship came to be works better for me. Whichever.
I think there's a rewriting of the novel that does have that initial scene with Kirito helping Asuna at the very very beginning, but aside from that, almost all of the first 9 episodes or so come from the 2nd novel - which is a collection of sidestories. And I know it'd be weird if the anime did air everything in novel order, so I don't blame them for trying the chronological approach - but it just felt weaker to me, is all.
//
Also, the narration simply provides more details that the anime doesn't. I'm fairly sure the anime never explained where the "beater" term originated from (beta tester + cheater), just why Kirito fell into a weird forest area in ALO and how he coincidentally met up with his sister (turns out that since they're using the same connection, the game thought he was her and thus warped her to where Lyfa was supposed to be, and that's why they ended up meeting - not as contrived as one would've thought, eh?), etc.
Plus, there's just more information - stats, how stats work, how skills work, the importance of food or sleep, some other world mechanics info, other details that I guess maybe you all think would be redundant I dunno I'm just interested in boring nuts and bolts I guess, etc. But it also provides more of Kirito's thought process, and later on even Suguha's or Asuna's (or Sinon's, the protagonist of the 5th-6th novels), which just...made a lot of things work better? It gives them all more depth and gives more layers to their actions. Especially Suguha in ALO, who I thought was always pretty flat in the anime.
Finally, the LNs simply have more space to get into all those wonderful themes about VR technology that the anime...gets into pretty well, yet doesn't quite compare. Maybe they'll cover more of it with more seasons, though, because...
//
The best part about the LNs is - more story! Basically the anime covered vols 1-4, and part of 8 (another side story collection). Vols 5-6 cover an FPS (first person shooter) VRMMO where people killed by a mysterious gun in-game also die in real life, vol 7 covers something really fascinating that I don't want to give away at all, vol 8 has the inner area PK case plus the ALO Excalibur quest, and vols 9-12 cover the Alicization arc (the barebones that I know are - Kirito ends up in another VR world without knowing much about what's going on...or whether he's even the real Kirito, or merely an AI in his likeness).
Also, yes, Asuna is a little more baller in the novels. I may simply be biased with the anime versus the LNs, but volume 7 is also entirely from Asuna's POV and addresses both real life issues she's facing along with the in-game plot. In fact, Kirito barely appears (though one could argue it's because he figured out the entire thing from the beginning that he didn't participate, haha).
//
So yeah, tl;dr...the novels are better, all the way. The baka-tsuki edits for vols 1-2 were pretty good, but then they kind of taper a bit after that...they're not awful, but they do feel clunky. Still easily readable though. Everyone knows I'm a huge adaptation purist who tends to like the original over the anime adaptation every single time, but - hey, the SAO anime was fine. It's just that the novels are a hell of a lot better.
...as long as the author stops writing female characters who keep falling in love with Kirito, though. That is entirely his fault, haha.