Anime Suggestion. Go.

[Stray Cat]

Selector Infected WIXOSS, you won't regret it.  

[Cyrillej1]

I never was able to understand the hype around SAO. It took  a lot of inspiration from .hack//sign but I didn't think it hit the same heights.

For me, I probably liked SAO a lot because I'm a video gamer. I think it did a very good job in making it somewhat believable, like how normal people would actually react in a situation like that (stuck in a virtual world that you can't log out from). So it didn't completely feel random to me like Log Horizon (which I did not like).

 

I've watched .Hack//Sign and tried my best to like it, but maybe too much talking and not enough action got boring.. and the characters didn't particularly stand out to me either. There is good action scenes in SAO that kept me interested, and I think character development was pretty decent. (Although I watched .Hack when I was younger a long time ago and dropped it about couple episodes in... Perhaps I'll try watching it again, and maybe I'll appreciate it more xD).

 

I think it's Kirito & Asuna's relationship that made the anime epic. I mean, how can you not like it? I don't think Asuna represented the Damsel in Distress in the first season.. she was pretty strong herself and was portrayed as an equal to Kirito, which is why they got along/mesh so well.. they were able to tackle high level dungeons together and such. However, Asuna did fit that mold in season 2 (I did not enjoy that season as much as the first one).

 

~Anyways! Here are my Anime Suggestion:

Record of Loddoss Wars, Tower of Druaga, Btooom!, Mirai Nikki, Shiki, Elfen Lied, Fate/Zero, Madoka Magica, Angel Beats!, Claymore, Code Geass, Deadman Wonderland, Escaflowne, Gantz, Ga Rei Zero, Tales of Vesperia/Phantasia/Eternia.  ah but most of the ones mentioned are on the darker/action side xD