Sword Art Online VS Accel World

I was watching Sword Art Online and noticed something very important. The main character. Kicks. Ass.
For those who don't know what Sword Art Online is, it is an ongoing sci-fi anime where a thousand MMO players get locked inside a virtual reality game. Which kind of makes me think about Accel World, another ongoing sci-fi anime I have started watching, with a multiplayer VR fighting game as a plot element. The difference between those two? One has a kick-ass protagonist. The other has a lame protagonist.

Sword Art Online is a lot more rushed and serious than Accel World. Yes, they are both about games and the protagonists are both "game geniuses", which means they derive from nerdy and socially problematic stock characters. However, Accel World's  protagonist Haruyuki Arita, aka Haru, aka Silver Crow, aka "Porky" has this depressing, pitying, self-deprecating feel. Meanwhile Sword Art Online's protagonist Kazuto Kirigaya, aka Beater Kirito, aka The Black Swordman is independent, powerful and kick ass.

To illustrate my point here is some random fanart.

I would love to talk more about Kirito, but SAO is only at the fourth episode so far. However, only four SAO episodes pack much more awesome than all the sixteen Accel World episodes I have watched. Of course it does, after all SAO story progression is quicker than Accel World. In fact, too quicker. Instead of each episode being a continuation of the previous episode it's more like a slice of life, showing just whatever is happening to the protagonist. The only thing you can be sure about it's that the next episode is somewhere after the current episode.

To illustrate my point here are my thoughts on the first four episodes of each series.

Sword Art Online episodes

1. This looks interesting, they even used the word "beta tester" in it.
2. What? "One month has passed"? This anime sucks I am neve-- OH MY GOD AWESOME BOSS FIGHT!!!
3. Wait, when did he save those people? Wait, when did he get level 40? Wait, I have a bad feeling about this... huh... *gasp* so... sad... *sniff*
4. Heh, still more random characters, I see. Oh, wow. Fan service with plant monsters. Holy trans-atlantic sinking icebergs, Batman!!! Coolest scene ever.

Accel World episodes

1. This looks lame. I mean, bullying? Seriously... Feels kinda rushed and bad.
2. Dere dere, dere dere, dere dere. And I thought he was good at games.
3. Dere dere dere dere dere dere dere dere dere dere dere dere. Full dere dere mode.
4. Sci-fi writers nowadays don't know jack about science. That was awful. I bet this was only to make more "cool" english names. 

I think Sword Art Online is far superior to Accel World even though they are sort of the same thing. It's about whether "I want to watch the rest" and "I want to finish the series". That is to say, SAO is awesome. I want to watch Kirito kicking more ass in all his badass-ness. Accel World story just drags. It takes too long in episode terms to accomplish a small thing. Sometimes it's just about explaining the convoluted "cool sounding english names" it introduces. For example "Burst Linker", "Brain Burst", "Physical Burst", "Full Physical Burst", "Incarnate System", etc.

I guess SAO story development being so rushed in the first episodes might mean that the next episodes will have a slower development. These might be just a kind of skip-through to introduce characters that may, later on the series, support the protagonist when the real troubles begin. Whether that is true or not, doesn't matter. Because I will keep Sword Art Online and Accel World until the end. And perhaps you will too.