I just finished the last few of the 24 episodes of Sword Art Online, in a nice 2-hour marathon this morning. I really, really enjoyed it.
idk, maybe it's just when compared to Shangri-La, but it seemed to succeed wildly in every area. I felt emotionally connected to the characters, they seemed to be real people with thoughts and motivations and junk, the story made sense and was engaging, the art was excellent, and the animation was also great.
Everything that was absent, badly done, or clouded over in Shangri-La and Samurai 7 was here in spades.
Next up: Psycho Pass, or Kotoura-san.