It's a good shonen anime in the sense that it contains fights, fun and excitement, but from about the middle of the show things seem to get out of hand. The world, the characters and some conflicts are set up, and it looks like we will get a story arc about what Accel World is, what's its purpose, how it will end, etc. But then suddenly new characters are introduced, the main plot is sidelined for a much weaker subplot, much of the runtime is spent on various characters whining ad nauseam, and the "grand finale" of the show is a smallish fight with one of these new characters that solves nothing and wouldn't move the main plot forward even if it continued at all. A huge letdown to be honest.
There were also problems with how new rules and ideas were introduced to the show even in the last episodes, which is never a good sign. After a certain point it inevitably feels like the creators just keep pulling things out of thin air, which kinda' ruins their previous efforts at worldbuilding. It's a lot easier to believe in a fantasy or sci-fi world if the rules governing it are coherent and unbreakable.
I still give the anime 7 stars because it had its moments, some of the concepts were interesting and some fights were enjoyable. It could have been much better though.
