http://yaraon.blog109.fc2.com/blog-entry-12296.html
Ouch. I'm not sure how previous SAO episodes rated on niconico, but 14 definitely had a poor response:
Very good: 35.1%
Somewhat good: 18.2%
Not very good: 9.6%
Not good: 37.1%
I'm guessing at least 100k people watched the episode on nico by the time that cap was taken, and the survey automatically prompts at the end so response rate should be fairly high.
On the other hand, Vol. 5 got solicited and shot into the Amazon top 10, so I think this is a case of a very popular show just being very very polarizing. And probably picking up more than its fair share of people who watched simply so they could give it the worst rating. These niconico scores are becoming really popular to track, so it gets a lot of visibility as a snap-response poll.
Of course, it's only useful at all when the niconico audience is representative of the show's target audience (which it should be for SAO). Still, I think it shows that there's quite a degree of ambivalence among anime watchers in Japan too about how this was handled, so it's not just an east vs west disconnect.
I don't think I've been polarized to one end or the other yet - I'm still just incredibly confused about what the hell SAO is attempting to be. Because honestly I don't even think it knows anymore. Or did it ever? I can't remember the last time I was genuinely confused about whether I should import a show or hate it. Normally, those two things should be leagues apart... Even when Shana III went batshit crazy in the last third after an utterly brilliant first two thirds, I didn't feel nearly this confused.