Sword Art Online
Sword Art Online light novel volume 1 cover featuring main characters Kirito (left) and Asuna (right)
ソードアート・オンライン (Sōdo Āto Onrain)
Genre	Action, Romance, Science fantasy
Light novel
Written by	Reki Kawahara
Illustrated by	abec
Published by	ASCII Media Works
Demographic	Male
Imprint	Dengeki Bunko
Original run	April 10, 2009 – ongoing
Volumes	12 (List of volumes)
Manga
Sword Art Online: Aincrad
Written by	Reki Kawahara
Illustrated by	Tamako Nakamura
Published by	ASCII Media Works
Demographic	Seinen
Imprint	Dengeki Comics
Magazine	Dengeki Bunko Magazine
Original run	September 2010 – May 2012
Volumes	2
Manga
Sword Art Online 4-koma
Written by	Reki Kawahara
Illustrated by	Jūsei Minami
Published by	ASCII Media Works
Demographic	Seinen
Imprint	Dengeki Comics EX
Magazine	Dengeki Bunko Magazine
Original run	September 2010 – ongoing
Volumes	1+
Manga
Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance
Written by	Reki Kawahara
Illustrated by	Hazuki Tsubasa
Published by	ASCII Media Works
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Dengeki Bunko Magazine
Original run	May 2012 – ongoing
Anime television series
Directed by	Tomohiko Itō
Music by	Yuki Kajiura
Studio	A-1 Pictures
Licensed by	AU Madman Entertainment NA Aniplex USA
Network	Tokyo MX, tvk, TVS, TVA, RKB, HBC, MBS, AT-X, Chiba TV, BS11
Original run	July 7, 2012 – December 22, 2012
Episodes	25 (List of episodes)
Light novel
Sword Art Online: Progressive
Written by	Reki Kawahara
Illustrated by	abec
Published by	ASCII Media Works
Demographic	Male
Imprint	Dengeki Bunko
Original run	October 10, 2012 – ongoing
Volumes	1 (List of volumes)
Game
Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment
Developer	Namco Bandai Games
Publisher	Namco Bandai Games[1]
Genre	Action RPG
Rating	CERO: C
Platform	PSP
Released	March 14, 2013[2]
Anime and Manga portal

Sword Art Online (ソードアート・オンライン, Sōdo Āto Onrain^?) is a Japanese light novel series by Reki Kawahara, with illustrations by abec. It has been adapted into three manga, an anime, and a video game.^[3]

Plot [edit]

In the year 2022, the Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), Sword Art Online (SAO), is released. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.

On November 6, 2022, all the players log in for the first time, and subsequently discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world. The story follows Kirito, a skilled player who is determined to beat the game. As the game progresses for two years, Kirito eventually befriends a female player named Asuna with whom he ultimately falls in love. After the duo discover the identity of Kayaba's avatar in SAO, they confront and defeat him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.

Upon returning to the real world, Kirito learns that Asuna and 300 other SAO players have still not awakened yet. Following a clue about Asuna's whereabouts in another VRMMORPG called Alfheim Online (ALO), Kirito also logs in there. Helped by his sister Suguha, he learns that the trapped players in ALO are part of a plan devised by Nobuyuki Sugō to perform illegal experiments on their minds to put them under his control, including Asuna, whom he intends to marry in the real world in order to take over her family's company. After Kirito stops Nobuyuki's plans, he finally reunites with Asuna in the real world.

Soon after, Kirito plays another game called Gun Gale Online (GGO) to investigate the mysterious connection between it and deaths occurring in the real world. Assisted by a female player he meets in the game called Sinon, he identifies and exposes the culprits, who include some former members of a murderous guild he had previously encountered in SAO.

Kirito is later recruited to assist in the development of a state-of-the-art game, UnderWorld (UW), which has an interface that is far more realistic and complex than the previous games he had played. In UW, the flow of time proceeds thousands of times faster than in the real world. However, he ends up falling into a trap set by one of the murderers from GGO and wakes up inside the game, unable to log out, with his real self left in a comatose state. Eventually he starts to question if he is the real Kirito or an artificial intelligence modeled after him.

Setting [edit]

The light novel series spans several virtual MMORPGs, not exclusively the eponymous world of Sword Art Online.

Sword Art Online (ソードアート・オンライン, Sōdo Āto Onrain^?)

The first virtual game world, as well as the setting of the first arc of the story, known as SAO for short. The world takes the form of a giant floating castle called Aincrad, with 100 floors in it. Each floor has a medieval-themed setting and a dungeon with a boss, which has to be defeated before players can advance to the next higher floor. Like most RPGs, it implements a level-based system. However, the game is altered in a manner in which players are unable to log out, and if players die in-game, their real life body dies also.

Alfheim Online (アルヴヘイム・オンライン, Aruvuheimu Onrain^?)

The setting for the second arc of the story, known as ALO for short. All players in the game have wings and are capable of flight. It is a large world, divided into separate 'homelands' for each of its fairy races. In Alfheim's center is a very large tree called Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and the goal of the game is to reach the top. It implements a skill-based system with players increasing their stats by developing both their combat and non-combat skills. Aincrad, the castle of the first game, is later accessible to ALO players as well.

Gun Gale Online (ガンゲイル・オンライン, Gan Geiru Onrain^?)

The setting for the third arc of the story, known as GGO for short. It is a virtual game world with a main focus on guns, although melee weapons like lightsabers and knives also exist.

UnderWorld

The setting for the fourth arc of the story. According to Kirito, it is graphically the most realistic of all VRMMOs to date. The flow of time in UW is much faster than the real world's just like Accel World. Even so, it seems that even Kirito was misled as to the actual rate of UW's time flow, so it is still unknown. However, in the "There is but one ultimate way" side story, the rate is said to be 1,000 times faster than that of the real world.

Media [edit]

Light novels [edit]

Reki Kawahara wrote the first volume in 2002 as a competition entry for ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Game Novel Prize (電撃ゲーム小説大賞, Dengeki Game Shōsetsu Taishō^?, now Dengeki Novel Prize), but refrained from submitting it as he had exceeded the page limit. He instead published it as a web novel under the pseudonym Fumio Kunori.^[4] Over time, he added three further volumes and several short stories.^[5][6] In 2008, he participated in the competition again by writing Accel World, this time winning the Grand Prize. Aside from Accel World, he was requested to get his earlier work, Sword Art Online, published by ASCII Media Works.^[4] Kawahara agreed and withdrew his web novel versions.^[6] The republication as a paper novel began on April 10, 2009. The paper novel excluded chapter 16.5 of volume 1 of the web novel, due to its explicit nature, which was originally an author-written fanfiction of his own work. On October 10, 2012, the first volume of the Sword Art Online: Progressive series was released. Progressive covers Kirito's adventures on the first and second floors of Aincrad, and includes a rewrite of two side stories, Aria in the Starless Night and Rondo of the Transient Sword.

Manga [edit]

There are three manga adaptations of the series, which are serialized in Dengeki Bunko Magazine. Sword Art Online: Aincrad, illustrated by Tamako Nakamura, ran from September 2010 to May 2012 and consists of two manga volumes. A comedy four-panel manga titled Sword Art Online 4-koma and illustrated by Jūsei Minami, was serialized in September 2010 with one manga volume published thus far. A third manga titled Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance and illustrated by Hazuki Tsubasa, began serializing on May 2012 after Sword Art Online: Aincrad

Anime [edit]

An anime adaptation of Sword Art Online was announced at Dengeki Bunko Autumn Festival 2011, along with Reki Kawahara's other light novel series, Accel World.^[7] The anime is published by Aniplex, produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Tomohiko Ito with music by Yuki Kajiura.^[8] The anime aired on Tokyo MX, tvk, TVS, TVA, RKB, HBC and MBS between July 7, 2012 and December 22, 2012, and on AT-X, Chiba TV and BS11 at later dates.^[9] The series was also streamed on Crunchyroll and Hulu.^[10] The opening theme song for the first 14 episodes is "crossing field" by LiSA^[11] and the ending theme song is "Yume Sekai" (ユメセカイ^?, lit. "Dream World") by Haruka Tomatsu.^[12] From episode 15 onward, the opening theme is "Innocence" by Eir Aoi and the ending theme is "Overfly" by Luna Haruna. The anime has been licensed in North America by Aniplex USA.^[13] The series is licensed in Australia by Madman Entertainment.^[14]

Video game [edit]

A video game adaptation, titled Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment (ソードアート・オンライン -インフィニティ・モーメント-, Sōdo Āto Onrain: Infiniti Mōmento^?), is developed by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation Portable. The game follows an alternate storyline, in which a glitch causes Kirito and the other players to remain in Sword Art Online despite defeating Heathcliff, whilst players from other VMMORPGs such as Leafa and Sinon get sucked into the game themselves.^[15] The game was released in both regular and limited edition box sets on March 14, 2013.

Reception [edit]

Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku hails Sword Art Online as the smartest series in recent years, praising its deep insight on the psychological aspects of virtual reality on the human psyche, its sociological views on creating a realistic economy and society in a massively multiplayer online game setting, and the writing staff's ability to juggle a wide variety of genres within the series.^[16] Eisenbeis particularly noted how the romance between Kirito and Asuna is explored bringing "definition to exactly what love is like in a virtual world."

According to Oricon, Sword Art Online was the top selling light novel series of 2012, with eight volumes figuring among the top selling light novels.^[17][18]

See also [edit]

• Accel World

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Anime official website (Japanese)
• USA Official Website
• Sword Art Online (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia