Sword Art Online (Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン?Hepburn: Sōdo Āto Onrain) is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by Abec. The series takes place in the near future and focuses on various virtual reality MMORPG worlds.

The light novels began publication on ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint from April 10, 2009, with a spin-off series launching in October 2012. The series has spawned eight manga adaptations published by ASCII Media Works and Kadokawa. The novels and four of the manga adaptations have been licensed for release in North America by Yen Press. An animetelevision series produced by A-1 Pictures aired in Japan between July and December 2012, with an Extra Editionepisode aired on December 31, 2013, and a second season, titled Sword Art Online II, aired between July and December 2014. Four video games based on the series have been released on the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. An animated film titled Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale featuring an original story by Kawahara premiered in Japan and Southeast Asia on February 18, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 9, 2017.

Sword Art Online has received widespread commercial success, with the light novels having over 19 million copies sold worldwide.[1]The anime series has received mixed to positive reviews, praised for its animation, musical score, and exploration of the psychological aspects of virtual reality, but criticized for its pacing and writing.The light novel series spans several virtual reality worlds, beginning with the titular world of Sword Art Online. Each world is built on a game engine called the World Seed, which was initially developed specifically for SAO by Akihiko Kayaba, but was later duplicated for ALO, and later willed to Kirito, who had it leaked online with the successful intention of reviving the virtual reality industry.

In 2022, a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online (SAO) is released. With the NerveGear, a helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. Both the game and the NerveGear was created by Akihiko Kayaba.

On November 6, 10,000 players log into the SAO's mainframe cyberspace for the first time, only to discover that they are unable to log out. Kayaba appears and tells the players that they must beat all 100 floors of Aincrad, a steel castle which is the setting of SAO, if they wish to be free. Those who suffer in-game deaths or forcibly remove the NerveGear out-of-game will suffer real-life deaths.

One of the players named Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya is one of 1,000 testers in the game's previous closed beta. With the advantage of previous VR gaming experience and a drive to protect other beta testers from discrimination, he isolates himself from the greater group and plays the game alone, bearing the mantle of "beater", a "beta tester" and "cheater". As the players progress through the game Kirito eventually befriends a young girl named Asuna Yūki, forming a relationship with and later marrying her in-game. After the duo discover the identity of Kayaba's secret ID, who was playing as the leader of the guild Asuna joined in, they confront and destroy him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.

In the real world, Kazuto discovers that 300 SAO players, including Asuna, remain trapped in their NerveGear. As he goes to the hospital to see Asuna, he meets Shouzou Yūki, Asuna's father, who is asked by an associate of his, Nobuyuki Sugou to make a decision, which Sugou later reveals to be his marriage with Asuna, angering Kazuto. Several months later, he is informed by Agil, another SAO survivor, that a figure similar to Asuna was spotted on "The World Tree" in another VRMMORPG cyberspace called Alfheim Online (ALO). Assisted in-game by his cousin Suguha "Leafa" Kirigayaand Yui, a navigation pixie (originally an AI from SAO), he quickly learns that the trapped players in ALO are part of a plan conceived by Sugōu to perform illegal experiments on their minds. The goal is to create the perfect mind-control for financial gain and to subjugate Asuna, whom he intends to marry in the real world, to assume control of her family's corporation. Kirito eventually stops the experiment and rescues the remaining 300 SAO players, foiling Sugōu's plans. Before leaving ALO to see Asuna, Kayaba, who has uploaded his mind to the Internet using an experimental and destructively high-power version of NerveGear at the cost of his life, entrusts Kirito with The Seed - a package program designed to create virtual worlds. Kazuto eventually reunites with Asuna in the real world and The Seed is released onto the Internet, reviving the VRMMORPG industry.

Soon after, at the prompting of a government official investigating strange occurrences in VR, Kazuto takes on a job to investigate a series of murders involving another VRMMORPG called Gun Gale Online (GGO), the AmuSphere (the successor of the NerveGear), and a player called Death Gun. Aided by a female player named Shino "Sinon" Asada, he participates in a gunfight tournament called the Bullet of Bullets (BoB) and discovers the truth behind the murders, which originated with a player who participated in a player-killing guild in SAO. Through his and Sinon's efforts, two suspects are captured, though the third suspect, Johnny Black, escapes.

Kazuto is later recruited to assist in testing an experimental FullDive machine, Soul Translator (STL), which has an interface that is far more realistic and complex than the previous machine he had played to help develop an artificial intelligence for the Ministry of Defense(MOD) named A.L.I.C.E. He tests the STL by entering a Virtual Reality cyberspace created with The Seed package, named UnderWorld (UW). In the UW, the flow of time proceeds a thousand times faster than in the real world, and Kirito's memories of what happens inside are restricted. However, Black injures Kazuto with suxamethonium chloride. The MOD recovers Kazuto and places him back into the STL to preserve his mind while attempts are made to save him.

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.[2] Over time, he added three further episodes and several short stories.[3][4] 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.[2] Kawahara agreed and withdrew his web novel versions.[4] Working with illustrator abec, the first volume was published in print on April 10, 2009,[5] and 19 volumes have been published as of February 10, 2017.[6]

Kawahara also writes the Sword Art Online: Progressive series, which covers Kirito's adventures on the first few floors of Aincrad. The first volume of Progressive was released on October 10, 2012,[7] and four volumes have been released as of December 10, 2015.[8] The first volume of a light novel series based on Sword Art Online titled Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, written by Keiichi Sigsawa with illustrations by Kouhaku Kuroboshi, was published by ASCII Media Works on December 10, 2014.[9] An original 100-page prequel novel to Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale written by Kawahara, titled Hopeful Chant, was released to people who watched the film in Japan during March 4-10, 2017.[10]

At their Japan Expo USA panel, Yen Press announced the rights to publish the light novels; the first volume was released on April 22, 2014.[11][12] Yen Press later announced their license of the Sword Art Online: Progressive series, which is scheduled for release in 2015.[13] The novels are also published in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.[14] With more than 16.7 million copies in print worldwide, there are future plans for publications in France,[15] Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and others.[14]

There are a number of dōjinshi, written by the series' original author Reki Kawahara under the pseudonym Fumio Kunori, titled Sword Art Online Material Edition (ソードアート・オンライン・マテリアル・エディション?).[16] An 80-page assemblage of some of the Material Edition volumes was published on February 13, 2011;[17] the latest release is Material Edition volume 19 on May 5, 2016. The author has also created some other dōjinshi including Lisbeth Edition, Silica Edition and Pina Edition under cooperation with Kurusu Tatsuya from ponz.info.[18][19] It is reported that these dōjinshi gain traction from the involvement of the original author in its creation process, as well as from supplying more details on characters from the original work.There are ten manga adaptations of the series, all written by Reki Kawahara and published by ASCII Media Works. Sword Art Online: Aincrad (ソードアート・オンラインアインクラッド?), illustrated by Tamako Nakamura, was serialized in Dengeki Bunko Magazine between the September 2010 and May 2012 issues. Two tankōbon volumes of Aincrad were released on September 27, 2012.[20][21]A comedy four-panel manga, titled Sword Art Online. (そーどあーと☆おんらいん。?) and illustrated by Jūsei Minami, began serialization in the September 2010 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine. The first volume of Sword Art Online. was released on September 27, 2012.[22] A third manga, titled Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance (ソードアート・オンラインフェアリィ・ダンス?) and illustrated by Hazuki Tsubasa, began serialization in the May 2012 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine. The first volume of Fairy Dance was released on October 27, 2012;[23] the third volume was released on June 27, 2014.[24] The Aincrad and Fairy Dance manga have been acquired for release in North America by Yen Press.[11] The first volume of Aincrad was published on March 25, 2014.[12]

A spin-off manga starring Lisbeth, Silica, and Leafa, titled Sword Art Online: Girls Ops (ソードアート・オンラインガールズ・オプス?) and illustrated by Neko Nekobyō, began serialization in the July 2013 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine.[25]Girls Ops was licensed by Yen Press in November 2014, the first volume of which was released on May 19, 2015.[26][27] A manga adaption of Sword Art Online: Progressive, illustrated by Kiseki Himura, began serialization in the August 2013 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine. The manga ended serialization in the magazine's May 2014 issue and was transferred to Dengeki G's Comicstarting with the June 2014 issue.[28] The Progressive manga adaption has been licensed by Yen Press, with the first two volumes released in January and April 2015, respectively.[13][29]

A sixth manga, titled Sword Art Online: Phantom Bullet and illustrated by Kōtarō Yamada, had its first chapter serialized in the May 2014 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine, with following chapters being digitally serialized on Kadokawa's Comic Walker website. A seventh manga, titled Sword Art Online: Caliburand illustrated by Shii Kiya, was serialized in Dengeki G's Comic between the September 2014 and July 2015 issues.[30] A single compilation volume was released on August 10, 2015. An eighth manga, titled Sword Art Online: Mother's Rosario and also by Hazuki Tsubasa, is based on the seventh volume of the novel series and began serialization in the July 2014 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine. A ninth manga, titled Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, began serialization in the November 2015 issue of Dengeki Maoh.

A tenth manga, titled Sword Art Online: Project Alicizationand illustrated by Kōtarō Yamada, based on the Alicization arc of the light novel series, began serialization in the September 2016 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine.

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.[31]The anime is produced by Aniplex, animated by A-1 Pictures and directed by Tomohiko Ito with music by Yuki Kajiura.[32] The anime aired on Tokyo MX, tvk, TVS, TVA, RKB, HBC and MBS between July 7 and December 22, 2012, and on AT-X, Chiba TV and BS11 at later dates.[33] The series was also streamed on Crunchyroll and Hulu.[34] The anime is adapted from the first four novels and parts of volume eight. The opening theme song for the first 14 episodes is "Crossing Field" by LiSA [35] and the ending theme song is "Yume Sekai" (ユメセカイ?, lit. "Dream World") by Haruka Tomatsu.[36] 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 of America [37]and an English-language dub premiered on Adult Swim's Toonami from July 27, 2013[38] to February 15, 2014. The series was released by Aniplex of America in four DVD and Blu-ray sets, with special extras on the BD sets, between August 13 and November 19, 2013.[39]Manga Entertainmentreleased the first series on BD/DVD in the United Kingdom in December 2013,[40] whilst Madman Entertainmentreleased the series in Australia[41] and the English-language version began airing on ABC3on June 7, 2014.[42]Sword Art Online has been available on Netflix in North America since March 15, 2014.[43]

A year-end special, titled Sword Art Online Extra Edition, aired on December 31, 2013. The special recapped the previously aired anime series and included some new footage.[44] The special's main theme is "Niji no Oto" (虹の音?Sound of the Rainbow) by Eir Aoi.[45]Extra Editionwas streamed worldwide a few hours after its airing in Japan.[46]The two-hour-long special was available on Daisuki worldwide except for French-speaking areas, as well as China and Korea.[46] Daisuki offered subtitles in various languages such as English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and German.[46] English-speaking countries, Mexico, Central and South America could also watch the stream on Crunchyroll.[47]Extra Editionwas also simulcast in Korea on Aniplus cable channel and in China on the LeTV streaming website.[47]French-speaking countries could watch on the Wakanim streaming website.[47]The Blu-ray Disc and DVD of Extra Edition was released on April 23, 2014 in Japan.[48] The limited edition included a Yui character song titled "Heart Sweet Heart" by Kanae Itō and an original side story written by Reki Kawahara titled "Sword Art Online Niji no Hashi" (ソードアート・オンライン虹の橋?Sword Art Online Rainbow Bridge).[48]

At the end of the special, the anime television series was confirmed for a second season, titled Sword Art Online II, which premiered on July 5, 2014.[49][50] The first 14 episodes of the second season is an adaptation of volumes five and six the light novels that cover the Phantom Bullet arc.[51] Episodes 15 to 17 cover the Calibur arc from volume 8 of the novels, with episodes 18 to 24 covering volume 7 of the novels, the Mother's Rosario arc. Premiere screening events of the second season were held in the United States, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan before the television premiere between June 29 and July 4, 2014.[52][53][54] The first opening theme is "Ignite" by Eir Aoi, and the first ending theme is "Startear" by Luna Haruna.[55] The second opening theme is "Courage" by Haruka Tomatsu, and the second ending theme is "No More Time Machine" by LiSA, with the third ending theme being "Shirushi" (シルシ?), also by LiSA. At Katsucon, it was announced that the English dub of the second season would air on Toonami beginning March 28, 2015.[56]

An animated film titled Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale featuring an original story by Kawahara set after the events of Sword Art Online II premiered in Japan and Southeast Asia on February 18, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 9, 2017.[57][58][59][60]

A stage event at the Dengeki Bunko Autumn Festival 2011 revealed that Reki Kawahara's light novels would get video game adaptations.[61] The first Sword Art Online 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), was developed by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation Portable.[62] 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, and players from other VMMORPGs such as Leafa and Sinon get sucked into the game themselves.[63] The game was released in both regular and limited edition box sets on March 14, 2013.[64]

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment is a PlayStation Vita game released in Japan on April 24, 2014.[65][66]Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment takes place in the same alternative storyline as Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment,[67] and it includes all content of "Floor Clearing" from that previous game[68] with the addition of new unexplored "Hollow Area" of Aincrad.[69] The protagonist Kirito will cross swords with a mysterious player who would become one of the key characters in the game.[69] The game sold 145,029 physical retail copies within the first week of release in Japan, topping the Japanese software sales charts for that particular week.[70] The game had also been released in Taiwan by Namco Bandai Games Taiwan with Chinese and English subtitles.[71] A digital-only North American, European and Australian release was released in August 2014.

A third video game developed by Artdink [72] and titled Sword Art Online: Lost Song was released in Japan on March 26, 2015[73] on the PlayStation 3 and Vita platforms,[74][75] with an English version being released in Asia.[76] The game's producer revealed in October 2014 that the game is an open-world action RPG featuring an original storyline, set within Alfheim Online, where characters are able to fly.[77] The game sold 139,298 physical retail copies on the PlayStation Vita in addition to another 55,090 units on the PlayStation 3 within its first week of release in Japan, ranking second and sixth place respectively within the Japanese software sales charts for that particular week, narrowly behind Bloodborne taking the top spot.[78]

A fourth game titled Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization was released in Japan on October 27, 2016[79] and worldwide on November 8, 2016 for the PS4 and Vita.[80]

A social network gamecalled Sword Art Online: End World was released for Japanese feature phones and smartphones on February 28, 2013[81][82] with more than 1 million registered users.[83] Another freemium game for Android and iOS titled Sword Art Online: Code Register launched in 2014, and over 3,000,000 users have downloaded the game.[84] Another game called Sword Art Online: Progress Link designed for the Mobage browser game platform on smartphones was released on February 10, 2015.[85] In 2016, Bandai Namco released Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag for Android and iOS.[86]

Kirito, Asuna, Leafa, Yuuki and SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online protagonist LLENN appear in Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, a fighting game by Sega featuring various characters from works published under the Dengeki Bunkoimprint.[87][88][89] A browser game titled Sword Art Quest and its sequel smartphone game, Sword Art Quest II[90]provide challenges to users to upgrade their characters to receive rewards.[91] There is also a paid Android game titled SAO -Log Out- that users can download and play with characters from the series and obtain wallpapers from it.[92]

A virtual reality massive multiplayer online game was in development by Kadokawa and IBM Japan,[93]but was only a demo and will not be released as a full game. An action role-playing game titled Accel World VS Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight was announced in October 2016. The game is a crossover with Accel World, developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita and slated to be released on 2017.[94]Sword Art Online is a planned American live-action television adaptation of Sword Art Online. Skydance Television announced on August 2, 2016, that they had acquired the global rights to produce a live-action television adaptation of Reki Kawahara's Sword Art Online light novel series.[1]Laeta Kalogridis has been attached to write a script for the pilot, and will also serve as executive producer for the series alongside Skydance CEO David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross.[1] Skydance has stated their intent to "fast-track" the launch of the series,[1] along with plans to follow the TV series with the release of a Sword Art Online virtual reality experience.[95]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.[96][97] It was ranked first in the 2012 and 2013 Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! rankings, as well as top ten placement in 2011, 2014 and 2015.[98][99][100][101][102] It was also the second best selling light novel series for the first half of 2016 in Japan, selling 489,374 copies.[103]Sword Art Online: Progressive sold 321,535 copies in the same time period.[103]

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.[104] Eisenbeis particularly noted how the romance between Kirito and Asuna is explored bringing "definition to exactly what love is like in a virtual world." However, at the time of this preliminary review, he had only watched the first 12 episodes of the series. He has since gone on to review the second half of the series, lauding its excellent use of plot twists and praising its well written and believable villain. However, he felt that some of the initial positive aspects of the series were lost in the second half, such as the focus on psychological repercussions and social interactions that could be realistically seen in an online game. Criticism was also levied on the aspect of turning Asuna into a damsel in distress, stating that a female lead as strong as her was "reduced to nothing but the quest item the male lead is hunting for." Eisenbeis closes his review of the series by stating in regards to the two halves, "Both, however, are enjoyable for what they are."[105]

Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network has criticized the series as having pacing problems and "sloppy writing".[106]Theron Martin criticized the story as struggling "to achieve and maintain the level of gravitas that life-or-death danger should have", while calling it unwilling to commit to Kirito's "lone wolf" image.[107]DeviceCritique explains that Sword Art Online influences the virtual reality market to grow, and references the Oculus Rift as a prime example of the starting point of virtual reality. It also praises Sword Art Online for exploring the psychological and social aspects of virtual reality gaming.[108]Adam Facey of The Muse criticized the series, among others, as being sexist and the female characters as being overly sexualized.[109]

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