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Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online
Sword Art Online light novel volume 1 cover featuring main characters Kirito (left) and Asuna (right)
Genre	Action/Adventure, Science fantasy, Romance
Light novel
Written by	Reki Kawahara
Illustrated by	abec
Published by	ASCII Media Works
English publisher	NA Yen Press
Demographic	Male
Imprint	Dengeki Bunko
Original run	April 10, 2009 – ongoing
Volumes	13 (List of volumes)
Manga
Sword Art Online: Aincrad
Written by	Reki Kawahara
Illustrated by	Tamako Nakamura
Published by	ASCII Media Works
English publisher	NA Yen Press
Demographic	Shōnen
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
English publisher	NA Yen Press
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Dengeki Bunko Magazine
Original run	May 2012 – ongoing
Volumes	1
Anime television series
Directed by	Tomohiko Itō
Music by	Yuki Kajiura
Studio	A-1 Pictures
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Aniplex of America UK Manga Entertainment
Network	Tokyo MX, tvk, TVS, TVA, RKB, HBC, MBS, AT-X, Chiba TV, BS11
English network	US Adult Swim (Toonami)
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	2 (List of volumes)
Game
Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment
Developer	Namco Bandai Games
Publisher	Namco Bandai Games
Genre	Action RPG
Platform	PSP
Released	March 14, 2013
Manga
Sword Art Online Girls Ops
Written by	Reki Kawahara
Illustrated by	Neko Nekobyō
Published by	ASCII Media Works
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Dengeki Bunko Magazine
Original run	June 10, 2013 – ongoing
Manga
Sword Art Online: Progressive
Written by	Reki Kawahara
Illustrated by	Kiseki Himura
Published by	ASCII Media Works
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Dengeki G's Magazine
Original run	June 30, 2013 – ongoing
Anime film
Sword Art Online Extra Edition
Directed by	Tomohiko Itō
Music by	Yuki Kajiura
Studio	A-1 Pictures
Released	December 31, 2013
Runtime	101 minutes
Game
Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment
Developer	Namco Bandai Games
Publisher	Namco Bandai Games
Genre	Action RPG
Platform	PlayStation Vita
Released	JP April 24, 2014
Anime television series
Sword Art Online II
Directed by	Tomohiko Itō
Studio	A-1 Pictures
Original run	2014 – scheduled

Sword Art Online (ソードアート・オンライン 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 label from April 10, 2009, with a spin-off series launching in October 2012, and are licensed in North America by Yen Press. The series has spawned five manga adaptations. A television anime series produced by A-1 Pictures aired in Japan between July and December 2012. The anime has been licensed in North America by Aniplex of America and an English-language version began airing on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block on July 27, 2013. An Extra Edition episode aired on December 31, 2013, and a second anime series, titled Sword Art Online II, will begin airing in 2014. A video game based on the series was released on PlayStation Portable in March 2013, with a second game for PlayStation Vita to be released in April 2014. The novels and two of the manga adaptations have been licensed for release by Yen Press.

Overview

Setting

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 too.

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 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. From all the games it is the most competitive one as the money earned there can be exchanged for currency used in the real world, drawing high-tier professional players to make a living from it.

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 variable and can be much faster relative to the real world's. 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 as of yet canon "There is but one ultimate way" side story, the rate is said to be safely up to 1,000 times faster than that of the real world, just like Accel World's Brain Burst.

Plot

See also: List of Sword Art Online characters

Sword Art Online (SAO) is a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), released in 2022. 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, the players log in for the first time, and later discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Akihiko Kayaba, SAO's creator, 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. One of these players is Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya, 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 Heathcliff in SAO, they confront and destroy him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.
Upon being sent back 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 enters the ALO's mainframe. Helped by his sister Suguha Kirigaya, known as Leafa in the game, he learns that the trapped players in ALO are part of a plan conceived 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 foils Nobuyuki's plans, he finally reunites with Asuna back 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 the UW mainframe, the flow of time proceeds a thousand 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.

Media

Light novels

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.^[1] Over time, he added three further volumes and several short stories.^[2][3] 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.^[1] Kawahara agreed and withdrew his web novel versions.^[3] 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 a fan fiction 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". At their Japan Expo USA panel, Yen Press announced the rights to publish the light novels; the first volume is scheduled for April 22, 2014.^[4][5]
Sword Art Online


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