Sword Art Online (SAO)

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.^[2]

Plot and characters

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, Kirito eventually befriends a female player named Asuna who becomes his partner and lover. 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 a small group of SAO players are trapped in another VRMMORPG called Alfheim Online (ALO). Their imprisonment in ALO is part of a plan devised by Nobuyuki Sugō to subdue Asuna and marry her, in an attempt to take over her family's company. Helped by old friends from SAO along with new allies, Kirito thwarts Nobuyuki's plans and finally reunites with Asuna in the real world.
Soon after, Kirito plays another VRMMORPG called Gun Gale Online (GGO) to investigate the mysterious connection between the game and deaths occurring in the real world. He eventually discovers that the culprits are former members of a murderous guild he had previously encountered in SAO.
After solving the murders in GGO, Kirito is 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 that of the previous games he had played. In UW, the flow of time proceeds thousands of times faster than in the real world. However, Kirito ends up falling for a trap and wakes up inside the game, unable to log out and he starts looking for a way back to reality.

Setting

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

Sword Art Online

The first virtual game world, as well as the setting of the first arc of the story. 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.

Alfheim Online

The setting for the second arc of the story. 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, 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, in a fashion similar to the The Elder Scrolls game series. Aincrad, the castle of the first game, is later accessible to ALO players as well.

Gun Gale Online

The setting for the third arc of the story. 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 1000 times faster than that of the real world.

 

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.^[3] Over time, he added three further volumes and several short stories.^[4][5] 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.^[3] Kawahara agreed and withdrew his web novel versions.^[5] 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 scene. On October 10, 2012, the first volume of the Sword Art Online: Progressive series was released. The new series 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

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 4koma 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 ended.

Anime

See also: List of Sword Art Online episodes

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.^[6] The anime is published by Aniplex, produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Tomohiko Ito with music by Yuki Kajiura.^[7] The anime began airing on Tokyo MX, tvk, TVS, TVA, RKB, HBC and MBS on July 7, 2012 and on AT-X, Chiba TV and BS11 at later dates.^[8] The series is also streamed on Crunchyroll. The opening theme song for the first 14 episodes is "crossing field" by LiSA^[9] and the ending theme song is "Yume Sekai" (ユメセカイ^?, lit. "Dream World") by Haruka Tomatsu.^[10] From episode 15 onward, the opening theme is "INNOCENCE" by Aoi Eir and the ending theme is "Overfly" by Haruna Luna. The anime has been licensed in North America by Aniplex USA.^[11] and in Australia by Madman Entertainment.^[12] The anime Simulcast on Saturdays 3:00pm EST, and can be seen on Crunchyroll an hour after it airs in Japan.

Video game

The PSP video game, Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment, is scheduled for release on March 14, 2013. There will be two versions available: a regular edition and limited edition box set.

Reception

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.^[13] Eisenbeis particularly noted how the romance between Kirito and Asuna is explored bringing "definition to exactly what love is like in a virtual world".

Source :  http://en.wikipedia.org