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
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
