Sword Art Online

About

Sword Art Online (often abbreviated to SAO) is a Japanese science fiction anime series created by Reki Kawahara. Since its creation, the series has spawned a significant fandom, as well as a significant anti-fandom, mainly due to the themes presented in the series.

History

The original Light Novel for Sword Art Online, written by Reki Kawahara, was first created in 2002 as a competition entry for the ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Game Novel Prize, but as the work exceeded the required page limit, he instead decided to publish the work as a web novel under the pseudonym Fumio Kunori, later adding three further volumes as well as several short stories alongside it. In 2008, after winning the competition's grand prize with his work Accel World, he was requested to send in his original Sword Art Online novel as well. He then later took down his novels online after agreeing to this deal, with the first republication being released on April 10th, 2009. A second novel series, titled Sword Art Online: Progressive, was also released on October 10th, 2012.

An anime adaptation of the series, created by A-1 Pictures, was also aired between July 7th and December 22nd, 2012, with a movie recap titled Sword Art Online: Extra Edition airing on December 31st, 2013. A second season aired in July of 2014. There have been a total of 8 manga adaptations of the series published to date, all written by Reki Kawahara, as well as a number of video game adaptations also. Also, starting on July 27th, 2013 and concluding on February 15th, 2014, the anime series was also aired on Adult Swim's Toonami block.

Premise

The series takes place in the world of Sword Art Online, an MMORPG released in 2022, controlled using Virtual Reality helmets which allow players to play their onscreen avatars using their minds. However, when players log in for the first time, they find that they are unable to log out, with the only way of escaping being to beat the final boss on the 100th floor of the in-game tower. They also find out that if a player is to die in-game, they also die in real life. The series follows the adventures of Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya, one of the chosen beta-testers for the game, joined by a female player named Asuna, who tries to stop the game's creator and free all the other players.

Reception

The Sword Art Online series has received mixed reception since its first creation, especially in regards to the anime adaptation, with many critics criticizing the second arc of the show especially. Kotaku's Richard Eisenbeis, while originally praising the show as being one of the smartest series in recent years after viewing the first arc,^[1] lost some of these positive opinions after viewing the second arc, especially in regards to the portrayal of the character Asuna, stating that she is "reduced to nothing but the quest item the male lead is hunting for."^[2] Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network also criticized the series, pointing towards it as having pacing problems and "sloppy writing."^[3]

Online Relevance

In North America, Sword Art Online is licensed by Aniplex of America and available for streaming on Crunchyroll^[4]. The show has gained a large online following on many sites, including on Tumblr^[5], Reddit^[6], 4chan's /a/ (Anime and Manga) board^[7], Fanpop^[8], My Anime List^[9], and DeviantART^[10]. There are numerous sites that provide episodic information about the series, such as the Sword Art Online wiki^[11], TV Tropes^[12] and Anime News Network^[13]. In addition, the Sword Art Online Facebook page also has over 600,000 likes.^[14]

Fandom

The series has spawned a large number of fan-made media on the web since its creation, such as fan art and fan fiction. For example, on the Japanese fan art site Pixiv, there are over 8,000 illustrations tagged under "ソードアート・オンライン"^[15], as well as over 2800 results on video-sharing website Nico Nico Douga^[16]. On the western web, DeviantArt also has over 29,000 images based on the series^[17], and Fanfiction.net also has over 1,400 fanfictions based on the series^[18]. On Tumblr, there are a number of blogs dedicated to Sword Art Online, including Sword Art Online Fans^[19], Sword Art Online Confessions^[20] and Sword Art Online,^[21] among others.

Related Memes

Glop Glop / Chapter 16.5

Chapter 16.5 (Also referred to as Glop Glop) refers to a special chapter from the original Sword Art Online novel, featuring a sex scene between the characters of Asuna and Kirito. Due to the out-of-place and awkward nature of the scene, the chapter became notorious online, spawning many parodies.

Official SAO Launch Day

On November 6th, 2022, Sword Art Online fans celebrated the original launch of the in-universe Sword Art Online (SAO) MMORPG game. 2022 also marks 10 years since the anime first premiered in Japan, as the official Twitter^[22] page of the anime posted a special video, garnering 1.4 million views and 71,500 likes in three days (seen below).

プレイヤー諸君。
私の世界へようこそ。

これは、ゲームであっても遊びではない---- pic.twitter.com/wFMKq1WU6J

— アニメ ソードアート・オンライン 公式 (@sao_anime) November 6, 2022

Alongside the celebration of the franchise's 10th-year landmark, a Twitter account named "Sword Art Online IRL"^[23] started to narrate the events of the anime as if they were happening in real life. On November 6th, 2022, @SAO_IRL declared that the MMORPG game server for Sword Art Online was open to players to join. The tweet received 94,900 likes and 13,800 retweets in three days (seen below).

The creator of the Oculus Rift, Palmer Luckey, announced on November 7th, 2022, that he designed a VR headset inspired by the SAO anime, that will actually kill the user if they die in the game.

Search Interest

External References