Sword Art Online

Official Blue-ray cover for episodes 1-7, Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online (Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン) is the Japanese light novel series written by Japanese writer Reki Kawahara and the illustration drawn by Japanese illustrator abec. The first novel of the series was published on October 10th, 2012 and the series is on-going. SAO's increasing popularity with 30,000 novels sold during the first week of release, the following 2012 anime series was released. The story follows with the main protagonist, Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya as he navigates through various Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (VRMMORPGs). The series covers story which takes place in the year 2022 and follows Kirito's journey through a game entitled Sword Art Online. In it, the initial players are locked into the game and are killed if they are either unplugged from the equipment they use to run the game or die in the game. In order to be set free, players must beat all 100 floors of the game. While it is a popular series, critical reception has been more mixed, like the notion of sheer distinction between reality and virtual reality and the poor utilization of mass-distributed technology.

Plot Summary

In an alternate universe in the year 2022, a VRMMORPG called Sword Art Online is released. On the initial launch day, 10,000 players log on, including one under the username Kirito. Kirito encounters another player, Kline, and teaches him the basics of the system which Kirito has learned by participating in the beta test of the game. After Kline attempts to log out but fails because the button is missing, the game master and creator, Akihiko Kayaba, transports all players into the town square. Here he announces that all players are stuck in the game and can only escape by beating the game; if players are forcibly removed from the system or die in the game, they will be killed in real life by the equipment, called Nerve Gear, that they are using to play the game. The first 213 deaths of the game can be attributed to this scenario. Kayaba then uses data collected through the nerve gear to create accurate avatars for the users. The users are then released from the square and Kirito decides to play solo, using his knowledge from beta testing and past experience with VRMMORPGs to move on to the next town to find less scarce resources.

As the game progresses, players form guilds and parties. In order to defeat the first boss, Kirito joins a party with another character, Asuna Yūki, known in the game as Asuna. The group they are a part of uses information distributed by other beta testers, who are stigmatized as 'beaters' (a combination of beta and cheater) to find the boss. Together, the group defeats the boss, with the final strike coming from Kirito which earns him special gear to use in the game.

As the players progress, Kirito continues to play solo, battling on the 'front lines' with powerful guilds and assault teams, encountering Asuna later once when she is the second-in-command of a powerful guild, Knights of the Red Oath. They fight over the use of Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) as decoys for monsters. They later reconcile after Kirito watches over Asuna while she is asleep outside, protecting her from other members who would take advantage of her sleeping state by initialing a duel while she was unconscious.

Their friendship is later tested by a member of Asuna's guild who is prejudiced against beaters due to their initial advantages. A member of the Knights of the Blood Oath, tasked with protecting Asuna, attacks Kirito after finding out that they formed a party again and intend to battle together on the front lines outside of the guild. Kirito defeats the guard and he and Asuna head to the front lines, finding the boss. A guild from the lower floors appear, attempting to force Kirito to reveal the map data he's collected, but he releases the data willingly. The guild attempts to beat the boss, but are overpowered and Kirito saves them, beating the boss on his own.

The commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath challenges Kirito to a duel after his display of power and wins by secretly manipulating the game structure to allow him to move faster than Kirito. Kirito is forced to join the guild, and is nearly murdered by the member who he defeated earlier while participating in the guild's skills assessment. As a result, he and Asuna decide to get married in the game and take a break from fighting. During the break, they meet a young girl named Yui who has lost her memory. By looking for her origins, they discover that she is a fully developed Artificial Intelligence program designed to monitor and assist users with mental health issues. She is shut down by the system after saving Kirito and Asuna from a powerful monster.

Kirito and Asuna return to the front lines to participate in a boss battle. Fourteen players die in the effort, and while recovering, Kirito realizes that the commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath is really Kayaba. After confronting him, Kayaba offers Kirito the opportunity to fight him, betting that if Kirito wins, that Kayaba will release the remaining 6,000 players. Kirito is successful, though he and Asuna die in the process. Kayaba saves them though and the series ends with Kirito heading off to find Asuna in the offline world.

Media

Light Novels

As it was mentioned before, the series of Sword Art Online originated as light novels, a term that is referred to the type of fictional book that is mostly text-heavy with few illustrations printed throughout the book. The number of illustrations varies depending on the series, but generally it consists of 5-10 illustrations per novel. After Reki Kawahara's request for the publication of SAO got approved, he started working with illustrator abec on the light novel series and the first volume was published on April 10, 2009. and the total of 22 volumes have been published as of April 9th, 2018.

Characters

• Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya - The main protagonist, is a beta tester, plays solo on the front lines, married to Asuna in game, and defeats the creator, setting the surviving players free.
• Asuna Yūki - Second in command for Knights of the Blood oath, married to Kirito in the game.
• Akihiko Kayaba - Creator of Nerve Gear and Sword Art Online, disguised as the commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath.
• Kline - Friend of Kirito and a leader of a guild himself. Plays on the front lines.
• Agil - Merchant and friends with Kirito, helps Kirito and participates in boss raids.
• Yui - an AI program, formally known as Mental Health Counseling Program, prototype 1. Treated like Kirito and Asuna's daughter.

Similar Works

Other works have explored similar material to Sword Art Online. Among other anime, shows like .hack//Sign, which explores identity formation through the main character who, unlike with SAO, is the only one trapped in a VRMMORPG.

In film, movies such as The Matrix and The Congress explore VR worlds and implications related to their known and unknown usage.

In books, the 1993 novel Killobyte explores a VR game wherein two players with medical conditions are targeted by a hacker who traps them in the game for harassment which, through their methods, could lead to the players' death. The 1964 novel Simulacron-3, also known as Counterfeit World, explores a world where a computer simulation of a world is used for market research and the inhabitants of said world are unaware of their purpose.

Criticism

Critics of the series enjoy the art and animation as well as the music score while critiquing the writing and characterization choices. Theron Martin of Anime News Network notes how the anime's adaptation from the light novels provides drawbacks as the novels were written out of chronological order and the anime's use of such order leaves the viewer feeling as if Kirito is a 'Gary Stu'. In Martin's review of the later half of the first arc, he notes that the series continues to exhibit 'structural inconsistencies, [and] irregular character behavior'. Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku initially praised the series initially for it's pacing, discussion of implications for living inside of a video game, diversity in genres, love story, and unexpected ending within the first arc, but critics the series for over use of tragic plot points and later, it's poor characterization of women.

Statistics of VR gear usage.

Ethics

The biggest ethical concern presented throughout the plot of Sword Art Online is the possible outcome of mass-distribution of VR gears. Although every aspect of the novel and anime series of Sword Art Online is fictional, the ethical concerns that it prompts to the audience remains relevant as the usage of VR gear is subjected to increase greatly starting from the year 2020, as suggested by the graphical figure to the right. Because the future usage of VR gear is subjected to skyrocket from the year 2020, the mass-distribution of VR gear seems to be not entirely fictional in the reality. With the notion of subjected increase of VR gear usage, the fictional display of massive online virtual reality that Sword Art Online illustrates is, to some extent, relatable to current ethical issue of the sheer distinction between the reality and the virtual reality.