Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online or SAO for short, a popular light novel story written by Reki Kawahara is also the man behind the Accel World light novel series. The anime adaptation produced by A-1 Pictures, here’s some popular titles under A-1 Pictures studio Nanatsu no Taizai, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, Ano Hi Mita no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai., Darling in the FranXX and Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen. Sword Art Online consists of 25 episodes, runs around 23 minutes per episode and aired from July 2012 to December 2012. Opening song “crossing field” performed by LiSA and “INNOCENCE” performed by Aoi Eir. Ending song “Yume Sekai” performed by Haruka Tomatsu and “Overfly” performed by Luna Haruna. Sword Art Online is directed by Tomohiko Itou. 

In year 2022 the real progress of virtual reality progress and one of the games they are expecting is the online role-playing game called Sword Art Online is launched, with the use of “NerveGear” technology the players can play the game by using only the thoughts of the person. Kazuto Kirigaya is one of the lucky game enthusiasts who gets the first shipment of the Sword Art Online game. Kazuto logs in the game and uses the character name Kirito for his character and finds himself with the ten thousand users in the scenic and great world of Aincrad where virtual view becomes a new reality. 

One of the great things to see in Aincrad is the full view of a new world where you can find fantastic weapons and gruesome monsters. After playing for several hours, the players soon realize they can’t log out and can’t find the log out button itself where it’s common function of most of all online games or MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), the game creator announce to the ten thousand players inside the Sword Art Online game that they can’t log out the game until they complete the hundred levels of Aincrad. Kirito, also a solo player, decides to interact with other players for cooperation with others to clear the game much faster. Some are allies like Asuna, one of the first other players to interact who command a leading group to attempt an escape to the game and some are foes who make the game like their own new world. To make things worse if they die inside the Aincrad they also die in the real world, Kirito must adapt to this new reality to fight for survival and break free in the virtual world.

Sword Art Online a new world of game and fantasy of the virtual reality, the story is indeed a good to follow where Kazuto or Kirito inside the Aincrad use all his experience in playing MMORPG to work not just to finish the whole game but his life survival and freedom to the virtual world or VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) where the ten thousand players also locked inside the Aincrad. The real adventure starts like your virtual world is the new reality for you and the others tried to work for survival and some used it for their own entertainment to abuse others without getting caught. 

Sword Art Online animation is good in terms of good fight scenes and adaptation of the whole light novel series is like what you read is what you see in the whole series. In terms of the anime quality is good for entertainment, an interesting story and a right choice of animation battle some to remember and it shows how the character development in the story goes on. The music choice suits very well. The opening music is easy to remember especially the crossing field performed by LiSA is all about the life they have inside the Aincrad and the second opening is for the second arc of the story in a different online world. The ending music is the background or the inner character of the main cast.

Sword Art Online deserves a great recommendation in terms of the story line. This is a new setting to enjoy a new world of adventure to explore and a fight for your life is something you don’t expect because you just play a game and all of a sudden you can’t log out anymore. Fresh new idea and the story is not just all about the game itself but the characters who stuck inside the game. Anime or light novel? First of all I only learn the title when they announce the anime adaptation a bit early and decided to read it first, the whole story pace is good not just your normal introduction but also the character development and the skills they used in fight, the teamwork for every floor level is the key not just to go up level but a step to the freedom in the game. The whole story is interesting and when the anime series is released it is great. It is like what you read is what you see, its most of the readers expecting when the light novel series they read got an anime adaptation. If you will start the anime series or the light novel is up to you because anime is fun to watch if the story is interesting at all. Is this an overrated anime series? Nope, not at all it’s great in terms of the story but for some a bit not good and one of the reasons that I also saw while watching the series is the fight scenes of all some are good but some feels a bit short it’s like that’s all and you know how long the whole battle happened on the light novel series, that something I agree into some of it. Sword Art Online is a good anime that trends for the year 2012 because of the good story plot it has, the light novel series that you also want to read after watching the whole series, if you are looking for the chapter 16.5 some online reader will understand that part and will not tell you that to avoid some spoilers in this review. 

Information:

Title:

• Sword Art Online
• ソードアート・オンライン

Type: Series (25 episode)

Aired: July 8, 2012 to December 23, 2012

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Source Story: Light Novel

Genre: Action, Game, Adventure, Romance, Fantasy

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Song:

Opening:

• "crossing field" by LiSA (eps 2-14)

• "INNOCENCE" by Aoi Eir (eps 15-24)

Ending:

• "Yume Sekai (ユメセカイ)" by Haruka Tomatsu (eps 2-14)

• "Overfly" by Luna Haruna (eps 15-24)

• "crossing field" by LiSA (ep 25)

Director:  Tomohiko Itou

Character and Voice Actor:

• Kirigaya, Kazuto (Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu)
• Yuuki, Asuna (Tomatsu, Haruka)

• Kirigaya, Suguha (Taketatsu, Ayana)

• Yui (Itou, Kanae)