Sword Art Online

Synopsis : The year is 2022, and gamers have lined up on launch day for Sword Art Online, a hotly-anticipated MMORPG that lets players connect to an immersive virtual reality world with special helmets called Nerve Gear. Kirito is one such gamer who’s eager to jump back into action, having spent a great deal of time as a beta tester, and quickly becomes friends with newbie warrior Klein. But soon, Sword Art Online’s 10,000 players discover that not only are they unable to log out, the only way they can return to their physical bodies is by beating the 100-level tower’s final boss – death in the game means death in the real world. Now, with no one else to turn to, Kirito and the other participants must survive the game as best they can.

Review : As most of you know there are light novels for this series. And this has been perhaps the best read I’ve had in ages. The storyline, characters, vastness of the world and romance between Asuna and Kirito are perfect, and the twists will leave you dying for more. If you’re here for an anime with a great storyline, have played any RPGS or enjoy a little romance mixed with action and suspense, then this is the anime for you. The animation is beautiful to say the least, and will no doubt accurately represent the amazing setting from the light novels as well as the character models. The voice acting for the main characters Asuna and Kirito have been spot on (of course), and the sound quality is overall, like the animation, perfect. As I hinted at above, the story will have you hooked from the beginning , I’m sure many of you have played RPGS, and if you died in those RPGS, you’d respawn and try again of course. But in this anime, the RPG becomes real life, if you health bar drops you’re killed almost instantly in real life. With that kind of premise, this anime will be very suspenseful and engaging. I’ll focus on the main characters for now because most of the others haven’t been fairly introduced yet. Off the bat you can tell Kirito isn’t the average anime protagonist, he chooses to go solo for the sake of his own survival rather than stay with his “noob” friend and protecting him in the VRMMORPG. This might seem like a shortcoming, but in the novels he quickly changes upon meeting Asuna (his main love interest+party member), and becomes a character you’ll love. Asuna is very strong willed and at first seems to contrast with the antisocial and awkward Kirito, but we later find out how similar they are, and their relationship is perhaps the best I’ve seen in any other anime or Manga.

My Personal Rating : 9.2/10

Sword Art Online Characters :

1. Kirito

“I realized that everyone on this game, including me are alive for the sake of living”

 

Description : Kirito is someone who is not good with words, as said by Klein, and can be quite direct. This is due to him not having many friends and closing others off because of his love for computers. As such, he can come off as a rude person to others, such as Lisbeth and Sinon. Sometimes, he actually seems to enjoy angering and teasing people as well. Also, from time to time, Kirito can be quite overconfident thinking he can do things others can not. He is almost always a calm and collected character, rarely showing any signs of distress. When Kayaba Akihiko appeared in SAO and announced that it had become a Death Game, Kirito showed only a slight reaction and was able to quickly accept the new conditions of the game, while many others panicked. He has shown different moods throughout the series; at times being rather cheerful, while being gloomy at others. When in a battle, he becomes incredibly fierce and aggressive. Sometimes, his fierceness is up to the point where he loses control of himself and is even unable to recall what he had done. Kirito described the appearance of his avatar at the beginning of the game and the beta-testing phase as having the appearance of a ridiculously handsome protagonist from some fantasy animation, looking noticeably older than he actually was. His in-game height was equal to that of his height in the real world to prevent the extra height from hindering his movements. In the full version of the game, during Kayaba Akihiko’s tutorial, all player avatars were changed to reflect their real life appearances. After this change, Kirito’s SAO avatar had slightly long but neat black hair and black eyes. His delicate face showed no trace of masculinity, allowing people to easily mistake him for a girl.

Kirito’s Avatar

A. Kirito Close Beta Avatar

B. Kirito SAO Avatar

C. Kirito KoB Avatar

D. Kirito Alfheim Online Avatar

E. Kirito Gun Gale Online Avatar

F. Kirito’s New Alfheim Online Avatar

Skills :

A. One-Handed Sword – Rage Spike

B. Martial Arts – Embracer

C. Dual Blades – Starburst Stream

2. Asuna

“I’m not going to die. Because I’m the one who will protect you.”

 

Description : Asuna lives a comfortable life in her large home in Setagaya with her mother, father, and her brother. She originally went to private, all-girl schools before the events of SAO. She logged onto SAO after she borrowed her brother’s NerveGear. He was one of the people who waited in line for the game’s release, but due to a sudden business trip, could not play on the opening day. Asuna originally did not care about dying in the game before meeting Kirito. That meeting drastically changed Asuna’s personality and outlook on life. She soon takes most things Kirito says to heart and looks to him for help, using him as somewhat of a lifeline. She acts as a tsundere towards him for most of Volume 1, even when married. Asuna is a kind and helpful young woman who, similar to Kirito, cannot abandon another in trouble. She takes the game very seriously and is determined to clear it before Kirito tells her to enjoy SAO a bit. Asuna is also somewhat proud and despite her kind personality, she will not hesitate to get physical with those that challenge her authority or make fun of her abilities, such as cooking. She even challenged Kirito to a duel after an argument over how to handle a Field Boss. She is not afraid to act out on her own and will take matters in her own hands from time to time.

Asuna’s Avatar

A. Asuna SAO Avatar

B. Asuna Alfheim Online Avatar

 

C. Asuna New Alfheim Online Avatar

Skills:

A. Linear

B. Star Splash

C. Flashing Penetrator

3. Lisbeth

“I’ve been searching all this time for something real in this world. For me, the warmth of your hand was that.”

Description : Lisbeth’s hair color is brown in the real world and used to be of the same color in the first few days of SAO, but was later customized to fluffy pink with a white hairpin to keep her bangs out of her eyes. In Sword Art Online, Lisbeth eyes are dark pink. Her blacksmith uniform looks more like the uniform of a waitress: a dark red top with puffed sleeves and a flared skirt of the same color as well as a pure white apron over that and a red ribbon atop her chest.Lisbeth is a very friendly person that can get along with just about everyone she meets. She is hardworking and takes great pride in her abilities as a blacksmith. She will become very defensive and aggressive if someone were to challenge her pride as a blacksmith much like Kirito did after accidentally breaking the best sword she had created. She, also similar to Sinon, has a bad temper and can get somewhat violent, such as when she grabbed Kirito by the collar after he broke one of her best swords.Lisbeth is very teasing as well, almost always teasing Asuna about her relationship with Kirito despite having feelings for him herself. She cares for Asuna very much, and despite having a chance to tell Kirito how she feels she backed off because she knew that Asuna already had feelings for Kirito, before she met him. She does not hold anything against Asuna, despite being depressed that her friend and Kirito formed a strong relationship.

Lisbeth’s Avatar

 A. Lisbeth SAO Avatar

B. Lisbeth’s Alfheim Online Avatar

4. Silica

“It’s impossible to work hard for something you don’t enjoy.”

 

Description : Silica is very bright, cheerful, and supportive of her friends.She also has developed a deep attachment to Pina to the point that she was heartbroken to see it die and overjoyed when told that there was a way to revive it.At some point, Silica had become arrogant due to her fame, but realised her mistake after this lead to her getting lost in the Forest of Wandering and losing Pina.Silica is also easily embarrassed and flustered, especially when it comes to a romance scenario, such as grabbing Kirito’s hand, spotting many couples around her, or having her skirt flipped by a monster.In SAO, Silica became the first player to tame a Feathered Little Dragon, which she named Pina (the same name as her cat in the real world), despite SAO being the first VRMMO game she had ever played. She was introduced as a character whose parties treated her as a mascot, and who was immensely popular on the middle floors due to her pet and her status as one of the rare Beast Tamers. She is in the youngest age group of SAO players that are still active.

Silica’s Avatar

A. Silica SAO Avatar

B. Silica Alfheim Online Avatar

5. Klein

“Just be yourself, say something nice.”

 

Description : Originally, Klein was a new player who spotted Kirito as a beta-tester, and requested help from him. Kirito trained him in the basics of Sword Art Online and was impressed with his progress. Klein later rejoined his friends in order to form a guild. He was a stern supporter of Kirito, despite the general opinions of beta-testers. Klein is one of the friendliest people in the series and sets the mood when he’s around. He never holds grudges against others and is always ready to lend a helping hand. He cares deeply for his friends and always wants to be by their side fighting alongside them when they are in danger even to the point of getting angry when Kirito was fighting Death Gun, saying he should’ve converted to GGO as well. He gets angry when people get into situations that can get them killed since he wants to protect as many people as he can. Klein is a very loyal person, which is apparent in his friendship with Kirito. He is very loyal to Kirito, despite Kirito usually treating him with coldness. It is later revealed this coldness is due to Kirito feeling guilty for leaving Klein behind at the beginning of SAO. Klein does not care about this and the two make up as Klein is shown to be the person Kirito relies on the most, beside Asuna. Klein is also a “bachelor” and is shown trying to get together with various women in the series, such as Asuna and Freyja, and even Kirito’s sister, who he’d yet to meet. He usually has no luck, however, making him somewhat of a comic relief.

Klein’s Avatar

A. Klein’s Close Beta Avatar

B. Klein’s SAO Avatar

C. Klein’s Alfheim Online Avatar

Skills :

A. Reaver

 

6. Agil

“Watching me play scrabble is enough to make women swoon. Imagine if I actually put some effort into it.”

 

Description : Although African-American by ethnicity, Agil’s parents took a liking to Japan. Agil was born in Ueno, Tokyo, and he opened his coffee shop-bar in Okachimachi at the age of 25. Among his customers was a woman, named Kathy, who was a foreigner, lived nearby and shared interests with Agil, thus Agil and Kathy eventually got married. Afterwards, Agil got trapped in SAO for two years and when he came back, he expected the shop to have closed long ago, but it was saved by his wife’s efforts. Agil is of African heritage. He is a massive and bulky bald man with a brown goatee and brown eyes. He also has two silver earrings on his left ear. Kazuto also commented that he is as large in real life as he is in-game.

Agil’s Avatar

A. Agil SAO Avatar

B. Agil’s Alfheim Online Avatar

7. Yui

“Everyone smiles when they are with you. Please… from now on, go and help people in my place. Share your happiness with them.”

 

Description : Yui has long, dark hair and bright black eyes. In her most common form, she wears a white one-piece dress. In her Navigation Pixie form, she wears a long light-pink tube top dress with detached sleeves, pink anklets and a blue flower in her hair. In both forms, she goes barefoot. As Yui was originally a girl without memories, she felt insecure about not knowing who or where her “parents” were. This led her to assume that Kirito and Asuna were her parents. After the couple decided to play along as the girl’s parents due to the girl’s psychological condition, she became cheerful and shows great affection for her so-called “parents”. According to Asuna, her behavior was like that of a baby despite her child-like appearance. However, she lacked any sense of fear, regardless of the intensity of the danger she might be in and even showed signs of rebellion and recklessness when Kirito told her that she had to stay with Sasha when he and Asuna wanted to go to a dungeon to rescue Thinker. After she regained her memories, she told her in-game parents that she had become melancholic when the death game began, as she was not allowed to comfort players and was forced to continue monitoring their psychological parameters. After nearly 2 years of only seeing insanity, misery, and anger, she finally noticed a couple, Kirito and Asuna, who showed happiness and joy and, even though she was not allowed to interact with players, she continued monitoring them and even came to the forest near their home to be close to the two to experience their emotions. After being comforted by Kirito and Asuna, she regained her joy. Even though she was about to be deleted by the Cardinal System, Yui showed no sign of repentance, but tears of happiness, for she was able to be with her in-game parents. Upon being reactivated in ALfheim Online she still displayed a deep attachment to Kirito and Asuna, continuing to act as a surrogate daughter. She also scolded Kirito when he received affection from other women aside from Asuna, stating her “papa” is “cheating”, but she did, however, accept Leafa and later Sinon into Kirito’s life.

Yui’s Avatar

8. Kirigaya Suguha (Leafa)

“Hey, Do your best. You can’t give up on the one you love easily.!”

 

Description : Suguha has short black hair and dark grey eyes, almost blackish. Her breasts are also much larger than the rest of the female characters shown so far although the novel mentions that she has grown a lot recently. She also has a cute childish look and is often seen with an embarrassed expression, especially when around her cousin. Due to her kendo training, she has strong and defined muscles that show up even when she makes small movements. In one volume, Kazuto has described her as monstrously muscular and although he claims he is exaggerating, he does state that she is heavier than she looks.  Kirigaya Suguha was raised with Kazuto as his sister since her parents took Kazuto in after his parents died in a traffic accident. Kazuto is Suguha’s first cousin; his mother and Suguha’s were sisters. They were taught kendo by their grandfather, who was a former policeman and a kendo champion. Kazuto gave up after two years and embraced the world of technology, leaving her behind. Kazuto found out he was not her real brother around this time and the distance between them became further and further apart, until they were practically strangers before the SAO Incident. She continued with kendo and became a national quarter-finalist. Suguha originally disliked VRMMO games for it hid people’s nature and reality, as it did with Kazuto. She took up ALO in order to understand Kazuto better when he was trapped in SAO. She won the Sylph tournament, earning the title as the strongest Sylph before the events of the Fairy Dance Arc. She learned how to play ALO from her classmate, Nagata Shinichi. Suguha has become very good at ALO, because of the many years she has practiced kendo and the skills learned there were very effective for fights in ALO. She enjoys flying in the game so much that Recon even nicknamed her as Speed Holic. In an obscure part of her childhood, she fell into the pond in her home’s backyard trying to catch a water strider. She was saved by Kazuto a few seconds after falling in, but she was afraid of water until the end of the Fairy Dance Arc. Unlike her cousin Kazuto, Suguha is upbeat and outgoing. She is much more social and converses easily with others. Even when Kazuto began to push her away after finding out they were not really siblings, she still treated him with good spirit and tried to get back in his life. She can be very aggressive towards those that annoy her or cross her and can easily lose her temper. This is demonstrated in one case when Recon attempted to kiss her after confessing his love to her and she punched him. Despite her positive outlook and slightly aggressive behavior, Suguha can be somewhat fragile and delicate due to her young age, especially when her cousin, Kazuto is involved. After seeing Kazuto in a comatose state due to being locked in SAO, she broke down crying for the first time in years. In addition to this, once she found out that Kirito and Kazuto were the same person, she locked herself in her room away from her cousin and went into a slight depression. Most of the time she is quick to rebound from these moments and return to being the same upbeat girl.

Leafa’s Avatar

Skills

A. Wind Needles

B. Vacuum Blades

C. Concealment Magic

D. Butterfly Shield

 

9. Sinon

“The Virtual World is just a different  form of Reality.”

 

Description : Calm and cool are two words that best describe Sinon’s personality. In battle and most of the time in the game, she keeps a cool head that makes other female players admire her. However, Sinon has a violent temper once angered, best seen with her interactions with Kirito. It is actually said that Kirito is the first one to make her extremely angry. Despite all this, Sinon, while maybe hard to approach, is generally a friendly person and does not mind helping others. Shino, however, can be a fragile-minded character. This is due to her childhood incident that involved her killing a robber. If someone were to act as if they were shooting her in real life Shino would have a nervous breakdown and be on the verge of collapsing. People have used this to take advantage of Shino before. Not only this, but the guilt of taking another’s life haunts Shino the same way killing Laughing Coffin members haunts Kazuto. After the Death Gun Incident, Shino has made progress with handling her trauma, as she did not have any serious reactions to seeing a model gun when Endou threatened to shoot her with one, and was even able to use it while feigning that she was not affected by it. Shino is shown to have an uncommonly kind heart. Not only was she willing to forgive Kyouji, but still cared for him as a friend to the extent that she resolved to visit him in prison to try and help, if not save him as a person. In ALO, Sinon is shown to be admired by the other female members of the party due to her cool attitude.When Shino was fewer than two years old, she was involved in a car accident. By the time anyone noticed the accident, it had been 6 hours. During the 6 hours, Shino’s father slowly died from internal bleeding while her mother watched. Her mother was traumatized by the event and became very frail and was hurt easily. This resulted in Shino becoming overprotective of her mother. Nine years later, Shino was traumatized after she attempted to protect her mother during a robbery at a postal office, and ended up killing the robber with his own gun. As a result, she developed an intense fear of guns and a slight fear of men. She also was bullied up until high school for this reason. After being introduced into GGO, she fell into a trap, while navigating a dungeon alone, and faced an extremely powerful boss. By sniping it for countless hours from outside its attack range she received the PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate II sniper rifle. Her only reason for joining GGO is trying to relieve herself from her trauma with guns.

Sinon’s Avatar

Sinon’s Gun Gale Online Avatar

 

B. Sinon’s Alfheim Online Avatar

 

10. Kayaba Akihiko (Heathcliff)

“One who wishes to protect another is capable of unleashing the greatest strength.”

 

Description : Although Kayaba Akihiko appeared as his true form only a few times throughout the series, he was always very calm, soft-spoken, and had a cool demeanor. Despite being incredibly skilled, Akihiko was not boastful, or arrogant, as when Kirito defeated him and cleared Sword Art Online, he humbly accepted defeat. Akihiko seemed to be very sincere and thoughtful, as shown when he told Kirito of his dream about creating a floating castle as the basis for creating Sword Art Online. Kayaba Akihiko had little to no empathy, with no regard for human life (including his own), and instead was completely taken in by the virtual world. When he accidentally struck Asuna, which caused her apparent in-game death, he showed no remorse, and instead seemed rather amused, even though it caused Kirito an incredible amount of grief at the time. He chose to fulfill his dream by making a death game which cost thousands of lives, and simply noted that their minds were gone from both worlds. His fascination with computers was very much like Kirito’s, with the major difference being Akihiko having no regard for the lives of others, and Kirito doing everything he can to protect them. In spite of this, Akihiko had a level of honor and fairness. He designed Sword Art Online to be a beatable game by anyone who had the skills. He never interfered with the players’ progress to keep them from advancing through the game; in fact, as Heathcliff, he was actually fighting on the players’ side, helping them clear floors. The one exception to this is the fact that he made himself invincible until his battle with Kirito, although this was necessary to survive the game until the 95^th floor was reached, where Heathcliff planned to reveal his true identity and become the final boss on the 100^th floor. In his childhood, Akihiko expressed an interest in reading books.He was not particularly engrossed in games in computers, but he participated in the Mathematics Club of his high school. Later on, in university, he did not participate in any circles because he frequently worked in and out of laboratories. When Akihiko began developing Sword Art Online, he toiled for years to develop the game software. His main goal and dream was to “make Aincrad float” but after he did so, he was not entirely sure what his dreams, aspirations, or purpose were.

Heathcliff Avatar

 

11. Fairy King Oberon (Sugou Nobuyuki)

“I’ll achieve what no one ever has, control of the human soul!”

 

Description : Nobuyuki hides his true personality, especially in front of Asuna’s father but shows his true colors to Kazuto as soon as they were left alone. Nobuyuki is an amoral and greedy entrepreneur, having kidnapped 300 players from SAO for his experiment on manipulating the human mind, which he planned to sell to other companies. Nobuyuki also has a habit of framing others for his problems, especially Kayaba as he felt that he was the source of all of his problems. Nobuyuki also viewed himself as a god that could get anything he wanted, viewing other people as inferiors who tried to interfere with his actions, and often abused his GM status to flaunt his “god”-like status. Nobuyuki also harmed many people, especially their feelings, and thought that they were helpless to do anything about it. He also has an extremely perverted side, especially towards Asuna, as he had sexually harassed her on many occasions, even going as far abusing her in front of Kirito. Unlike Akihiko, however, Nobuyuki is a poor fighter, as when he tried to attack Kirito after the latter had given him the strongest weapon in ALO, Kirito parried with ease. Nobuyuki also has low tolerance for pain; even a slice on the cheek was enough to make him panic.Originally selected by Asuna’s father to marry Asuna, he was adopted into her family on her father’s wishes. He attended the same school with Kayaba Akihiko, whom he viewed as his rival. Once Sword Art Online was cleared (until that point the SAO servers were untouchable) he was able to hack into SAO server via router and obtain the minds of 300 SAO players including Asuna. He then utilized these players as test subjects for research on controlling people’s emotions and memories. In ALfheim Online he adopts the persona of Fairy King Oberon.

Fairy King Oberon’s Avatar

 

12. Shinkawa Shouichi (Death Gun)

“People look into the darkness and they see what they do not understand, so they point and cry evil.”

 

Description : Shouichi is a cold and sadistic person who believed in PoH’s principles, thus he enjoys killing other players, even with full knowledge that they would be killed in real life as well. It was later revealed that Shouichi enjoyed killing other players because he enjoyed the feeling of being feared by others. As Shouichi’s father did not have any expectations for him due to him being frail and sick, Shouichi eventually dropped out of high school and turned to the Internet as his haven and started playing MMORPGs until he was trapped in SAO, where he committed various crimes, became a Player Killer one year after the game started, and joined Laughing Coffin. Shouichi’s sense of reality had been wearing thin since then, feeling that only things beneficial to him were real. After the death game had ended, Shouichi took his brother’s Kyouji’s advice and started playing Gun Gale Online. Shouichi spent time on the streets observing other players and imagining ways of killing them. While playing Gun Gale Online under the advice of his brother Kyouji, Shouichi did not battle monsters, but instead observed other players while thinking of ways to kill them. After obtaining his camouflage mantle, he practiced ways of obscuring himself from others, feeling that it was interesting to tail someone from behind. After he managed to find out the real life addresses of several players by tailing them when they inputted their personal information in the presidential estate of SBC Glocken, he and his brother came up with a plot to continue killing people in the real world, supposedly via the use of a Death Pistol in-game. Shouichi has an amazing memory, as he is able to remember players’ addresses and then write them down when he logged off.When Shouichi was young, he was rather frail and sick, and thus moved between his home and the hospital after graduating middle school. He entered high school a year late but his father had already given up on him taking over the family business, thus he pushed the burden onto his younger brother, Kyouji. Shouichi eventually dropped out of high school and turned to the internet and started playing MMORPGs until he got trapped in Sword Art Online.

Death Gun’s Avatar

A. Death Gun’s SAO Avatar

 

B. Death Gun’s Gun Gale Online Avatar