Sword Art Online

***Sword Art Online*** (Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン, Hepburn: *Sōdo Āto Onrain*) is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. An anime television series produced by A-1 Pictures, known simply as *Sword Art Online*, aired in Japan between July and December 2012, with a television film *Sword Art Online: Extra Edition* airing on December 31, 2013, and a second season, titled *Sword Art Online II*, airing between July and December 2014. An animated film titled *Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale* featuring an original story by Kawahara premiered in Japan and Southeast Asia on February 18, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 9, 2017. A spin-off anime series titled *Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online* premiered in April 2018, while a third season titled *Sword Art Online: Alicization* premiered in October 2018. An anime adaptation of *Sword Art Online: Progressive* has been announced.

## Plot/Synopsis:

* Sword Art Online
* Sword Art Online II
* Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale
* Sword Art Online: Alicization
* Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld
* Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld Part 2
* Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
In the year 2022, virtual reality has progressed by leaps and bounds, and a massive online role-playing game called Sword Art Online (SAO) is launched. With the aid of "NerveGear" technology, players can control their avatars within the game using nothing but their own thoughts.
Kazuto Kirigaya, nicknamed "Kirito," is among the lucky few enthusiasts who get their hands on the first shipment of the game. He logs in to find himself, with ten-thousand others, in the scenic and elaborate world of Aincrad, one full of fantastic medieval weapons and gruesome monsters. However, in a cruel turn of events, the players soon realize they cannot log out; the game's creator has trapped them in his new world until they complete all one hundred levels of the game. In order to escape Aincrad, Kirito will now have to interact and cooperate with his fellow players. Some are allies, while others are foes, like Asuna Yuuki, who commands the leading group attempting to escape from the ruthless game. To make matters worse, Sword Art Online is not all fun and games: if they die in Aincrad, they die in real life. Kirito must adapt to his new reality, fight for his survival, and hopefully break free from his virtual hell.

A year after escaping Sword Art Online, Kazuto Kirigaya has been settling back into the real world. However, his peace is short-lived as a new incident occurs in a game called Gun Gale Online, where a player by the name of Death Gun appears to be killing people in the real world by shooting them in-game. Approached by officials to assist in investigating the murders, Kazuto assumes his persona of Kirito once again and logs into Gun Gale Online, intent on stopping the killer.
Once inside, Kirito meets Sinon, a highly skilled sniper afflicted by a traumatic past. She is soon dragged in his chase after Death Gun, and together they enter the Bullet of Bullets, a tournament where their target is sure to appear. Uncertain of Death Gun's real powers, Kirito and Sinon race to stop him before he has the chance to claim another life. Not everything goes smoothly, however, as scars from the past impede their progress. In a high-stakes game where the next victim could easily be one of them, Kirito puts his life on the line in the virtual world once more.

In 2026, four years after the infamous Sword Art Online incident, a revolutionary new form of technology has emerged: the Augma, a device that utilizes an Augmented Reality system. Unlike the Virtual Reality of the NerveGear and the Amusphere, it is perfectly safe and allows players to use it while they are conscious, creating an instant hit on the market. The most popular application for the Augma is the game Ordinal Scale, which immerses players in a fantasy role-playing game with player rankings and rewards.
Following the new craze, Kirito's friends dive into the game, and despite his reservations about the system, Kirito eventually joins them. While at first it appears to be just fun and games, they soon find out that the game is not all that it seems...

The Soul Translator is a state-of-the-art full-dive interface which interacts with the user's Fluctlight—the technological equivalent of a human soul—and fundamentally differs from the orthodox method of sending signals to the brain. The private institute Rath aims to perfect their creation by enlisting the aid of Sword Art Online survivor Kazuto Kirigaya. He works there as a part-time employee to test the system's capabilities in the Underworld: the fantastical realm generated by the Soul Translator. As per the confidentiality contract, any memories created by the machine in the virtual world are wiped upon returning to the real world. Kazuto can only vaguely recall a single name, Alice, which provokes a sense of unease when mentioned in reality.
When Kazuto escorts Asuna Yuuki home one evening, they chance upon a familiar foe. Kazuto is mortally wounded in the ensuing fight and loses consciousness. When he comes to, he discovers that he has made a full-dive into the Underworld with seemingly no way to escape. He sets off on a quest, seeking a way back to the physical world once again.

Despite the defeat of Quinella—the pontifex of the Axiom Church—things have not seemed to calm down yet. Upon contacting the real world, Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya finds out that the Ocean Turtle—a mega-float controlled by Rath—was raided. Due to a sudden short-circuit caused by the raiders, Kirito's fluctlight is damaged, leaving him comatose. Feeling insecure about the people at the Axiom Church, Alice brings the unconscious Kirito back to their hometown—Rulid Village, disregarding her banishment due to an unabsolved crime. Now, Alice is living an ordinary and peaceful life close by the village, wishing for Kirito to wake up.
However, tragedy strikes when Alice notices that the Dark Territory has already started to invade the Human Empire. Reassuming her previous alias, Alice Synthesis Thirty, she promises to defeat the Dark Territory in order to defend the world that Kirito and Eugeo worked so hard to protect.

The final battle against the Dark Territory drags on, as players from all over the world flood the Underworld's servers and plunge the Human Empire into utter chaos. Asuna Yuuki and her friends defend their new allies with everything they have, but their numbers are falling. Meanwhile, Alice Zuberg heads toward the World's End Altar while Gabriel "Vecta" Miller relentlessly pursues her.

Meanwhile, members of Rath strategize a plan in an attempt to restore Kirito's damaged fluctlight. However, the intruders occupying the main control room have other plans. Surrounded by death and despair, when all hope seems to be lost, one voice reaches out to Kirito—a familiar one saying, "I will always be by your side."

Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld 2nd Season is the epic conclusion to Akihiko Kayaba's dream of creating artificial human intelligence. Now it is up to Kirito and his friends to protect this collapsing world from the people that still think it is just a game.Clad in desert pink and the size of a mere child, the infamous "Pink Devil" mercilessly hunts down other players in the firearm-centered world of the virtual reality game Gun Gale Online. But in real life, this feared player killer is not quite who anyone would expect.

A shy university student in Tokyo, Karen Kohiruimaki stands in stark contrast to her in-game avatar—in fact, she happens to stand above everyone else too, much to her dismay. Towering above all the people around her, Karen's insecurities over her height reach the point where she turns to the virtual world for an escape. Starting game after game in hopes of manifesting as a cute, short character, she finally obtains her ideal self in the world of Gun Gale Online. Overjoyed by her new persona, she pours her time into the game as LLENN, garnering her reputation as the legendary player killer.

However, when one of LLENN's targets gets the best of her, she ends up meeting Pitohui, a skilled yet eccentric woman. Quickly becoming friends with Karen, Pitohui insists that LLENN participates in Squad Jam, a battle royale that pits teams against one another, fighting until only one remains. Thrust into the heated competition, LLENN must fight with all her wit and will if she hopes to shoot her way to the top.
### **Sword Art Online (Season 1):**

In the year 2022, virtual reality has progressed by leaps and bounds, and a massive online role-playing game called Sword Art Online (SAO) is launched. With the aid of "NerveGear" technology, players can control their avatars within the game using nothing but their own thoughts.

Kazuto Kirigaya, nicknamed "Kirito," is among the lucky few enthusiasts who get their hands on the first shipment of the game. He logs in to find himself, with ten-thousand others, in the scenic and elaborate world of Aincrad, one full of fantastic medieval weapons and gruesome monsters. However, in a cruel turn of events, the players soon realize they cannot log out; the game's creator has trapped them in his new world until they complete all one hundred levels of the game. In order to escape Aincrad, Kirito will now have to interact and cooperate with his fellow players. Some are allies, while others are foes, like Asuna Yuuki, who commands the leading group attempting to escape from the ruthless game. To make matters worse, Sword Art Online is not all fun and games: if they die in Aincrad, they die in real life. Kirito must adapt to his new reality, fight for his survival, and hopefully break free from his virtual hell.

### **Sword Art Online II (Season 2):**

A year after escaping Sword Art Online, Kazuto Kirigaya has been settling back into the real world. However, his peace is short-lived as a new incident occurs in a game called Gun Gale Online, where a player by the name of Death Gun appears to be killing people in the real world by shooting them in-game. Approached by officials to assist in investigating the murders, Kazuto assumes his persona of Kirito once again and logs into Gun Gale Online, intent on stopping the killer.

Once inside, Kirito meets Sinon, a highly skilled sniper afflicted by a traumatic past. She is soon dragged in his chase after Death Gun, and together they enter the Bullet of Bullets, a tournament where their target is sure to appear. Uncertain of Death Gun's real powers, Kirito and Sinon race to stop him before he has the chance to claim another life. Not everything goes smoothly, however, as scars from the past impede their progress. In a high-stakes game where the next victim could easily be one of them, Kirito puts his life on the line in the virtual world once more.

### **Sword Art Online: Alicization (Season 3):**

The Soul Translator is a state-of-the-art full-dive interface which interacts with the user's Fluctlight—the technological equivalent of a human soul—and fundamentally differs from the orthodox method of sending signals to the brain. The private institute Rath aims to perfect their creation by enlisting the aid of Sword Art Online survivor Kazuto Kirigaya. He works there as a part-time employee to test the system's capabilities in the Underworld: the fantastical realm generated by the Soul Translator. As per the confidentiality contract, any memories created by the machine in the virtual world are wiped upon returning to the real world. Kazuto can only vaguely recall a single name, Alice, which provokes a sense of unease when mentioned in reality.

When Kazuto escorts Asuna Yuuki home one evening, they chance upon a familiar foe. Kazuto is mortally wounded in the ensuing fight and loses consciousness. When he comes to, he discovers that he has made a full-dive into the Underworld with seemingly no way to escape. He sets off on a quest, seeking a way back to the physical world once again.

### **Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld (Season 4):**

Despite the defeat of Quinella—the pontifex of the Axiom Church—things have not seemed to calm down yet. Upon contacting the real world, Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya finds out that the Ocean Turtle—a mega-float controlled by Rath—was raided. Due to a sudden short-circuit caused by the raiders, Kirito's fluctlight is damaged, leaving him comatose. Feeling insecure about the people at the Axiom Church, Alice brings the unconscious Kirito back to their hometown—Rulid Village, disregarding her banishment due to an unabsolved crime. Now, Alice is living an ordinary and peaceful life close by the village, wishing for Kirito to wake up.

However, tragedy strikes when Alice notices that the Dark Territory has already started to invade the Human Empire. Reassuming her previous alias, Alice Synthesis Thirty, she promises to defeat the Dark Territory in order to defend the world that Kirito and Eugeo worked so hard to protect.

### **Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld Part 2 (Season 5):**

Second part of *Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld*

## MAL info:

**Producers:** Aniplex,  Genco,  DAX Production,  ASCII Media Works,  Bandai Namco Games

**Licensors:** Aniplex of America

**Studios:** A-1 Pictures

**Source:** Light novel

**Duration:** 23 min. per ep.

**Rating:** PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

**Score:** 7.31 (Season 1); 6.87 (Season 2); 7.59 (Season 3); 7.71 (Season 4); 7.51 (Season 5)

**Ranked:** #2257(Season 1); #4083 (Season 2); #1289 (Season 3); #995 (Season 4); #1525 (Season 5)

**Popularity:** #3 (Season 1); #21 (Season 2); #170 (Season 3); #350 (Season 4); #572 (Season 5)

## Official sites:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/11757/Sword\_Art\_Online?q=sword&cat=anime

https://myanimelist.net/anime/40540/Sword\_Art\_Online\_\_Alicization\_-\_War\_of\_Underworld\_2nd\_Season

https://myanimelist.net/anime/39597/Sword\_Art\_Online\_\_Alicization\_-\_War\_of\_Underworld

https://myanimelist.net/anime/36474/Sword\_Art\_Online\_\_Alicization

https://myanimelist.net/anime/21881/Sword\_Art\_Online\_II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword\_Art\_Online