Sword Art Online (LN/manga)


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Ryu

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Title: SWORD ART ONLINE (ソードアート・オンライン)
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Harem, Science Fiction
Author: Reki Kawahara
Light novel illustrator: Abec
LN release date: 10/4/2009 - 9/9/2014 (ongoing, 15 volumes + 2 of Progressive)
Published by: ASCII Media Works
Magazine: Dengeki Bunko
Main characters: Kirito, The Black Swordsman / Kazuto Kirigaya (キリト / 桐ヶ谷 和人) in TV series voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka
Asuna, The Flash / Asuna Yuuki (アスナ / 結城 明日奈) voiced by Haruka Tomatsu
Lyfa, the Sylph / Suguha Kirigaya (リーファ / 桐ヶ谷 直葉) voiced by Ayana Taketatsu
Sinon / Shino Asada (シノン / 朝田詩乃) voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro
Secondary characters: Klein / Tsuboi Ryōtarō (クライン / 壷井 遼太郎) voiced by Hiroaki Hirata
Heathcliff / Akihiko Kayaba (ヒースクリフ / 茅場 晶彦) voiced by Kōichi Yamadera
Silica / Keiko Ayano (シリカ / 綾野 珪子) voiced by Rina Hidaka
Lisbeth / Rika Shinozaki (リズベット / 篠崎 里香) voiced by Ayahi Takagaki
Yui (ユイ) voiced by Kanae Ito
Sachi (サチ) voiced by Saori Hayami
Official website: http://www.swordart-online.net/book/

Synopsis: In the year 2022, the Virtual reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) Sword Art Online (SAO) is released. With the Nerve Gear, a VR Helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. But an unexpected event occurs on November 6, 2022 when Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of SAO, prevents the players from logging out. Akihiko issues them a challenge; if they wish to be free and log out of the game, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, should their avatars die in the game, so will their bodies in the real world. As the game's 10,000 players try to accept their new deadly predicament, Kirito, a skilled player who tested the beta version of the game, is determined to reach the 100th floor and be free. Along with Asuna, his partner and love interest, and their friends, Kirito and his allies will face many obstacles and discovers the true purpose of SAO. As their adventure continues, they will also participate in other VRMMO games as well.

Necropinion: my first thread and post in this section ^^ I haven't seen the novels and manga yet, from now on I'll read the chapters along with each anime episode to understand it better with more detail without spoiling myself.. EDIT thanks for the advice Norren ^^ I'll follow up the chapters you're pointing and ask in case I don't get what's going on, btw are you reading the 3 manga series scanlated (4 koma too) or aren't worth the time compared to LNs?
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If you're reading chapters as they air, prepare for some epic flipflop and some odd cross-reference spoilers on the book 2 material. Book 2 is sort of interesting in that it's told out of order, deliberately out of sequence to build up the Red Nosed Reindeer story we'll be seeing next episode.

Also, consider this an early warning: Since you're reading along with the show, the "Warmth of the heart" (book 2 chapter 2) side story's part 4 functions as a significant spoiler since it timeskips after the end of part 3. The subject matter of part 4 will be in the ending of the last episode, for sure.

Episode 1 = Book 1, chapter 2 and 3. A single sentence from Chapter 4 is quoted at the end of episode 1. You might as well read chapter 4 in it's entirety since it's just a summary of the player base by playstyles. (Solo players, progression players, etc.) No specific players mentioned, just guilds, etc.

At this point it's safe to read book 8 Chapter 3: First day. It seems to have been skipped over.

Episode 2 = The second half of Aria in the Starless Night Sidestory. They skipped the first half and omitted a character to keep the story to one episode. (I had expected it to be two)

At this point it's safe to read Rondo of the Transient Sword and Monochrome Concerto. (Although Rondo isn't finished yet. I believe Rondo is actually still being written?)

Episode 3 = Book 2, chapter 4: Red Nosed Reindeer (first half?)

Edit: Added some sidestories between the episodes where chronologically appropriate.
 
I was musing over this while considering editing another response to include it, but since the Anime doesn't fret over these details and just makes sword skills into cool flashy lights, I'm bringing this interesting little mechanics here:

Early SAO was written back when Phantasy Star Online and FF11 were some of Japan's only mainstream MMOs. (One of the characters in SAO is even named after an NPC in PSO) As such, Sword Skill mechanics in the first two books greatly resemble that era of MMO, made virtual reality, but mostly resemble PSO combos.

The more recent sidestory chapters in SAO, however, have been updated to reflect more modern methodology. Aria in the Starless Night, for example, refers to some abilities having cooldown timers, and Rondo of the Transient Sword straight up says EVERY ability has a cooldown timer.

I wonder how Kawahara unifies these two concepts in his mind, because those two concepts do not play well together.

Then again, it's not like SAO is 100% internally consistent due to the frequency of retcons, anyway. (There's two versions of every story since he edits and rewrites each story when he removes it from his website for commercial printing in paper form)
 
As someone who's considering reading the novels, I'd like to know how to read it. It seems there's a lot of side stories, and they aren't put in chronological order.

Should I read it like it was published ? Or should I try to rearrange it in chronological order ? In that case, could you help me find this order ?
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I am wondering how they gonna pull episode 3....since it says Red Nosed Reindeer. Will the anime suddenly just like fast forward by one year..lol

I am trying to predict the flow of the anime, it prob be

1) The World of Sword
2) Beater
3) Red Nosed Reindeer
4) Black Swordsman - Silica
5) Ragout Rabbit Stew and promise to travel together
6) Warmth of Hearth - create dark repulser
7) Duel With Cradil + <Army> vs Boss

what do you guys think? And from google image I find an evidence that shows they prob gonna combine the fishing section with Morning Dew Girl since Yui is there fishing with them.

The anime prob cover all the way to Fairy Dance.
 
@Daed - You don't miss anything reading them in linear book order. You can sort of enhance your reading order a little bit by sneaking other stuff in here and there, like thus:

book 1: Chapters 1~4
Book 8: First Day
No Book: Aria in the Starless Night
Book 8: A Murder case in the Area
Rest of book 1.

Personally, I disagree with the way the anime is going straight chronological order. The main reason being, Kirito has an event in the first year of Aincrad so traumatic to him, that it simply changes his worldview. But, what happened? we find that out in the last side story of book 2. The "earliest" side story was deliberately left for last simply to build up the mystery, and I think preserving that sequencing is reasonably important. The Non-book 2 SS chapters are world building in a good way, but Book 2 is more about the revelation of a mystery that's been dropped in hints and clues all the way through book 1.

@ Aqua: The way the Anime is flowing, so far, from a list they have over at Baka-tsuki: (numbered episodes are confirmed from a print list in one of the japanese anime periodicals)

1) World of Swords (Book 1 Chapters 2 and 3)
2) Beater (Aria in the Starless Night)
3) Red Nosed Reindeer (Book 2, same name)
4) The Black Swordsman (Book 2, same name)
5) A Murder Case in the Area (Book 8, same name)
?) Warmth of the Heart (Book 2, same name)
?) Ragout Rabbit?

I'm personally hoping that they spend more than one episode on Murder Case in the Area. Murder Case in the Area should reveal game mechanics through the mystery.

If they keep this pace, they could make it to the end of book 6 before they run out of episodes, but at what expense? T_T
 
I too dont like the idea to bring in the sidestories while they havent gone through the SAO Arc completely since they dont really work without knowing Kirito that good. Especially the "A Murder Case in the Area" sidestory is completely misplaced since its better to read it after the GGO Arc.

Im currently reading the "A Murder Case in the Area" arc and Im wondering what the author of the books is thinking bringing in sidestorys again after the "Mothers Rosario" arc. On another note for me the Mothers Rosario arc was the best even though Kirito wasnt featured often.
 
@Norren
I dont think "A Murder Case in the Area" since it is really out of the main point of the story being 'Escaping from this game'. Doubt

QUOTE On another note for me the Mothers Rosario arc was the best even though Kirito wasnt featured often.
haha, I am the opposite. I find Mothers Rosario arc was most boring even because Kirito wasnt featured often and the story is very predictable. For example the true identity of Sleeping knight is so easy to see through, it is almost cliche. Well, it is just my oppinion, dont attack me for it XD
 
QUOTE (aquaspirit39 @ Jul 16 2012, 12:14 AM) @Norren
I dont think "A Murder Case in the Area" since it is really out of the main point of the story being 'Escaping from this game'. Doubt


haha, I am the opposite. I find Mothers Rosario arc was most boring even because Kirito wasnt featured often and the story is very predictable. For example the true identity of Sleeping knight is so easy to see through, it is almost cliche. Well, it is just my oppinion, dont attack me for it XD
I think it was the best because it finally told us mote about Asuna and it was the most emotional.
For me it was not easy to see through the true identity of Sleeping Knights since I believed almost till the end that Yuuki was Asunas mother and not a highly sick girl because of her name "Yuuki" and the Arc name "Mothers Rosario".
 
QUOTE For me it was not easy to see through the true identity of Sleeping Knights since I believed almost till the end that Yuuki was Asunas mother and not a highly sick girl because of her name "Yuuki" and the Arc name "Mothers Rosario".

lol that is one twist that I will never guess, lol praise to your imagination. At first I thought she is her relative or sumthing since she call Asuna oneechan. However, once she went crying and said something along the line of 'forget about us', the most cliche setting come up in my mind which of course turn out to be true.

Though it really depend of the success of this Anime, i really want to see Alicization Arc getting animated. Rumor said it gonna be around 8 books long. Volume 9 - Volume 16. So it gonna be like...52episode Anime
 
QUOTE (aquaspirit39 @ Jul 15 2012, 04:14 PM) @Norren
I dont think "A Murder Case in the Area" since it is really out of the main point of the story being 'Escaping from this game'.
"A Murder Case in the Area" is important to the clearing story for two reasons:
(Mother of all book 1 spoilers here, and this is even with me being deliberately vague.)
1: Remember how fondly Asuna refers back the events later on in the first book and the aftermath kept turning up in book 2.  It was a significant turning point in her life in more ways than one.  It doesn't take a strong presence in the story, but it puts the later events into a more complete picture.

2: It reveals that Heathcliff verily doth know too much, making a certain logical leap later on less of a "uh wtfmate?" moment.

As to Mother's Rosario... It's my favorite story for all the character development, everyone, even mostly offscreen Kirito grew new layers of depth during that story. I saw a few things coming, but never connected all the dots because the medical use of fulldive wasn't mentioned ANYWHERE PRIOR.

But then, Mother's Rosario being good should come as no surprise - ALO is the best MMO.

Edit:
I almost missed Necroryu's edit update.


QUOTE btw are you reading the 3 manga series scanlated (4 koma too) or aren't worth the time compared to LNs?

I love the 4 koma/gag SAO manga. They're parody retellings of some of the specific chapters, like the first one is a parody highlight retelling of book 1, chapters 1~10 or so. The second one is a parody of "The black swordsman", and the third is a parody of "Warmth of the Heart". Feel free to read after each in turn.

The other "two"? SAO manga I'm not sure about without seeing the exact ones you're referencing. The Material Edition doujin stuff breaks into two stories, one is about Floor 48 which can be read at any point spoiler free, another one features Yui and should be saved until after you've read books 1 through 7. (It doesn't really spoil anything, but you'll be lacking context.)

Then there's the official SAO book 1 -> Manga conversion which is basically... "If you've read book 1 you've read this with more information and less art."
 
QUOTE 1: Remember how fondly Asuna refers back the events later on in the first book and the aftermath kept turning up in book 2. It was a significant turning point in her life in more ways than one. It doesn't take a strong presence in the story, but it puts the later events into a more complete picture.


Indeed...I need to agree wholeheartedly on this one. In fact on at the very end of the opening song, it shows 2 of the most 'important' scene: The ragout rabbit and the sleep on the grassland scene.

However this can mean several real bad thing in my opinion:
1) If they cramp murder case into 1 episodes, it will very rushed considering how the story is 1/2 book 8 which equivalent to 2~3 episodes of anime.
2) If the give 2~3 episodes for the murder story, then they prob rush some part of the mainstory.

Either way will decrease the quality of the anime and being a big fan of this series I just really hope that wont happen.
 
QUOTE (aquaspirit39 @ Jul 16 2012, 03:07 AM) lol that is one twist that I will never guess, lol praise to your imagination.
It has nothing to do with my imagination because that was the most predictable and cliche like to do and not them beeing highly sick. Thats not even in the Top5 of "what is cliche in this situation".
 
QUOTE (aquaspirit39 @ Jul 16 2012, 12:38 AM) However this can mean several real bad thing in my opinion:
1) If they cramp murder case into 1 episodes, it will very rushed considering how the story is 1/2 book 8 which equivalent to 2~3 episodes of anime.
2) If the give 2~3 episodes for the murder story, then they prob rush some part of the mainstory.

Either way will decrease the quality of the anime and being a big fan of this series I just really hope that wont happen.
It's kind of wierd to say, since I'm usually the person in white robes with pitchfork in hand yelling "burn the heretic!" when a conversion deviates from source material... but... I don't think what they cut from "a murder case in the area" or the main story will degrade the quality of anything. I will weep for what ends up on the cutting room floor, but I don't feel like what's left is bad. Ep 2 - Beater actually was a very nice treatment of Aria that kept the limits of it's format in mind.

I think their goal for the anime is to make it functionally viable as a standalone story that is accurate to the original material, but not a literal 1:1 conversion. It feels to me like they aren't "cutting" or "changing" the events so much as just "not showing" them, which matches up with the way the LN side stories bounce around erratically to cover stuff. The result is the story is cleaner than the average LN conversion, and since it has obviously introduced a considerable number of people to the LNs, those people will enjoy new elements to a story they know, that are just "more information".

The SAO team seems much more aware of the limitations of the animated medium than the usual Book to animation conversion team. (Accel world team, Mouretsu Uchuu Kaizoku team, and Koukaku no Regios team, I'm glaring at you guys here...) If they do something badly or start visibly conflicting with the books, I'll likely change my mind on this, but so far, I'm satisfied with what they've done.
 
It is confirmed that episode 5 will be murder case in area just like what Norren guesses. I wish Kawahara Sensei had written Laughing Coffin Crusade arc too so that it can be animated, it is such a shame to introduce awesome antagonist like PoH,XaXa and Johnie but never to use them again...
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Im more than just 100% sure that we havent seen the last of the Laughing Crusade (well, except for XaXa) and I dont mean Side Storys. PoH was featured to often to never appear again.

Just began reading Aria ind the Starless Night and damn did they leave out a lot in the anime -.- I dont understand why they are rushing through stuff like that.
Especially the scenes between Asuna and Kirito and Kirito and Argo wouldve been interesting. And the bathroomscene with Argo and Asuna of course ^^
 
QUOTE (aquaspirit39 @ Jul 26 2012, 04:31 PM) It is confirmed that episode 5 will be murder case in area just like what Norren guesses. I wish Kawahara Sensei had written Laughing Coffin Crusade arc too so that it can be animated, it is such a shame to introduce awesome antagonist like PoH,XaXa and Johnie but never to use them again...
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Er, didn't he?

I could swear Bakatsuki posted it as part of the list of sidestories they had yet to translate at some point.

@Ossi
Probably because without the proper context of who Asuna is. You have to admit, the scene is a little more slapstick when you know who everyone is in general.

Also, it should point out just how the players look at information broker that Kirito never even THOUGHT about Argo as a woman, given in the anime she's basically as cute as Asuna. XD
 
QUOTE (aquaspirit39 @ Jul 26 2012, 08:00 PM) @Norren Did he? Which one? What is the title of the side story? thx
If I recall correctly, it showed up as a red text link after book 2 titled "The Laughing Coffin Crusade" or something similar for a few weeks before they moved all the sidestories to the bottom, a long, long time ago.

It was probably web only. I wish I could read his website.
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And here I thought you were talking about the stuff we heard about the Laughing Coffin Crusade inside the other sidestorys but youre talking about an own Sidestory. Yes that would be a great read.
I googled a bit and it seems that the sidestory was dropped by the publishers because its chronologically not relevant anymore (what totally doesnt make sense) and sadly I didnt found the chapters which were already out -.-

Hmm I wouldnt really say Argo is cute since you didnt really see anything of here. But yes sadly Asuna is cute in the anime instead of beautiful -.- The animationstyle they chose for the anime isnt good to female characters.
 
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