A 2009-current light novel series written by Kawahara Reki and illustrated by Bunbun. It has multiple manga adaptations, multiple videogames, a three season anime, and three movies.
The series takes place in the near future and focuses on protagonist Kirito and Asuna as they play through various virtual reality MMORPG worlds.
Initially written in 2002 for the ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki Game Novel Prize (now Dengeki Novel Prize), the author refrained from sending it in due to exceeding the page limit. Kawahara Reki published it as a web novel and later added 3 more volumes and short stories to the series. After winning the Dengeki Novel Prize Grand Prize in 2008 for Accel World, ASCII Media Works requested that aside from Accel World if they could also publish Sword Art Online as well. The author agreed and withdrew the web novel version. The series was republished in light novel format in 2009.
The series received an anime adaptation in 2012, which later became highly successful. And went on popularize a whole subgenre of Japanese media known as isekai, which involves having the main character(s) originated from modern world being reincarnated into other worlds.
A movie, Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale, was released on February 18, 2017. The movie features a new original story that takes place some time after the second season of the anime.
A second movie, Sword Art Online Progressive, was release on October 30, 2021. The movie retold the original story from the first two episodes of Aincrad Arc but through the perspective of Asuna.
Story arcs
Aincrad (First Arc, SAO)
Fairy Dance (Second Arc, ALO)
Phantom Bullet (Third Arc, GGO)
Caliburn / Mother's Rosario (Side Story Arcs, ALO)
