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Year: 2012
Genre: Action, Adventure, Science fiction
Episodes: 25
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
How nice would it be to play your favorite game in real life? To escape from the real world and live in a world of fantasy. To live as a character of your own choosing and design. To have the personality and life you always wanted.
Popular games like World of World Craft, Minecraft, Final Fantasy, and Diablo are a few games where players can create their own avatar and become immersed in a different world. They can become any race they can think of and be someone they are not in the real world.
As the game industry has progressed, virtual reality games are becoming ever more popular. Rather than watching your character through a computer screen, virtual reality gives players the chance to actually see through the eyes of the character they made. Virtual reality generates realistic images, sounds, and other sensations to stimulate the player’s presence in the virtual world.
What would you do if you could play your favorite game through virtual reality? You had the choice to make your character any way you want. Now take it one step further, what if that world became your actual reality? You couldn’t log out until you beat the game. There is also another catch, if you die in the game, you die in real life. Would you take that risk?
Sword Art Online explores what happens when your favorite game turns into your worst nightmare and reality.
Overview:
In the year 2022, a massively popular Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game called Sword Art Online (SAO) is released to the Japanese population. Players must wear NerveGear to play the popular game. The NerveGear is a helmet that stimulates the player’s five senses via their brain, where the player can experience and control their avatar with their minds. SOA and the NerveGear were created by the game genius Akihiko Kayaba.
SAO follows the story of Kazuto Kirigaya. Kazuto’s was one of the 1,000 beta testers and goes by the name “Kirito” in the game. On November 6th, 10,000 players log into SAO’s mainframe for the first time. Kirito meets another person name Klein, who is playing the game for the first time. Kirito gives Klein the overall view of the game, along with helping him with tips. After what seemed like hours, Klein tells Kirito it was time for him to return to the real world with a pizza arriving. Klein tries to log out when he notices there is no log out button. Kirito tries to help when he sees there is no log out button. At the end of the first night, as loud bell chimes, all players logged into the game are transported back to the main town square.
Kayaba appears high above and tells the players that they must beat all 100 floors of Aincrad, a steel castle, and the primary setting of SAO if they wish to be free. Kayaba continues to state that everyone is trapped in the world until all the levels are cleared. The only warning is that those who die in the game will die in the real world. An electronic wave will microwave their brain, killing them instantly, nor can the NerveGear be removed or death is imminent.
Shock spreads through the players as they can’t believe they are trapped in the world. Kirito sets out alone in the game, determined to beat the game and Kayaba. Hoping to get back to the real world.
Review:
Sword Art Online presents a great and intriguing story and look into the world of virtual reality. It seems like when the biggest game comes out, society goes wild to play the game. People just have to get their hands on the game. Sword Art Online takes the story a step further by using a popular virtual reality game where players’ senses become immersed fully in the game through a headset. The world in the game is grand, and players marvel at everything. The player’s world soon becomes a nightmare when they are trapped until they cleared all the levels. That the biggest bombshell is that anyone who dies in the game will die in real life. The anime does a great job showing the psychological aspects of virtual reality on the human psyche. How players can either fight to get back to the real world or just accept their fate and live out the rest of their lives in a game. The anime also shows the physical affects the body goes through when the players finally make it out of the game.
For the actual story, it is was entertaining to see the development of a relationship between the two main characters, Kirito and Asuna. Rather than this being a story about survival, it’s more of a love story that happens within the game. It shows how two characters manage to find love in the darkest times in their lives. Now I will say this; the second half of this series was good okay but overall felt like it put too much on one Kirito. The second half made some characters seem weaker than they actually are. Without giving away too much information, one character goes from being this strong badass to a person that appears weak and needs help. The best part is the battle between Kirito and Gleaming Eyes is excellent. That fight is by far the best when Kirito does his special attack. The room is dark, as you can feel a dark presence in it. Then as the light illuminates the room, the fearsome creature appears.
There are quite a few characters in this anime, but the story revolves around Kirito and Asuna. Kirito is a loner of the world. He rather sticks to himself that be part of a guild. Even with his single-player aspect, he is always around to give a helping hand. Also, when he is called a “beater,” a term used for people who played the beta, he is still willing to give a helping hand. The story shows his trials and tribulations as he wants to not join a party for fear of losing people. He becomes one of the strongest characters in the game with this attitude until he is forced to join a guild. Asuna is a strong female character in the game. She is probably the strongest female character in the game. She fights proudly on the front lines but also tries to keep Kirito in line since they were the first people to be part of a team. Even though she tries to be serious, she is quite loving to everyone while trying to see the good in people.
The animation in this anime actually took me by surprise with the story. I was expecting everything to have a dark tone with dark and miserable colors. The animation is entirely different. Most of the series has bright and happy colors. Episodes don’t seem depressing with the situation that the players are in. The colors almost seem to give a feeling that everyone has accepted their fate. I will say that some of the fight scenes are drawn nicely. The fight between Kirito and Gleaming Eye is beautifully illustrated with the attacks full of colors.
Overall, Sword Art Online is an excellent story on the psychological aspects of playing a virtual reality game in a good way. There are several characters that you will sad for when they pass away that it’s not a ton. The overall anime is entertaining to watch for a nice week.
