Sword Art Online (Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン
Hepburn: Sōdo Āto Onrain?) (also known as SAO) is a 2009 Japanese light novel
series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place
in the near-future and focuses on various virtual reality MMORPG worlds. The
light novels began publication on ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint from
April 10, 2009, with a spin-off series launching in October 2012. The series
has spawned eight manga adaptations published by ASCII Media Works and Kadokawa.
The novels and four of the manga adaptations have been licensed for release in
North America by Yen Press. An anime television series produced by A-1 Pictures
aired in Japan between July and December 2012, with an Extra Edition episode
aired on December 31, 2013, and a second season, titled Sword Art Online II,
aired between July and December 2014. Three video games based on the series
have been released on the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita and
PlayStation 4. An animated film titled Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal
Scale featuring an original story by Kawahara has been announced and will
premiere in Japanese theaters in 2017.
Sword Art Online
has received widespread commercial success, with the light novels having over
16 million copies printed in Japan and internationally, including North
America, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.[1] The
anime series has received mixed to positive reviews, praised for its animation,
musical score and exploration of the psychological aspects of virtual reality,
but criticized for its pacing and writing.
Asuna Yuuki (結城 明日奈 Yūki Asuna?)
is a fictional character who appears in the Sword Art Online series of light
novels by Reki Kawahara. She is mononymously more commonly known as just Asuna
(アスナ
Asuna?), her player name in the eponymous video game which the novels are set
in. Asuna appears as a friend of Kirito; as well as the female lead, she is in
the novels a sub-leader of the Knights of the Blood (血盟騎士団 Ketsumei
Kishidan?) guild, notable for being the strongest guild in Aincrad. She is
depicted as having earned a reputation as a skilled player in-game, giving her
the nickname Flash (閃光 Senkō?), which, coupled with her physical attractiveness,
have made her well-known and sought after by other players.
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.
One of the players, Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya, is one of the
1,000 beta testers in the game's previous closed beta. With the advantage of
previous VR gaming experience and a drive to protect other beta testers from
discrimination, he isolates himself from the greater group and plays the game
alone, bearing the mantle of "beater", or "beta tester" and
"cheater". As the players progress through the game Kirito eventually
befriends a young girl named Asuna Yūki, forming a relationship with and later
marrying her in-game. After the duo discover the identity of Kayaba's secret ID
Heathcliff in SAO, who was playing as the leader of the guild Asuna joined in,
they confront and destroy him, freeing themselves and the other players from
the game
I am new to the
world of anime, comicon, and cosplay, so if I try to identify a character and
get it wrong, please cut me some slack. Thanks
