Phoenix Comicon 2016: Sword Art Online

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