ICT Blog/Presentation Project

January 2016
Liam HEALY
4B

What is Sword Art Online and How

Did it Start?
Sword Art Online or SAO(Japanese: -- Sdo
to Onrain)is a 2009 Japaneselight novelseries written byReki
Kawaharaand illustrated by abec.
Alight novel( -- raito noberu)is a style of Japanesenovel
primarily targetingmiddle- andhigh-schoolstudents:
not more than 40,00050,000 words long i.e. rarely more than a few hundred
pages
Usually with dense publishing schedules.

While the first version was written in 2001 for a novel competition, SAO
was only published 2009, and span off several other series afterwards.
The SAO series takes place in the near-future and focuses on various
virtual realityMMORPG(Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing
Game)worlds.

The Main Premise and Multiple Storylines are

Thrilling Especially if You Are Obsessed with VR!
In 2022, aVRMMORPG called SAO is released. With a helmet
that stimulates the user's 5 senses via their brain, players
can experience and control their in-game characters with
their minds. 10,000 players log into the SAO's mainframe
cyberspace and discover that they are unable to log-out:
They must reach the 100th floor of the game's castle and defeat
the final boss if they wish to be free.
Those who suffer in-game destruction or remove the NerveGear
helmet out-of-game will result in their real-life deaths.

The main characters are Kirito and Asuna, they will team up
to free all other players from the game.

A title about the graphics

The Success of SAO

SAOwas the top selling light novel series of 2012. 16.7M copies have been printed worldwide (available
in the UK).
It has expanded into other fields:
The series has now spawned 8 manga adaptations all written by the original author.
An anime adaptation started to air in 2012 and has been licensed for a release in the US.
Several video games have been created.
An animated film has been announced.
Critics were overall highly positive:
Deep insight on the psychological aspects ofVRon the human psyche
Sociological views on creating a realistic economy and society in a MMORPG setting,
Wide variety of genres within the series
Less enthusiastic reviewers deplored the sloppy writing, sexist positioning of the female lead and slow
pace.
Notes:
Manga = Japanese comic
Anime = Japanesehand-drawn or computeranimation. The word is the abbreviated pronunciation of "animation" in Japanese