Marceline Lynn: Sword Art Online Review (Anime & Manga)

Sword Art Online

Written by Reki Kawahara

Recently, Adult Swim has picked up a new anime for Toonami. I could not be any more excited for that series which is Sword Art Online. I read/watched this series a while back, and though it seems like it is suited for a male audience, I don't think that is an adequate target group. The audience that should be looking forward to this series is all gaming nerds (myself included).

The story centers around Kirito who plays a game called Sword Art Online. The console for the game (which I hope can become a reality one day because it sounds amazing!) is a helmet that gives the gamer the experience on being within the game. You can taste, feel, hear, etc while in the gaming world; it feels like you are in the game quite literally. The trick to the game is that you cannot log out of the game, and if you die in the game you die in real life. The only way out is beating the game.

The reason I love this story so much is that I have never heard or read a storyline that was similar to this one. It also made me question like what would I do if I couldn't leave a game; would I be happy or sad about it? There were guilds within the game, dungeon raids, and plenty of other nerd references that just filled me with so much enjoyment. I also enjoyed the characters within the story, though the girl, Asuna, could get a little annoying at times. The stroyline was also enjoyable because it just unfolded very nicely. It wasn't too fast paced or slow, and always left me wondering what was going to be happening next.

My least favorite part is probably the second arc to the series. It just felt more like an after thought to me. I still enjoyed it though. It just didn't flow as well as the first arc did. There was like a stop and go moment to the second arc.

This is also one of the few series that I don't feel like there is a lot of difference between the manga and the anime. So if you are concerned as to which you should view, you can do which ever you prefer more! The anime moves a little quicker than the manga does, but the manga has a few little scenes that aren't included in the anime.