Welcome to A LINE THROUGH T⌛ME, where I write most of a script and then do nothing
with it for almost two years. Yeah, I started scripting this back in March 2018, and gave
up because this shit is way too expansive.
Okay, so, Sword Art Online, a series that is basically the Japanese Twilight: beloved
and reviled in equal measure, and watched by everyone except those in the middle. Making
videos on this series is often seen as low-hanging-fruit or for easy views, but let me assure you now:
this video is purely in the latter camp, so thanks for clicking, please stick around and
hopefully you'll be entertained and maybe even educated. Admittedly, this probably would
have gotten move views without the two year wait, since no one outside the series' fanbase
and Geoff Thew actually cares about it anymore...
Sword Art Online started as a light novel written by one Reki Kawahara for a story contest
in 2002, which he couldn't actually enter due to exceeding the page limit. He released
it online and then entered the contest in 2008 with Accel World, not to be confused
with Excel Saga. Accel World won the grand prize and both series were picked up for official
release by ASCII Media Works in 2009, beginning exactly two months apart and continuing to
this day. But why is all of this relevant? Well, because both series are implied to actually
be set in the same universe, which I'll explain later. We're going to be focusing on the light
novel continuity, rather than the myriad adaptations the two series have received.
Now, keep in mind, I've never actually seen or read SAO, nor do I have any desire to do
so, so if you notice any mistakes... I dunno, blame Kawahara's concepts for not drawing
me in or something.
SAO is about a bunch of people who become trapped inside the titular virtual reality
MMORPG where if you die in the game, you die for real. Original, I know. Main protagonist
Kazuto Kirigaya, or Kirito, Gary Stu extraordinaire, is the best player of it and just about any
other game, is a genius programmer and hacker, and attracts all the ladies who continue to
follow him around even after he's effectively married. After escaping the game, Kirito and
friends start having adventures inside other VR MMOs despite their traumatic experience,
because this type of story is supposed to end once the heroes escape the death game,
so everyone has to be written as sub-human retards for the series to continue.
We'll be discussing the series by sub-series, rather than release order because Kawahara
actually writes one of the spin-offs as well as the core series and Accel World, releasing
multiple volumes of each per year, which probably explains the reported quality of the writing,
somewhat.
The core SAO series currently rests at twenty-three volumes long. They follow a mostly linear
progression, but not completely. Volume 1 covers the main story of Kirito's time in
SAO, the Aincrad Arc, while Volume 2 is a series of short stories set during this timespan,
which the anime adapted all in chronological order. From here, the series progresses linearly
with Volume 3 and 4's Fairy Dance Arc, 5 and 6's Phantom Bullet Arc, and Volume 7: Mother's
Rosario.
Volume 8: Early and Late is a series of three short stories. A Murder Case in the Area is
a murder mystery set during Aincrad, Calibur is set in the present with Kirito and friends
doing a new quest in ALfheim, and First Day follows Kirito's early loner days in Aincrad
and the moment he first faced his own mortality. There was also an alternate version of Calibur
that diverges at a certain point and apparently released two months before the book? Either
version takes place between Phantom Bullet and the next arc, so we'll place it here.
Volumes 9 through 18 (seriously) are one massive, linear arc, Alicization. Volumes 19 & 20 are
the Moon Cradle Arc, which is a side story set towards the end of Alicization.
Volumes 21 and 23 are part of the ongoing Unital Ring Arc, continuing on from Alicisation.
Volume 22 is a series of four side stories. The Day Before is yet another story set during
Aincrad, detailing the days following Kirito's proposal to Asuna. The Day After is a story
about Asuna during Volume 4. Rainbow Bridge is a sequel to Extra Edition, which was a
special episode set after Fairy Dance, so I guess I have to add that in here as well
now. And Sisters' Prayer is a tie-in to Mother's Rosario, but set six months before the end
of Aincrad. Because why expand on literally anything else?
From here, we can discuss the spin-offs. SAO: Progressive began in 2012, also written by
Kawahara, and is a more fleshed-out retelling of the Aincrad Arc, currently consisting of
six volumes. It goes floor-by-floor, so it's going to be bloody long. Newer novels apparently
do reference the new additions and retcons, so I guess it's supposed to replace Volume
1 and maybe the rest of the Aincrad material? Regardless, I fully expect a standalone anime
adaptation once it concludes. I also wonder how many of the 800,000 retroactive additions
to Aincrad will be retold as part of Progressive.
Next is Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, written by Keiichi Sigsawa, under
Kawahara's supervision. It focuses on another Gungale Online player spanning the timeframe
from just before Phantom Bullet, to... I have no idea. It's surprisingly how little information
I can find about this on this on the wiki, so we'll just place it before Phantom Bullet.
Then came Sword Art Online Alternative Clover's Regret, written by Souichirou Watase, and
also supervised by Kawahara. This one's about... ninjas, I think? The description seems to
suggest it comes after Mother's Rosario, but that's as much as I can find out.
Kawahara also wrote the plot for the anime movie Ordinal Scale, which he apparently considers
canonical, despite contradictions in the novels, but what do you expect at this point? It takes
place between Mother's Rosario and Alicization.
There are also a bunch of standalone short stories written by Kawahara, which we need
to discuss. Hopeful Chant is a prequel to the movie, following an important character
from it during the Aincrad Arc. Cordial Chords is a direct sequel to the film, set in its
aftermath. Distant Journey follows Kirito and Eugo encountering a ghost early during
Alicisation. 16.8.5 is set between 16.8 and 16.9... You know what? Fuck these decimal
stories, fuck Sugary Days, and fuck the official doujins by Kawahara. Maybe if I reach like
$300 a month on Patreon, I'll come back to this, but I can't do this right now. Let's
talk about Accel World instead...
This series is much simpler, thank God. Being not nearly as much of a smash hit as SAO,
Accel World has no spin-offs and its currently twenty-four-volume-long story is told linearly.
It potentially takes place decades later with technology evolved partially from the NervGear
VR tech of SAO.
Kawahara has been weirdly vague about whether or not they're in the same universe, but Kawahara
wrote Versus and Versus II. Versus was published in Accel World Volume 10, and is a crossover
between the two series, where both protagonists fight each other while connected through VR
across time, I guess? There's no winner, as Kirito is disconnected before a winner can
be decided. It might not be canon, but it was published in the main series of Accel
World, so I'm counting it.
This was followed by Dream Game -Crossover-, a crossover with The Irregular at Magic High
School, written by that series' author, where Tatsuya Shiba ends up inside Alfheim and fights
Eugene and Kirito. This was then followed by Versus II, which is a sequel to both. Irregular
is confirmed to be set in another world, so I don't have to include it here. With Accel
World not being explicitly deconfirmed as sharing SAO's world, I'm going to keep it
in for now. These crossovers take place within a week, and Kirito meets with Takeru from
the Alicization Arc, setting them early in that arc.
I'm not going to do the final summary of this timeline because simply placing the stories
was hard enough for a non-fan. Do you honestly think I'd stand a chance at actually explaining
it? This is really just a rough guide for people looking for where to start reading
and a general idea of what order to proceed in.
Now, it's possible that there are some manga spin-offs that are actually considered canonical
to the light novels, or that I missed one of the billion side stories Kawahara wrote
outside of the numerous light novel series, because there are a ton of them. If nothing
else, I can say this of Kawahara: he clearly enjoys writing stories about this world and
these characters he's created. It doesn't seem to be a franchise driven by soulless,
cynical marketing, but a genuine love from the creator towards his creation. Even if
the end product isn't all that great, I can still respect Kawahara and his work for that.
If you liked this video, why not subscribe and support me on Patreon like these fine
people here? If not, then make sure to share it with your enemies so they can suffer along
with you.
Today's recommended video is Fixing Alfheim - the WORST Part of SAO by Mother's Basement.
It's basically a rip-off of Wasted Plotential that came out a month before WP started because
Geoff Thew is a fucking warlock who can see into the future to find ideas to steal and
products to shill. ...And he does make what seems like a genuinely compelling story, so...
you know, there's that too.