100 Fun Facts About Sword Art Online

Who wrote the Sword Art Online light novels?

Reki Kawahara says the one trait he shares with Kirito is that neither is any good at forming parties: he jokes that both of them mostly play online games solo.

How was Sword Art Online first released, from 2002 to 2008?

As a free web novel on its author's own site, the story grew to four arcs; he took every chapter offline when a publisher offered to put the series into print.

Under which imprint are the Sword Art Online light novels published in Japan?

Dengeki Bunko's editors asked for the series after its author won their annual contest with a different story; he had written SAO for the same contest years earlier but never entered it, as it ran far over the page limit.

What is missing from Sword Art Online's menu on launch day?

The log-out button's absence is no bug: the game's creator appears to announce that he removed it, that clearing the whole castle is the only way out, and that dying in the game now means dying for real.

What is the name of the helmet that lets players dive into SAO by stimulating their senses?

NerveGear cuts off the body's own signals and feeds the brain a virtual world, so pulling it off by force, or dying in the game, kills the wearer; the later AmuSphere was sold as its safe replacement.

Who created the game Sword Art Online in the story?

Akihiko Kayaba ends his own life once the game is beaten, scanning his brain at lethal power to leave a copy of his mind on the network, and that copy later comes to Kirito's aid.

How many players log into SAO on launch day and become trapped?

10,000 players are caught on day one, and only the 1,000 who had been let into the pre-launch trial, Kirito among them, already know the early floors, which is why he pulls ahead so quickly.

What is the name of the floating steel castle that serves as SAO's setting?

Aincrad does not stay gone: once the death game is over, the castle is rebuilt inside another game as New Aincrad, and the survivors go back to climb the floors they never reached.

How many floors of the castle must SAO's trapped players clear to be set free?

100 floors was the target, but the game ends early on the 75th, when Kirito unmasks the creator hiding among the players and beats him in a duel.

What is Kirito's real name?

Kazuto Kirigaya built his player name from his real one, joining the front of his family name to the end of his given name: KIRIgaya kazuTO.

The insult "beater", hurled at Kirito, is a portmanteau of which two words?

Beta tester and cheater: the crowd hurls the word at Kirito after the first boss falls, and he accepts it on purpose so that their anger lands on him instead of on every former tester.

What in-game alias did Sword Art Online's creator use as leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath?

Heathcliff meant to turn on the players as the final boss at the very top of the castle; Kirito sees through the disguise early and wins everyone's freedom in a duel.

Which fairy race does Kirito pick for his avatar in the game where he searches for Asuna?

Spriggan, the shadow fairies, are his choice, and because the new game runs on a copy of SAO's servers he arrives with all his old skill levels intact.

In which fairy-themed game does Kirito search for Asuna in the second arc?

Alfheim Online lets its players fly as fairies, and it is run by a subsidiary of the company Asuna's own father heads, which is how her captor can hide her inside it.

What is the avatar name of Suguha, Kirito's cousin and adoptive sister?

Leafa guides Kirito across the game without realising he is her own brother; offline she has trained in kendo for eight years and reached the national top eight.

What is Yui, the child Kirito and Asuna adopt in SAO?

An artificial intelligence: Yui is the game's counselling program, forbidden to approach the trapped players and left to watch their despair until she seeks out the one happy couple.

Which villain holds Asuna captive as "Titania" while playing the fairy king Oberon?

Nobuyuki Sugou means to marry the comatose Asuna so that he can take over her family's company, while secretly running mind-control experiments on hundreds of players who never woke up.

What is The Seed, which SAO's creator leaves to Kirito?

A toolkit for building VR worlds: Kirito has it released free online, where it revives an industry ruined by the death game and gives rise to every later game world in the series.

In which game is Kirito given a long-haired, feminine avatar?

Gun Gale Online is the one game in the series whose winnings can be cashed out for real money, so professionals play it for a living, and it is those top players that the killer picks off.

Kirito enters which battle-royale tournament in order to hunt a killer?

Bullet of Bullets finalists shot by the masked Death Gun die in real life too, because an accomplice is waiting in each victim's home with a syringe at the moment the avatar is hit.

What is the real name of the sniper Sinon?

Shino Asada shot an armed robber dead in a post office as a child and has panicked at the sight of guns ever since; she plays a sniper in a virtual world to face down that fear.

What experimental FullDive machine does Kirito test for the organization RATH?

The Soul Translator reads and writes to the user's soul itself, not to nerve signals, and RATH blocks Kirito's memories of each test dive so that nothing about the project leaks out.

In Sword Art Online's Underworld storyline, what is the name for the quantum light that makes up a person's consciousness?

Fluctlight is short for 'fluctuating light'; RATH copies and raises artificial ones inside its simulation, which is where every inhabitant of the Underworld comes from.

In the Underworld, a village girl is taken away by the Integrity Knights for breaking what?

Taboo Index rules hold because the Underworld's people cannot bring themselves to break a law at all; the rare ones who manage it, as Kirito's friend does to protect his pupils, are exactly what RATH is looking for.

Who is Kirito's closest friend in the Underworld, a wood-carver from the village of Rulid?

Eugeo leaves home with Kirito to find a childhood friend carried off by the knights, and in the final battle gives his life to land the blow that lets Kirito win.

Which organization, led by "The Administrator", rules the Human Empire in the Underworld?

The Axiom Church rules through knights who believe they were summoned from heaven; in truth they are its own best swordsmen and law-breakers, their memories sealed away.

What giant tree are Kirito and his Underworld friend tasked with cutting down?

The Gigas Cedar, the villagers' 'Demon Tree', has been chopped at for generations as a lifelong duty; once it falls the pair are free to leave, and Kirito has a black sword made from one of its branches.

What is the real name of the Administrator, who rules the Underworld's Human Empire as a self-made goddess?

Quinella learned as a girl that killing raised her power, passed herself off as a goddess to take control, and has used forbidden commands to keep herself alive for centuries.

Which studio animated the Sword Art Online TV series?

A-1 Pictures is a subsidiary of Aniplex, the company that produced the show, so the work stayed in-house for every season and film; only the gun-game spin-off went to another studio, 3Hz.

Who directed Sword Art Online's first two anime seasons?

Tomohiko Itō had been an assistant director on Summer Wars, another story set in a virtual world; he went on to direct Erased, and Manabu Ono took over for the third season.

Who composed the music for the Sword Art Online anime?

Yuki Kajiura already knew the territory: a decade earlier she had written the music for .hack//Sign, another anime about a player trapped inside an online game.

Which newcomer does Kirito teach to fight on launch day, later the leader of the guild Fuurinkazan?

Klein is the first friend Kirito makes and the first he leaves behind: Kirito races ahead alone, while Klein stays for the friends he joined the game with.

What is the first opening theme of the Sword Art Online anime, performed by LiSA?

Crossing Field carries the first 14 episodes; when the story leaves the death game for a world of fairies in episode 15, Eir Aoi's 'Innocence' takes over.

On which programming block did the English dub of Sword Art Online premiere in the United States in 2013?

Toonami had itself been off the air for nearly four years until a fan campaign brought it back on Adult Swim in 2012; Sword Art Online joined its Saturday-night line-up the following July.

Who voices both Kirito and Demon Slayer's Inosuke in Japanese?

Yoshitsugu Matsuoka shares both roles with one American: when the two shows were dubbed, Bryce Papenbrook was cast as Kirito and later as Inosuke too.

Who voices Asuna in the English dub?

Cherami Leigh was announced alongside Bryce Papenbrook as the dub's leads in 2013; a working actress since childhood, she later earned a BAFTA nomination as the female V in Cyberpunk 2077.

What is the title of the 2017 Sword Art Online feature film?

Ordinal Scale is named after the ranking system of the game in the film: every player carries an ordinal number, and the higher the rank, the stronger that player becomes.

In the 2017 Sword Art Online film, which device replaces full-dive gear?

Augma lays its games over the real world while the wearer stays awake, which makes it look safe, but its inventor is using it to harvest survivors' memories of the death game.

Who is the AI idol singer who buffs players during boss fights in the 2017 Sword Art Online film?

Yuna is modelled on the inventor's daughter, who died in the original death game; he is harvesting other survivors' memories of her in the hope of bringing her back.

What is the title of the 2021 Sword Art Online Progressive film, which retells the first floor from Asuna's side?

Aria of a Starless Night gives Asuna a school friend, Mito, a veteran of the game's trial run who teaches her to fight and then, in a moment of panic, leaves her to die in a monster swarm.

What is the other light novel series by the SAO author, which won its publisher's grand prize for new writers in 2008?

Accel World's prize is what got Sword Art Online into bookshops: once it had won, the publisher's editors read its author's older story and asked to print that as well.

What unique skill does Kirito unlock in SAO and try to keep hidden?

Dual Blades stays secret until the 74th-floor boss proves too much for the raid; once Kirito uses it to win, word spreads at once and the leader of the strongest guild challenges him to a duel.

What was the name of the first guild Kirito joined in SAO, which was wiped out?

Moonlit Black Cats were school friends far weaker than Kirito, who hid his true level to fit in; most died in a trapped room, and only a message Sachi had timed for Christmas Eve lifted his despair.

What is the name of Asuna's signature rapier?

Lambent Light ends the death game: with his own sword shattered and Asuna struck down, Kirito drives her rapier through the creator's avatar in their final duel.

Who is the first-floor boss in Sword Art Online, who draws an unexpected weapon?

Illfang the Kobold Lord cuts down the raid leader, Diavel, as he rushes in for the final blow, and the survivors turn on Kirito for keeping what he knew about the boss to himself.

What title does the undefeated duelist Yuuki earn from other players?

Absolute Sword is no exaggeration: Yuuki beats Kirito himself, then Asuna, whom she promptly recruits to help her small guild bring down a floor boss on its own.

Which story arc of Sword Art Online II follows Asuna's friendship with the terminally ill duelist Yuuki?

Mother's Rosario is the name of the eleven-hit sword skill Yuuki invented and entrusts to Asuna as she dies, so that something of her will live on.

Which tech entrepreneur built a VR headset in 2022 that, like the one in Sword Art Online, could kill its wearer?

Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, rigged a headset with explosive charges as an art piece in tribute to the series; he says thousands of fans had once asked him when he would make its helmet real.

Which Mission: Impossible producer's TV arm acquired live-action Sword Art Online rights in 2016?

Skydance Television promised to fast-track the show, hiring Altered Carbon's Laeta Kalogridis to write the pilot and planning a virtual-reality experience to follow it.

What is the title of the third season of the Sword Art Online anime, which began airing in October 2018?

Alicization's second half, War of Underworld, was due to resume in April 2020, but the pandemic pushed its final episodes back to July; together the two halves cover ten volumes of the novels.

Which country's Ministry of Culture put Sword Art Online II on a list of 38 banned anime and manga?

China issued the blacklist in June 2015 and named the anime's second season among its 38 titles. The ministry behind it is now defunct.

Sword Art Online's fairy king Oberon and queen Titania share names with the rulers in which Shakespeare play?

A Midsummer Night's Dream has Oberon and Titania as its quarrelling fairy king and queen. In the anime the villain takes the king's name and forces the queen's on Asuna.

Which streaming service was reported in 2018 to have bought the planned live-action Sword Art Online series?

Netflix was reported as the buyer in February 2018. The project's makers had also talked of following the show with a virtual reality experience.

Which voice actor plays Kirito in the English dub of Sword Art Online and Eren Yeager in Attack on Titan?

Bryce Papenbrook has voiced Kirito since the dub began in 2013, and he is also the English voice of Inosuke in Demon Slayer.

Which blacksmith and close friend of Asuna forges a custom sword for Kirito in Sword Art Online?

Lisbeth joins Kirito on a quest for the special ore the blade needs, and falls for him on the way before learning that Asuna likes him too.

Which young beast tamer in Sword Art Online travels with a small dragon named Pina?

Silica named the dragon Pina after her real-life cat, and taming it so early made her famous among the trapped players.

Which cloaked player, wanted for real-world murders, does Kirito hunt through a tournament in Sword Art Online II?

Death Gun is a trick: an accomplice waits in the victim's home and injects a heart-stopping drug at the instant the avatar is shot.

Which holy blade do Kirito and his friends win back from the frost giant king Thrym in Sword Art Online II?

Excalibur is the prize of a side quest whose final boss, Thrym, had stolen the blade and used it to conquer a neighbouring realm.

Which Japanese martial art has Kirito's sister Suguha trained in for years in Sword Art Online?

Kendo has been Suguha's discipline for eight years, and she took it up partly to escape the loneliness in her life.

Which childhood friend of Kirito in the Underworld returns as an Integrity Knight with her memories erased?

Alice lost her childhood memories in the ritual that made her a knight, so she is cold and hostile to her old friends at first.

By which nickname was Asuna known among the players trapped in Sword Art Online?

Lightning Flash was Asuna's name in the original game, earned by her speed with a rapier. In a later game, charging into battle while playing a healer earned her the nickname Berserk Healer.

Which axe-wielding shopkeeper in Sword Art Online runs the Dicey Café in the real world?

Agil's wife kept the Dicey Café going through his two-year coma, and it later becomes the friends' real-world meeting place.

Which notorious red guild in Sword Art Online is made up of players who murder other players?

Laughing Coffin was founded by a mercenary who later sold out his own followers to rival guilds so that he could watch the carnage.

Which step do Kirito and Asuna take before retreating to a log cabin on the twenty-second floor?

They get married in-game, and the Knights of the Blood Oath grant them temporary leave so the cabin stay can be their honeymoon.

Fighting beside the sniper Sinon in a game of firearms, which unlikely main weapon does Kirito wield?

A photon sword lets Kirito cut incoming rounds out of the air, something no other player had ever thought to attempt.

Thrym, Jötunheimr and the World Tree in Sword Art Online's fairy game are borrowed from which mythology?

Norse myth shapes the fairy game so closely that failing the Thrym quest would let the frost giants invade and bring on Ragnarok.

Which American publisher began releasing the Sword Art Online light novels in English in 2014?

Yen Press announced the licence at a Japan Expo USA panel, and went on to publish the Progressive spin-off novels in English as well.

Which artist has illustrated the Sword Art Online light novels since the first printed volume in 2009?

abec began working with the author once the publisher agreed to print the story, and also illustrates the Progressive spin-off novels.

Which Japanese voice actress plays Asuna and also sings Yume Sekai, the first ending theme of Sword Art Online?

Haruka Tomatsu went on to sing two of the anime's opening themes as well, Courage in the second season and Resolution in the third.

Which singer performed both Innocence in Sword Art Online's first season and Ignite, the opening of the second?

Eir Aoi came back for the third season too, singing its first ending theme, Iris.

Which LiSA song is the theme of the 2017 Sword Art Online feature film?

Catch the Moment plays over a film whose original story the series' author wrote himself, set after the events of the second season.

Which Sword Art Online story arc, begun in volume 21, forces the heroes' accounts into one merged game world?

Unital Ring stitches together places from every world the heroes had visited, and it is the first arc the author wrote entirely new for the books.

Which guild of terminally ill players does Yuuki lead in the fairy game of Sword Art Online II?

The Sleeping Knights want to beat a floor boss by themselves so that all their names are etched on a monument as a lasting memory.

Which safer headset replaces the deadly original as the standard full-dive device in Sword Art Online?

The AmuSphere arrived after the original headset was recalled and destroyed, and its launch helped VR games surge back into fashion.

Which hidden base, raided by American mercenaries, houses RATH's Underworld project in Sword Art Online?

The Ocean Turtle is also where Kirito is secretly taken for treatment after he is attacked and left brain-damaged in the real world.

Which government official, known online as Chrysheight, recruits Kirito to investigate murders tied to a shooting game?

Seijirō Kikuoka poses as a ministry bureaucrat, but he is really a Self-Defense Force officer and the head of the secretive company Rath.

Which mercenary, Kirito's nemesis since his Sword Art Online days, lures foreign players into the Underworld war?

PoH, short for Prince of Hell, tricks American, Korean and Chinese gamers into attacking the Underworld's people and the Japanese players defending them.

Which American security contractor invades the Underworld as the god-emperor Vecta in Sword Art Online?

Gabriel Miller, an executive at a private military firm, is hired by the National Security Agency to seize a digital mind raised inside the Underworld.

Which sage hides in the Great Library after trying to overthrow the Administrator in Sword Art Online?

Cardinal is a copy of the program that once policed the first game, and she sacrifices herself to save Kirito and his friends.

Which legendary hero founded Rulid Village and became the very first Integrity Knight in Sword Art Online?

Bercouli later dies duelling the invaders' god-emperor, but takes that avatar down with him and gives a captured knight the chance to escape.

Which blade of Kirito's Underworld partner can trap an opponent in ice when its memory is fully released?

The Blue Rose Sword's owner uses that full release to freeze himself and a veteran knight together, ending their duel in a stalemate.

As which goddess of creation does Asuna log into the Underworld using a super account in Sword Art Online?

Stacia can reshape the land itself, and Asuna uses that power to open ravines that swallow a force of enemy knights.

In which tiny form does Yui accompany Kirito through the fairy game in Sword Art Online?

Yui becomes a winged pixie who navigates for Kirito as he looks for Asuna, and she gets very annoyed whenever other girls try to flirt with him.

Which raid leader, secretly a rival of Kirito, is killed by the first-floor boss in Sword Art Online?

Diavel rallied the frightened players with his speeches, yet he was scheming to land the last hit on the boss and claim its bonus for himself.

Which information broker in Sword Art Online is nicknamed the Rat for the whiskers worn on her face?

Argo earned the name as much for her sly tactics as for the whiskers, acting as a middleman in trades and swapping information with Kirito.

Which elven royal guard is a quest character who joins Kirito and Asuna's party in Sword Art Online Progressive?

Kizmel is a non-player character from the Elf War campaign, yet she fights beside the pair throughout it like a third party member.

Which school friend, created for the Progressive films, talks Asuna into playing Sword Art Online on launch day?

Mito is a top student who is secretly a hardcore gamer, and she later abandons Asuna during a monster ambush in order to save herself.

Which Sword Art Online Progressive film, the second in the series, pits a raid group against a fifth-floor golem boss?

Scherzo of Deep Night ends on New Year's Eve with an ambush that reveals a hidden group of players dedicated to killing others.

Whose time-delayed Christmas Eve message pulls Kirito out of despair after she dies in Sword Art Online?

Sachi was killed with most of her guild in a trapped room full of high-level monsters, and Kirito sank into self-loathing until her message arrived.

Which bodyguard assigned to Asuna by the Knights of the Blood Oath later tries to murder Kirito?

Kuradeel was a fugitive from a murder guild who had slipped into the order, and he turned on Kirito after losing a duel to him over Asuna.

Which seventy-fourth-floor boss in Sword Art Online makes Kirito and Asuna flee its room at first sight?

The Gleam Eyes killed the leader of another raiding party before Kirito's group stepped in, and beating it left Kirito so drained that he collapsed.

Which blade of Kirito's proves tough enough to break the strongest sword a blacksmith has ever forged?

Elucidator snapped the smith's proudest work in a simple test, and the pair then set out to find the ore for a new blade.

Which computer corporation, defunct by the 2017 film, employed Sword Art Online's creator and once ran the game?

Argus leaves behind an abandoned server room, and that is where a villain of the 2017 film is finally found and arrested.

Which tiny, pink-clad speedster is the heroine of the Sword Art Online Alternative spin-off?

Llenn's player has a complex about her height in real life, so she relishes the small avatar, whose pink outfit even works as camouflage.

Which Kino's Journey author wrote the Sword Art Online Alternative spin-off novels?

Keiichi Sigsawa suits a story about gunfights: his pen name is partly derived from the firearms manufacturer SIG Sauer.

Which animation company made the Sword Art Online Alternative spin-off that premiered in April 2018?

Studio 3Hz, founded in 2013 by former Kinema Citrus animators, made the spin-off and in 2024 handed its production business to the main anime's studio.

Which pen name did Sword Art Online's author use for the story before a publisher picked it up?

Fumio Kunori was the name he chose after the story overran the page limit of the contest it was written for and was never submitted.

Which PlayStation Vita title became the first Sword Art Online video game released outside Japan?

Hollow Fragment folds in the whole of an earlier handheld game and adds an unexplored region called the Hollow Area to roam.

Which American computing giant's Japanese arm co-developed the VR demo Sword Art Online: The Beginning?

IBM Japan built it with the publisher Kadokawa as a multiplayer virtual reality game, but it stayed a demo and was not released in full.

Which Sword Art Online special, aired on New Year's Eve 2013, recapped the anime and added some new footage?

Extra Edition closed with the news fans were waiting for: the anime was confirmed for a second season.