Sword Art Online is a series similar to .hack, and yet, I would argue better, or at least more focused. Based on light novels of the same name, it follows players of online games, starting with the eponymous Sword Art Online, focusing particularly on one player named Kirito. Kirito was a beta tester who got ahead of the other players at official release because he had advance practice. Like .hack, the games of this series involve special gear that allow players to enter the games with all senses as if they were literally inside the game. Just as Tsukasa of .hack/SIGN ended up stuck in the game and in a coma in the real world, all players find themselves trapped in Sword Art Online. The first day everyone starts playing and then finds out they cannot log out. The Game Master explains the only way out is to win the game or die trying, and if anyone is forcefully removed from the game, their gear will automatically fry their brains. Many people die before they figure out this is legit and the players have to figure out how to escape on their own and the game becomes painfully real. Kirito makes many friends, especially Asuna and Yui who become his family. Asuna is a girl about the same age as Kirito who has become a guild leader and is known for specializing with a rapier. Yui appears to be a young player but is ultimately revealed to be an artificial intelligence that was supposed to monitor the players but went rogue and became attached to Kirito and Asuna who adopted her and treated her as their daughter. Kirito and Asuna continue to lead the march on completing the game, until it all ends early. During one mission, a guild attempt to clear a high level dungeon, Kirito notices that while most members of the guild are near death, the leader remains in good health. Kirito figures out that this player is in fact the game master who has integrated himself into the game just to observe players, but now that Kirito has outed him they settle it all in one final duel. Kirito actually wins and the game ends freeing most of the surviving players. However, 300 are still in comas including Asuna.
Kirito then finds out about a new game called Alfheim Online and one of his old friends from SAO tells him that someone thought they found Asuna inside the game, showing a screenshot that appears to be her. Kirito goes in the game and manages to reboot Yui as a navigation fairy who is very happy to see her daddy and sad to find out mommy is in trouble, and agrees to help find her. Yui leads Kirito to the central tower that leads up to Aincrad, the castle from SAO that now lies broken in the sky and tells him Asuna is at the top. Along the way, Kirito is guided through the game by his new friend Leafa, who turns out to actually be his sister who is playing the game in the next room at their house. Again, Kirito proves that through sheer will and determination and a little help from his friends and a little luck and hacking skill, he is able to find Asuna again the prisoner of a video game programmer, and free her, following a duel with the programmer.
The anime originally ended with Kirito and Asuna finally being free of the games, but the novels continued the story and now it has returned to anime with Sword Art Online II. The new game is titled Gun Gale Online and is quite simply a first person shooter like Call of Duty, etc. The big deal is that apparently someone has figured out how to kill from within the game, as in when a character is killed in the game, the player dies in the real world. Kirito has been content to pursue an education that will lead to a career in video games while spending his free time dating Asuna, hanging out with his friends and his sister and playing Alfheim so they can spend time with Yui. However, when he is contacted by the government to investigate GGO, he switches games and meets a girl named Sinon to be his guide in this game. Whereas everyone else relies on guns, Kirito uses a sword, because he has the skills to use it. This amazes and frustrates everyone around him, including Sinon. In the real world, Sinon is a school girl the same age as Kirito who once actually used a gun and killed someone when she was caught in the middle of a bank robbery. Her victim was actually the robber who threatened her mother, so it was righteous, but she was still traumatized and playing virtual sniper seems to be the only way to calm her nerves. Kirito can relate even though he doesn't know yet because he had to kill some people in SAO. Worst of all, he crossed paths with the killer and recognized a symbol from SAO, this player killer may be a player killer from another game, and this player may know Kirito as well.
How will this play out? Find out on SAO2 on Toonami!
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