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Trivia / Sword Art Online

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  • Acting for Two:
  • Approval of God: Reki Kawahara gave the live-action adaptation of Sword Art Online his approval when Skydance announced it.
  • Ascended Fanon:
    • A popular Fan Nickname for Kirito's GGO avatar was "Kiriko", which later gets officially used by the franchise.
      • In Sword Art Offline GGO Kirito refers to himself by that name when introducing himself.
      • In Fatal Bullet, Kirito's canon GGO avatar is actually an alternate account to the main one he uses in the game. This account's actual name is Kiriko.
    • For a long time, fans theorized that the superuser account associated with Lunaria, the Moon Goddess, was intended for Yuuki. In Last Recollection, Yuuki receives her own original Goddess superuser account in the form of Gladia, the Sword Goddess.
  • Banned in China: The second season (which covers the events of Phantom Bullet and Mother's Rosario) was immediately banned in China, mainly due to its heavier focus on guns. Ironically, they didn't ban Alicization despite being Bloodier and Gorier, the negative portrayal of Chinese and Korean players, and having Ai Kayano around (since China is still sour over the Yasukuni shrine controversy, which Kayano is involved with).
  • Cash-Cow Franchise: One of the biggest ones in The New '10s.
    • Starting from 2009, there has been at least two novels every year, with there sometimes being four.
    • The anime has been ongoing since 2012 and has spanned for three seasons, totaling more than 100 episodes so far, along with a feature film Interquel and a Reboot film that tells the story from the very beginning with a sequel already announced.
    • There's also an ongoing manga series that adapts the light novels.
    • There have been six console video games that are released annually, along with three free-to-play mobile games with in-app purchases.
    • Also, a spin-off series based on Gun Gale Online by a different author that has also had an anime adaptation.
    • Then there's the countless merchandise for the series.
    • There's even a live action series in the works that is to air on Netflix.
  • Celebrity Voice Actor:
    • Tetsuhiro Shigemura is voiced by the Takeshi Kaga.
    • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Asuna is voiced by the model Alejandra Delint.
  • Creator Backlash:
    • Kawahara himself had a problem with the sexual assault scene in Alicization, thinking that it was demeaning, gratuitous and poorly done (granted he was much younger than he is now when he wrote it). He would even go on twitter to apologize to the voice actresses for making them go through it and promised to put these kinds of scenes on the freezer for now.
    • Cassandra Lee Morris thought Alicization arc didn't do Leafa justice.
  • The Danza:
    • Aoi Yūki voicing a character named Yuuki.
    • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Alicia Barragan voice Alice Zuberg.
  • Defictionalization: In what might be the most disturbing case of this ever... Palmer Luckey, the founder of VR gaming company Oculus, announced on November 6, 2022 (the date of the SAO Incident in-story) that he had created a VR headset that kills the wearer when they get a game over using explosive charges that fire directly into the wearer's brain. Whether it really works, though, is still in question as Luckey said he has not "worked up the balls to actually use it [himself]" and nobody else has come forward to perform an active demonstration.
    The good news is that we are halfway to making a true NerveGear. The bad news is that so far, I have only figured out the half that kills you. The perfect-VR half of the equation is still many years out.
  • Development Hell:
    • The Latin American Spanish dub of the TV series was done in 2017, but it wasn't broadcasted there (or at least, first in Mexico) until April 2019 due to problems with the broadcaster Televisa and the Japanese licensor Aniplex, which is very notorious being very difficult to deal with, especially with non-English voice actors and studios from countries when dubbing is not mandatory by law.note 
    • The European Spanish dub also entered this phase in the Alicization arc. Selecta Visión, the company that has the publishing rights for the series in Spain (having published thus far up to the Mother's Rosario arc and the movie Ordinal Scale), announced they would follow suit with this arc in late 2020, but after a 2 year radio silence, they announced in August 2022 the process had been "put on hold indefinitely", both for Alicization and the Progressive movie series.
    • The live-action adaptation of Sword Art Online was first announced to be done by Skydance Television in 2016. In February 2018, it was reported that Skydance had abandoned the project and sold the adaptation rights to Netflix. There has been nothing but radio silence ever since.
  • Dueling Dubs: When Funimation announced that SAO would finally get a Latin American Spanish dub in their streaming service, everyone thought that a brand new one would be made just like it happened with Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and other shows that end in various streaming services but can't get their original dub due to licensing issues with the owner of the dub rights. Instead, the dub done by Televisa, which was broadcasted only once in Mexico, and was a casualty of a whole web of problems between companies involved regarding the rights, was used.
    • Particularly notable as well because the second season of the anime was also dubbed by Televisa, but because the series was taken off air after the first season was done, the dub of the second season was considered lost forever by fans and even by the voice actors themselves. However, Funimation surprised everyone by using the lost dub of SAO II as well, making it the first time in history this Latin American Spanish dub was heard by audiences.
  • Easter Egg:
    • S2E14. Kirito's bike has the number plate "ã‚¢09-30". Now, which girl in the story has her name start with an A, and is born on the 30th of September? Answer 
    • Pale Rider's physical appearance is modeled after Silver Crow, another work by Reki Kawahara.
    • In Hollow Realization, the stuffed animal Seven is holding during her pillow talk scenes is a Ragout Rabbit.
  • Edited for Syndication:
    • The broadcast version of episode 18 that aired on Toonami has Suguha's Furo Scene edited out.
    • American airings of Episode 24 has the more graphical aspects of Sugou's Attempted Rape of Asuna being edited out, including Sugou's Lecherous Licking nowhere to be seen.
    • The Crunchyroll, Funimation and Hulu airings of the anime's third season's 10th episode was heavily censored to obscure the sexuality of said episode.
  • Fandom Life Cycle: Currently at Stage 4 and verging close to Stage 5, as the franchise has reached the point where nearly everyone who hasn't been living under a rock has at least heard about it. Although it has the anomaly that the hater voices are the ones that drown out the fans, instead of the other way around, despite the fact that the numbers show they are still a Vocal Minority.
  • Flip-Flop of God: There is a little bit of this regarding whether Kirito and Sachi had romantic feelings for each other or not.
  • Life Imitates Art: Shortly after the final episode of the anime's second season aired, in which the players of ALO gathered to pay tribute to a dying player, a similar event happened in Final Fantasy XIV. Of course, this isn't the first time this has happened as this sort of thing has happened in many MMOs in the past.
    • A good argument can be made that this trope is one of the major factors in this franchise's enduring popularity.
      • While the original story for SAO began writing in 2001, the anime adaptation began in Summer 2012, after MMORPGs had become destigmatized and a normal form of entertainment, and it was still airing when the Oculus Rift Kickstarter was going, sparking off huge interest in virtual reality gaming.
      • Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale came out in early 2017, shortly after the Pokémon GO craze re-ignited public interest in augmented reality interfaces.
  • Meaningful Release Date: The Alicization arc premiered on the 7th of October, Kirito's birthday.
    • The 100th floor of Integral Factor was released on November 6th, 2022. This is the same as the in- universe release date of Sword Art Online.
  • No Dub for You:
    • Nearly happened with the Latin American Spanish dub as it wasn't even considered an option until after the first movie, Ordinal Scale, was dubbed in 2017. Aniplex tried to exploit the Le Film Artistique loophole to bring the film sub-only to Mexico, but a dub for the film was eventually made as a possible starting point for the franchise in Latin America. However, the dub was first made for the network Televisa and another independent company to deal with Aniplex's strict rules for dubbing, preventing the finished version from being aired until all parties were in agreement on how the show would be presented on TV until 2019, two full years after the completion of the dub. Of course, there was never a real plan for the series to continue so once the first airing was done, the series was taken off air and the dub version was locked in a vault. Things got worse when, due to the folding of the other company involved and Televisa holding part of the rights, the dub wasn't being licensed to any streaming service or TV station outside Mexico. However, after more years of being in limbo, Funimation managed to do the impossible and got the rights of the original dubs of both Ordinal Scale and the first two seasons of the anime note , putting an end to this whole drama that involved years of speculation and dumb decisions.
    • An interview with a Brazilian voice actor also implies that a Portuguese dub for the TV series also exists. However, the interview wasn't very clear and he described the TV series inaccurately. It later turned out he was really talking about another anime series (which also had "Sword" in its title) that he dubbed in that language.
  • No Export for You:
    • Most of the major manga adaptations have been fully published in English, while the Project Alicization manga was licensed on July 1, 2020, almost 4 years after it started in Japan. However, there is one significant gap: the Ordinal Scale adaptation. Even the English scanlation team that finished translating OS in October 2020 is perplexed as to why the franchise's English licensor is avoiding this title, since its publication is already complete in Japan.
    • Unlike AGGO, Sword Art Online Alternative: Clover's Regret has not been picked up for a license despite being short and complete with only 3 volumes and featuring the VRMMO Asuka Empire from the side story Sisters' Prayer. And only the first volume has a Fan Translation.
      • This one was finally averted in February 2024 when Yen Press announced its license of this series, with the first volume to be released in August 2024.
    • However, the biggest victims of this trope are the many, many side stories for the series. The biggest examples are all the "Material Edition" shorts, and the short stories that were only available at certain anime events in Japan, were only published in select magazines, or were only available in the Japanese Blu-ray disc limited edition box cases. The worst offenders were the Hopeful Chant and Cordial Chords side stories which serve as, respectively, a prequel and sequel to Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale and detail what happened to Yuuna and Eiji both before and after the film. Aside from the sheer number of short stories, there is also the problem that many of these were fan translated by multiple people since 2012 and are scattered all over the Internet. Fortunately, one site has managed to compile almost all of it in one convenient index sorted by which story arc they take place in.
  • The Other Darrin:
    • David W. Collins took over as Kayaba from Marc Diraison in his flashback scenes in the Alicization dub and later, the first Progressive movie. ADR director Alex von David explained that Marc was "crazy busy" these days and gave them his blessing to recast.
    • Greg Chun took over as Gabriel Miller in the dub for War of Underworld from Ted Sroka, who voiced his earlier appearances in Alicization's first half. Sroka explained that they wanted the character to sound more mature and that his voice can only go so low before it loses believability.
    • Cassandra Lee Morris first voiced Argo before the role went to Kimberley Anne Campbell, presumably due to now voicing the much more prominent Leafa.
  • Pigeonholed Voice Actor:
  • Playing Against Type:
  • Reality Subtext: Cherami Leigh was coping with the death of a family member while recording the dub for the Mother's Rosario arc, giving the performance an unexpected aura of gravitas for her. She eventually revealed at SAO's 10th anniversary panel at Anime Expo 2022 it was her great aunt who had passed away just weeks before recording the final episode of the arc.
  • Referenced by...:
  • Remade for the Export: Black Swordsman ACE is a Chinese-exclusive remake of Sword Art Online: Integral Factor with bigger open world and changes to gameplay elements.
  • Schedule Slip:
    • The Yen Press releases of the main story light novels' English translations held to a pretty consistent four-month gap since they started publishing in June 2014, with an occasional one week delay. But starting in 2019, the release schedule slipped to a five-month gap for Volumes 16 and 17note . However, Yen Press made up for this with only having a three-month gap in releases for Volumes 18 and 19, before returning to the usual four-month gap release schedule in 2020.
    • Progressive doesn't have a set release schedule since its publication in Japan is unpredictable, but Volume 6's English translation was delayed twice: it was originally set to come out on May 21st, 2019, then was bumped back to June 18th, then bumped back again to July 9th.
    • Girls' Ops Volume 5 took almost a year and a half to come out in English after it had been published in Japanese. Prior to this, the longest gap between the English & Japanese releases had been only 10 months. Some readers were nervous that Yen Press had dropped Girls' Ops, especially since Volume 4 ended a major story arc and the spinoff as a whole doesn't really have an overarching plot.
    • The English dub of the 6th episode of Alicization was originally meant to premiere on Toonami on March 16, 2019. It did, except for the program froze six minutes into broadcast. When it came back from commercials, the problem was still there so they instead went to the next show on the lineup which they restarted at the beginning of the next hour. It eventually aired in its entirety the next week.
    • The second half of the War of Underworld anime was initially slated for a Spring 2020 airing. Due to production complications because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was delayed to Summer 2020.
    • Massive behind the scenes scheduling and production problems led to Sword Art Online: Progressive - Scherzo of Deep Night to delay its Japanese theatrical release from September 10 to October 22, 2022.
  • Series Hiatus: The Phantom Bullet manga adaptation was put on hold in September 2016 about roughly 60% of the way into the storyline. Its artist appeared to have abandoned it in favor of doing the Alicization manga adaptation instead. It finally came out with a new chapter in December 2020... on a quarterly basis, as the next chapter was then scheduled for April 2021. When the chapter after that was released in July 2021 (most likely because the Alicization manga had been cancelled a month earlier), it then returned to monthly releases. The story finally published its final chapter in December 2021, over 7 and a half years after it started.
    • The longest time it took for Reki Kawahara to finish up a story arc was... 9 years. "Cradle of the Moon" was the last bit of web novel writing Kawahara did in 2008 before he became an officially published author in April 2009. It was left in an unfinished state to languish on his website as he began to focus on his published writing as well as assisting in the production of the anime adaptations for Sword Art Online and Accel World. He eventually returned to the story, edited and expanded the story (though annoyingly, it still does not have a proper ending), and got it published as the 2-volume "Moon Cradle" arc in 2017. Some long-time fans of his have noted that this was around the time when his editor at Dengeki Bunko was asking for more SAO content beyond "Alicization's" ending (which was the original end to the web novels in July 2008), and wonder if Kawahara was using "Moon Cradle" to stall for time before he eventually thought up the "Unital Ring" story arc.
  • Star-Making Role:
    • Kirito was what made Yoshitsugu Matsuoka a household name and had him typecast in as Harem Genre leads, he'd split this with both Godou in Campione! and Shunsuke in fellow A-1 Pictures anime Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter (all three series debuting at the same time in 2012).
    • The role of Asuna was this for Cherami Leigh as an L.A-based voice actress (she previously was already established with her roles at the Texas-based FUNimation, such as Patty Thompson, Shana, and Lucy Heartfilia).
    • The same goes for Asuna and Kirito's voice actors in the Latin American Spanish dub, Alejandra Delint and Luis Leonardo Suarez, respectively. Delint particularly credits SAO as the work that launched both her career as a dubbing actress and the one that gave her enough credit inside the industry to be considered for important roles despite being a newcomer at the time.
    • Lizzie Freeman mentions that the role of Cardinal is her first role ever in an anime series.
  • Technology Marches On: One instance of this in the Alicization anime: in Episode 17, the JMSDF destroyer protecting the Ocean Turtle is identified as an Asahi-class vessel, which was the newest and most advanced surface vessel in the JMSDF at the time of the episode's airing. This was a change from the light novel, which called it a fictional "Nagato-class" destroyer. The change was made at the author's own request since the JMSDF had successfully developed a sufficiently powerful indigenous vessel by the time of the anime adaptation.
  • Trolling Creator: Accel World VS Sword Art Online being a crossover with Accel World teases numerous fan theories that have popped up in regards to the continuity of the two series, by having the characters addressing these theories but never confirming anything. These include the identical names for the "Sword Skills" that Kirito and Black Lotus know, and if certain characters are related or not (whether Kirito and Graphite Edge are the same person, whether Silica is Yuniko's mother).
  • What Could Have Been:
    • According to Danielle McRae, she originally was going to voice Yulier, but that role was given to Amanda C. Miller instead.
    • It's revealed for the Alicization anime, Kawahara almost considered changing Eugeo's fate and having him be Spared by the Adaptation. According to his afterword in novel 14, he even considered making this change between web novel and published version, but somehow couldn't do it — "it was as if Eugeo himself was denying any change to his fate".
    • On the end of novel 17, Reki contemplated changing the second half of Alicization entirely from the web novel version, mainly to avoid Unfortunate Implications due to its subject matternote , but he ultimately chose to leave it in.
    • Back when the series was still just a web novel, Kawahara and a few fans from his website's forum did their own illustrations for the characters. The design aesthetics are far more reminiscent of anime from the 1990s.
    • Before Volume 18 was published, Kawahara considered removing the line where Lizbeth and Silica admit to each other that they both like Kirito (because confirming their unrequited love felt cruel), and thought about it again when the scene in question came up in the anime in 2020, but ultimately decided not to do so both times.
  • Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Apparently the real reason why the Canon of the Golden Rule manga adaptation was cancelled. The author, Mugetsu, tried to be tactful about it when he posted on his Twitter that "the fans were not enjoying the manga" but according to the fan translation group Dreadful Decoding, the reality was that Mugetsu was getting bombarded with hate mail and harassing messages on Twitter until he just couldn't take it anymore. This also lines up with the author's claim that the cancellation decision was his alone and that it wasn't the publisher's actions that caused it to happen.
  • Word of God: According to his live commentary for SAO II episode 6, Reki Kawahara actually traveled to Guam and fired a real anti-materiel rifle to get an idea of how it would feel for Sinon to fire such a weapon. It was later revealed at Anime Expo 2018's SAO panel that the trip to Guam was Keiichi Sigsawa's idea, and he, Kawahara, and quite a bit of the production crew as well went along to get first-hand experience with firearms.

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