Sword Art Online: First Look

     No, this is not a game. While perusing this anime season's line-up, I found that I really didn't want to watch any of them. This is not necessarily a bad thing: I have a backlog of anime a mile long that I still have yet to get to. But one show did stick out. Sword Art Online is a new anime that recently premiered in Japan, in which thousands of people play an advanced online game. Because I am a gamer, I decided to check it out.

That sword on the left looks pretty awesome... DO WANT.

     First off, the story is that of a young boy who gets sucked into an online game, much like World of Warcraft. He had played the BETA, then bought one of ten thousand copies of the full game when it was released. The game uses a machine known as a "Nervegear", a helmet that connects to the brain via microwaves and pulls the person into the game. I'd say it's a lot like the Matrix.

Yeah, just stick your head in there... Perfectly safe.

     The players are dropped into the world of Aincrad, a wonderful world with multiple levels. Our Main-character-kun, Kirito, meets another player, Klien, who is a noob looking for someone to show him the ropes. Having played the BETA, he's somewhat of an expert. By that I mean, he knows how the game works and how to swing a sword. They find a boar on the edge of town and use it for fighting practice. Kirito explains that the game is based around learning sword skills, and that there's no magic.

Because that doesn't look like magic at all...

      Kirito and Klien run around slaughtering boars for a while then Klien's stomach rumbles. Although they are in a virtual world, people still got to eat. He goes to log off... but the "log out" button is missing. They play it off that it's a bug, until Kirito starts really thinking about it. Suddenly, the both of them are transported to a town square.

In this picture: MAJOR LAG.

     An announcer 'goops' out of the sky and appears before them. He tells them that (like the Matrix), they'll die in real life if they die in the game. If someone tries to remove their Nervegear their brains will be fried. In order to win the game and survive, they have to climb through all 100 levels and beat each level's boss along the way. He tells them good luck, then vanishes.

PWNZORD by a pig. Houston, we've hit rock bottom...

     The visuals are absolutely stunning. The world elements look a little other-wordly, but that's the point. The art is fantastic. Although we haven't really seen much of the world, I have a feeling that it will be just as interesting as the things we've already seen.

Not bad...

     The gaming culture aspect is spot on. It's the first day so everyone is wearing variations of the same, low-level armor. There are hordes of noobs looking for handouts. There are low-level enemies just outside the city they first spawned in. At one point the announcer gives everyone a magic mirror, which changes their avatar's appearance into their actual appearance. Then we see men playing as women, old men playing as young men, and so on and so forth.

And you ain't no woman!

      If the ending gives a little preview of how the series is going to be, I'm excited. I've never really played WoW or any other MMOs, but I know the culture. I'm a geek after all. If I had the time and money to play them, I probably would. Anyhoo, this anime looks rather promising.

Cool guys, and girls, don't look at explosions...

     The end says that over 2,000 people have already died in one month. ONE MONTH. I can only assume that they've found all the players and hooked them up to I.V.s or something, because after a few days your body would die of starvation. Yeah, I'm never going into the matrix...

That's 1/5th the population of the game... Yikes.