Series · 2012
Sword Art Online
ソードアート・オンライン
Kirito enters a virtual-reality online game whose players discover that they cannot log out. Clearing the game is their route to escape, and dying inside it means dying outside it. The fantasy setting therefore becomes a place where ordinary play decisions carry physical consequences.
The game’s creator announces the trap on its first day of service, after players have already committed to full immersion. Kirito has to accept a new rule for something he thought he understood. The opening makes knowledge of games useful while removing the safety that normally lets a player experiment freely.
A month into the trap, players have not cleared even Aincrad’s first floor. A meeting to organise the boss fight brings Kirito into a party despite his habit of attempting the labyrinth alone. Knowledge from the beta test matters, but surviving the shared situation also asks him to work with another person.
Main anime route · Approx. 38 hours · 96 episodes
Main television route through Alicization: War of Underworld: 25 + 24 + 24 + 23 = 96 story episodes. Excludes SAO II recap 14.5, which makes some boxed listings read 25 for that season. Extra Edition, Ordinal Scale, Progressive films and Gun Gale Online are separate. The 24-minute multiplier is nominal and does not individually add extended openings.