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A review by morganoffey
Sword Art Online – Aincrad – Light Novel 02 by Reki Kawahara, Reki Kawahara
3.0
I'm going to be entirely honest - I hate Sword Art Online. Aside from the amazing music, the anime has nothing going for it, and several things, from harems to OP characters, going against it.
Even the concept of Sword Art Online as an MMORPG is flawed, featuring broken mechanics and procedurally generated sword skills. (Think No Man's Sky, but instead of the planets being procedurally generated, it's your attack abilities.)
Mother's Basement has a full analysis of these complaints here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXCo-InnpU
So why is it that the Sword Art Online light novel left me with a smile on my face?
I think a lot of it has to do with Kawahara's afterword at the end of the novel. It contains an apology for making Kirito interact with mostly females and an explanation about these small side-stories. They are, in fact, just that. Short stories to show how players of lower skill levels saw this world they were trapped in.
My problem with all of these same stories being told in the anime was the way they were placed in the middle of Kirito's adventure as some big plot points with the girls he met along the way being his rewards. Kawahara's intentions, however, weren't to create a harem for Kirito, but rather showcase other lives that intersected with Kirito. In a way, this did serve to make the world more alive.
Sure, this novel's form and language are very childish, as is the overexplaining of simple emotions. But at the end of the day, this all just served to make it that much more endearing. Kirito is much more of a character here than he is on screen, and Kawahara even admitted to having written him as a sort of stand-in for himself, so that he could feel like a badass in an MMORPG for once. And honestly? Props to him for admitting this. We all write self-indulgent fanfiction where we put ourselves in ridiculous situations or pair our original characters with existing ones we happen to like. Kawahara's indulgent writing just happened to be liked by a ton of people.
Besides, as far as self-indulgence is concerned, this is not a bad novel. If you are a fan of anime and enjoyed Log Horizon light novels, I would even recommend picking up the SAO light novels if you're looking for a simple and heartwarming book that you can close with a chuckle and a feeling of "aww...".
Even the concept of Sword Art Online as an MMORPG is flawed, featuring broken mechanics and procedurally generated sword skills. (Think No Man's Sky, but instead of the planets being procedurally generated, it's your attack abilities.)
Mother's Basement has a full analysis of these complaints here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXCo-InnpU
So why is it that the Sword Art Online light novel left me with a smile on my face?
I think a lot of it has to do with Kawahara's afterword at the end of the novel. It contains an apology for making Kirito interact with mostly females and an explanation about these small side-stories. They are, in fact, just that. Short stories to show how players of lower skill levels saw this world they were trapped in.
My problem with all of these same stories being told in the anime was the way they were placed in the middle of Kirito's adventure as some big plot points with the girls he met along the way being his rewards. Kawahara's intentions, however, weren't to create a harem for Kirito, but rather showcase other lives that intersected with Kirito. In a way, this did serve to make the world more alive.
Sure, this novel's form and language are very childish, as is the overexplaining of simple emotions. But at the end of the day, this all just served to make it that much more endearing. Kirito is much more of a character here than he is on screen, and Kawahara even admitted to having written him as a sort of stand-in for himself, so that he could feel like a badass in an MMORPG for once. And honestly? Props to him for admitting this. We all write self-indulgent fanfiction where we put ourselves in ridiculous situations or pair our original characters with existing ones we happen to like. Kawahara's indulgent writing just happened to be liked by a ton of people.
Besides, as far as self-indulgence is concerned, this is not a bad novel. If you are a fan of anime and enjoyed Log Horizon light novels, I would even recommend picking up the SAO light novels if you're looking for a simple and heartwarming book that you can close with a chuckle and a feeling of "aww...".