AFTERWORD

Hello, this is Reki Kawahara, and you’ve finished my first book of 2012, Sword Art Online 9: Alicization Beginning.

It was last August when Volume 8 came out, which means it’s been half a year now. There are a number of excuses that may or may not apply to the situation, but I still wish to apologize for making you wait so long. I’m sorry! I’ll do better next time!

…Well, I was planning on addressing the content of the book at this point, but where do I start…? I’d love to avoid spoilers for the sake of those readers who flip to the afterword ahead of time, but there’s no way to get into it without spoiling! So I’m going to draw a spoiler warning line here. Beyond this line is the Dark Territory, where cruelty and unfairness reign! Wait…I just spoiled something there…

SPOILER WARNING LINE

So, after Asuna was the protagonist for Volume 7, and Volume 8 was a collection of short stories, we finally get to the beginning of Kirito’s next journey in Volume 9. He’s been through SAO, ALO, and GGO, and now, for the first time, he is tackling a virtual world from Level 1. No New Game+ this time! Or so it seemed…until he pulled out his trusty sword skills. I hope you’ll forgive the familiar crutch…

I’ve been challenging myself as a writer to do unfamiliar things in this new Underworld setting. For example, it’s not a girl who Kirito first runs across…Er, disregard that. What I mean is, I tried eliminating most of the online terminology to tell a traditional fantasy story, and I paid more attention to the AI NPC characters than usual, in the hopes of expanding my VRMMO setting to its limits. I can worry about bringing it all together later. This is going to be my mindset as I forge ahead into future volumes!

And now, much belated, I wish to touch upon the topic of Sword Art Online’s TV anime series. I began writing SAO in late 2001 and started quietly publishing it on the web the following year, and now the day has come that it turns animated…If you had told me back then, I would never have believed it. “What, like a GIF animation?” So to abec, the illustrator who helped this miracle come to life; to Mr. Miki, the editor who three years ago suggested, “Let’s put this out, too!”; to the sub-editor Mr. Tsuchiya, whose HP bar was in the red due to the tightrope schedule; and to the many readers who have continued to support this series and its author: Thank you so much. The original novels will continue as always, of course!

Reki Kawahara—December 2011