SAO is mainstream baby!
SAO's anime Japanese Twittter account reported that the 22nd April release by Yen Press of the first of Reki Kawahara's original light
novels broke into Barnes & Noble's (book seller) SCI-FI and Fantasy
daily genre rankings. SAO managed to secure 4th place trailing behind The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness who secured 1st place and Skin Game by Jim Butcher who came in 3rd. It also managed to defeat The Hobbit (in 5th place) and Ender's Game (in 6th place). Now that is something! Apparently, the folks at Dengeki Bunko were surprised since they weren't aware that North America had a light novel culture.
For those of you who still don't know, Sword Art Online is a series (I just watch the series, reading is a bit meh for me) focusing on a new total immersion game called Sword Art Online, a fantasy MMORPG. After the first ten thousand players log in to play they game, they discover that they cannot log out, effectively trapping them within the game. They are presented with a challenge: complete the game by defeating the final boss on the 100th floor, and earn the right to log out.
However, should their avatar's HP ever be reduced to zero, then the helmet
used to play the game will unleash a pulse of microwave radiation that
will fry their brain, killing them in the real world. What's more, the same thing will happen if anyone in the real world attempts to remove them from the game by force.
SAO is like no 'trapped inside a game' story plot ever used before. it's mature, surreal and the danger and emotions are very much present throughout the series. You can check out my review of it here.
No comments:
Post a Comment