Hi, there! You will never believe this: today’s manga review is NOT a yaoi one! I repeat, this is not a gay manga review!
I know, it is so exciting, right?!
Eh, no, not really, as I really didn’t like today’s title. I’m talking about Sword Art Online – Fairy Dance, from Reki Kawahara and Tsubasa Haduki.
Goodreads’ Blurb
Kazuto Kirigaya (aka Kirito) has survived the death game of Aincrad masterminded by Akihiko Kayaba, programmer of Sword Art Online, and made it back to the real world. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Asuna Yuuki (aka Asuna the Flash), the girl Kirito fell in love with in the game world and who has yet to awaken from her seemingly endless slumber. As his sister, Suguha, sadly looks on, Kazuto continues to visit Asuna in the hospital in the hope of finding answers… But one day, the answers suddenly find him in the form of a man who claims to be Asuna’s fiancé?! With him, the man brings an in-game screenshot of someone who looks a lot like Asuna being held captive! Now Kirito must dive into an all-new VRMMORPG, ALfheim Online, to bring Asuna home!
The Analysis
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
I felt like I was the only person in the world that didn’t know what Sword Art Online (SAO) was, as I blindly bought this volume and read to only later find out how famous this series is. And honestly? I don’t understand why. I had my fair share of manga titles in my life (just take a look at my goodreads list) and I don’t see anything new, exciting or even worth reading on this series. Don’t get me wrong, the art is pleasant and the story will keep you busy until the end of the volume, but that’s it. Nothing memorable, so much fan service (when the characters show a lot their bodies, specially the female ones, and the title is packed with clichés), and a kind of stupid plot. Sorry, but this title wasn’t for me, I’ve seen too much to be impressed. However, it did kept me interested until the end of volume one, so two stars. And I won’t be finishing this series.
I don’t believe on bad mouthing a book or manga (or anything at all) just because I don’t like it, as all of us have a distinct opinion, so I’ll keep my review short and sweet 🙂
The narrative pace is fast, as this series is like a season two for the original SAO series. This doesn’t impact on the reader’s understanding of happenings, which is good. This was my first attempt at reading SAO and worked out almost just fine. We have shared points of view during the volume, shared by Kirito, Asuna and Suguha.
The plot is simple and with a mysterious air, as we don’t know exactly how Asuna’s fiancé plans on conquer the world. Just as many titles before it, SAO is a partial dystopian title, as the world that we know has reached such a level of technology that the online games immerse their players on the virtual world with the help of a helmet and their brains believe that all of they are living inside the game is real. It is nice, but not new. The majority of the series goes on the game SAO’s world (the game names the manga series) and the scenarios are cool, just like the designs of the characters.
I was bored to my bones to see that every character, without exceptions, was a typically archetype of shoujo (a.k.a. sugaed romance) mangas. There is the hero, the heroin, a girl to form the amorous triangle, the guy that always helps the hero, cheesy dialogues, and a soul deep love that no one understands why it is there. Add all that to sword fights and over power characters, plus a damsel in distress. Yeah. Nice.
As I said, the art was pleasant, but also didn’t hold my attention. One thing that did bothered me was the size of Suguha’s boobs, as she is twelve – from what I have gathered. Honestly, teen girls on this age have not those boobs. I wonder if this becomes a hentai (a.k.a. pornographic) title, as the traces are on that style. Or maybe I’m too much of a bore, haha!
Overall, if you like semi-dystopian and adventure mangas, or shoujos, I think you should give SAO a try. Maybe it is your type 😀
Thank you for reading! Tomorrow’s review shall come back to my default style of reading, if you get my drift. Yaoi.
*ps: I do not own the illustration, it was found on Google, belong to Tsubasa Haduki-sensei and were used with illustrative purposes only 🙂
The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange 