On launch day, ten thousand players log into Sword Art Online, the first full-dive virtual reality game. Then they find they can't log out. The game's creator appears in the sky to explain the rules: clear all 100 floors of the floating castle Aincrad and everyone goes home. Die in the game, and the headset kills you in real life. Kirito, a solo player who tested the game in beta, decides to survive, and the series follows him and the people he meets through one virtual world after another.
Reki Kawahara began SAO as a web novel and then published it as a light novel series from 2009, illustrated by abec. A-1 Pictures' anime, which began in 2012, became one of the most widely watched anime of its decade. Each arc takes place in a different game, with a different genre, cast and villain, so this guide is organised by world. Main characters who carry through several arcs are listed where they first appear.
- Creator
- Reki Kawahara (illustrated by abec)
- Format
- Light novels, Dengeki Bunko, 2009–present
- Anime
- A-1 Pictures, 2012–present
- Main arcs
- Aincrad, Fairy Dance, Phantom Bullet, Mother's Rosario, Alicization
- Spin-offs
- Progressive, Gun Gale Online (Alternative)
Aincrad: the death game
The first arc covers two years trapped inside SAO. Players form guilds, run shops, fall in love and die, and Kirito learns that playing alone isn't the same as being strong.
Kirito (Kazuto Kirigaya)
The Black Swordsman · Protagonist
Kirito is a quiet gamer who plays solo partly to protect himself and partly from guilt. As a former beta tester, he's resented by other players, and he accepts the insult "beater" to protect the other testers. He's given the unique skill Dual Blades for having the fastest reaction speed in the game. He's often criticised as overpowered, but his best moments are when the story treats him as a lonely kid who keeps getting people killed and can't forgive himself.
- Voice (JP / EN)
- Yoshitsugu Matsuoka / Bryce Papenbrook
Asuna Yuuki
The Flash · Vice-commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath
Asuna is a top-ranked rapier fighter and the second-in-command of the strongest guild in Aincrad. She starts the game convinced she'll die in it and throws herself into clearing floors. Kirito teaches her to slow down and live. They marry in the game and move to a cabin on the 22nd floor. She's damseled in the second arc, much to fans' frustration, but she gets her own arc in Mother's Rosario and becomes a central fighter again in Alicization.
- Voice (JP / EN)
- Haruka Tomatsu / Cherami Leigh
Yui
AI · Kirito and Asuna's adopted daughter
Yui is a counselling AI designed to look after players' mental health, who broke down when the system forbade her to help. Kirito and Asuna find her as a confused little girl and adopt her. In later arcs, she lives on as a navigation pixie, a hacker and the family's emotional anchor.
Klein
Leader of the Fuurinkazan guild
Klein is the first player Kirito befriends, on the very first day. He's a cheerful, girl-crazy katana user who stays loyal to his guildmates and to Kirito through every arc. He's the series' reminder of what an ordinary, decent player looks like.
- Voice (JP / EN)
- Hiroaki Hirata / Kirk Thornton
Agil
Merchant and axe-wielder
Agil is a big, kind trader who quietly spends his profits helping lower-level players. In the real world, he runs the Dicey Café, where the cast meets between games.
Lisbeth
Blacksmith
Lisbeth (Rika Shinozaki) forges Kirito's second sword, Dark Repulser, and falls for him in the process. She's outspoken and good-natured, and becomes Asuna's best friend outside the game.
Silica
Beast tamer
Silica (Keiko Ayano) is a young player whose small dragon, Pina, dies protecting her. Kirito helps her revive Pina, and she becomes part of the group's extended circle.
Sachi
Moonlit Black Cats guild
A frightened member of a small guild Kirito joined while hiding his level. Her guild's fate is the root of his guilt.
Argo
Information broker
"The Rat," a whiskered information dealer, more prominent in the Progressive retelling.
Akihiko Kayaba / Heathcliff
Creator of SAO · Commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath
Kayaba designed the game and the NerveGear headset, then turned them into a prison. He hides among the players as Heathcliff, the respected leader of the top guild, until Kirito unmasks him on the 75th floor. He isn't motivated by money or cruelty. He simply wanted to see a real fantasy world. That makes him unusual, and his influence runs through the whole series.
- Voice (JP)
- Kōichi Yamadera
PoH
Leader of Laughing Coffin
The charismatic leader of a player-killer guild. He escapes justice in Aincrad and returns as a major villain in Alicization.
Kuradeel
Knights of the Blood Oath · Player killer
Asuna's obsessive bodyguard, secretly a Laughing Coffin member who tries to murder Kirito.
ALfheim Online: Fairy Dance
When SAO ends, Asuna doesn't wake up. Kirito follows her trail into ALfheim Online, a game of flying fairy races, with help from a player he doesn't realise is his sister.
Leafa (Suguha Kirigaya)
Sylph warrior · Kirito's cousin and adoptive sister
Suguha was raised as Kazuto's sister and is a kendo champion who started playing ALO to understand the world that took him. As Leafa, she's an expert flyer who guides Kirito through ALfheim. Her feelings for him make this arc awkward, and the show doesn't quite know what to do with them, but her bravery and her friendship with the group are real.
- Voice (JP / EN)
- Ayana Taketatsu / Cassandra Lee Morris
Nobuyuki Sugou / Oberon
The Fairy King · Villain
Sugou works for Asuna's father's company and plans to marry her while she's comatose. In ALO, he imprisons around three hundred former SAO players to experiment on their minds. Unlike Kayaba, he's a straightforward, contemptible villain, and the show makes his defeat as satisfying as it can.
Recon
Sylph · Leafa's friend
A classmate of Suguha's who follows her into the game and uncovers a traitor plotting against the Sylph leaders.
Gun Gale Online: Phantom Bullet
A government agent asks Kirito to investigate Death Gun, a player in the post-apocalyptic shooter Gun Gale Online whose targets seem to die in real life.
Sinon (Shino Asada)
Sniper · Hecate II user
In real life, Shino is haunted by an incident in which she shot an armed robber as a child, and she can't even look at a gun without panicking. In GGO, she plays as Sinon, one of the best snipers in the game, hoping the virtual world will make her strong enough to face her trauma. Her arc with Kirito is about learning that strength means accepting help. She becomes a core member of the group afterwards.
- Voice (JP)
- Miyuki Sawashiro
Death Gun
Masked player killer
A cloaked figure who appears to kill players through the game. The truth involves former Laughing Coffin members working in both worlds at once.
Seijirou Kikuoka
Government official
A smiling bureaucrat in charge of virtual-world matters, who keeps hiring Kirito and never tells him the whole truth.
LLENN
Spin-off lead
The tiny, pink-clad heroine of the spin-off Gun Gale Online. She's a separate story with its own cast.
Calibur and Mother's Rosario
Back in the newer version of ALO, these two short arcs are a breather after the death games, and Mother's Rosario is one of the most loved stories in the series.
Yuuki Konno
The Absolute Sword · Leader of the Sleeping Knights
Yuuki is a cheerful swordswoman who beats every challenger in ALO, including Kirito. Asuna seeks her out and joins her guild, the Sleeping Knights, for one last adventure. Yuuki's story is the emotional high point of the series. She lives almost entirely in virtual reality because of a terminal illness, and her friendship with Asuna gives the arc its quiet power.
- Voice (JP)
- Aoi Yūki
Underworld: Alicization
Kirito wakes up in the Underworld, a fantasy world simulated at many times real-world speed and filled with artificial souls called Fluctlights. Its people aren't game characters but true AIs who live, age and die. The arc is SAO's longest and most ambitious.
Eugeo
Wielder of the Blue Rose Sword
Eugeo is a woodcutter from the village of Rulid who lost his childhood friend Alice to the Integrity Knights. He befriends Kirito, becomes his student at the swordsmanship academy, and travels with him to Central Cathedral to bring her back. He's gentle, loyal and quietly envious of Kirito, and his doubts make him an easy target for the Church. He's the heart of the Alicization arc's first half.
- Voice (JP)
- Nobunaga Shimazaki
Alice Zuberg / Alice Synthesis Thirty
Integrity Knight
As a child, Alice touched the forbidden Dark Territory and was taken away. Her memories were sealed and she was reborn as an Integrity Knight loyal to the Church. She's proud, strict and frightening in battle with the Osmanthus Blade. When she discovers what the Church did to her, she breaks with it. By the end, she's the AI the whole real-world conflict is fought over.
- Voice (JP)
- Ai Kayano
Administrator (Quinella)
Pontifex of the Axiom Church
Quinella has ruled the Underworld for centuries by gaining system-level control and modifying her own memory to stay alive. She creates the Integrity Knights by rewriting people's minds. She's coldly beautiful and almost all-powerful, and she sees the Underworld's people as possessions.
Cardinal
The Administrator's other half
A subprocess split off from Quinella long ago, who now hides in an endless library. She looks like a small girl and talks like an old scholar, and she's the one who explains how the Underworld works.
Bercouli Synthesis One
Commander of the Integrity Knights
The oldest and strongest Integrity Knight, a relaxed veteran who is a father figure to Alice and one of the best fighters in the arc.
Ronye and Tiese
Academy pages
Kirito's and Eugeo's devoted underclassmen at the academy, who stay loyal through the war.
Sortiliena Serlut
Kirito's senior at the academy
An elegant swordswoman who trains Kirito in the Underworld's sword styles.
Selka Zuberg
Alice's younger sister
A trainee sister of the Church in Rulid who tries to live up to Alice's memory.
Gabriel Miller
American mercenary · War of Underworld villain
A soulless mercenary who leads the raid on the facility running the Underworld and enters it as an emperor of the dark lands, hunting Alice.
Japanese voice cast
The Japanese cast has stayed the same since 2012. In English, Bryce Papenbrook voices Kirito and Cherami Leigh voices Asuna, with Cassandra Lee Morris as Leafa and Kirk Thornton as Klein.
| Character | Japanese voice |
|---|---|
| Kirito | Yoshitsugu Matsuoka |
| Asuna | Haruka Tomatsu |
| Leafa / Suguha | Ayana Taketatsu |
| Sinon / Shino | Miyuki Sawashiro |
| Yui | Kanae Itō |
| Klein | Hiroaki Hirata |
| Lisbeth | Ayahi Takagaki |
| Silica | Rina Hidaka |
| Akihiko Kayaba | Kōichi Yamadera |
| Yuuki Konno | Aoi Yūki |
| Eugeo | Nobunaga Shimazaki |
| Alice | Ai Kayano |
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka also plays Inosuke in Demon Slayer. You can find more crossover casting on our voice actors page.
Watch order
- Sword Art Online (2012) — Aincrad and Fairy Dance.
- Sword Art Online II (2014) — Phantom Bullet, Calibur and Mother's Rosario.
- Ordinal Scale (2017 film) — an original story set in an augmented-reality game, between II and Alicization.
- Alicization (2018–2019) and War of Underworld (2019–2020) — the Underworld arc.
- Progressive films — Aria of a Starless Night (2021) and Scherzo of Deep Night (2022), retelling Aincrad floor by floor from Asuna's point of view. They work as a prequel or as a fresh start.
What the characters are really about
SAO's big question is whether life in a virtual world is real. Each arc gives a different answer through its characters:
- Kirito and Asuna fall in love inside a game and refuse to call it fake.
- Sinon uses a game to face something real, and finds that it helps.
- Yuuki lives her whole remaining life online, and her friendships are as real as anyone's.
- Yui, Eugeo and Alice are AIs, and the series insists they're people, which raises uncomfortable questions about the humans experimenting on them.
Kirito's dark-coat, quiet-swordsman look became a template for countless later heroes, and SAO helped spark the isekai boom described in our anime genres guide. If you like the team-of-friends side of the series, Fairy Tail offers a similar mix of guild life and big fights. For a look at how characters like Kirito are ranked, see our power scaling explainer.
All Sword Art Online character names A–Z
A–B
- Administrator (Quinella) — Underworld
- Agil — Aincrad
- Akihiko Kayaba — Aincrad
- Alice Zuberg — Underworld
- Argo — Aincrad
- Asuna Yuuki — Main cast
- Bercouli — Underworld
C–G
- Cardinal — Underworld
- Death Gun — GGO
- Eugeo — Underworld
- Fanatio — Underworld
- Gabriel Miller — Underworld
H–L
- Heathcliff — Aincrad
- Kirito — Main cast
- Klein — Aincrad
- Kuradeel — Aincrad
- Leafa — ALfheim
- Lisbeth — Aincrad
- LLENN — GGO spin-off
N–R
- Nobuyuki Sugou — ALfheim
- Oberon — ALfheim
- Pina — Silica's dragon
- PoH — Laughing Coffin
- Recon — ALfheim
- Ronye Arabel — Underworld
S–T
- Sachi — Aincrad
- Seijirou Kikuoka — Real world
- Selka Zuberg — Underworld
- Silica — Aincrad
- Sinon — GGO
- Sortiliena Serlut — Underworld
- Tiese Schtrinen — Underworld
Y–Z
- Yui — AI
- Yuuki Konno — Sleeping Knights
Frequently asked questions
Who is the main character of Sword Art Online?
Kirito, the player name of Kazuto Kirigaya. He's a former beta tester who gets trapped in the death game Sword Art Online and goes on to become the hero of every later arc, from ALfheim Online to the Underworld.
Who does Kirito end up with?
Asuna Yuuki. They meet in the first arc, marry inside SAO, and stay together in the real world and every game that follows. Several other girls have feelings for Kirito, including Leafa, Sinon, Lisbeth and Silica, but the series never treats his relationship with Asuna as in doubt.
Who is the villain in Sword Art Online?
It changes with each arc. Akihiko Kayaba, the game's creator, who poses as the guild leader Heathcliff, is the villain of Aincrad. Nobuyuki Sugou rules ALfheim as Oberon. Death Gun haunts Gun Gale Online. In Alicization, the Administrator rules the Underworld, and Gabriel Miller and PoH lead the final war.
Who is Yui in SAO?
Yui is an artificial intelligence originally built to counsel players' mental health inside SAO. After the death game began, she was barred from helping anyone and began to break down. Kirito and Asuna find her as a lost-looking child and adopt her as their daughter, and Kirito saves her code before the game ends.
Is Sword Art Online an isekai?
Not in the strict sense, since the characters are playing a game and their bodies stay in the real world. But being trapped in a game world is so close to the isekai setup that SAO is often credited with popularising the modern wave of isekai anime. Our anime genres guide explains the difference.
Does Eugeo die in Sword Art Online?
Yes. Eugeo dies after the battle against the Administrator at the top of Central Cathedral, in the first half of Alicization. His death leaves Kirito catatonic for much of War of Underworld.