Sword Art Online: The Tyranny of Plot
When you're the only secondary character who's male and have no choice but to be yaoi bait. Returning to the topic of Sword Art Online ! A couple months ago, I watched the last two seasons of the anime adaptation for the first time since they adapted an arc from the novels that I only read half-way through. I ended up totally hating it, but couldn't put a finger on it. This is my attempt to figure out why. When you take the original novel as a standalone work—that is, as it was first composed—it’s clearly not very interested in “plot”. Although there is an overarching story as the game is cleared and, more centrally, as the romance develops (culminates?) between Asuna and Kirito, the work is far more fascinated by the characters, their sensations of virtual reality, and their implications for experiencing them as life. Kawahara weighs sword fights equally with cooking, fishing, marriage, murder, and even sex. 1 The plot, both of clearing the game and of the romance betwee