‘Sword Art Online’ Season 2 And 3: Kawahara Reki Talks SAO, ‘Accel World,’ Anime, And Future Plans

The Sword Art Online Season 3 release date is on everyone’s minds since the Sword Art Online Season 2 English dub is now being broadcast in North America. Although it seems likely we have a while yet to wait, Accel World and SAO series creator Kawahara Reki has been discussing what it is like to work on the popular anime.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, when Japan’s prime minister visited the United States one of the things President Obama did was officially thank Japan for anime, and we have a video to prove it.

If you are interested in knowing the latest news about the plot for Sword Art Online Season 3, we’ve created an article explaining what Project Alicization means for SAO Season 3. While Sword Art Online Season 2 was set mostly in Gun Gale Online (GGO), the Sword Art Online: Underworld story arc may even extend all the way up to Sword Art Online Season 4 and 5 when it comes to the anime version since the story is so long.

Creating all of these anime episodes will be years in the making, and when Kawahara Reki was asked in the past about his future plans he revealed that he really enjoys reading Stephen King and may even try his hand at writing horror.

“After I finish the two series, Accel World and Sword Art Online, after these are complete I may want to try something other than sci-fi,” Reki explained. “After I signed with ASCII Media Work’s Dengeki Bunko imprint, I couldn’t read other writer’s work because after I’d read a novel I could visualize the writer. It’s not a light novel, but I really admire Stephen King. I may want to try a horror story.”

Although Reki writes a lot about technology, hacking, and many diverse future tech, the SAO creator admits that he only knows programming a little himself and has been known to take a crack at basic HTML.

When it comes to making the Sword Art Online anime, Reki says he is involved in script meetings that occur every week in addition to attending recording sessions. He does this to ensure that the story and scenarios are done correctly, and also so voice actors correctly pronounce the special terminology he has invented for his stories.

The SAO creator admits that working on multiple projects at the same time can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming, especially since he was asked to expand on his short stories in order to create the anime version.

“I work on both series at the same time, but also interchangeably,” he said. “Sometimes, I have a hard time changing my mind from SAO to Accel World, Accel World to SAO, and vice versa. At the same time, after the animation started, there were a lot of requests like interviews or requests for short story writings. It made it even more complicated. I had to change my mind so quickly, it wasn’t easy.”

After Reki realized the two male characters, Agil and Klein, had become popular in America, he decided he wanted to write more short stories about these characters. In fact, Reki enjoyed creating Klein so much that he hopes to devote more space to the character in the future.

Of course, SAO’s female characters, especially Asuna and Sinon, tend to be the most popular, and he has been asked whether or not they are based upon anyone he knows in real life.

“There are no existing people that I wrote them on based in the real world,” Kawahar said. “I don’t usually make a character, setting, or anything before I start writing. As I write the story, the girls become what they are now. So, somehow, I don’t know exactly, but somehow, my subliminal idea or some hidden emotion creates the characters to be strong and capable.”

Kawahara Reki also revealed that he enjoys playing as a demon hunter in Diablo III, never mind MMOs like World Of Warcraft and Final Fantasy. He also enjoys Call of Duty and Halo, which explains Gun Gale Online to a certain extent. When fans ask him about Kirito using a sword in a gun-based game, he reminds everyone that the energy sword in Halo can be the most powerful weapon if used properly.

The author also says he wrote Accel World and Sword Art Online to prove that online gaming is not the cause of social ills or merely just an escape from real life bullying.

“If I think about it, I may have thought that because online gaming was the target of society,” he said, according to Anime News Network. “Like juveniles using it to escape, by not attending school or staying home and not going anywhere. Those are big issues and sometimes online games were targeted as the cause, by society. So I thought, ‘That’s not true.’ I might have thought to show it in a more positive light in my light novels.”

According to Retorno Anime, many fans have asked if Accel World and Sword Art Online will eventually converge into a single story. While Reki has already written a one-time scenario where Kirito and Haruyuki Arita meet and fight, in general this prospect is fairly difficult to work out story-wise since SAO takes place in the year 2022 while Accel World is set in 2046.

Although this interview was published before Sword Art Season 2 was even finished for the United States, the creator says he has been very impressed with his American fans since they seem to love SAO and Accel World way more than even he expected. The novels have also been published in English and he thanked fans who flooded the SAO Season 2 premiere.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the Sword Art Online Season 3 release date, both Kawahara Reki and the anime producers have remained silent, so we’ll just have to be patient. In the mean time, check out these other video interviews with the SAO creator: