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Sword Art Online is a Japanese light novel series, first written as a web novel series, by Kawahara Reki and illustrated by abec. The light novels began publication on ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint from April 10, 2009. The series has also spawned several light novel spin-offs, multiple manga adaptations, an anime adaptation and multiple game adaptations.

A spin-off series, titled Sword Art Online: Progressive, was launched in October 2012. The series expands the story of the Aincrad Arc by focusing on the adventures of Kirito and Asuna throughout each floor of Aincrad.

Another spin-off series, titled Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, written by Sigsawa Keiichi, illustrated by Kuroboshi Kouhaku and supervised by Kawahara Reki began publication in December 2014. The series focuses on an original cast of characters and their adventures in Gun Gale Online.

The original novel series and the Progressive series have been licensed for an English release by Yen Press in North America and Eastern Asian languages release by numerous local publishers. The original novel series was also licensed in France by Ofelbe Éditions, in Germany by Tokyopop, in Poland by Kotori and in Italy by J-Pop.

History
The first volume of the series was first written in 2002 as a competition entry for ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Game Novel Prize (now Dengeki Novel Prize), but the author refrained from submitting it as he had exceeded the page limit and did not want to shrink the size of the story. The unsubmitted work was instead published as a web novel under the author’s pseudonym, Kunori Fumio. The author continued writing new arcs and stories for his series until he finished writing the 4th main arc, Alicization in 2008. After Kawahara Reki’s second series, Accel World, was successfully entered in another Dengeki competition and won the grand prize, Kawahara Reki was requested to get his previous series, Sword Art Online, published by ASCII Media Works as well.

Trivia

 * Numerous changes occurred when the original web novel was adapted into paperback format. The changes can be read from Adaption Note section in articles for every novel volume and side story.

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Sword Art Online Light-Novel