Document Text Contents
Page 180
Afterword
Thank you to everyone for reading the sixteenth volume of Sword Art Online, [Alicization
Exploding], published a year after the previous one.
Ever since the battle in the Central Cathedral ended, the story has finally extended from
the Human Empire to the entire Underworld… I’m very sorry for making everyone wait for
so long. In this volume, Asuna finally descends into the battlefield, and seems like some
familiar characters are joining the battle as well, so from now on, I hope I can recover the
normal pace until the end of Alicization arc. After being constantly protected since the last
volume, Kirito-shi may make a big comeback in the next one. I just can’t help feeling so!
The subtitle of [Exploding] was added to reference the various explosions and bursts that
occurred in this volume. Although the names were kind of short at first, like [Beginning]
and [Turning], they’ve been getting longer and longer recently4, so I want to shorten the
next volume’s name a bit. Below, I’ll be discussing the plot of this volume for a bit. The first
half of this volume is titled [War of the Underworld], and it gives a taste of a war chronicle
since various characters are all fighting in a mess. Because of that, I’ve shifted the writing
style from a limited third-person perspective to the so-called “omniscient third-person
perspective”. Please forgive me if you were confused by the endlessly appearing
information that should remain unknown to that part’s central character!
Although I want to describe the author’s situation, life has been pretty normal like last
time, so there aren’t any topics worth mentioning… I haven’t been playing any MMORPG
games properly these few years. I’d love to start something new yet I haven’t done that
since long ago, so I at least tried a western open-world RPG on the PS4, and wow, that was
awesome. The map’s too big, there’s too much freedom, so after wandering around for a
while I forgot what would happen during the main quests. I’m pretty sure that if I used an
HMD5 and motion controllers to play this kind of game, I wouldn’t be able to return to the
real world! I’m always dreaming that one day SAO will become like this kind of game, but
when I pleaded to producer Futami over at Namco Bandai Entertainment, “Please turn the
entire Underworld into something that you can adventure around in!”, I only got a
stupefied smile in return.
Lastly, some routine words of thanks. To abec-san, who gave the Stacia version of heroine
Asuna-san the most beautiful and cutest design possible (Sheyta, Renri, and the Goblin
Tribal Chiefs are great, too!), and to Miki-san, who as chief editor proofreads for me deep
into the night, thank you very much! See you next volume, everyone!
A certain day in June 2015
Kawahara Reki
References
1. VRMMO game mentioned in Volume 7 Chapter 7.↩
2. Roppongi, a district of Tokyo, is famous for its active night club scene.↩
3. Here, Klein speaks in a much less formal, relaxed tone. It is difficult to replicate in English, but here is an attempt.↩
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-16-alicization-exploding/#ref3
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-16-alicization-exploding/#ref2
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-16-alicization-exploding/#ref1
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-16-alicization-exploding/#fn5
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-16-alicization-exploding/#fn4
Afterword
Thank you to everyone for reading the sixteenth volume of Sword Art Online, [Alicization
Exploding], published a year after the previous one.
Ever since the battle in the Central Cathedral ended, the story has finally extended from
the Human Empire to the entire Underworld… I’m very sorry for making everyone wait for
so long. In this volume, Asuna finally descends into the battlefield, and seems like some
familiar characters are joining the battle as well, so from now on, I hope I can recover the
normal pace until the end of Alicization arc. After being constantly protected since the last
volume, Kirito-shi may make a big comeback in the next one. I just can’t help feeling so!
The subtitle of [Exploding] was added to reference the various explosions and bursts that
occurred in this volume. Although the names were kind of short at first, like [Beginning]
and [Turning], they’ve been getting longer and longer recently4, so I want to shorten the
next volume’s name a bit. Below, I’ll be discussing the plot of this volume for a bit. The first
half of this volume is titled [War of the Underworld], and it gives a taste of a war chronicle
since various characters are all fighting in a mess. Because of that, I’ve shifted the writing
style from a limited third-person perspective to the so-called “omniscient third-person
perspective”. Please forgive me if you were confused by the endlessly appearing
information that should remain unknown to that part’s central character!
Although I want to describe the author’s situation, life has been pretty normal like last
time, so there aren’t any topics worth mentioning… I haven’t been playing any MMORPG
games properly these few years. I’d love to start something new yet I haven’t done that
since long ago, so I at least tried a western open-world RPG on the PS4, and wow, that was
awesome. The map’s too big, there’s too much freedom, so after wandering around for a
while I forgot what would happen during the main quests. I’m pretty sure that if I used an
HMD5 and motion controllers to play this kind of game, I wouldn’t be able to return to the
real world! I’m always dreaming that one day SAO will become like this kind of game, but
when I pleaded to producer Futami over at Namco Bandai Entertainment, “Please turn the
entire Underworld into something that you can adventure around in!”, I only got a
stupefied smile in return.
Lastly, some routine words of thanks. To abec-san, who gave the Stacia version of heroine
Asuna-san the most beautiful and cutest design possible (Sheyta, Renri, and the Goblin
Tribal Chiefs are great, too!), and to Miki-san, who as chief editor proofreads for me deep
into the night, thank you very much! See you next volume, everyone!
A certain day in June 2015
Kawahara Reki
References
1. VRMMO game mentioned in Volume 7 Chapter 7.↩
2. Roppongi, a district of Tokyo, is famous for its active night club scene.↩
3. Here, Klein speaks in a much less formal, relaxed tone. It is difficult to replicate in English, but here is an attempt.↩
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-16-alicization-exploding/#ref3
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-16-alicization-exploding/#ref2
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-16-alicization-exploding/#ref1
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-16-alicization-exploding/#fn5
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword-art-online-volume-16-alicization-exploding/#fn4
