Review: #769
Title: Sword Art Online 10: Alicization Running
Series: Sword Art Online - 10th volume
Author: Reki Kawahara
Comments: This volume starts out with a huge amount of exposition and setting up the background events of the virtual world called Underworld that Kirito is currently in. It’s not boring but it does feel like a huge amount of side story that takes time away from the main event of Kirito and how he is going on with his quest. One of the neat things is that we learn the meaning of the world “Alicization”, the other is that you see the seed of concepts from the author’s other series, Accel World, creeping into here (of which they share the same world but Sword Art Online happens decades earlier). Nevertheless, once it gets back to Kirito’s viewpoint, you might be surprised to find that a lot of time has passed and Kirito and Eugeo are steps closer to their goal, although still very far away. The author has created an immersive world and continues to expand upon it here, but striking further and further away from what you would expect of a traditional piece of VR software. The volume builds up to a climax with Kirito facing off with an opponent and while you know he has the capacity to win, you are not sure whether he will. This is because Kirito has the nasty habit of holding back even though he’s clearly overpowered. The ending was a bit rushed despite all the build up and the repeated mentioning that the event is important. Once you’ve finished the volume, you also know that there will be another time skip. All in all, this was an interesting volume and continues to set up an interesting story.
Rating: 7/10