Accel World

Plot

Haruyuki "Haru" Arita is a short, overweight boy who is frequently ridiculed by delinquents at the Umesato Junior High School. Using his Neuro Linker to escape the torment of real life, he logs onto the school's Local Network cyberspace where he always plays virtual squash alone, and his innate video game skills bring him to the attention of Kuroyukihime (literally meaning "Black Snow Princess"), the school's popular, highly intellectual and attractive female Student Council Vice-President.

After helping him against the delinquents, Kuroyukihime introduces Haruyuki to Brain Burst, a secret program that is able to accelerate the human cognitive process to the point at which time appears to stop. Haruyuki soon learns that Brain Burst is more than just a program, but an Augmented Reality Massively Multiplayer Online (ARMMO) Fighting Game where people fight each other in fierce duels in order to obtain Burst Points which can be spent for acceleration abilities in the real world.

Kuroyukihime then enlists Haruyuki's help in reaching Level 10 within Brain Burst by defeating the "Six Kings of Pure Colour" and ultimately meet the creator of Brain Burst to learn its true purpose. With every challenge they face in the Accelerated World, Haru and Kuroyukihime, under their aliases "Silver Crow" and "Black Lotus", gather trusted allies, confront treacherous enemies and their bond grows stronger while working to attain their ultimate objective: to reach the highest in-game level and meet the game's creator, who will reveal why the game was created and the true purpose of it.

Light novels

Accel World began as a light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by HiMA. Originally, Kawahara entered the first novel in the series into ASCII Media Works' 15th Dengeki Novel Prize in 2008 and the novel won the Grand Prize. The first novel was published by ASCII Media Works on February 10, 2009 under their Dengeki Bunko imprint. As of June 2016, 20 volumes have been published. At their Japan Expo USA panel, Yen Press announced the rights to publish the light novels in English. The first volume was released on July 22, 2014.

Manga

A manga adaptation titled Accel World illustrated by Hiroyuki Aigamo began serialization in the May 2010 issue of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko Magazine. The series has been collected in five tankōbon volumes, released between July 27, 2011, and February 27, 2014. A four-panel comic strip manga titled Axel World. (あくちぇる・わーるど。, Akucheru Wārudo) illustrated by Ryuryū Akari also began serialization in the May 2010 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine. Three tankōbon volumes were released between July 27, 2011, and October 26, 2013. In February 2014, Yen Press announced they had licensed Accel World for English release in North America. The first three volumes were released on September 23, 2014, December 16, 2014, and March 24, 2015 respectively.

Anime

An anime television series adaptation aired in Japan between April 7, 2012 and September 22, 2012. The opening theme until episode 13 is "Chase the world" by May'n and the ending theme is "→unfinished→" by Kotoko. From episode 14 onwards the opening theme is "Burst the Gravity" by Altima and the ending theme is "unite." by Sachika Misawa. Warner Home Video, ASCII Media Works, Namco Bandai Games, Sunrise and Genco were involved in the production of this adaptation. Viz Media announced the streaming of the anime on Hulu as of April 6, 2012. An English-dubbed version premiered on Viz Media's online streaming service, Neon Alley, on April 19, 2013. A anime film titled Accel World: Infinite Burst featuring an original story by Kawahara has been released on July 23, 2016.

Video games

Two video games based on the series were developed by Banpresto and published by Namco Bandai Games for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. The first of these, Accel World: Awakening of the Silver Wings (アクセル・ワールド ─銀翼の覚醒─, Akuseru Wārudo -Gin'yoku no Kakusei-), was released in Japan on September 13, 2012. The second one, Accel World: The Peak of Acceleration (アクセル・ワールド ─加速の頂点─, Akuseru Wārudo -Kasoku no Chōten-), was released in Japan on January 31, 2013. The limited edition versions of these games include an original video animation of the anime series (Blu-ray Disc for the PS3 version, DVD for the PSP version). In Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman for PSP, Silver Crow is an unlockable costume. In Sword Art Online: Lost Song, Black Lotus is an obtainable character and is also one of the opponents you can defeat.

An action role-playing game titled Accel World VS Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight was announced in October, 2016. The game is a crossover with Sword Art Online, developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita and slated to be released on 2017.

Reception

Anime News Network reviewed the series and gave a story rating of A+, stating a similar basis of Sword Art Online with improved characters. Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku praised the anime for its well-thought out story, relatable main character, and great villain protagonist, but criticizes the anime for its third arc. At the end, he says that the anime starts out strong, but ends on a weak note. Nifrigel declared great things about the anime in terms of soundtrack, characters, and story, but strongly criticized Reki Kawahara's lack of knowledge in the subject of virtual reality.