The saga of Sword Art Online began with a series of novels written by Reki Kawahara between 2002 and 2008. Almost two decades later, the franchise has grown to include light novels, anime television series, and movies for both television and theaters. The video game section of the Sword Art Online franchise has 16 titles. It’s a lot of media for one franchise, even in the anime category.
Even fans of the series might be overwhelmed as they try and keep up with new material, so new fans have a lot of catching up to do. The series is easy to find on a variety of streaming services, but there’s an ideal order to watch them. Keeping an eye on the Story Arcs, which are numbered, is one part of the guideline.
The series’ aesthetic is intended to be surreal, so the setting and characters might seem fantastical or even inconsistent even if viewed in the recommended SAO watch order. The anime doesn’t dramatically deviate from the manga or light novels, and reading the literature isn’t mandatory to understand any of the anime. This order also doesn’t include spinoffs, which are optional for viewers more interested in the expanded lore.
Updated July 25, 2022 by Kristy Ambrose: The world of Sword Art Online continues to expand, which includes more additions to the SAO movies and shows along with other sections of the popular franchise.
Each series ends, like all the others before it, with ample dropped story threads and a promise that the main character will be back even though every series hypes a permanent conclusion. That means there will likely be another series coming soon, and even more to add to this list with release dates set for later this year.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Sword Art Online (2012)
This series neatly explains everything in the very first episode, including the development of the new “virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game” or VRMMORPG, its flagship title being the new Sword Art Online. The plot follows the main character Kirito, a dedicated gamer who was also active in the beta-test version, as he and the other players become trapped within the game world. He seeks to beat the game and free himself along with all of the other players.
The series takes place in two virtual worlds. Story Arc 1: Aincrad takes the audience to the floating castle Aincrad of SAO, and the second to the world of ALfheim Online where all of the characters can fly, hence the title Story Arc 2: Fairy Dance. The movie Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night, which was released in 2021, is a retelling of these two arcs from Asuna’s point of view, focusing on her first experiences as a gamer trapped on Aincrad’s First Floor.
The original Sword Art Online anime series has a wide appeal to those who like fantasy, romance, or gaming-related anime. It’s also a great story and is beautifully rendered with some of the best combinations of CGI and hand-drawn animation that existed at the time. The series consists of 25 episodes, which is a single season.
Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria Of A Starless Night (2021)
Although this movie is a more recent addition to the already extensive anime library of the SAO universe, the story takes place during the same time as the first season that was released in 2012. This time, however, the story is told from Asuna’s point of view instead of Kirito’s.
For those who have seen the first series, many of the tentpole events are still the same. That includes the moment when the head developer Kayaba refuses to let the players leave and insists that they fight for their lives and the famous fight scene when Asuna first meets the solitary Kirito. The plotline follows her rise from a nervous level one player to “a floor clearing badass” by the time they meet again.
Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo Of A Dark Dusk (September 2022)
This latest installment in the SOA movie series hasn’t been released yet, but the event is imminent and the hype is real. The next movie in the Progressive arc continues, making this one in the Sword Art online chronology. It also features Asuna and her first experiences while leveling in Aincrad, putting it earlier in the SAO watch order.
The story recalls the second meeting of Kirito and Aincrad, this time when Asuna is geared to the max and one of the leaders of the server’s biggest and most powerful guild. Viewers might recall the storyline from the original series about the journey to the final boss and how the guilds rallied together as one, even accepting the help of an outsider, loner, and “beater” Kirito to defeat it. This concludes that plotline but from Asuna’s POV.
Sword Art Online Extra Edition (2013)
For those that would rather take a shortcut to the second anime series, there’s the option of watching Sword Art Online Extra Edition first instead and skipping the original anime entirely through part of the entire SAO watch order. On the other hand, those who are familiar with the first series can skip this movie and not miss anything.
It’s a synopsis of the previous anime season condensed into about an hour and a half, plus there’s some new footage added in, so it’s not a total bore for viewers who have already seen the original season. The film is intended more as promotional material for the upcoming Sword Art Online II than a conventional movie that’s intended to stand on its own.
Sword Art Online II (2014)
Sword Art Online II is a direct sequel to the first series, bringing viewers to Story Arc 3: Phantom Bullet. It begins with the two main characters, now returned to their real-life selves, doing their best to live normal lives. However, the hero, who now uses his real name of Kazuto, has gained some notoriety as some sort of expert when it comes to issues with VRMMORPGs. So when yet another new game, this time a first-person shooter (FPS) called Gun Gale Online, starts to have some unique problems, the authorities ask Kazuto to investigate the game on their behalf.
The issue with Gun Gale Online is that the in-game weapons are actually injuring and even killing players. The first season is constantly referenced to the point where the viewer can’t help but smell some fanservice, but it’s an exciting story all the same. It’s almost the same length as its predecessor, consisting of 24 episodes.
Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale (2017)
The appeal of the SOA franchise is partly due to the clever twist that seems to form the basis for each subsequent plotline. The new game this time is combat-based and called Ordinal Scale, which is one of many games using a new VR technology called The Augma. This is an alternative to the previous FullDive technology and is the real focus of the plot. When Aincrad bosses start to appear in Ordinal Scale, our heroes create new avatars to investigate. Much of the story is tied to the first series again, but it makes more sense in the wider scope of the plot this time.
Unlike the previous movie, which was a summary of the first season with some new footage, Ordinal Scale is a movie intended as a direct sequel to Sword Art Online II. However, it isn’t assigned a story arc like the anime series are, so it’s hard to know where to put it when deciding about the best Sword Art Online viewing order other than somewhere after the original but before the Alicization arc.
The movie ends with a moment that everyone was waiting for even though it was coming, and it feels like it could be a satisfying end to the anime series. There’s plenty more to come, however, although after this point the story takes on a more unconventional style.
Sword Art Online: Alicization (2018-2019)
The third official installment of the Sword Art Online series is labeled Story Arc 4: Alicization. This arc seems extensive because it’s broken into so many parts, but it’s still only as long as a regular season with 24 episodes. This season is the first three parts of a total of seven.
The first episode features a child Kirito growing up in what seems like a fantasy world, which may or may not be a game. Many of the popular characters from the previous seasons and movies are absent and seem to never have existed. Eventually, it’s revealed that it’s a dream, and the audience returns to the “real” world where Kazuto is back with his usual friends playing Gun Gale Online. The same day, he’s attacked, poisoned, and ends up in a coma, where he returns to his strange dream and lives as Kirito again.
There are two interesting parallel storylines in Alicization. One is the adventure Kirito has in his dream, and the other is the drama of his friends in real life, led by Asuna, trying to help him as he lies in the hospital. Asuna is not only the person that discovers his location but also finds out about the new Underworld technology, and Kazuto’s brain is one of the test subjects.
Sword Art Online: Alicization – War Of The Underworld (2019-2020)
The first part of the series about the new MMORPG known as Underworld consists of 25 episodes which are divided into four parts. Kirito is comatose for much of it but haunted by disturbing dreams. He regains consciousness in Part 7 in time to join his friends as they learn the true secret of the child that Kirito thought was his avatar’s younger sister, Alice.
In yet another compelling twist, the character that lent their name to the series is the key to everything. It turns out Alice is the world’s first true AI, and despite the attempts to find and capture her, she manages to escape with Kirito’s help.
Sword Art Online: Alicization – War Of Underworld Part 2 (2020)
The battle of Underworld continues with Alice traveling to the World’s End Altar and the rest of our heroes trying to save the world’s first and so far only type of artificial intelligence. Players from the outside crowd into the servers and threaten to destroy the world entirely, and all hope seems to fade as our heroes try to stop them.
Chronologically, this is the last series in the franchise, and part of the marketing was that this was the conclusion to not only the Alicization arc but the whole anime franchise. However, that doesn’t rule out OVAs, SAO movies, or video games.
