Sword Art Online: Box Set I Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Sword Art Online: Box Set I Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 8, 2013

MMORPG may sound like a mutant beast from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but of course the basement media room dwellers among you know that it actually stands for Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game, a genre of entertainment which has been at the center of various Sword Art Online enterprises, from the original light novel series through to this anime. And in fact, this anime actually exploits what is called a VRMMORPG, not some glowing eyed orb of evil, but in fact a Virtual Reality Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game. It’s the year 2022 and a new high tech gizmo called the NerveGear has been developed, something that makes current “connect” technology look positively quaint by comparison. Kirito, the series’ hero, is a fan of Sword Art Online (SAO), and immerses himself (literally) in the game’s virtual reality, only to discover getting out is a lot harder than getting in.

Virtual reality may sound like a throwback to the "Dark Ages" of Tron and at least a couple of other similarly themed anime ( .hack//Quantum OVA), but Sword Art Online handles this familiar fare with an interesting enough approach, positing a "cast of thousands" who are stuck inside a game and who must literally fight their way through scores of levels in order to make it out alive. While this gives the subtext of the series a kind of gruesome underpinning, Sword Art Online actually cheats, at least a bit, by turning its focus instead to perhaps more palatable interrelationships between various players, notably Kirito and Asuna, a young woman who's also playing the game. While the opening couple of episodes tend to spend a bit too much time setting up what is already a pretty obvious and easy to understand premise, things take a definite upswing a few episodes in, when the virtual reality levels become more daunting.

Sword Art Online: Box Set I Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sword Art Online is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Aniplex with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a just slightly soft looking enterprise, especially for an anime of such recent vintage, but this high definition presentation does benefit from beautifully saturated colors and generally very crisp line detail.

Sword Art Online: Box Set I Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Perhaps surprisingly, the otherwise decent sounding (in terms of actual voice work) English dub is presented in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0. That may mean that most audiophiles will want to opt for the uncompressed LPCM 2.0 Japanese track, which offers excellent fidelity and really wide dynamic range. The audio score above reflects an average of the two audio options put together.

Sword Art Online: Box Set I Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

On Disc Supplements

• Commentary by Creators and Japanese Cast


• Special Animation Sword Art Online


• Original Web Preview


• Trailer


• 1st Season Textless Opening

Non-Disc Supplements

• Original Soundtrack CD 1


• 16 page Deluxe Illustration Booklet


• Set of Pin-Up Illustration Postcards


• Exclusive Bushiroad's Collectible Card #1


• Rigid Box Illustrated by abec (Original Character Design)


• Clear BD Cases with 2 Sided Japanese Cover Design

Sword Art Online: Box Set I Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is another really handsomely packaged set from Aniplex that may or may not justify its hefty price tag (depending on each individual's pocketbook and love for the actual series), but which at least has a bevy of swag along with an above average show. Parts of Sword Art Online don't quite work, but overall this is a fairly interesting and exciting series which offers both character interest and some fun action sequences, all within a compelling, if derivative, narrative. Recommended.