SAO does both, and goes much, much further than that. See, most anime series already give the entire category an awful reputation by including sexualized gags about breasts or having a woman unnecessarily strip down to her bare necessities. Unfortunately, SAO became caught up in a brutal and systematic misogyny that, I argue, stops viewers from enjoying the show. Not only do they fight epic digital battles together (for where is the romance without the sacrifice of life?) and eat digital sandwiches, they also buy a digital log cabin by a digital lake, catch digital fish, adopt a digital child called Yui (actually an AI program in the game gone rogue), and start a digital family. As he gains notoriety as a “beater” of SAO, he falls hopelessly in love with Yuuki Asuna, the vice-leader of a powerful guild called the Knights of the Blood. The unlikely hero of this digital tragedy is a boy from the suburbs of Tokyo called Kirigaya Kazuto, who, in the game, is called Kirito. Cool, right? (This was also the very first anime that I ever watched, and loved.) While their minds are trapped in the digital nightmare, their bodies lie rotting in a hospital bed, kept alive by the Japanese government with IV drips. The only way for the 10,000 players to escape the game is to beat its 100 levels. If someone in the real world removes or disconnects their VR headset, they will also die. If they die in the game, the VR headset will fry their brain. A mysterious video game developer, Kayaba Akihiko, decides to trap 10,000 players of a virtual reality game, called Sword Art Online. SAO is based on a fascinating science fiction premise. I no longer feel comfortable with Sword Art Online’s very existence.
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