Sword Art Online poster

Sword Art Online (2012)

Series · 24m episodes · Rated TV-MA · In Japanese

Action, Adventure, Animation, Anime, Fantasy, Foreign (non-English), Sci-Fi

Players trapped in a virtual world fight for their lives in an epic, relentless, and suspenseful adventure.

A full-attention watch at full speed. Emotionally it is heavy.

Streaming on Hulu and Crunchyroll.

Sword Art Online parents guide

Moderate sex and nudity, and strong violence, about what a TV-MA should carry.

Scare
Mildly scary
A few tense or eerie moments.
Jump scares
A couple
One or two sudden jolts.
Gore
Light gore
Some blood or injury, briefly.
Violence
Strong violence
Violence is frequent or intense.
Sex and nudity
Moderate
Moderate means a sex scene or nudity on screen, even brief, or sexual violence that is described or implied but never shown.
Language
Mild
Mild words like damn, hell or crap.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is Sword Art Online scary?
Only a little. Sword Art Online has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
How gory is Sword Art Online?
Light gore and strong violence.
What is Sword Art Online rated, and is it OK for kids?
No. It is rated TV-MA, with moderate sex and nudity, and strong violence.

What is Sword Art Online about?

In the near future, a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online has been released where players control their avatars with their bodies using a piece of technology called Nerve Gear. One day, players discover they cannot log out, as the game creator is holding them captive unless they reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if they die in the game, they die in real life. Their struggle for survival starts now...

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

It leaves things open rather than tying them up.

Cast and crew

StarringYoshitsugu Matsuoka, Haruka Tomatsu, Hiroaki Hirata, Ai Kayano, Rina Hidaka, Hiroki Yasumoto

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Sword Art Online is on our Video games, Hulu, Sci-fi on Hulu, Action on Hulu and Animation on Hulu lists.

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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.