By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

I think I have come to the conclusion that Reki Kawahara, much like Ryohgo Narita, has too many balls in the air. The last time a Progressive volume came out here was in 2022. It is now 2026. That is bad, mostly as I can remember literally nothing about the last book other than “Kirito is a vampire now”. And I have bad news for you, 10 isn’t out in Japan, as he’s also writing the main series and Accel World, as well as supervising all those Alternative spinoffs, only some of which have been licensed over here. As such, it sure would be a shame if this volume got off to a slow start and really dragged through the first half, as I’m already a bit grumpy that it’s been so long and I have to try to tell dark elves alike that I haven’t seen in a while. Heck, even the plot regresses back to the fourth floor. That said, as with many books, the second half really picks up, and has some surprises.

Kirito and Asuna, having met up with Kizmel again, are trying to get back the keys stolen by the fallen elves. This ends up, as I noted, taking them back to the fourth floor, where they have a happy reunion with their boat, as well as with the dark elf they broke out of prison with. He wants to have a chat with the leader of the Dark Elves, and asks the three of them to get him out of the castle so they can talk. This requires Kirito using his new vampire powers (which, by the way, means this entire volume happens at night) to tame a Kelpie so they can ride it without the castle guards realizing their viscount has flown the coop. When they finally engineer the meeting, it ends up leading to a duel, but more importantly, backstory that’s actually interesting.

Not gonna lie, I worried I would have nothing to talk about when I reviewed this through the first hundred pages or so. Then Yofilis reveals his tragic backstory and my jaw dropped. Not just because it once again shows off how well coded these “AI” NPCs are (and I mean, almost everything Kawahara has ever written has involved AI becoming human in some way), or even how Kirito and Asuna picking the dark elf rather than the forest elf may have messed up the plot to the point where the frontliners are all in danger of being killed, but mostly because said tragic backstory revolves around Yofilis being gay, and how that messes with the way this game treats elves and aging. Essentially Elves age as they gain roles, such as “parent, grandparent, knight captain”, though obviously I’m simplifying. And the fallen elves specifically aren’t aging after “falling”. So we get an odd dovetailing of how a gay character might be coded in a fantasy like this one, as well as the fallout of same, which involves a literal metaphor for sinning and falling from grace. It’s… interesting.

And Kirito and Asuna are adorable and everyone except them agrees they’re a couple and should just kiss already. Rest assured, it still has that. Next time we resolve another cliffhanger, though a more happy one this time. Will it be another four years? Maybe.

By Keiichi Sigsawa and Kouhaku Kuroboshi, based on the series created by Reki Kawahara. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

After fourteen volumes, it has not escaped my attention that the volumes of GGO that I enjoy the most are the ones that do not have the words “Squad Jam” in the title. Possibly it’s because of their one-off nature, possibly it’s due to them being a change of pace, and possibly it’s because the Squad Jams all tend to combine a VRMMO game with the most annoying aspects of reality TV where we’re all watching waiting to see when they figure out who the traitor is. So this volume was always going to be starting off well for me. It finished well, too – this may be my favorite volume of the series to date. There’s some really cool game battles, lots of ludicrous things happen to Llenn, everyone’s reasonably funny, and there’s even a surprise or two. This may be Keiichi Sigsawa’s vanity project, but since we’re never getting his main project (thanks, Tokyopop), I’m cool with seeing him work his chops here.

After the events of the last Squad Jam, our core cast are celebrating in a virtual karaoke room when they get a request from David, the leader of MMTM. Vivi, the leader of the machine gun squad XEMAL, has issued a challenge, and if David wins he’ll get to meet her in real life. The challenge doesn’t say that he can’t invite others, so of course he’s turned to our girls, who are reasonably happy to help him with his live life – after all, this is just a game, so if they lose badly, it doesn’t mean anything. Miyu, aka Fukaziroh, is especially excited for this – she’s lost time and again to Vivi in ALO, and thinks she has a good guess as to who she is in real life. That said, first they have to clear Vivi’s challenge… which ends up being nearly impossible. Fortunately, they have a Llenn.

I’ve always been a fan of Fukaziroh as comedy relief, and we get a lot of that here, but this is a really fantastic volume for her in general. She gets to do clever and explosive things during the challenge, and her guess as to Vivi’s identity is… well, it’s wrong, but it’s only wrong by a very little bit. (There is also the joke that she and one of the machine gun players share a name, and will get married in the future, which makes me wonder if Sigsawa has been sitting on that for ages or if he just realized he used the same last name twice and decided to make it into a joke). As for Vivi, not spoiling too much, but this not only makes for a satisfying reveal, but also ties back into the main series. It can sometimes be hard to remember this takes place in the world of Kirito and company, and that VRMMOs can be used for reasons other than just having fun and shooting each other.

There’s no new volume in Japan yet, and if the author wanted he could probably end it here, but I suspect we’ll get another Squad Jam at some point. In the meantime, this is pretty much the series hitting on all cylinders.

By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

And here we are, almost two years later. I’ve talked before about how I think the author is trying to do too much with this arc, where they have a perfectly good plotline with Unital Ring (it’s in the title!), but they also can’t resist going back to Underworld for more battles that could actually kill people rather than just log them out. But it’s not just the main series, it’s everything. Right now Reki Kawahara has going on, at the same time, Sword Art Online (last JP volume June 2024), Sword Art Online Progressive (last JP volume March 2025, almost four years after the last one), Accel World (new volume due out next month, but has only had four since 2020), Demons’ Crest (last JP volume November 2024), and The Isolator… wait, did I only imagine The Isolator? Does it really exist? it’s been so long… anyway, my point is, if he tries to juggle any more series I may have to start calling him Ryohgo Narita. As for this volume? It’s good, but needs focus. Surprise!

We pick up with the cliffhanger from the last volume, and it does not go well. Kirito is simply too overstretched, and Eolyne is kidnapped. Meanwhile, the villains are doing their damnedest to destroy Central Cathedral, with only Alice and Fanatio there to try to stop them. In order to fix things… and this sounds sillier than it actually is… Asuna will need to convince her father to drive her to Rath in the dead of night to log in and help them. Meanwhile, in Unital Ring, everyone’s still trying to figure out how to go to the next level without abandoning their beloved cabin. And Kirito, now back from Underworld, has to fight in a mock duel, because everyone still sees him as their leader. As for who’s behind everything in Underworld and Unital Ring… could it be the same person?

I’ve said this before, but a lot of the time in SAO the most interesting parts are what’s happening in the real world. I loved Asuna’s talk with her dad, who has very good reasons not to want her to keep diving into potentially lethal VR all the time, but also understands that she’s pretty much an adult now and she has to rescue those she loves. Then there’s the whole scene with her and Argo/Tomo at the cafe near her old school, which also brings back bittersweet memories, but allows her to reunite with another face from the past. It’s a reminder that not everyone who was in SAO was allowed to go off to the school designed for survivors, and some simply were told to resume their normal life only with FAR MORE PARENTAL CONTROL. Which, again, understandable, especially given the difference between Kawahara’s idealized AI of this world and our current AI woes. And it also allows him to tie things in to his movies as well. Because of course. And hey, Kizmel gets mentioned once!

If you have to read all things SAO to keep up, this is a quick, easy read, even if I did have to google some names to remind myself. As for what’s next? Probably Progressive sometime next year, but for the franchise, we’re back to GGO in the fall, so Swords Down, Guns Up.