Raist’s Collection Part 2: Sword Art Online

Hi all: yes I am still alive, although that seems to be the usual thing I keep saying whenever I pop up here. I could go into a very lengthy post where I try to explain everything that’s been going wrong with me the past few weeks, but honestly I’m getting sick of doing that. Suffice it to say, my health is once again very bad, and a lot of other (not very positive) stuff is going on as well. That said, today I just wanted to publish something to make you all smile (well hopefully at least) and honestly give myself a bit of a positive boost too. It’s the second part of my new feature I introduced last year and which was written in August last year, but that I never published (up till now that is). I‘m sorry for not having been around visiting your blogs, and doing my usual comments but at the moment I can’t really change much on that department. With all that out of the way I hope you enjoy this post and this glimpse into another part of my collection. So: on with the post:

Wow…finally, I thought that guy would never shut up! 

Welcome everyone, to part 2 of Raist’s Collection, a feature where I am putting the spotlight on something from my personal collection. If you missed the first part where I talked about my Star Wars comic collection, you can still check that one out by pressing here. Today though we depart from the galaxy far, far away to the something entirely different. As most of you know I love anime, and while I am certainly no expert (far from it even) over the years, because of blogging I have seen quite a few anime shows. While I own a lot of them on dvd, there is no anime series that I am actually collecting stuff from. All except for one that is. It doesn’t take rocket science to know that of course I am talking about Sword Art Online (What you didn’t see those big bold capital letters in the beginning of this post?). So what is about this particular anime that made me into a fan, when there are so many (better) shows out there. It’s a very good question, and one that I honestly don’t even have a complete answer to. Well that’s great Raist, so why are we even here then huh? Erm….yeah, let’s just move on huh. As not all of you are familiar with anime, or if you are and haven’t yet seen this one, let me first dive into the story, before I get to the good stuff and show you some of the items in my collection.

Sigh, really does that guy have to be in the picture?

Sword Art Online: The story

Sword Art Online takes place in the year 2022, where virtual reality has progressed far beyond what we know now, and this is especially true for online gaming. The public is getting ready for the release of a new massive multiplayer online fantasy roleplaying game called Sword Art Online. Using a very special new gaming tool called “Nerve-Gear” players are able to immerse themselves into a totally believable fantasy world, and create their own gaming avatar. Quite a number of gaming enthusiasts are lucky enough to play the game on it’s first day, and one of these is Kazuto Kirigaya, better known as Kirito. When Kirito happily logs in, eager to play the game he is amazed at the details of the world he finds himself in. Called Aincrad it’s a medieval fantasy world full of life, and hidden dangers. As cool as this all sounds, things’ soon change. Because to their horror almost ten thousand players find themselves trapped in the game, unable to log out. Even worse, when you die in the game, you die in the real world. Kirito is in for the fight of his life, and desperately has to find a way out before it’s too late….

An original Japanese Guide (left) and some of the light novels (right)

If you would search on my blog for a review of the series you would have to look very hard. Because it isn’t there. Except for the Sword Art Online-Ordinal Scale movie and the spin-off series Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online I haven’t done a review for the original show….yet. I have plans though…very exciting plans even, and they also involve another fellow blogger who I respect very much, and is also a huge fan of this series. But, that is a story for another time and one that unfortunately right now is some miles off. (yes, I know, I’m terrible). I fell in love with Sword Art Online because I really enjoyed the story, but above all it’s characters. The chemistry between the two leads Kirito and Asuna, is just wonderful and one of the true highlights of this show. One could argue there are so many better characters and animes out there, so why become a collector of this one? As I said above, I guess it’s one of the world’s great mysteries. But, well here we are, so let’s look at some of the cool items I have gathered for this anime!

Books

An American artbook (left) and original Japanese artbook (right)

Well, as I love to read it will come as no surprise that I ofcourse have some really cool books of Sword Art Online in my collection. The one that I love the most is an original Japanese artbook that I aquired at last year’s Animecon 2018. While I can’t read a single word of Japanese, the book has so much cool art in it that it doesn’t matter in the slightest. Huge full spread pictures make this book one that I keep looking at from time to time. To give you an impression I made a slideshow of some of the art included within the book. The light novels are also terrific. They expand the story of the anime, and go into much more detail, including many scenes that you didn’t see. Another book that is great because it comes straight from Japan is the so-called Perfect guide. It shows a lot of stills straight from the anime, and is just great to flip through. I also have a few manga, but I never really got into those, so I guess I will just stick to the anime.

Other Stuff

Some of the erm “other stuff”

By far the biggest part of my collection is comprised of what I for lack of a better name call “other stuff”. The picture above is just a small part of that other stuff collection. I really love the pillow, and carry bag that I again found at a con. The pictures on them are just gorgeous and really show the dynamic duo off in a perfect way. I was delighted that they made a pretty fun dicegame as well. If you want to know more about that one, I wrote a review for it which you can find here. Mugs, figures, bookmarks, wall scrolls, stickers, mousepads and some cool figures pretty much complete my current collection. And of course I also have the show on dvd (duh).

The Future…

A few more items of “other stuff”.

So, at what point will my collection of this feel complete? Erm…no idea. (Geezzz Raistlin what exactly DO you know!?!). Seriously though I still love this show, and while I sadly wasn’t able to attend Animecon last year due to my health, I fully intend to go there again this year. Hopefully I will find some new stuff to add to the existing items. And with Sword Art Online currently in it’s third season there is also much more to come in terms of the anime itself (which probably only means more merchandise!). Sword Art Online has a lot of haters. There are a huge number of anime fans that absolutely despise this show. I never quite understood that, but then again I would never try to force my opinion on anyone else. I however will never change my mind on this one, and continue to (re)watch this show as much as I can. As promised I will leave you with a slide show from some of the pages of the awesome Japanese artbook. So see you all next time! Erm, what is going to featured in part 3 you ask? Well it’s a book series called the Horus Heresy. Horus whoesy now? You just gonna have to wait patiently for the answer to that. Thank you as always for reading!

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