Hello and welcome to another week of anime! This week we take a look at the YouTube sensation Sword Art Online: Abridged. The parody is produced by a group of people known as Something Witty Entertainment. The group created the series as a parody of the already popular Sword Art Online series, and it quickly caught on. His expert editing skills coupled with some incredibly humorous dialogue are just a few of the reasons for the series’ popularity. Something Witty Entertainment has also gained a lot of respect as each episode begins by clarifying that the original series is owned by specific companies and that the viewer must support the official release. This covers itself and also looks good as it supports an already successful franchise.
So you haven’t seen or heard anything about Sword Art Online? Really? Well, the series is about a young teenager named Kazuto who joins the world of Sword Art Online, an amazing virtual reality MMORPG. However, as Kazuto and the ten thousand others like him soon realize, the game is a death trap. They soon find themselves trapped in the virtual world with the only hope of escaping by clearing all 100 floors of Aincrad and winning the game. If they die in the game, they will also die in real life. In the game, Kazuto is known as Kirito, a solo floor-sweeping beast whose reckless fighting style on the front lines has earned him several nicknames. At all times we receive a lot of support from other characters like Klein, Agil and Asuna. So that’s the base, don’t go see it. I mean, come on, it’s in English on Netflix. Now go!
Let’s go back to the parody. Yes, it’s in English, in case you’re wondering. The story line roughly follows that of its original, with finer details changing as editors see fit. Our beast of a main Kirito is still a beast, but he is quite rude in the skit. He is joined by supporting character Asuna, whose personality has a hilarious twist as a stalker, crazy, and kind of a racist girl. While the parody’s medium is to make us laugh, the story is still surprisingly gripping. Some even say that the romance between Kirito and Asuna is better than the original series, not to mention that Kirito’s character development is much better, at least in my opinion.
Parody has become a part of my life now. Every time I see a clip from the original release of Sword Art Online, I can also immediately think of the parody. It complements the original series very well and is a nice laugh, which is the complete opposite of the vibe of the original series. I suggest you take a look at it, it’s on YouTube, therefore it’s free. Don’t worry about not being able to go on if you haven’t seen the original, the parody also does a surprisingly good job of explaining the plot.
