is a Japanese light novel author. He is best known as the creator of '' Sword Art Online'' and ''

Accel World is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by HiMA. The series began publication in ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki Bunko'' imprint from February 2009 and is licensed in North America by Yen Press. Two manga ...

'', both of which have been adapted into anime. He has also written ''

The Isolator is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by Shimeji. ASCII Media Works has published five volumes since June 2014. A manga adaptation drawn by Naoki Koshimizu was serialized in ''Dengeki Daioh''. Yen Press has ...

''.

Career

Kawahara wrote the first volume of ''Sword Art Online'' in 2001 as a competition entry for the 2002

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

, but refrained from submitting it as he had exceeded the page limit; he instead published it as a web novel under the pen name .Afterword of the first light novel volume Over time, he added three further main arcs and several short stories, which like the first arc Aincrad, were later adapted into the light novels. Kawahara entered the first ''Accel World'' novel into

' 15th Dengeki Novel Prize in 2008 and the novel won the Grand Prize. The first novel was published by ASCII Media Works on February 10, 2009 under their Dengeki Bunko imprint. As of March 10, 2022, 26 volumes have been published. An anime series debuted in April 2012. After gaining fame from the Dengeki award, Kawahara republished ''Sword Art Online'' in print. 26 volumes have been published as of June 2022, as well as eight volumes of ''Sword Art Online: Progressive''. An anime series premiered in July 2012, and was followed by a for-TV movie ''Sword Art Online Extra Edition'' on December 31, 2013 a second anime series, ''Sword Art Online II'', in July 2014, a theatrical film adaptation, '' Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale,'' in February 2017'','' and the first of two seasons for the third anime series, '' Sword Art Online: Alicization,'' in October 2018. ''Sword Art Online: Progressive'' was given an anime film adaptation in the form of '' Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night,'' released in Japan on October 30, 2021. A second ''Progressive'' film is scheduled to be released in late 2022. ''The Isolator'' was serialized online starting in 2004, and began publishing in print in June 2014. Five light novels and four manga have been written. In 2022, Kawahara will publish a new light novel series, titled ''Demons' Crest'', with illustrations by

Yukiko Horiguchi is a Japanese animator and illustrator from Kyoto Prefecture, who used to work for the anime studio Kyoto Animation. When illustrating a light novel, she uses the pen name . She is best known as being the character designer for the anime adapta ...

Inspirations

Reki Kawahara has many inspirations growing up, from reading manga to online games. Reki Kawahara also stated in a Q&A session between the author Reki Kawahara and Heathcliff (Kayaba Akihiko) in 2005. "If I were to ask for you to mention one of the games you like best, which would it be?", Reki Kawahara stated the following "If you mean aside from SAO, it would be Wizardry, a game from long ago. I acquired a lot of inspiration from it". Rank Anime also wrote a story on what inspired him to write Sword Art Online.

Works

Light novels

*''

'' (2009) *'' Sword Art Online'' (2009) *'' Sword Art Online: Progressive'' (2012) *''

'' (2014) *'' Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online'' (2014) - Supervision *''Demons' Crest'' (2022)

Film

*'' Accel World: Infinite Burst'' (2016) - Screenplay *'' Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale'' (2017) - Screenplay *'' Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night'' (2021) - Script, screenplay assistance *'' Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of a Dark Dusk'' (2022) - Script, screenplay assistance

References

External links

;Interviews
2013 interview from Anime News Network2014 The Accel World Interviews Part I from Anime News Network
;General *
"Word Gear", his official blog
*
The Inspiration Behind Sword Art Online
(2020) - Rank Anime {{DEFAULTSORT:Kawahara, Reki 1974 births Japanese writers Light novelists Living people People from Gunma Prefecture Writers from Gunma Prefecture Cyberpunk writers