Sword Art Online is the series that made virtual-reality anime a genre unto itself. Ten thousand players log into a VRMMO, the logout button is gone, and dying in the game kills you in the chair. The first arc's premise is still one of the strongest hooks in modern anime.

Aincrad, the floating castle of a hundred floors, gives the story a natural progression structure and a real sense of scale. The best parts of the series are the small ones - players forming guilds, opening shops, building lives inside a death trap because there's nothing else to do.

Kirito's dual-wielding and Asuna's rapier work became instantly recognisable, and the Elucidator is one of the more copied anime sword designs going.

The series has its critics, and most of them are arguing about later arcs rather than the first, which remains genuinely tense television.

This collection covers Kirito, Asuna and their blades.