10 Anime Series Like ‘Sword Art Online’

Sword Art Online, the anime adaptation of the Japanese light novel series of the same name is one of the best gaming anime shows. The Isekai anime follows a young boy named Kirito who gets to experience virtual reality gaming with few other lucky gamers and plans to learn to survive in this new virtual gaming world. Here is a list of top 10 anime like Sword Art Online.

Gun Gale Online

The anime adaptation of the Japanese light novel series of the same name and a spin-off of Sword Art Online series revolves around Karen Kohiruimaki a university student with a complex about her abnormal height. She gets to play Gun Gale Online as she gets a small and cute avatar that she always wished to have in her real life.  The alternative gaming world is the same as Sword Art Online and also refers to events from the latter. The anime will have cool and tense gunfights and an emotional Mother’s Rosario arc. The series will be ideal to watch if Aincrad and/or Fairy Dance arcs in the Sword Art Online let you down.

Knight’s & Magic

The anime adaptation of the Japanese light novel series of the same name follows Tsubasa Kurata, a young Japanese mecha otaku who dies after being hit by a truck and reincarnates as a child named Ernesti Echevalier in an alternate fantasy world with magic and giant robots. With his love for giant robots, he uses his programming knowledge and his surprising aptitude for magic in this world to become a super inventor/pilot. Knight’s and Magic is an anime similar to Sword Art Online as the characters become one of the most significant people in the world with their skills and prowess. He establishes his own Knight company along with his friends.

Log Horizon

The popular anime Log Horizon was a pioneering take on a stuck-in-a-video game concept combined with skills and strategies. Log Horizon continues one of the most popular isekai anime as video gaming was an integral part of the otaku lifestyle. The setting of an MMORPG world makes the Log Horizon one of the best shows like Sword Art Online. The anime has turned out to be the second-best gaming anime ever after Sword Art Online. Many anime with a similar concept of leaving players stuck in a video game was followed by Log Horizon. The anime has been strategically devised to perfection that doesn’t make the audience finds to be cliched and repetitive like other gaming animes.

Accel World

The anime series created by Masakazu Obara follows Haruyuki, a short, overweight boy who is frequently bullied at his school and decides to escape into a virtual realm. He plays virtual squash alone on his school’s Local Network cyberspace, where his innate video game skills were noticed by Kuroyukihime, an attractive girl who is popular, highly intellectual and is the vice president of the student council. They join together and furthers through the game to find the mystery behind the game’s creator. Accel World is one of the best series like Sword Art Online as it shares similar art styles, gameplay and real-world repercussions.

Overlord

The anime adaptation directed by Minoru Ashina is one of the best Log Horizon anime recommendations. The story follows Momonga, a middle-aged skeletal “Overlord” character who decides to play his favourite MMORPG for the last time before it goes offline forever. Momonga was surprised to know that he was still a part of the game even after its end time and soon realised that all the NPCs of the game have become sentient and can talk to him out of their own free will. He decides to explore the world around him to get a better hold on his strange situation.

Btooom!

The anime adaptation of the Japanese manga series of the same name follows the adventures of Ryouta Sakamoto an unemployed and isolated young man who is one of the world’s top players in the online game Btooom! in which opponents are killed by throwing bombs instead of swords or guns. He gets trapped in the real-life version of the game which he was nominated to play and falls in love with Himiko who is his in-game wife. The anime will be exciting to watch for anyone who loves the original Sword Art Online’s setting of battling in a life or death game.

No Game No Life

The anime series created by Atsuko Ishizuka is a colourful adaptation of the Japanese light novel series of the same name by Yū Kamiya. The story follows two hikikomori siblings Sora and Shiro, who are known as Blank, an undefeated group of gamers. They are transported into an alternate world by the God of Game with a challenge to play chess match. They win against a character named Tet in a chess match and gets summoned to Disboard, a world in which everything is decided by games while obliging to the Ten Pledges to prevent conflicts. No Game No Life is one of the top anime like SAO as main characters in both anime are being transported into a mysterious gaming world.

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash

The anime adaptation of the Japanese light novel series of the same name follows six adventurers who are sent to a fantasy world and have no memories about of the past. The anime takes us through their struggles to survive as goblin slayers. The anime will be a feast to the eyes of those who loved the idea of the fantasy world in Sword Art Online but thinks that the harem element and powers of the lead character are bit excess. The anime is more than just a harem, with the presentation of awkward emotions surrounding early puberty and the characters work hard to beat up slimes and goblins instead of having superpowers.

Digimon Adventure

The Toei Animation’s Japanese anime series Digimon Adventure created by Akiyoshi Hongo is the first anime series of the Digimon media franchise, based on the virtual pet of the same name. The series revolves around a group of boys and girls being whisked to a parallel reality called the Digital World, sometimes called “DigiWorld” for short, while at summer camp. They were chosen as DigiDestined, the children who save the Digital World from the threatening forces of evil. The anime series with a total of fifty-four episodes is available for streaming on Netflix along with Digimon Adventure 02 in separate English dubbed and Japanese subtitled versions.

Attack on Titan

The Japanese dark fantasy anime television film directed by Shinji Higuchi is an adaption from the manga of the same name by Hajime Isayama. The sci-fi fantasy film revolves around humans who are on the verge of extinction by the attack of giant humanoid creatures called Titans who eat people. Humans hide behind huge walls to escape from the Titans. The show has violence in it and will give you the adrenaline rush. The Titans break through the walls of their containment for over 100 years and manage to attack an outer city.

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