Sword Art Online may be a isekai title, but the fan-favorite series has more to it than video game nods. Thanks to Kirito’s charm, romance has become a rather large focus for creator Reki Kawahara, but the man isn’t just interested in Asuna’s lover.
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As it turns out, the artist wants to explore romance in other titles, and one of them could cater to the LGBTQ community specially.
Recently, Kawahara did an interview in Japan which reporter Kim Morrissy shared on Twitter. The Tokyo-based reporter shared the piece with translated summaries attached, and it was there they revealed Kawahara’s desire to write a yuri title.
“Reki Kawahara says he wants to write yuri but keeps screwing it up. The closest he’s ever gotten is the Mother’s Rosario arc in SAO, but it wasn’t a full on love story,” Morrissy wrote.
“One day he wants to write a romantic story between girls.”
For those familiar with Sword Art Online, they will know how Mother’s Rosario leans into yuri from time to time. The arc is a side one which follows Asuna as she takes on a mysterious Aincrad warrior known only as Absolute Sword. Proving her strength, Asuna learns the player is really a girl named Yuuki who hooks her up with the Sleeping Knights guild. The female-centric story featured more than enough skin-ship and dialogue to read into its girls’ love lens.
Still, the LGBTQ undertones were never made official, leaving Kawahara feeling like he has room to grow still in his exploration of yuri. The writer has not said whether he’s currently working on any such romantic title, but fans of the creator are keeping a close eye on his works as always.
Do you think Kawahara could explore yuri more so in Sword Art Online? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!
Sword Art Online was originally created by Reki Kawahara with illustrations provided by abec. The series follows a boy named Kirito after he and thousands of gamers get trapped in a virtual reality video game known as Sword Art Online. The gamers must band together to defeat the game’s final level to escape, but Kirito and his guild learn there is more behind their prison than they were originally told.
