Sword Art Online is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year, and fans have seen Kirito paired with all sorts of characters over the series’ tenure. Without a doubt, this “harem” of women that have surrounded Kirito over the years have become some of the primary draws to the series from fans, and each one has their own favorite out of Kirito’s many adventuring partners. But the actual fan-favorites just might be a bit of a surprise.
Polling fans before Anime Expo 2019, the official Sword Art Online panel revealed which of Kirito’s harem were loved the most by fans. While the number one pick is no surprise, the runner-up certainly is.
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Favourite member of the “Kirito harem” pic.twitter.com/gNkcVdet4K
— SAO Wikia (@sao_wikia) July 6, 2019
Asuna takes the top spot by a wide margin, and this isn’t exactly a surprise as the character has been one of the leads since the beginning of the series. To be completely honest, none of the other female characters have gotten as interesting as a debut season as Asuna either. Because of this, Asuna often takes the top spot in polls like this. But that’s not the curious thing as Eugeo has come in second. Eugeo, who is now considered a part of Kirito’s harem, is neck and neck with Asuna in terms of popularity.
Coming far and above the original female character in the third season, Alice, Eugeo served as the deuteragonist of the Alicization arc. Though his story seemingly came to a conclusive end before the third season went on hiatus, he made a surprisingly great impression on fans. Getting more development than Kirito in the third season overall, you could even go as far to say Kirito is a part of Eugeo’s harem instead of the other way around.
Fans are definitely hoping to see more of Asuna and Eugeo when the third season returns in October with the War of Underworld arc. If you have yet to catch the newest season of Sword Art Online yourself, the original Japanese release of Sword Art Online: Alicization can currently be found streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu, and the English dub of the season can be found Saturday nights as part of Adult Swim’s Toonami block.
The series is officially described as such, “Where… am I…?” Before he knows it, Kirito has made a full-dive into an epic, fantasy-like virtual world. With only a murky recollection of what happened right before he logged in, he starts to wander around, searching for clues. He comes upon an enormous, pitch dark tree (the Gigas Cedar), where he encounters a boy. “My name is Eugeo. Nice to meet you, Kirito.” Although he is supposedly a resident of the virtual world – an NPC – the boy shows the same array of emotions as any human being.
As Kirito bonds with Eugeo, he continues to search for a way to log out of this world. Meanwhile, he remembers a certain memory deep down within him. He remembers racing through the mountains with Eugeo as a child… A memory that he should not have in the first place… And in this memory, he sees someone other than Eugeo, a young blond girl. Her name is Alice. And it is a name that must never be forgotten…”
