Sword Art Online: Progressive

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I looked for the Progressive manga after learning that the next Sword Art Online anime will be based on it.

The story focus on Asuna this time showing a bit of her life before and how she got into the game. The manga doesn't take itself very seriously, as the story is very simple.
It has a lot of action, comedy, some ecchi content and a lot of pantyshots.

The art is good character-wise, certainly better then the previous SAO manga. But not very detailed and it can be a let down if you are expecting to see some Aincrad scenery.

Overall it is a good and easy read. ... Recommended if you are into the series or Isekai in general.

To start out my review for this manga. I'm a big fan of SAO(collecting all the light novel/manga), and you can see this on my profile that I'm a huge fanboy. This adaptation of Progressive from the light novel into manga format was absolutely dreadful.

For the positive, The art style resemble like abec illustrator, which is a plus one for me.
But, the story as whole, divergence from it original source material in the early chapter. Asuna in the original was 10x better than the manga. I know that manga adaptation allow numerous perspective to be added in and allow original content. I personally unwilling ... to consider Asuna in this version canon. You know what, I loathe how the writer make her a jerk toward Kirito. Another things I dislike is the fanservice in this manga(is feel like the mangaka who is adapting this arc, like shoving fanservice in your face). I hate this term, but, Asuna in this version is a mary sue(*insert shocking face emoji*). If you compare Asuna in the book( the definitive version) and the manga, you will see day and night comparison. I know I'm being harsh toward her, but, this is how I feel about her in the manga version. Other version of Asuna in the different manga is tolerable.


Kirito in this version is okay-ish( resemble like your typical anime character, very pervert).

At the end of the day, I highly recommend checking out the light novel(alot of characterization and monologue, which are very essential).

SAO still isn't thought out. At least it isn't lifeless, Asuna has emotions and goals, and it is pretty to look at.

The story ideas that are here clash with what is fun or potentially fun about the show. By fun I mean interesting misery, which is fun for evil people; So, fun. What a good show does is establish a premise and explore that by pushing the logic of it.

Every element is immediately demystified by Kirito who expositions at the reader until things aren't fun.

When Asuna and Kirito do leave the boss room and meet enemies that are way stronger than them, they ... do nothing to play it safe, nothing to preserve their lives and they are rescued.

There are all these rules and tips for surviving in the game but we don't see people doing stupid stuff get killed.

The more I think about this series the worse it is. There isn’t enough good. There isn’t enough interesting. There isn’t enough tension. The only thing going for this series is some meh fan service and nostalgia for a relationship that won’t come to any kind of completion until the 74th floor (I didn’t bother to fact check because it doesn’t matter).

I want to see this book is for babies but that is based off a thought that stuff for kids is dumb. More thought will be put into people justifying it than was put into what the story should be.