Accel World

ignore the other review, it's misinformation and lack of information at best

if you don't know anything about Accel World, ignore this manga, this is not a good entry point into the story of AW, this is just something done obligatory to be done extra as the tirnity of anime-manga-lightnovel for the fans of the Anime/Light Novel

if you have experienced the anime or light novel:

-this manga does not follow the story 1:1 of either, it's still the same story but there are some small new details thrown in while a lot of the core details and essence is thrown out for the sake of moving the story faster

there are 8 manga volumes, this covers the 24 anime episodes, and a little of the sidestory light novel volume 10, the 24 anime episodes cover the first 4 light novel volumes and some of the sidestory light novel volume 10

so the anime and manga revolve around the same content, 1, 2, 3, 4 & ~10
but the manga also covers the volume 5 of the Light Novel series and it ends the manga series with it, for comparison, the Light Novel is at 25 volumes and still going

now, about the actual manga, the makers did their best with what they had, which was a cash in rush job, it starts ok, but the middle is some confusing fast forward/skip of the volume 3/4 of the Light Novel and the ending is a good showing of the volume 5, in fact i would recommend for anime watchers to just skip past to that part of the manga as it's a direct continuation of the anime

now, the manga has a crossover with SAO chapter, this is from the Light Novel side story volume 10, let me make this very clear for you, Accel World, is NOT, a sequel or in the same universe with SAO, they are just written by the same author and have small easter eggs to reference each other, this crossover is made possible by "parallel universe quantum jump" so by definition they are not in the same universe, it's a special event made for fun that is NOT CANON, according to the author's after word in Volume 10 of the LN, so there you go, Accel World is NOT connected to SAO, it's just that it is written by the same writer as SAO, anything else people say is fan fiction or they are just uninformed

A manga adaption that didn't follow the novels.

Story: If you have no idea what Accel World is already, do not read the manga. Try the novels, or anime. Both of which is available to buy in English. Accel World is a sequel to SAO, playing out in 2046. While SAO began in 2022, or somewhere near there. Same author, along with mentions of SAO in Accel. It's quite interesting.

The manga is like a spin-off that does whatever it wants. So it's for fans of the original story. It even does a crossover with SAO. And considering the low amount of volumes, this manga adaption was never a serious attempt for greatness, but rather a glorified fan-fiction.

Characters: A silly immature junior, a mature "cool beauty" senior, along with a best friend Professor. The characters are all well done, but the manga does a bad job of actually showing it.

Overall, The SAO manga, along with the Accel manga are both badly made. It's a real disappointment considering the original stories are at least interesting. But it's Science Fiction, and that would be too wordy for a manga, so Accel World's manga is simply bad. Recommended for hardcore fans only.

+ It's Accel World. Loved the Novels
- Art is bad
- Not good enough original arcs
- Bad crossover with SAO

PS: This manga was bad. But the novels are actually really good, if you liked the anime, do try the novels. And try to forget about this manga if you ended up reading it...

I view the story and plot twists as sprinkles on ice cream - they're not bad, but they're not good. Just ordinary and dispensable.

The setting of accel world and the game design is quite spectacular, even better than SAO, but most of the plot significantly lacks novelty. Eventually every player enters this battle arena and starts killing each other with their unique super powers. That's pretty much it. Oh, and your girl was once the leader of this epic guild, but now everyone in this whole world fucking hates her and suddenly you're alone with her to learn her techniques and try to build another super epic guild? Seems legitly cliched. The first few times you encounter such sprinkles, you get excited from the sugary taste, but after awhile it gets dull. The author mitigates such triviality starting at volume 6, where he introduced this dangerous central palace and a hypnotizing armor. This was quite interesting, but even if I ignore some of the obvious plot holes, the feeling I got from this is similar to when a game company releases a new patch for a boring game. First it seems as a breadth of fresh air, but immediately you get tired of it again because there were no fundamental change to the backbone.

I think I am too critical. But it is just difficult for me to seriously consider the situations of these characters, no matter how bad, because the setting of this entire story is that they are playing a "game". Maybe it's because of this reason, sometimes I feel like events taking place are depicted too seriously and the characters are doing stuff way too insane like they're some fat otaku. There's just too much drama in the real world. Sure it is on me to read it as a novel, but it is on the author to present a convincing and appropriate setting.

Despite everything I said, I actually like accel world. In fact I read it very quickly, in just a couple of days. The stories of some side characters were pretty good, and the art is great. But the fact that I never went back to re-read the novel or re-watch the anime speaks a lot. Did I mention it's still ongoing?

I give this a 7/10.