New anime Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online looks to be one of the most popular anime of this season–something largely expected given how popular the other Sword Art Online anime have proven to be. But what’s far less expected is that Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online exists in the first place.
The Sword Art Online novel series (on which the anime are based) has been wildly successful in Japan, topping more than a few monthly–and even one yearly–light novel bestseller list since the first novel’s debut in 2009. The main series is currently up to its 20th volume, with interquel series Sword Art Online: Progressive sporting an additional four volumes.
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All these have been written by Reki Kawahara (when he hasn’t been working on the related 22 book series Accel World). What sets Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online appart is the simple fact that, unlike all the Sword Art Online Novels to come before it, it’s not written by Kawahara. Instead, it’s written by another light novel author, Keiichi Sigsawa.
Sigsawa is famous for writing Kino’s Journey (which got its second anime adaptation last year) and the Tale of a Single Continent series (which got an anime in 2006). He’s a man whose passions include travel, motorcycles, and–as luck would have it–guns.
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The third arc of Sword Art Online (the first arc of anime Sword Art Online II), Phantom Bullet is set inside VRMMO first-person shooter “Gun Gale Online.” As people fight with everything from pistols and shotguns to gatling guns and sniper rifles, GGO is a gun nuts wet dream. So when Sigsawa read it in 2010, as an author, he was thrown into a fit of existential jealousy.
In his own words: “That was so entertaining! And… why didn’t I come up with a setting like this? With such a setting, I’d be able to write as many gun action stories where people don’t die as I wanted, wouldn’t I?”
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Soon Sigsawa came to the obvious conclusion: anyone can write fan-fiction. He could even self-publish his own Gun Gale Online stories as doujinshi. But if possible, he wanted to get the permission of Sword Art Online’s publisher, Dengeki Bunko (which also serves as his own publisher), and release it as an official spinoff.
There was just one major hurdle: there was really no precedent for doing this that he knew of; authors, even famous ones, don’t just decide to start writing another author’s story–especially in the same medium. But as he had nothing to lose, he mentioned the idea to his editor who gave him a surprising answer: it would be possible if he got permission from all those involved–starting with Kawahara and his artist partner on Sword Art Online, abec.
Knowing it was at least potentially doable, Sigsawa put it on the back burner for several years–never writing down even a single word–and worked on other projects. His plans for his own Gun Gale Online spinoff might have forever sat there–lurking in the back of his mind and never coming to fruition–but then came the Sword Art Online II anime.
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Adapting the Gun Gale Online arc, the chief producer on the series, Nobuhiro Osawa, felt it was important to have the staff working on the anime fire some real guns–something all but impossible in Japan. Having worked with Sigsawa before on the first Kino’s Journey anime, Osawa asked the noted gun-maniac where they could try some real ones out.
Together they, with the staff, went to a shooting range in Guam and afterwords, Sigsawa was offered a job on the anime: Small Arms Supervisor. Basically, he brought in his model guns for the artists to reference, talked about when and how they’d be used, and finally checked to make sure the guns in the final product didn’t have any (unintended) mistakes.
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It was during this time that he finally had his chance. He sat down with Kawahara (along with both of their editors) and pitched his idea of a story set in Gun Gale Online that didn’t involve Kirito, Asuna, and the rest of the main cast.
As Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is now six books long and has a currently airing anime, it’s pretty easy to guess how that conversation turned out.
If you want to read the full story in Sigsawa’s own words, check it out in the afterword of the first Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online light novel when it is released by Yen press on June 26, 2018.
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