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Sword Art Online #16

ソードアート・オンライン 16: アリシゼーション・エクスプローディング [Sōdo āto onrain 16: Arishizēshon Ekusupurōdingu]

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アリシゼーション編≪アンダーワールド大戦≫、ついに開幕!
キリトを想うアスナの行方は……?

人界暦三八〇年十一月。
アンダーワールド全土を混沌に巻き込む≪最終負荷実験≫の幕が上がる。
暗黒神ベクタことガブリエル・ミラー率いる侵略軍50,000に対するは、整合騎士ベルクーリ率いる人界守備軍3,000。
≪霜鱗鞭≫のエルドリエ、≪熾焔弓≫のデュソルバート、の副団長・≪天穿剣≫のファナティオら整合騎士は、数的劣勢を跳ね返すべく奮闘を続けるが、敵軍の尖兵たる山ゴブリン族は奸計を用いて防衛線をすり抜け、後方の補給部隊を狙う。心神喪失状態のキリトを守る少女練士ロニエとティーゼに危機が迫る。
更に、侵略軍一の奸智を誇る暗黒術師ギルド総長ディー・アイ・エルもまた、恐るべき大規模術式によって守備軍の殲滅を図る。対する守備軍の総指揮官、整合騎士長ベルクーリがとった作戦とは……。そして、現実世界からアンダーワールドへログインしたアスナの行方は――!

344 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2015

74 people are currently reading
848 people want to read

About the author

Reki Kawahara

284 books913 followers
Kawahara Reki (川原礫) is the writer of Sword Art Online and Accel World. He also uses the pen name Kunori Fumio. His hobby is cycling.

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5 stars
346 (48%)
4 stars
233 (32%)
3 stars
101 (14%)
2 stars
29 (4%)
1 star
10 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
Profile Image for Carol.
1,369 reviews
September 13, 2019
Oh boy, this book picks up since page one and never goes down. The battle with the Dark Territory is a constant explosion of intensity. There's battle after battle and the stress never ends, everyone is fighting nightly and casualties start occurring soon enough. It's even quite a long battle, but I hardly felt it when I was reading, I just got in the zone and when I came out of my stupor I had already read half the book.
And after the main battle ends, when you think things might finally get calmer, Asuna finally comes into the mix (which makes me utterly happy because I've been waiting for this girl for ages now). And there's even more revelations, more conspiracies, and another big plot twist coming towards the end that will certainly make the next books really exciting.
Profile Image for Jorge Rosas.
525 reviews32 followers
August 12, 2019
I enjoyed this part of the story, it stays in a continue state of excitement and there’s a lot of action, new characters are introduced and are well developed, good and bad ones feel good and then the way the awaited battle unfolds is amazing! We finally get to see Asuna in action and the powers of her account, we get to know a lot about the dark territories and how do their mind work.
Profile Image for Khari.
3,108 reviews75 followers
April 2, 2023
Phew. That’s over.

Thank goodness.

I’m glad that I am done with all the ones that are readily available in English. I have no real desire to read more. I don’t want to read them in Japanese either. It’s just getting too…pathetic, for lack of a better word.

It’s contradicting itself right and left. The characters are getting shallower instead of deeper, and I’m tired of all these women thinking that Kirito is the best thing ever. He’s nice, I get it. But why on earth would you start to compete with other women and have contests of closeness like this? With people you just met?

And why is it that these estrogen contests don’t start until Asuna is on the scene? Then everyone piles on. It’s ridiculous. Women don’t actually act like this. At least not women with any self respect, and if Alice and Asuna are as strong as they are portrayed, they don’t need to act like this either. What about the other lady knight? She was saved from her attempt to be androgynous and became more secure in her female skin, why isn’t she part of this “he loves me more” contest? It’s ridiculous.

I don’t care what happens in this story. It’s lost all interest for me.
Profile Image for Tuna.
288 reviews5 followers
March 1, 2023
This volume is definitely one where I feel is controversial just for the sake of the perspective still being from characters that were only introduced this arc. If one was looking forward to Kirito and the like then this was actually not the best for it and someone like that may find themselves getting a bit tired of the content. If someone doesnt mind then this is good, though, it finds itself in that situation where you'd would rather spend time reading from the protagonists perspective versus the antagonists...though there are exceptions.

This volume helps to add some moral character to our characters in the Dark Territory and help to make us actually care for them. Just as the humans kill others they kill others and everyone kills to survive. Unlike the picture painted by the goblins that we encountered in the caves in the start of Alicization, the characters here have their own desires to raise children, expand their clans, and to live a fulfilling life...it is what makes it nice to follow the human characters like Ishkaan.

Unfortunately, Kawahara actually still sticks to his tendency of designing kind of over the top antagonists who have really little to no qualities that make us care about them in any meaningful way beyond wanting them to get their just desserts (imo, Death Gun was an exception (little brother)). Dee Eye Ell is somewhat of a more intriguing antagonist here than Emperor Vecta, and maybe Vassago just because he's more of an interesting assassin for our trapped in a videogame characters...

Which speaking of, as the backcover indicates, we finally start to get familiar faces again. While it is nice to see them, I am a bit mixed...you kind of want the underworld characters to save themselves and find a way out of this versus everyone swooping in...so it is disappointing. Like it would have been nice for this to be a Kirito only arc.

Still, I liked the experience, and I like the antagonists. I do not like Gabriel Miller that much since he is kind of just, well a little bland and boring with no redeeming qualities...like he could joke around with his companions, bond with them, or something.
70 reviews
October 27, 2019

Gabriel Miller-assuming the identity of Emperor Vecta, the god of darkness-prepares to invade the human lands with his army of fifty thousand. Defending these lands are the remaining Integrity Knights, led by Commander Bercouli, and an army one-tenth the size of the enemy's! Meanwhile, Kirito, still out of commission, is left in the care of primary trainees Ronie and Tiese. And back in the Dark Territory, Dee Eye Ell, the chancellor of the dark mages guild, threatens to vanquish the Human Guardian Army by launching a large-scale magical attack of her own. But in the midst of the chaos, the one who appears to turn the tide of battle is none other than...Asuna?!


**

Profile Image for Casey.
677 reviews11 followers
December 31, 2019
This book only gets 4-stars because of the last 1/3rd of the book. Don't get me wholly wrong, the other 2/3rds had some interesting battles and some cool concepts and what not. But it wasn't the story I wanted. I am already long past tired of Kirito's condition.

The saving grace for this book is Asuna finally gets a real appearance, not just a brief mention for a couple of pages. And the denouement...

So without saying anything else and leaving this as spoiler free as I can --

Verdict: Gotta read it to know what's going on. Last third definitely makes up for anything else that wasn't exactly lacking, but wasn't what I wanted. Hope the next one puts us a LOT closer to the end.
Profile Image for José Abraham.
42 reviews1 follower
June 30, 2020
I would love to give to the book five stars because the narrative and the story is great but it has two LGBT characters on a consequent pages that felt too forced, they doesn’t fill in SAO, at least not in this way. Is ok if Kawahara wants to show a realistic world with people with all kind of ideologies and preferences but in this book in particular, they simply didn’t fit to the story, they look like part of a post modernism agenda or like a wish of kawahara to gain the affection of LGBT public without the respective characters development, but in general the book is good, maybe one of the best SAO books.
Profile Image for kerrycat.
1,918 reviews
June 3, 2019
another crazy - but hopeful - cliffhanger, after an emotional reunion (for me as well as Kirito and Asuna - yes, our Black Swordsman was able to respond to some extent to the arrival of the Goddess of Creation).

a certain top-down AI discovers a horrifying problem and alerts those who can help, who of course, step up to the plate. I am a little concerned about how Vecta/Miller is going to react when a certain trigger-savvy obsession of his appears in the Underworld - oh hell, concerned doesn't even come close. why do all the insane guys stalk Sinon?
2 reviews
June 12, 2019
Another great book

If you are reading the 16th SAO novel, you already are a fan and probably don't need a review. But in the essence of tradition I will leave one anyway. This book was better than the last in terms of fights there was enough action to keep me engaged. As usual I finished the book within 2 days. But it wasn't something I rushed off to read, it simply held my interest once I returned to reading it. The biggest downfall of this book was its abrupt ending. But overall the book is a great read.
Profile Image for GeniBloo.
84 reviews4 followers
October 5, 2019
Tengo muchas opiniones al respecto de esto, pero creo que me los guardare hasta terminar toda la saga, porque aplica para todos los volúmenes.

Por fin, comenzó la guerra de Underworld, y tenemos el regreso de Asuna y en menor medida de los demás secundarios. La primera mitad se me hizo algo lenta y hasta aburrida, pero el ultimo tercio me dejo con ganas de más! Se viene con todo!! A unas semanas de por fin ya verlo animado :)
15 reviews
September 18, 2021
Another Masterpiece Volume

Kirito and Asuna reunion was so touching and it depicted that how much Kirito miss Asuna. Too bad he is still in veggy stage to respond even though he attempted and which was the most powerful and incredibe scene of this LN to me. Asuna and Alice small competition was also cute but Alice shall know who is the real Queen.

This was another great volume of Sword Art Online. I will definitely read the succeeding one.
Profile Image for Matt.
3 reviews
May 30, 2019
I've never written a review before, just dropped my stars and moved on to my next book. But Alicization Exploding was an absolute banger. I was screaming with tears in my eyes through the last chapter from all the excitement of what's to come. Is it October yet?
Profile Image for Chris Flynn.
89 reviews16 followers
July 22, 2021
I was a little leary heading into this one since in the show adaptation this section was a barrage of new characters with minimal backstory, but the book handles it much better and makes it much more enjoyable. Alicization continues to be my favorite arc so far of this series.
Profile Image for Melissa .
455 reviews17 followers
March 6, 2025
2.5 stars

Kirito and Asuna are my favorite characters and this book had way too little of either of them. Also, I enjoy SAO the most when it’s dealing with the relationships between the characters and I tend to get bored with long drawn out battles. Overall, this one was just too slow for me.
Profile Image for anderson.
14 reviews1 follower
March 24, 2019
Historia complementaria al gran suceso de alicization. Mostrándonos la preparación de la guerra y los personajes que han estado ocultos antes del gran final.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
2 reviews
June 16, 2019
Action pack

Meet you at the edge of your seat every second of the way. Can't wait for the Next book to come out
Profile Image for Jill.
98 reviews
July 20, 2019
Good action scenes. Lots of character development with the intergity knights.
Profile Image for Kevin Peake.
Author 3 books36 followers
October 23, 2019
Wow been waiting for asuna to join in for ages, and wow that was great. And the ending is just evil but brilliant.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for VSP.
204 reviews3 followers
January 31, 2020
Fue simplemente hermoso el encuentro entre Kirito y Asuna. Muy emocionante y atrapante :3
Profile Image for Vivianne Junco.
215 reviews4 followers
February 3, 2020
Increíble!

Asuna está dentro de Underworld y mi muy querida Yui está tratando de salvar el día desde afuera, en el mundo real.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Holly Ann.
23 reviews
March 11, 2021
Slow book, nominally better than the previous one. Also they cover is bait you don’t get Asuna til the end of this volume.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Raka Westu.
8 reviews
August 3, 2019
Great adventure with cliffhanger too. Will also read next volumes
Profile Image for Viszed.
119 reviews2 followers
August 10, 2016
La batalla entre el territorio humano y el territorio oscuro comenzó, es difícil ponerse absolutamente del lado de alguien, ya que al igual que el lado de los humanos, los habitantes de Dark Territorio también son seres humanos con sus propias emociones y sentimientos.

La muerte de Eldrie fue inesperada y triste, era tan agradable como un niño; asimismo desde todos los puntos se narraron los hechos de la guerra, que viene siendo desgarrador para ambos lados.

Al fin llego Asuna, con la super cuenta "Diosa Stacia", aunque fue sincera y revelo su verdadera identidad a todos; el encuentro con Kirito fue tan triste, por un momento pensé que despertaría, pero parece que aun es pronto para eso, me encanto cuando Asuna marca territorio y reclama a Kirito como suyo frente a Alice, al parecer Alice también se enamoro de él, fue tan genial la estupefacción de Asuna cuando Alice le restringía el acceso a Kirito, y definitivamente Kirito es un rompe corazones.

En la parte final, Yui un paso adelante, coordina el ingreso de Sinon y Lefa a Underworld, de la misma manera reúne a Klein y compañía para pedir su ayuda e ingresen a Underworld convirtiendo sus cuentas; para contrarrestar el plan de Vector que ha mediante engaños va a reuniendo miles de jugadores del mundo real para su ejercito, llevando a Underworld a 1:1, una velocidad a la par con el mundo real.

Se vienen batallas muy interesantes, un 4/5, y a seguir esperando que Kirito despierte.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews

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