Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly Volume 1 Review

Back in June, I reviewed Volume 1 of Sword Art Online Re:Aincrad, but that’s not the only SAO manga Yen Press is treating us to this year. Today I’m here to talk about Volume 1 of Kiss and Fly, a collection of short stories set at various points in the series’ timeline. Does it prove interesting? Let’s find out!

Our story begins when Asuna and Kirito are still trapped in Aincrad right at the beginning of the series. Kirito having proposed to Asuna, the two are now on the 22nd floor looking for a quaint log cabin he’s seen before and hopes to buy with his wife-to-be. Unfortunately, the cabin seems to have completely disappeared!

Ultimately Aincrad is still a game, so something stationary like a house shouldn’t just up and disappear out of nowhere. Kirito finds himself feeling uneasy and unable to ignore the situation, so the two begin to investigate in a bid to pin down what exactly happened. Later, they’re shocked to find the cabin flying through the air, with the information broker Argo trapped inside, taken on a quest not too dissimilar to the story of The Wizard of Oz…

The second story included in this volume is set after the end of the second arc of SAO, Fairy Dance. Here Asuna is struggling with the strange feeling that she’s becoming separated from her avatar while playing the game. Having never experienced this with Full Dive VR before, Kirito grows increasingly concerned for her and asks Yui to help.

Yui narrows the problem down to some leftover player data from Aincrad that was interfering with Asuna. Kirito is extremely worried about his partner, but he’s also realised it’s coming up to exactly two years since Sachi died in Aincrad and finds himself preoccupied with memories of the past. Her death is still one of Kirito’s biggest regrets from earlier in the game.

This manga adaptation is based on Volume 22 of the original light novel series (also titled Kiss and Fly) and ran for three volumes. This seems about right in terms of pacing as it gives each story the room to breathe without feeling like we’re racing through them, but equally none of them overstay their welcome.

The manga has been handled by Rico Bekko, who hasn’t worked on Sword Art Online but has done an excellent job of capturing the characters all the same. Bekko suitably conveys both the emotional moments between Kirito and Asuna, as well as the action when they get caught up in battles. This is particularly important in the second story where we see the two fighting a raid boss with some of their friends.

Before being compiled into a light novel release (and now manga adaptation), these stories were bundled with the Blu-ray releases for the anime in Japan. Because of that none of them can have a substantial impact on the main plot, but SAO is a franchise with such a wide range of stories and settings that it works well for this sort of side content.

How much you get out of these stories will depend on how much you care about our main duo and how much patience you have for some sillier premises. The log cabin storyline for example is fun, but the Wizard of Oz spin is certainly not what you’d usually expect from this series. That’s not a negative, but it does mean this is something the more dedicated SAO fans will enjoy out of than those with a passing interest.

Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Yen Press and has been translated by SAO veteran Stephen Paul with lettering by Viet Phuong Vu. As you’d expect from someone so experienced with the franchise, the translation reads well with no problems. Nothing to speak of in the way of bonuses here with no colour pages, bonus pages or translation notes included.

Volume 2 of this series is currently scheduled for an English release in October. No sign of #3 on the schedule at the time of writing, but I would imagine it won’t be too far behind – especially given it ended in Japan in 2023.

Overall, Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly proves to be an entertaining first outing for this side story content. As long as you don’t expect too much from what essentially boils down to Blu-ray bonuses originally, there’s fun to be had following Kirito and Asuna on some new adventures.

Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.