Kirito

, born as , is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Sword Art Online series of light novels written by Reki Kawahara. Known by a portmanteau of his name, which is his user name in the Sword Art Online video game which the series are partially set in. Kirito is a teenager who was chosen as one of 1,000 beta testers for a new virtual reality video game: Sword Art Online. After the game is released to the general public, he and the rest of the 10,000 players discover that they are unable to log out and are trapped in the simulation unless they manage to beat the game. In the anime adaptation, Kirito is voiced in Japanese by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and in English by Bryce Papenbrook. Creation and conception In an interview with Sword Art Online series creator Reki Kawahara, they wrote the series to change popular opinion of online gaming; viewing it not a social ill or just an escape from real life, and thus decided to show games in a more positive light in his light novels. He stated that he does not usually put aspects of himself into his characters, he did note that "neither of us are good at forming parties. We [both] tend to play solo in these games a lot." When asked about Kirito using a sword in a gun-based game during the Gun Gale Online arc, Kawahara responded that the energy sword in Halo can be the most powerful weapon if used properly.