Sword Art Online

Series Similar to Sword Art Online

If you enjoyed Sword Art Online, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. Hunter x Hunter

   2011 · Action, Adventure, Anime, Fantasy · ended95% match

   Recommended for similar Action / Adventure profile, highly rated (8.5).

   Remake of the 1999 TV series of Hunter x Hunter based on the manga by Togashi Yoshihiro. A Hunter is one who travels the world doing all sorts of dangerous tasks. From capturing criminals to searching deep within uncharted lands for any lost treasures. Gon is a young boy whose father disappeared long ago, being a Hunter. He believes if he could also follow his father's path, he could one day reunite with him. After becoming 12, Gon leaves his home and takes on the task of entering the Hunter exam, notorious for its low success rate and high probability of death to become an official Hunter. He befriends the revenge-driven Kurapica, the doctor-to-be Leorio and the rebellious ex-assassin Killua in the exam, with their friendship prevailing throughout the many trials and threats they come upon taking on the dangerous career of a Hunter.

2. Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu.

   2020 · Action, Adventure, Anime, Fantasy · returning95% match

   Recommended for similar Action / Adventure profile.

   Honjou Kaede is invited by her friend Shiramine Risa to play a virtual reality MMO game with her. While Kaede doesn't dislike games, what she really, truly dislikes is being in pain. She creates a character named Maple, and decides to put all her points in VIT to minimize pain. As a result, she moves slowly, can't use magic, and even a rabbit can get the best of her. But as it turns out, she acquires a skill known as "Absolute Defense" as a result of her pumping points into VIT, as well as a "Counter Skill" that works against special moves. Now, with her ability to nullify all damage, she goes on adventures.

3. Overlord

   2015 · Action, Anime, Fantasy · ended94% match

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile.

   When a popular fantasy MMORPG shuts down its servers, one guild leader, the skeleton mage, Momonga, finds himself transported to a real fantasy world trapped inside the body of his avatar. His guild's fortress has been transported to an unfamiliar world and the inhabiting NPC characters gain sentience and look to Momonga as their supreme ruler–an overlord as it were. With his extensive knowledge of magic and powerful, fanatic minions following his every whim, Momonga continues to roleplay the part of the evil overlord to the extent that domination of this new world is not an entirely unappealing option.

4. Solo Leveling

   2024 · Action, Anime, Fantasy · returning94% match

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile, also on Tokyo MX.

   Ten years ago, "the Gate" appeared and connected the real world with the realm of magic and monsters. To combat these vile beasts, ordinary people received superhuman powers and became known as "Hunters." Twenty-year-old Sung Jin-Woo is one such Hunter, but he is known as the "World's Weakest," owing to his pathetic power compared to even a measly E-Rank. Still, he hunts monsters tirelessly in low-rank Gates to pay for his mother's medical bills.However, this miserable lifestyle changes when Jin-Woo—believing himself to be the only one left to die in a mission gone terribly wrong—awakens in a hospital three days later to find a mysterious screen floating in front of him. This "Quest Log" demands that Jin-Woo completes an unrealistic and intense training program, or face an appropriate penalty. Initially reluctant to comply because of the quest's rigor, Jin-Woo soon finds that it may just transform him into one of the world's most fearsome Hunters.Note that in Japanese voice-acting, as well as in the graphics itself (i.e. name written on a cellphone), there is version with Japanese names as well as with Korean names from the original comic this was based on.

5. Sword Oratoria: Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka Gaiden

   2017 · Action, Adventure, Anime, Fantasy · ended94% match

   Recommended for similar Action / Adventure profile, also on Tokyo MX.

   Sword princess Aiz Wallenstein. Today, once again, the strongest female swordsman heads to the giant labyrinth known as the "Dungeon" along with her allies. On the 50th floor where mysteries and threats such as a decayed dragon's corpse that crumbles to ash and an irregularity that creeps ever closer to the party loom, Aiz calls for the wind and heads deeper into the darkness of the Dungeon. Eventually, she finds herself meeting a boy for the first time. In the Labyrinth City of Orario, the contrasting stories of the boy and the girl intersect.

6. Log Horizon

   2013 · Action, Adventure, Anime · returning93% match

   Recommended for similar Action / Adventure profile.

   One day, while playing the online game Elder Tales, 30,000 players suddenly find themselves trapped in another world. There, eight-year veteran gamer Shiroe also gets left behind. The trapped players are still alive, but they remain in combat with the monsters. The players don't understand what has happened to them, and they flee to Akiba, the largest city in Tokyo, where they are thrown into chaos. Once proud of his loner lifestyle, Shiroe forms a guild called Log Horizon with his old friend Naotsugu, female assassin Akatsuki and others.

7. The Aristocrat's Otherworldly Adventure: Serving Gods Who Go Too Far

   2023 · Action, Adventure, Anime, Fantasy · ended93% match

   Recommended for similar Action / Adventure profile, also on Tokyo MX.

   After dying in the act of stopping a crime in modern Japan, our hero is reincarnated as Cain von Silford, third son of a noble family in a world of swords and sorcery. In his new life, all children receive a blessing from the gods...but Cain is unexpectedly blessed with an absolutely enormous, over-the-top cornucopia of magical powers. If his dream of traveling the world as a free spirit is to come true, he can't reveal too much of his potential to the wrong people. A light-hearted, escapist adventure in another world begins!

8. Naruto: Shippūden

   2007 · Action, Adventure, Anime, Fantasy · ended93% match

   Recommended for similar Action / Adventure profile, highly rated (8.2).

   Naruto: Shippuden is the continuation of the original animated TV series Naruto.The story revolves around an older and slightly more matured Uzumaki Naruto and his quest to save his friend Uchiha Sasuke from the grips of the snake-like Shinobi, Orochimaru. After 2 and a half years Naruto finally returns to his village of Konoha, and sets about putting his ambitions to work, though it will not be easy, as he has amassed a few (more dangerous) enemies, in the likes of the shinobi organization; Akatsuki.

9. Akame ga Kill!

   2014 · Action, Anime, Fantasy · ended93% match

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile, also on Tokyo MX.

   Under the rule of a tyrannical empire, Tatsumi, a young swordsman, leaves his home to save his poverty stricken village. He meets a girl named Akame, an assassin who was bought, brainwashed and trained to kill by the Empire. Akame is a member of the secret assassin group called "Night Raid" who use special weapons called Teigu. Together, Tatsumi and the members of Night Raid confront the corrupt empire.

10. Fate/Zero

    2011 · Action, Adventure, Anime, Fantasy · ended92% match

    Recommended for similar Action / Adventure profile, also on Tokyo MX.

    The Holy Grail War is a death-match between 7 magi (Masters) and their summoned heroic spirits (Servants). In this battle royale, the prize is the legendary Holy Grail, said to be an omnipotent wish-granting device which will produce any sort of miracle in order to bend reality to accommodate the wishes it grants. The winning Master and Servant shall be granted one wish each, after which the Holy Grail will not be activated until the next War. As the 4th Holy Grail War progresses, several camps raise the stakes, and the challenges only become bigger and more difficult. Each Master and Servant will be faced with the impact of their own shortcomings, and some of the competitors would do well in remembering that deceit and betrayal do not send prior warning...