Sword Art Online Alternative – Gun Gale Online - Volume 1 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD
Hello to all 900 million residents of Japan! I am your author, Keiichi Sigsawa.
What’s that? There aren’t that many people in Japan? I’ve got my numbers wrong?
Listen, I was a liberal arts major.
Now, I would like to thank you for picking up this book, titled Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, Vol. 1: Squad Jam .
The title isn’t as long as my current original series, I’m a High School Student and Popular Light Novel Author, but I’m Being Strangled by My Younger Voice Actress Classmate: Time to Play , but it’s still a pretty long title.
We don’t have an official abbreviated version of that yet, so feel free to call it Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, Vol. 1: Squad J , or SAOAGGO1SJ , or SwArOnAlGuGaOn1SqJa , or Squid Jam , or Keiichi Sigsawa’s Latest Hobby Project , or whatever you like.
This is where the afterword of the book starts.
As you all surely know, it is a rule in the Sigsawa dynasty that there shall be no spoilers here. Read ahead without fear of ruining the story.
Incidentally, I am the first and last generation of the Sigsawa dynasty.
As the title suggests, this is a spin-off of the Sword Art Online series. SAO is one of the most popular and successful light novel series published by Dengeki Bunko in Japan.
It’s a story set in the near future, where virtual reality games can simulate all the senses directly to the brain, and our hero, Kirito; heroine, Asuna; and a cast of wonderful characters have adventures together.
It’s written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec.
For more information, you can check out the (Japanese) official site at http://www.swordart-online.net/ if you’re interested.
I get the sense that if I describe it any further, I’ll get something wrong. Also, someone’s probably going to yell at me for padding out my afterword.
As for this book, it uses the background of the SAO series and the game environment within it as the setting for an entirely original Keiichi Sigsawa story and cast of characters.
In other words, this is not a book where you’ll see Kirito or any other SAO series regular. This is very important to me. I wanted to make it very clear, even if that’s technically a kind of spoiler, so I’m letting you know here.
Furthermore, the setting for this story is the VR online game Gun Gale Online ( GGO ), which appears in the Phantom Bullet arc (Volumes 5 and 6) of the main SAO series. It’s not a fantasy game with swords and magic spells but a science-fiction shooter RPG full of guns.
As a gun fanatic myself, I remember reading the Phantom Bullet arc in August of 2010 and writhing with frustrated agony. Aaah, that was so good! And…why didn’t I think of this setting?! I could have used this to write any number of stories featuring gun action without having to kill off characters! And I can actually make a modern Japanese person the protagonist!
Once I was done flopping my limbs in frustration, I came to a realization: I want to write a novel set in the world of SAO, in the game of GGO! I want to take it seriously! And then I want to publish it! I could do it on my own, of course, but I’d prefer to get official permission and have Kouhaku Kuroboshi illustrate it and have Dengeki Bunko publish it!
It was a nice idea, but I had no clue if it was feasible. There was no precedent for this sort of thing.

Probably not gonna work out, is it? I thought, practically giving up before I even tried. Can you blame me? No, nobody could.
But eventually I figured, since I had the idea, I might as well float it by the appropriate people. A little while later, I suggested the idea of a spin-off to my novel editor. To my shock, after contacting Kawahara, abec, and the various people in charge, I received word that it was very much on the table.
“Okay, I’ll write one someday!” I swore, but then it didn’t happen. I got busy writing other books, and time flew by.
Just when it seemed likely that no idea would ever materialize, the push that my ambitions needed came from the second season of the SAO anime.
The second season showed the GGO arc. I ran into an anime producer, Oosawa, at an event, and I was asked about some gun-related research for the second season. Oosawa wanted the anime staff to have the chance to shoot some guns and asked if I knew a place that would help with that. (As a matter of fact, Oosawa was also a producer on the 2003 Kino’s Journey TV series. Who could have guessed that the old Kino anime would play a part in all this?)
I told them about a good shooting range to visit in Guam and accompanied them on the trip. Eventually, they asked me whether I should just officially join the production in exchange for proper compensation.
And that’s how I became the supervisor of firearm material on the second season of Sword Art Online . So what did that actually entail?
In this case, they asked me questions about the guns and situations in the story, and I gave my thoughts and suggestions. I also snuck some model guns into the studio that I thought might be useful for the animators.
Once they had the script, storyboards, and animation stages done, I would look over each one and check for any major errors, aside from scenes where a specific and intentional gun effect was desired.
It was a very fun job. It was the first time I ever had my name in an anime’s ending credits where it wasn’t listed as “based on the novels by…”
While supervising that project, I got myself in a tizzy and went to beg my series editor, Kawahara, and Kawahara’s editor, “If I’m going to do that GGO spin-off I’ve always been mulling over, now’s the time, while I’m involved in the SAO series! This is it! I’ll write it, so please let me do it!”
And now you’re reading the afterword of the result!
That was the grand, sweeping historical context for the creation of this series. Gosh, we’ve been through so much.
I suspect this is the first time Dengeki Bunko has ever published a spin-off of another Dengeki Bunko series. I must take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to Reki Kawahara for the blessing and supervision of the end result.
Thank you so much!
After this book was first announced, there were many people on Twitter and such asking, “Do I need to understand SAO to get this book?” so I’d like to give them a serious answer here.
Essentially, I wrote this in such a way that you can enjoy this book without having read any of the original SAO novels or even seen the anime series.
However! I believe that if you read up through Volume 6 of SAO (the Phantom Bullet arc) or watch the entire first season of the anime and up through Episode 14 of season 2, you will enjoy this book much more! SAO is great, and I recommend you check it out!
So that’s how you came to hold this VR-game gun action novel with every last ounce of Sigsawa’s firearm obsession contained within it.
I’d like to thank my longtime illustration partner Kouhaku Kuroboshi for yet another adorable protagonist design!
I hope you enjoy the world’s first “Dengeki Bunko spin-off Dengeki Bunko”!
That’s it from me.
Keiichi Sigsawa—December 10th, 2014