Kawahara Reki (川原礫) (male), also known as Kunori Fumio (九里 史生), is a Japanese novelist who was born in August 17, 1974, and is the primary author and supervisor of the Sword Art Online franchise and more. His official website states: "WordGear: an experimental world generated by fumio kunori , since 2002".

Biography

Early Life

He was born in 1974 in Gunma Prefecture. He has two younger sister siblings. Participated in the Manga Studies Club in college, where he drew manga and illustrations, and played fighting games with the club members at the arcade often.
In 1998, he started playing Ultima Online which would be the first of many online games in his future. He also played Ragnarok Online, and Reki mentioned at different times the game he played the most was either that or World of Warcraft. Also played Phantasy Star Online. Tried to draw manga, but felt it too tedious a process to get his ideas down on paper, and enjoyed coming up with stories more than the accompanying work, so he started writing novels.

Makings as a Writer

In 2001, Reki applied for the 9th Dengeki Game Novel Grand Prix (currently known as Dengeki Novel Award). He had only read other works before writing Sword Art Online (SAO), so this was his first book. He completed it in 2002, but due to Dengeki Bunko's page number limitations he was turned down and gave up on the award, unwilling and not skilled enough to cut the script.

Out of a lingering attachment to his work, Reki posted it on his website under the pen name "Kunori Fumio". The web novel was acclaimed by its readers, which motivated Reki to write more.

In 2008, Reki became inspired by the works he read from Media Works Inc., like Tokyo Shadow or Those Who Hunt Elves. He reapplied for the Dengeki Light Novel Award with Kyōzetsu kasoku Burst Linker. Again, his work turned out to be too long but this time he managed to trim it down. He won the magazine's Top Prize, becoming a professional writer at 34.

Reki changed the title to Accel World following up on the readers' feedback. The concept for it came from fighting games. Reki thought it would be fun if people could just space out in the middle of a street and turn the world into a fighting game at will. However, feeling that spacing out would realistically be dangerous, he added the brain burst setting.

Right after the publication, his editor Miki Kazuma has read the webnovel SAO and decided to novelize that too.

Reki's inspiration for the second volume of SAO was that he had played many online games but never was in a high-ranking group, and envied those players' gear and reputation. He wrote it from the viewpoint of a middle-rank player admiring the top parties in the same way.

For the third volume of SAO, Reki thought of the idea where two people would FullDive from the same house without realizing the other was doing it. Thus the Fairy Dance Arc was written.

Reki mentioned he enjoyed writing the explanation scenes the most but Kazuma told him they were turning out too long.

Bibliography

(As of February 2020.)

• Accel World Volumes 1 to 24
• Sword Art Online Volumes 1 to 23
• Sword Art Online Progressive Volumes 1 to 6
• Material Edition Volumes 1 to 29
• The Isolator Volumes 1 to 3
• Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online Volumes 1 to 9 (supervision)
• Sword Art Online Alternative: Clover's Regret Volumes 1 to 3
• Sword Art Online Material Edition Parts 1 to 29

Sword Art Online Side Stories

• There is But One Ultimate Way
• Caliber SS (キャリバー SS版 kyaribā sukoshi shippai han)
• Versus (バーサス bāsasu)
• Breaking Damage's Limit (ダメージの限界突破 damēji no genkai toppa)
• Story Pencil Board
• Celeste Fairy (チェレステの妖精 cheresute no yōsei)
• 16.8.5
• Lisbeth Edition
  • Sound of Water, Sound of Hammer (水音、槌音 mizuoto, tsuchioto)
  • Extraordinary Ordinary Days (非日常という日常 hinichijō to iu nichijō)
• Silica Edition
  • A Spot of Sunshine in the Winter (冬の陽だまり fuyu no hidamari)
  • The Final Promise (最後の約束 saigo no yakusoku)
• Pina Edition
  • The Fourteenth Autumn (十四回目の秋 jūyonkaime no aki)
  • Pina Edition Bonus Manga Theatre (ピナ・エディ・おまけ・まんが劇場 Pina edi omake manga gekijō)
• The Day Before (ザ・デイ・ビフォア za dei bifoa)
• The Day After (ザ・デイ・アフター za dei afutā)
• Rainbow Bridge (虹の橋 niji no hashi)
• Sugary Days (シュガーリィ・デイズ shugārī deizu)
• Sisters' Prayer
• Cordial Chords (コーディアル・コード kōdiaru kōdo)
• Distant Journey (ディスタント・ジャーニー disutanto jānī)
• "If You Were Here"

Filmography

• (film) Accel World: Infinite Burst (2016) (script)
• (film) Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale (2017) (screenplay)
• (anime) Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online (2018) (supervision)

Trivia

• Reki cannot concentrate to work from home, and so he writes in family restaurants, even going as far as to claim if those were to dwindle, he would retire.
• Reki said Haruyuki was the character most similar to him out of all his creations, but without the sense of justice, friends, and hot-bloodedness.
• Haruyuki was designed to be fat so as to show the complete opposite image of acceleration, and definitely not to have him have a complex about it for the story.
• Reki said Kirito was an ideal person he wanted to become. Reki added he always hesitated to act, pointing out it took him seven years to apply for the Dengeki Award.
• On Dengeki Bunko web radio, Reki mentioned his favorite Sword Art Online series character was Leafa.
• The Silver Crow avatar design was made by Reki.
• Reki has always been ending up playing the Western MMOs alone, because he could not communicate with the American players well and they would get angry.
• Reki's hobby is cycling.
• Reki voiced Tin Writer in Accel World TV. However, Tin Writer was re-dubbed for the Blu-Ray release.
• Reki tweeted for the viewers commenting to clarify certain scenes in real-time as both Accel World and Sword Art Online anime were being aired, and would answer all messages on his website.

References

• Kawahara Reki - Fan Wiki
• Kawahara Reki - Brief Biography - The-O Network
• Kawahara Reki's Official Website (Japanese)
• List of SAO Light Novels - Wikipedia