SAO Volume 18 Finally Translated:

2.5 years after the book came out in Japan, the most famous light novel series on Earth finally has an English translated version of volume 18, the conclusion to the Alicization Arc, over at defans translations.  It took long enough, but many thanks go out to Defans for translating the most important artistic work in history.

For people following the light novels, it's been an agonizing journey.  Because it took so long, the benefits are ephemeral -- the anime will be animating this book in just another year.  But for readers, we've already waited long enough, it's impossible to wait any longer.

I'm not sure how I feel about this ending.  Of course, it's not a true ending, there are many more books to come.  But it was the original ending of the series, before SAO became famous, and it doesn't provide the answers I was looking for:  In a world full of virtual reality, is there anything still good about the real world?  I was hoping to find some lifeline, some little bit of hope, for those of us in the real world who don't have access to VR technology and must continue living here.  But at the end of Alicization, the answer seems to be no, Kirito elects to escape the real world and dive straight back into virtual reality the first chance he gets.  At this rate he's going to be in VR worlds for 200 years for every day he spends on Earth.  Not a very strong endorsement of normal life.

Another question I wanted answered, will laughing coffin's menace to Kirito's life ever end?  The answer is apparently no.  Laughing Coffin is still up to no good in the real world and hasn't been caught.

Another question, will Kirito and Asuna ever marry and have real kids?  The answer is apparently no, they keep accelerating their lives in virtual worlds so that they never take a step forward in their real life relationship.  This seems like a crime against humanity, considering they're so in love and make such a perfect child-raising couple.

I'm happy that everyone escaped Underworld relatively undamaged.  That's a good conclusion for the arc -- but I was hoping for something more, the conclusion to the series, and we didn't get that.  The unresolved issues remain just as unresolved.

Perhaps this story is just too big.  In SAO Progressive they can't even get past the fifth floor or whatever, and now in the real world Asuna and Kirito can't seem to graduate from high school.  We're never getting an ending to this series at this rate.  But it has been a wonderful ride, I can't complain there.

I think I'll stop reading SAO until both volumes 19 and 20 are translated, since it's just one connected adventure.  If the anime continues to be popular, it may not even be necessary to keep reading the books.  Of course, Progressive is another story, that has to be read the first moment it comes out, but for now the SAO mainline adventure can be put to rest.  We can just sit back and watch the anime for the rest of 2019 and be content with what we're already receiving.