Do you like MMOs? Tournament-based narratives? Cute girls with BIG guns? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then boy, do I have a series for you!

Gun Gale Online is the next branch in the Sword Art Online (Alternative) franchise to hit the US, and the first of its kind to star a main character that isn’t Kirito or one of the ladies in his harem in his inner circle. With original story by Keiichi Sigsawa, character designs by Kouhaku Kuroboshi, and art by Tadadi Tamori, the first volume of the manga is one that not only acts as an introduction to the franchise, but does an excellent job of establishing itself as a series that doesn’t need to rely on the success of its predecessors to be a series worth following.

The story begins with an avatar named LLENN, shootin’ it up in her first PVP battle. LLENN is played by Karen Kohiruimaki, an anxious 19-year-old girl with a serious height complex. At 6′ tall in real life, she’s thrilled to be able to play as a cute (and tiny) pink agility-based avatar and mitigates her loneliness and self-esteem issues with virtual reality. Gun Gale Online, the wild west dystopian shooter game, is her game of choice, as it was the only one to assign her an avatar short enough to her liking.

There she meets and befriends Pitohui (Pito), a senior GGO player who volunteers to show her the ropes and train with her. All the time spent together encourages LLENN to come out of her shy shell, and Pito takes it one step further by motivating her with a deal: if LLENN can ever beat Pito in a PVP match, they can hang out in real life. To practice, Pito pushes LLENN to compete in Squad Jam, a last-team-standing type of tournament. But there’s a catch: where other teams have up to six players, LLENN only has one, and it’s not Pito. It’s a player who goes by the name of M, and he’s as big af scary avatar.

For the first volume in a familiar franchise, this book kicks ass. The first chunk of the book really builds backstory and worldbuilding, easily weaving Karen’s story with tutorial and action while she (as LLENN) learns how to play the game. It sucks you in without having to stand on references to the previous series, and it wasn’t long before I’d forgotten about looking for references to Kirito and just enjoyed the story for what it was.

We have Tamori’s art to thank for making the action scenes appropriately exciting, easy-to-follow, and as efficient as the script. Great character designs and well-timed action lines bring a lot of movement to the pages, especially when it comes to capturing the speed of LLENN’s agility.

As with most of the SAO arcs/spinoffs, the real story is what’s happening outside of the game. Karen is obsessed with one music artist in particular, Kiza Kanaki, and in between training for Squad Jam, pushes herself to write a fan letter to let the singer know how much her music has meant to her over the years. M’s situation is just slightly more terrifying, and to him the game is much more than a game; if he loses, he forfeits his life for reasons we don’t understand yet. Despite this, he’s kind with LLENN, and insists on practicing with her up until the competition begins.

For two characters that are entirely different, LLENN and M already have chemistry. An underlying theme that SAO has always done well is finding real friendship in virtual reality, and I have a feeling that GGO will be no exception to this pattern when it comes to the two of them.

So. For those in love with Kirito’s many arcs, you might be disappointed to learn that as of volume 1, the only reference to the main franchise is a picture of Asuna. But for those like me who like the VR genre but not so much Kirito, Gun Gale Online, Volume 1 is an exciting start to a familiar series that feels fresh.

Story: 5 out of 5 stars
Art: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads | Indiebound | RightStuf

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