Reki Kawahara

Reki Kawahara is the Japanese author of the light novel and manga series Sword Art Online and Accel World. Both have been adapted into anime. He has also written The Isolator and the spinoff series Sword Art Online: Progressive.
The Sword Art Online series was first published online in 2002, under the pen name Fumio Kunori. Kawahara entered the first Accel World novel into ASCII Media Works' 15th Dengeki Novel Prize in 2008 and the novel won the Grand Prize. The first novel was published by ASCII Media Works on February 10, 2009 under their Dengeki Bunko imprint. As of October 10, 2015, 19 volumes have been published. An anime series debuted in April 2012. After gaining fame from the Dengeki award, Kawahara republished Sword Art Online in print. 17 volumes have been published as of April 2016, as well as four volumes of Sword Art Online: Progressive. An anime series premiered in July 2012 to much acclaim, and was followed by a for-TV movie Sword Art Online Extra Edition on December 31, 2013 as well as a second anime series, Sword Art Online II, in July 2014, and an upcoming film adaptation, Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale.