Basically the new SAO (or the new-new .hack if I’m being a smartass, it’s early, I haven’t decided). But really though, Demon’s Crest is a light novel series by Reki Kawahara, the guy who wrote Sword Art Online (and Accel World).

Worth noting, Accel World was canceled after one season, but Kawahara-san never stopped writing the books. So if you care about Accel World but you’ve only seen the anime, the story is way beyond that. I don’t care about Accel World, but I know a lot of people do, so, there it is.

Demon’s Crest has a plot similar to SAO. Guy playing a VR MMO RPG has to save a pretty girl. Wikipedia emphasises she’s the most beautiful girl in the class… right after saying they’re in elementary school. So that’s a bit weird. You can write a good story with elementary school kids (see, The Promised Neverland… damn shame we never got more seasons), you can write a good story with romantic elements, but you can’t do both. It just does not compute for anyone who’s actually known elementary school students.

Still… I like SAO. I’ve seen all four seasons and two of the movies. I don’t really care about Progressive, which the last two movies are based on. I’ll watch the third one eventually. I’ve read like 12-14 of the books. I’m basically through season 3. The season 4 stuff, the War of Underworld, is next for me to read, but I’m taking a break after bingeing like six of the books (however many make up season 3).