Kazuto Kirigaya, more commonly known by his in-game nickname Kirito, is the main protagonist of Reki Kawahara's light novel series Sword Art Online and its anime adaptations by the studio A-1 Pictures.
SAO's broad appeal helped him garner a massive amount of followers among the anime community. His popularity is most evident in East Asian countries, especially China and Japan. An example of this is in the Japanese magazine Takarajimasha's "Kono light novel ga sugoi!" ranking, where he has achieved first-place on multiple years, and consistently placing among the top three.
Furthermore, in the East Asian-dominated International Saimoe League contest, he won the 2012 Male exhibition tournament, defeating Hideyoshi Kinoshita in the final. Kirito was also one of the favorites to win China's Bilibili Moe contest, reaching the quarter-finals in 2015, and finishing runner-up in the 2017 edition.
However, Kirito is infamous in the Western anime community, having been accused of being a "Gary Stu" because of his role in the story. This label is exploited to comedic effect in the anime's many parodies. Furthermore, Kirito historically performs poorly in r/anime's Best Guy and Best Character contests, where he has never advanced beyond the Round of 64 in the tournament's entire history.
Contest Wins
- ISML 2012 Male Exb
- Anitown Moe Tournament 2012 Summer/2012 ToC/2014 Summer/2017 Winter
- Baidu Nova Moe 2017 Male Div
- Pekin University Yuanhuo Moe S1 Male Div
- Calendario Fabrio Torneo de Parejas
- Torneo de Husbandos de Evacon Nicaguara 2020
External Links
- Wikipedia link
- Sword Art Online Fandom wiki page
- MyAnimeList character profile
- Moegirl link (Chinese)
| Male Major Champions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ISML ★ | 2011:  Lelouch Lamperouge • 2012:  Kirito • 2013:  Houtarou Oreki • 2014:  Hideyoshi Kinoshita • 2015:  Accelerator • 2016:  Sora • 2017:  Koro-sensei • 2018:  Hachiman Hikigaya • 2019:  Rimuru Tempest • 2020:  Miyuki Shirogane • 2021:  Sakuta Azusagawa • 2022: ??
| ||
| AnimeBracket | Best Guy ★ | BG1: Lelouch Lamperouge • BG2:  Koyomi Araragi • BG3:  Spike Spiegel • BG4: Koro-sensei • BG5:  Shigeo Kageyama • BG6:  Levi Ackerman • BG7: Miyuki Shirogane • BG8: Hachiman Hikigaya • BG9: ??
| |
| Best Char. ☆ † | BCh1:  Roy Mustang • BCh4:  Rintarou Okabe • BCh5:  Edward Elric
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| Bilibili Moe † | Japan ★ | 2015: • Lelouch Lamperouge • 2016:  Yato • 2017:  Romani Archaman • 2018:  Gilgamesh
| |
| China ★ | 2016:  Dongfang Yuechu • 2017:  Ye Xiu • 2018:  Abe no Seimei (Onmyoji)
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| Korea | Best Moe ☆ † | 2007:  Kyon • 2008: Lelouch Lamperouge • 2009:  Mukuro Rokudo • 2010:  Tsunayoshi Sawada • 2011:  Kanglim (KR) • 2013:  Sougo Okita
| |
| Aketo ★ | 2013:  Houtarou Oreki • 2015:  Producer (Imas CG)
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| Legend: † Defunct, ‡ Hiatus / Unknown fate | |||