I wouldn't be watching this show if Akatsuki wasn't there. Honestly. I have never seen a more adorable assassin.

Quote Originally Posted by David75 View Post
It's been clear from ep 1 they were no risks in PKs, bar losing some stuff and come back to Akiba.
At least SAO PKs were followed by IRL deaths.
Maybe that difference is what made them animate this. There was so much hype around SAO, despite it ending up being a lousy show, that even the Japanese might have wanted to avoid something totally similar, even if the story wasn't written by a 13 years old like SAO's.