TV-Series
Description
Seijirou Kikuoka is a government official who initially identifies himself as an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Telecommunications Bureau, Advanced Network Division, Second Office—commonly known as the Virtual Division. His true affiliation is with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, where he holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He voluntarily transferred to the ministry to further his plans for Project Alicization.
He was among the original one thousand beta testers for Sword Art Online but did not participate in the official launch. Instead, he used data from the beta test to initiate Project Alicization, avoiding imprisonment during the SAO incident.
After the incident, he created an ALfheim Online avatar named Chrysheight to conduct research. He met with Kazuto Kirigaya at the SAO survivors' school, offering the location of Asuna Yuuki’s hospital in exchange for a detailed account of events inside Sword Art Online.
About a year later, he enlisted Kazuto to investigate the Death Gun incident in Gun Gale Online, which was tied to real-world fatalities. He facilitated Kazuto’s entry by converting his ALfheim Online avatar. Under pressure from Asuna Yuuki in ALfheim Online, he later disclosed the full details of the investigation.
His rank of Lieutenant Colonel was revealed when he offered Kazuto a position at Rath, a shadowy government-tied company he leads. The offer, presented as testing the Soul Translator, was a pretext to involve Kazuto in Project Alicization—an initiative to develop bottom-up artificial intelligence for military use.
After Kazuto was left comatose by a real-world attack, Kikuoka and Takeru Higa arranged the illegal kidnapping of his body. They connected him to the Soul Translator at the Ocean Turtle facility, claiming it was the only way to repair his brain damage and hasten recovery.
Kikuoka is the mastermind behind Project Alicization, which aims to produce artificial fluctlights—human-like consciousnesses—for use in unmanned military weapons to reduce human casualties. The process involves cloning fluctlights from newborns, called Soul Archetypes, and raising them in the Underworld, a virtual environment built using The Seed package and governed by the Taboo Index.
He explained the project and his motives to Asuna Yuuki after she infiltrated Ocean Turtle, stating his goal was to create artificial intelligence capable of killing for military and law enforcement purposes. He believes sacrificing artificial fluctlights is justified if it saves human soldiers.
During an attack on Ocean Turtle, he allowed Asuna to enter the Underworld with a high-level account to stimulate Kazuto’s fluctlight and aid his recovery.
Kikuoka routinely withholds information and manipulates civilians, including minors, to achieve his goals. He rarely reveals the full truth willingly. Though not a direct antagonist, his methods occupy an ethical gray area, pursuing noble ends through questionable and sometimes illegal means.
After the War of Underworld, he contacted Kazuto again concerning a new security breach involving an infiltration of the Underworld.
He was among the original one thousand beta testers for Sword Art Online but did not participate in the official launch. Instead, he used data from the beta test to initiate Project Alicization, avoiding imprisonment during the SAO incident.
After the incident, he created an ALfheim Online avatar named Chrysheight to conduct research. He met with Kazuto Kirigaya at the SAO survivors' school, offering the location of Asuna Yuuki’s hospital in exchange for a detailed account of events inside Sword Art Online.
About a year later, he enlisted Kazuto to investigate the Death Gun incident in Gun Gale Online, which was tied to real-world fatalities. He facilitated Kazuto’s entry by converting his ALfheim Online avatar. Under pressure from Asuna Yuuki in ALfheim Online, he later disclosed the full details of the investigation.
His rank of Lieutenant Colonel was revealed when he offered Kazuto a position at Rath, a shadowy government-tied company he leads. The offer, presented as testing the Soul Translator, was a pretext to involve Kazuto in Project Alicization—an initiative to develop bottom-up artificial intelligence for military use.
After Kazuto was left comatose by a real-world attack, Kikuoka and Takeru Higa arranged the illegal kidnapping of his body. They connected him to the Soul Translator at the Ocean Turtle facility, claiming it was the only way to repair his brain damage and hasten recovery.
Kikuoka is the mastermind behind Project Alicization, which aims to produce artificial fluctlights—human-like consciousnesses—for use in unmanned military weapons to reduce human casualties. The process involves cloning fluctlights from newborns, called Soul Archetypes, and raising them in the Underworld, a virtual environment built using The Seed package and governed by the Taboo Index.
He explained the project and his motives to Asuna Yuuki after she infiltrated Ocean Turtle, stating his goal was to create artificial intelligence capable of killing for military and law enforcement purposes. He believes sacrificing artificial fluctlights is justified if it saves human soldiers.
During an attack on Ocean Turtle, he allowed Asuna to enter the Underworld with a high-level account to stimulate Kazuto’s fluctlight and aid his recovery.
Kikuoka routinely withholds information and manipulates civilians, including minors, to achieve his goals. He rarely reveals the full truth willingly. Though not a direct antagonist, his methods occupy an ethical gray area, pursuing noble ends through questionable and sometimes illegal means.
After the War of Underworld, he contacted Kazuto again concerning a new security breach involving an infiltration of the Underworld.