I got this in the mail today, and read it all during school today. There's a couple differences to the light novels and the anime. One major one is obviously the character designs. I don't know what "abec" was thinking, but I wasn't a fan at all. Characters like Klein, Agil, and Sachi look scary different. But there was some positives! Asuna got a lot more adorable, and I only liked Heathcliff's design because it wasn't that much different from the original. Now for the story. Yen Press threw the 2 volumes released into a big volume for the English release, and the price tells you that basically. This manga covers the first arc, Aincrad, or volumes 1 and 2 of the light novel series. This adaptation has almost everything the light novels have, but a lot of the side story stuff was cut. When Kirito first joins a guild (Sachi and all of those other unimportant people) that little bit is cut down A LOT, there is no Silica and Lisbeth, and the whole little thing with murder in the safe zone and whatnot isn't there either. And where Kirito first gets the title of "Beater", that part is, for some reason, skipped. There's probably a lot more missing, but anyone that has watched the anime or read the novels will know what is missing. Besides that, there is little tweaks in the main story but it's still the same tearful ending that I enjoy immensely. This manga was well worth the price just because the Aincrad arc was amazing and I love SAO in general. If you want the original light novel, April 22nd is when the 1st volume releases. Hope this helped!