An anime film titled Accel World: Infinite Burst featuring an original story by Kawahara premiered in Japan in July 2016.

Haruyuki "Haru" Arita is a short, overweight boy who is frequently ridiculed by delinquents at the Umesato Junior High School.

Using his Neuro Linker to escape the torment of real life, he logs onto the school's local network cyberspace where he always plays virtual squash alone, and his innate video game skills bring him to the attention of Kuroyukihime (literally meaning "Black Snow Princess"), the school's popular, highly intellectual and attractive female student council vice-president.

After helping him against the delinquents, Kuroyukihime introduces Haruyuki to Brain Burst, a secret program that is able to accelerate the human cognitive process to the point at which time appears to stop.

With every challenge they face in the accelerated world, Haru and Kuroyukihime, under their aliases "Silver Crow" and "Black Lotus", gather trusted allies and confront treacherous enemies.

Accel World began as a light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by HIMA [ja].

[7] A manga adaptation by Hiroyuki Aigamo [ja] was serialized in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko Magazine between April 10, 2010,[59] and June 9, 2017.

[66][67] A four-panel comic strip manga by Ryuryū Akari [ja], titled Acchel World (あくちぇる・わーるど。, Akucheru Wārudo), was serialized in Dengeki Bunko Magazine between April 10, 2010,[59] and June 10, 2016.

[98] Warner Home Video, ASCII Media Works, Namco Bandai Games, Sunrise and Genco were involved in the production of this adaptation.

[100] An anime film titled Accel World: Infinite Burst featuring an original story by Kawahara was released on July 23, 2016.

Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network reviewed the series and gave a story rating of A−, stating a similar basis of Sword Art Online with improved characters.