During the beginning of the game and during the beta-testing phase, Kirito's avatar had the appearance of a ridiculously handsome protagonist from some fantasy animation, looking older than he actually was. In the light novel, it was stated that he (and probably Klein, too) had set his in-game height equal to that of his height in the real world to prevent the extra height from hindering his movements.
In the full version of the game, a few moments after Kayaba Akihiko informed the players that they were given a gift from him, which turned out to be a «Hand Mirror», all player avatars were changed to reflect their real life appearances. After this change, Kirito's SAO avatar had slightly long but neat black hair and black eyes. His delicate face showed no trace of masculinity, allowing people to easily mistake him for a girl.
Personality:
Kirito is someone who is not good with words, as said by Klein, and can be quite direct. This is due to him not having many friends and closing others off, because of his love for computers. As such, he can come off as a rude person to others, such as Lisbeth and Sinon. Sometimes, he actually seems to enjoy angering and teasing people as well. Also, from time to time, Kirito can be quite overconfident thinking he can do things others can not.
He is almost always a calm and collected character, rarely showing any signs of distress. When Kayaba Akihiko appeared in SAO and announced that it has become a Death Game, Kirito showed only a slight reaction and was able to quickly accept the new conditions of the game, while many others panicked. He has shown different moods throughout the series; at times being rather cheerful, while being gloomy at others. When in a battle, he becomes incredibly fierce and aggressive. Sometimes, his fierceness is up to the point where he loses control of himself and is even unable to recall what he had done.
Equipment & Abilities:
Equipment: None (in real life)
After being stuck in SAO for 2 years, he gained a few abilities he can use in real life:
- Swordmanship (1 handed and 2 handed)
- Martial arts
- Parry
Historical Background:
Born on October 7, 2008, Kirigaya Kazuto was adopted by his aunt and uncle a year after his birth when his biological parents died in an accident. Raised by his foster parents as a son, he originally trained with his cousin in the neighborhood kendo dojo under their grandfather's tutelage. Due to his aunt's influence as an editor for a computer systems magazine, Kazuto fell in love with computers and dropped kendo after two years.
Kazuto has immense skill as a programmer, managing to build a computer from parts during elementary school, finding his erased records in the national registry at the age of ten, as well as managing to stop the SAO server from deleting Yui by converting her program into an object and storing her into his Nerve Gear as environmental data.