The official website of the anime adaptation of Reki Kawahara and abec’s Sword Art Online light novel series has announced that the Blu-ray and DVD of the original anime film, Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale, will release in Japan on September 27. The Blu-ray and DVD releases will come with English subtitles.
The Japanese home media release of the movie comes with 4 different editions. There will be two limited edition releases that come with a special box that has a visual of Kirito (above) on the front side and a visual of Eiji on the back (below).
The limited Editions will come with:
- The 119 minute film in the designated format (DVD or Blu-ray) in English and Japanese subtitles
- Collection of promotional videos, trailers and commercials
- A short story written by Kawahara with illustrations by abec
- A 108 page booklet
- A special animated short of the main characters in SD/chibi format, Sword Art Offline –Ordinal Scale–
- Audio commentary with the cast
- A bonus CD featuring a few tracks from the film
The limited edition Blu-ray box will retail for ¥9,000 (~ US$83.45) without tax and the limited edition DVD box will retail for ¥8,000 (~ US$74.20) without tax.
In addition to the limited edition releases, there will also be 2 regular editions. The regular editions will come with a special digipak, with one side featuing Kirito and Asuna and the other side featuring Eiji and Yuna. The regular editions also come with:
- The 119 minute film in the designated format (DVD or Blu-ray) in English and Japanese subtitles
- Collection of promotional videos, trailers and commercials
The regular edition Blu-ray will retail for ¥5,800 (~ US$53.80) without tax and the regular edition DVD will retail for ¥4,800 (~ US$44.50).
A North American home media release was also announced for a December 16 release, with 3 different editions The first is a limited edition Blu-ray retailing for US$69.98, which features:
- The film uncensored in English dub and Japanese dub, with English and Japanese subtitles
- Audio commentary from the staff and cast
- A special animation short, Sword Art Offline –Ordinal Scale–
- A Music CD
- A booklet
- A special hard cover box
The next edition is the standard Blu-ray retailing for US$39.98, featuring:
- The film uncensored in English dub and Japanese dub, with English and Japanese subtitles
- Audio commentary from the staff and cast
- A special animation short, Sword Art Offline –Ordinal Scale–
The final available edition is the standard DVD, which includes the film uncensored in English dub and Japanese dub, with English and Japanese subtitles. The standard DVD is retailing for US$29.98.
The film released on Saturday, February 18th in Japan in over 150 theatres and released worldwide on March 9th in over 1000 screens around the world.
The Japanese cast and designs of the film consists of:
- Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Sora in No Game No Life) will be back to voice Kirito
- Haruka Tomatsu (Haruka Takayama in Sakura Trick) returns as Asuna
- Kanae Itou (Ruiko Saten from Toaru Kagaku no Railgun) voicing as Yui
- Rina Hidaka (Airi Kashii in Ro-Kyu-Bu!) as Silica
- Ayahi Takagaki (Mikako Satsukitane in Sora no Otoshimono) will voice Lisbeth
- Ayana Taketatsu (Kirino Kousaka from Oreimo) voicing Leafa
- Miyuki Sawashiro (Celty Sturluson from Durarara!!) is back as Sinon
- Hiroaki Hirata (Sanji from One Piece) will return to voice Klein
- Hiroki Yasumoto (Germany from Hetalia) as Agil
- Koichi Yamadera (Togusa in Ghost in the Shell) will reprise his role as Akihiko Kayaba
- Sayaka Kanda (Shioji from Gamba: Gamba to Nakama-tachi) will voice Yuna
- Takeshi Kaga (Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef) will voice Dr. Shigemura
- Yoshio Inoue (Debut Role) as Eiji
The Director of first two seasons, Tomohiko Ito (Silver Spoon, Seikimatsu Occult Gakui), directed the film alongside Anime Character Designer Shingo Adachi (Working!!, Galilei Donna). Yuki Kajiura (Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Fate/Zero) composed the music and A-1 Pictures (Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, AnoHana) animated the film. Reki Kawahara wrote the movie’s original story.
Sword Art Online is a light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec, who also is the author of Accel World. The light novel series began in 2009 being published in ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki Bunko. To date a total of 17 volumes have been compiled in the series. Since the series’ debut, the series has sold over 19 million copies, with 12.5 million sold in Japan alone. Additionally in 2012, an anime adaptation was released. The Sword Art Online anime aired in July and was produced by A-1 Pictures, which received a large reception; it was followed by a recap film and a second season. Since then, the series has appeared on a plethora of media with international merchandise, various manga adaptations of the light novel’s arcs, and video games. In addition, Kawahara has relaunched the series as Sword Art Online: Progressive, a re-release of the light novels with additional content.
Here is a synopsis of the anime from MAL:
1 year after the SAO incident, Kirito is approached by Seijiro Kikuoka from Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Department “VR Division” with a rather peculiar request.
That was an investigation on the “Death Gun” incident that occurred in the gun and steel filled VRMMO called Gun Gale Online (GGO). “Players who are shot by a mysterious avatar with a jet black gun lose their lives even in the real world…” Failing to turn down Kikuoka’s bizarre request, Kirito logs in to GGO even though he is not completely convinced that the virtual world could physically affect the real world.
Kirito wanders in an unfamiliar world in order to gain any clues about the “Death Gun.” Then, a female sniper named Sinon who owns a gigantic “Hecate II” rifle extends Kirito a helping hand. With Sinon’s help, Kirito decides to enter the “Bullet of Bullets,” a large tournament to choose the most powerful gunner within the realm of GGO, in hopes to become the target of the “Death Gun” and make direct contact with the mysterious avatar.
The Blu-ray and DVD of the Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale anime film will release in Japan on September 27 and will come with English subtitles. The Blu-ray and DVD will also release in North American regions on December 19.
Visit the film’s website here: http://sao-movie.net/
Check out their International site here: http://sao-movie.net/us/
And follow the latest developments on their Twitter: @sao_anime
Source Article - Sword Art Online Twitter
“Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale”, “Sword Art Online”, images and all associated brands and titles © 2017 Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, ASCII Media Works and the SAO Project