At the recent Dengeki Bunko Autumn Festival 2015 event it was announced that an anime movie based on Reki Kawahara’s Sword Art Online light novel series is currently in production. The film itself will be a new project.
The new Sword Art Online anime film project will be a new original project, not adapting of Kawahara’s any previous work. The Director of first two seasons, Tomohiko Ito (Silver Spoon, Seikimatsu Occult Gakui), will return to direct the film alongside Anime Character Designer Shingo Adachi (Working!!, Galilei Donna). Reki Kawahara will be writing the movie’s new original story.
The announcement video of the film was also revealed, which outlines the previous anime projects:
Sword Art Online is a light novel series written by Reki Kawahara, 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 15 volumes have been compiled in the series, with the 16th releasing this August. Since its the release, the series has sold millions of copies, topping the charts in 2012. 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. Since then, the series has appeared on a plethora of media with handheld and browser video games, international merchandise, and the many spin-off manga of the light novel’s arcs. The latest manga volume, Sword Art Online: Caliber, began serialization in the September issue of Dengeki G’s Comic magazine. 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 Sword Art Online anime film is currently in production. Further information about the upcoming original movie will be revealed in future issues of Dengeki Bunko Magazine.
You can visit the anime’s official website here: http://www.swordart-online.net/
And follow the latest developments on their Twitter: @sao_anime
Source Article – Dengeki Online
“Sword Art Online”, “Sword Art Online II″, images and all associated brands and titles © 2015 Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, ASCII Media Works and the SAO Project