The official website of the anime adaptation of Reki Kawahara and abec’s Sword Art Online light novel series has released the home media details for Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld. The latest installment in the third season will run for a total of 23 episodes.
There will be a total of 8 Blu-ray and DVD volumes, with each volume containing three episodes – the last volume only having two. Each volume will come with a special sleeve designed by anime character designer Go Suzuki (Minami-ke Tadaima), a 12-page booklet, an OST CD and audio commentary over a select episode. The Blu-ray volumes will retail for ¥7,800 (~ US$71.65) plus tax and the DVD volume will retail for ¥6,800 (~ US$62.50) plus tax. The final volume will be ¥1,000 (~ US$9.20) cheaper.
The release dates for each volume are as follows:
- Volume 1 – December 25
- Episodes 1, 2, 3
- Volume 2 – January 29, 2020
- Episodes 4, 5, 6
- Volume 3 – February 26, 2020
- Episodes 7, 8, 9
- Volume 4 – March 25, 2020
- Episodes 10, 11, 12
- Volume 5 – June 24, 2020
- Episodes 13, 14, 15
- Volume 6 – July 29, 2020
- Episodes 16, 17, 18
- Volume 7 – August 26, 2020
- Episodes 19, 20, 21
- Volume 8 – September 30, 2020
- Episodes 22, 23
Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld is the second part of the anime’s third season. The first part aired from the Fall/Autumn 2018 anime season for 24 episodes.
The anime’s main cast includes:
- Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Sora in No Game No Life) will be back to voice Kirito
- Ai Kayano (Utaha Kasumigaoka in Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata) is going to voice Alice
- Haruka Tomatsu (Haruka Takayama in Sakura Trick) returns as Asuna
- Kaori Maeda (Mari Tachibana in Back Street Girls) as Selka Zuberg
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 20 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, a second season, and an original anime film that released in over 1000 screens worldwide. 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.
Part 2 of the anime’s third season, Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld, airs every Sunday at midnight on Tokyo MX. It will run for a total of 23 episodes.
Visit the anime’s website here: https://sao-alicization.net/
And follow the latest developments on their Twitter: @sao_anime