The official website of the Sword Art Online: Progressive movie has announced that the film will be released in theatres across Japan on October 30. In addition, the site has revealed a brand new key visual.
Tickets for the movie, titled Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night (Hoshi Naki Yoru no Aria), have recently gone on sale. The film will be adapting the first volume of the Sword Art Online: Progressive light novel series, which focuses on the clearing of Aincard’s first 25 floors.
Three cast members for the film have been confirmed, including one new original character:
- Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Sora in No Game No Life) will be back to voice Kirito
- Haruka Tomatsu (Naruko Anjou in AnoHana) returns as Asuna
- Inori Minase (Rem from Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu) joins the cast to voice Mito
Here is the movie’s first trailer:
And the second trailer:
The main members of the film’s production staff include:
- Director: Ayako Kohno (Love Live! School idol project and Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso Episode Director)
- Chief Animation Director and Anime Character Designer: Kento Toya (Sword Art Online: Alicization, Nanbaka)
- Art Director: Yuusa Itou (Debut role)
- Music Composer: Yuki Kajiura (Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Fate/Zero)
- Sound Director: Yoshikazu Iwanami (Fate/Zero, Kill la Kill)
- Animation Studio: A-1 Pictures (Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai, Fairy Tail)
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 25 volumes have been published. Since the series’s debut, the series has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The series received a TV anime adaptation in 2012, produced by A-1 Pictures. Since the anime’s first broadcast the franchise has blown up in popularity. The anime was followed by a recap film, a second season, and an original anime film that released on 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 original light novels with additional content in 2012.
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 upcoming Sword Art Online: Progressive movie will be released in Japan on Saturday, October 30.
Visit the film’s website here: https://sao-p.net/
And follow the Twitter: @sao_anime