Sword Art Online: Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night anime film will officially arrive in North America and Europe in February 2023. Crunchyroll will screen the film in theaters in English-speaking territories in partnership with Aniplex of America. A trailer with English subtitles has been released, which you can watch below:
The trailer features the film’s theme song, “Heart”, by Eir Aoi. Sword Art Online: Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night will premiere on February 1 in the UK and Ireland, in Australia and New Zealand on February 2, and in the United States and Canada on February 3. Additional release dates for Sword Art Online: Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night to be announced soon for some parts of Europe and Latin America.
Sword Art Online: Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night premiered on October 22, 2022 in IMAX theaters in Japan and topped the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. The film was originally scheduled to premiere on September 10, 2022, but was postponed due to the rise in cases of COVID-19 in Japan. Crispy roll describes the film’s plot as:
The world’s first VRMMORPG (Sword Art Online) has become a game of death. It’s been over a month since 10,000 users were trapped in the game world. Asuna, who cleared the first floor of Aincrad’s floating iron castle, joined Kirito and continued her journey to reach the top floor. With the support of female information broker Argo, clearing the floors seemed to be progressing smoothly, but…
The conflict erupts between two major guilds that must work together – the groups of top players ALS (Aincrad Liberation Squad) and DKB (Dragon Knights Brigade). Meanwhile, behind the scenes there is a mysterious figure pulling the strings…
In a dangerous mortal battle, there is an attack that is different from the threat and it will involve Asuna and Kirito…!
Part 1 of the film series titled Sword Art Online: Progressive – Starless Night Aria premieres on October 30, 2022 in Japan. It was also released in the United States by Funimation. The film is now available to stream on Crunchyroll. Ayako Kono directed it at A-1 Pictures studio.
Sword Art Online: Progressive is a spin-off series from the original Sword Art Online. The progressive series shows the events between Kirito and Asuna during their early days in the Aincrad Floating Castle, which was not shown in the original anime series due to a time skip.
Sword Art Online Season 1 premiered on July 8, 2012. It was followed by several seasons until 2020. The franchise celebrated its 10th anniversary on July 8, 2022, and the celebration was held on November 6 of the same year. Title movie Sword Art Online: Extra Edition was also released in 2013 and Sword Art Online: The Movie – Another Rock in 2017
The anime is based on Reki Kawahara Sword Art Online a series of light novels. ASCII Media Works serialized it with the abec illustrations since 2009 and currently has 27 volumes with more than 30 million copies in circulation. The same publisher began publishing Kawahara’s Sword Art Online: Progressive light novel series in 2012 and currently has 8 volumes available. Yen Press licenses both light novel series in English.
Source: Press release and Official site
© 2020 Reki Kawahara / KADOKAWA / SAO-P Project
