Sword Art Online Progressive Film: Everything We Know

Sword Art Online is going back to where it all started—Aincrad! The anime studio A-1 Pictures announced on Sword Art Online’s official Twitter channel that a new movie is in the works. The film will adapt the light novel series Sword Art Online: Progressive, which dives deeper into Asuna and Kirito’s floor-by-floor ascension of the floating castle Aincrad.

The film’s title Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night was announced upon the season completion of Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld. This title of the film gives us a clue as to the focus on the light novels. The Progressive series is broken into six novels with “Aria of a Starless Night” being one part of the first novel. It appears that, instead of packing all six novels into one film, they’re rightfully focusing on just one section, which was the purpose of the novels.

This is a 1st Floor story from Asuna’s perspective, which we get a taste of in the anime’s first trailer (below). The original anime series Sword Art Online abridged “Aria of a Starless Night” in Episode 02.

This raises questions about the future of an anime version of the SAO: Progressive novels. Will this be a one-off film or the start of a series of movies adapting all the Progressive novels? Or will the movie be the jumping point for a new anime series detailing Kirito and Asuna’s experiences while stuck in the SAO game?

ARIA OF A STARLESS NIGHT PLOT

Sword Art Online: Progressive 1 starts one month after Akihiko Kayaba announced to SAO players that they are stuck in the game and what they need to do to beat it and leave. More importantly, Kayaba reveals that if players die in the game, they die in real life. In that first month, two thousand players have died.

The first part of the novel, “Aria of a Starless Night,” is written from Asuna’s perspective. At this point in the story, Kirito and Asuna are lone fighters, avoiding the guilds that formed to defeat the levels. The story explores the dangers of being single fighters in society of guilds composed of increasingly desperate players. Asuna and Kirito must confront their desire to go it alone.

As they continue their quests, the pair encounters new characters that don’t appear in the original anime series or manga.

DETAILS

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night will premiere sometime in 2021. Ayaka Kawano is directing the movie. Kento Toya is overseeing character design. Yuki Kajiura returns as composer.

Check out the first trailer below as well as the promotional poster. Let us know what you think about the concept for the anime film on the Warp Gate News Facebook page.

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